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FSU's NIL debate intensifies as legal changes reshape college sports

“It feels like a mini-professional league at this point,” Ross said. “When I see players suing their coach over money, it makes me question what college sports are really about now.””It’s great that athletes finally have the chance to make money off their name,” Cincotta said. “At the same time, seeing things like this lawsuit […]

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FSU's NIL debate intensifies as legal changes reshape college sports

Florida State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei poses as part of Celsius Energy's Essential Six promotional campaign.

“It feels like a mini-professional league at this point,” Ross said. “When I see players suing their coach over money, it makes me question what college sports are really about now.””It’s great that athletes finally have the chance to make money off their name,” Cincotta said. “At the same time, seeing things like this lawsuit makes you wonder if everything is as fair and transparent as it should be.””Athletics programs are trying to figure out how to move forward in an unexpected and ever-shifting landscape,” Brady said. “This is by far the most unsettling, yet fascinating, time in the history of college athletics.” 

Florida State’s approach to NIL will shape its standing in this new era of college athletics. With each lawsuit, contract and NCAA ruling, the debate over NIL’s impact intensifies.Sophomore finance major Brandon Ross, who plays intramural basketball at FSU, worries that NIL is pulling college sports away from their traditional roots.

The impact of NIL policies on Florida State University has taken center stage in recent months. While the legal and financial implications unfold, many are left wondering how this will reshape the university’s sports programs and culture.Concerns grew after the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) penalized FSU football for an assistant coach’s role in an improper NIL-related recruiting conversation. Sanctions included scholarship reductions, recruiting limits and a one-year disassociation from the involved booster.  The coach, former offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, served a three-game suspension to start the 2024 season, before being fired in November. 

As FSU and the NCAA navigate the legal and ethical complexities of NIL, one thing is certain: students are paying attention. Whether they embrace NIL or question its impact, they recognize the college sports landscape is changing.For many athletes, NIL represents a long-overdue shift, marking a new era where college players can benefit financially from their personal brands. Junior psychology major Callie Cincotta, a recreational soccer player and avid follower of college athletics, sees NIL as a necessary evolution.

On March 17, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) settled an antitrust lawsuit with Attorneys General from Tennessee, Florida, New York, Virginia and the District of Columbia. If approved in federal court, the settlement would allow prospective college athletes to directly negotiate with potential schools before committing to play for a program. This is not legal under current NCAA regulations. Florida State’s NIL landscape was jolted when six former men’s basketball players filed a lawsuit against men’s basketball head coach Leonard Hamilton, alleging they were promised but never received 0,000 each in NIL compensation. The case underscores the complexities of NIL agreements and their potential pitfalls. Hamilton has since retired. While FSU has petitioned for these penalties to be rescinded, the uncertainty surrounding NIL regulations has left many frustrated. For many students, Florida State’s NIL saga mirrors broader changes in college athletics.”Schools will eventually have to balance NIL opportunities with keeping players from just chasing the biggest deal,” Ross said. “Free agency works in professional sports, but if it becomes the norm in college, how are fans supposed to connect with a team if half the roster changes every year?”Legal changes on the Name, Image and Likeness front (NIL) continue to make waves in college athletics.

Michael Brady, a marketing professor at Florida State and the university’s faculty athletics representative, sees NIL as part of a larger transformation in college sports.While the university maintains it is conducting an inquiry and has found no unfulfilled commitments by the university or its NIL collective, Rising Spear, the lawsuit has sparked campus-wide debate about trust, fairness and the evolving role of money in college sports.

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Should revenue-sharing happen, things to monitor with Syracuse Orange Athletics, NIL

College sports are in a weird place these days. It’s hard to keep up with all the media reports and chatter about the NCAA, ongoing conference realignment, NIL, potential revenue-sharing, a future CEO and so on and so forth. Much remains in flux. One thing that is clear is that collegiate athletics, as I knew […]

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May 25, 2025

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College sports are in a weird place these days.

It’s hard to keep up with all the media reports and chatter about the NCAA, ongoing conference realignment, NIL, potential revenue-sharing, a future CEO and so on and so forth.

Much remains in flux. One thing that is clear is that collegiate athletics, as I knew them when I was a student at Syracuse University from 1996 to 2000, is toast. Assuming a federal judge approves the House settlement, and that hadn’t transpired as of this past Friday heading into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Syracuse Orange and its peers nationwide will be able to start directly paying their athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.

If revenue-sharing does occur beginning with the 2025-26 sports season, there are some things to monitor as it pertains to SU Athletics and other athletics departments across the country.

Keep tabs on these potential themes related to Syracuse Orange Athletics.

One thing to monitor. Could SU Athletics end up cutting staff in the future due to upcoming revenue-sharing? In recent days, a report came out that Oklahoma’s athletics department would lay off 15 people “due to the looming realities of starting to share revenue with athletes.”

That’s unfortunate. But this is where we are. If athletics departments elect to set aside millions of dollars every year to pay their players, that could force these departments to cut overhead, resulting in layoffs. I hope this doesn’t transpire at SU Athletics, but I’ll be keeping a watchful eye.

To be fair, SU Athletics earlier this year made a new hire, bringing on board veteran sports executive Kevin Morgan as the department’s first general manager and chief revenue officer.

A few weeks ago, Kentucky’s board of trustees approved the school’s athletics department converting to a limited-liability company called Champions Blue LLC.

On May 22, Vanderbilt announced that it had hired long-time hospitality industry executive Markus Schreyer as CEO of that school’s newly created Vanderbilt Enterprises, which will focus on, among other things, “enhancing Vanderbilt Athletics resources, support for student-athletes and the fan experience.”

Might SU Athletics convert to an LLC in the future? We’ll have to wait and see. One other item to keep tabs on. Syracuse Orange athletics director John Wildhack, in early March, said that effective July 1, he will streamline the third-party NIL entities supporting ‘Cuse players and not have all three organizations operating into the future.

Those entities are Orange United, SU Football NIL and Athletes Who Care. Even with revenue-sharing potentially on the horizon, it’s vital for the Syracuse Orange to have strong third-party NIL to remain competitive in the Atlantic Coast Conference and nationally.





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Kentucky Baseball Adds First Transfer Portal Commitment

Big Blue Nation was up to its ears in anxiety ahead of a Sweet 16 matchup with the Tennessee Volunteers. In the hours before the NCAA Tournament game in Indianapolis, we received a welcome distraction. Tulane forward Kam Williams announced he was transferring to Kentucky. A transfer portal commitment? While they’re still in the middle […]

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May 25, 2025

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Big Blue Nation was up to its ears in anxiety ahead of a Sweet 16 matchup with the Tennessee Volunteers. In the hours before the NCAA Tournament game in Indianapolis, we received a welcome distraction. Tulane forward Kam Williams announced he was transferring to Kentucky.

A transfer portal commitment? While they’re still in the middle of the season? That’s weird.

Mark Pope picked up that commitment two weeks into the NCAA Tournament. The Kentucky baseball team hasn’t even been selected for this year’s NCAA Baseball Tournament, and Nick Mingione already has a commitment.

Right-handed pitcher Burkley Bounds announced this weekend that he’s transferring to Kentucky. Bounds entered the transfer portal earlier this week after EKU fired head coach Walt Jones. Bounds is a Lexington native who played high school baseball at Lex Cath with a couple of future Bat Cats, Owen Jenkins and Jack Sams.

As a true freshman in the spring of 2025, Bounds appeared in 18 games and earned two starts, winning both. He had an ERA of 4.17 and his opponents batted .244, leading the Colonels in both statistical categories. In 41 innings, he had 39 strikeouts and gave up 38 hits. It’s clear this Kentucky kid has a bright future.

Kentucky baseball just had its most successful two-year run in school history, following up a Regional Title with a College World Series appearance. Much of that success was built on the backs of productive transfer portal players. Nick Mingione isn’t waiting around to learn the postseason fate of this team before he begins building next year’s roster, which should feature a significant amount of returners following a rebuild year.

Today, conference tournaments will conclude before the NCAA reveals its top eight seeds for this year’s tournament. Kentucky will have to wait until Monday’s selection show at Noon. The Bat Cats are currently projected to be on the right side of the bubble as a No. 3 seed.

Want more coverage of the Cats? Join KSR+

KSR has been delivering UK Sports news in the most ridiculous manner for almost two decades. Now, you can get even more coverage of the Cats with KSR+. In the middle of an exciting Kentucky offseason, now is the perfect time to join our online community. Subscribe now for premium articles, in-depth scouting reports, inside intel, bonus recruiting coverage, and access to KSBoard, our message board featuring thousands of Kentucky fans around the globe. Come join the club.





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‘Our Sport is in a Great Place’

Share Tweet Share Share Email Former Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is no stranger to freezing-cold takes. On Sunday, however, Riley provided a quote about the current college football landscape that may wind up in the rancid opinion Hall of Fame.   Despite the awful state of modern college football, Riley believes the sport is in […]

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Former Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is no stranger to freezing-cold takes.

On Sunday, however, Riley provided a quote about the current college football landscape that may wind up in the rancid opinion Hall of Fame.

 

Despite the awful state of modern college football, Riley believes the sport is in a great place.

“Are there some changes that I understand people are having a hard time coming to grips with? Sure,” Riley said. “Again, I get it. But the alternative is pretty darn good. It’s creating some incredible matchups and seeing how the Playoff played out this year, and, obviously, that’s going to continue to evolve and just get, I think, better.”

“Our sport’s in a great place, and I think anybody that thinks anything other than that — I know there’s a lot going on with scheduling,” Riley continued. “I know everybody’s got an opinion on NIL, rev share, and the settlement. I get it. There’s all that stuff. Listen, we just sat through 10 days of Big Ten meetings where that’s all we’re listening to, but despite all that, we still have one of the greatest products in the greatest sport in the world. Let’s not forget that.”

Whether Riley cares to admit it or not, the fact that anyone believes the state of the sport is in a great space right now is blasphemous at best. Between NIL issues, House Settlement conversations, eligibility concerns, and more, college football has taken a turn for the worse.

Will things get better? Only time will tell, but with the trajectory the game is moving in as of late, that doesn’t exactly seem like the right path forward.





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Pat Garrity reveals how Notre Dame basketball will approach NIL

It’s now been three years in a row without a trip to the NCAA Tournament for Notre Dame. That’s something that new GM Pat Garrity is hoping to quickly find a way to change. One major challenge that Garrity knows he’s going to need to address if he wants to get the program back on […]

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It’s now been three years in a row without a trip to the NCAA Tournament for Notre Dame. That’s something that new GM Pat Garrity is hoping to quickly find a way to change.

One major challenge that Garrity knows he’s going to need to address if he wants to get the program back on track is NIL. It’s now massively important to how rosters are built in college athletics, and he knows Notre Dame needs a good approach to it to succeed.

“This summer, I think, is maybe a bad example to develop any thoughts on it,” Pat Garrity said. “Because it was probably the most unregulated that it’ll ever be. You had kind of the ending of the collective era and everyone preparing for the revenue-sharing era.”

Pat Garrity is referencing the House Settlement. Once that is approved, there will be revenue sharing with student-athletes coming to college athletics. NIL is likely going to morph again in some way at that point, though it will still exist alongside that revenue sharing.

This means there are more factors for athletes to consider when choosing a school. Garrity wants to emphasize those decisions and what someone puts value on. That means emphasizing long-term value besides the immediate financial value.

“I think the larger perspective that I have on it is there are a lot of student-athletes that are making good decisions for them, that they’re rewarded financially,” Garrity said. “But they’re also gonna get through college connected to a place and being remembered at a place. And I think there are a lot of people that are making short-term decisions that maybe financially look good now, but maybe looking back in 10 years, they’re asking, ‘What am I left with? Where was really my home? What am I remembered for?’”

Garrity acknowledged that the financial aspect is real and a part of how things are going to be dealt with moving forward. Still, he thinks that the best way to sell a program is still with what it can offer besides the money.

“So, I think that’s one of the big things that we gotta focus on here, just in terms of retention, is just selling the point that there’s the money aspect of this thing. It’s just a reality in college sports right now, but there’s more to that. Being remembered as an all-time great at a college means something when you hang it up, eventually,” Garrity said. “And, so I think that we have to be able to demonstrate to our student-athletes that we can get you there, and that’s ultimately the important thing. And that includes bringing the past all-time greats around to get that message across.”

Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Pat Garrity played at Notre Dame and in the NBA. He’d later go on to work in the Detroit Pistons front office, including as the assistant general manager. Now, he hopes to bring the Irish back to prominence.



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Texas A&M Star QB Inks NIL Deal with Private Jet Company For Key Charitable Cause

Though Name, Image, and Likeness is often criticized through the current era of chaos college sports have found themselves in, NIL is very often used for good as well. That was the case this week in a new deal for Texas A&M Aggies star quarterback Marcel Reed. Reed became the fourth college athlete to sign […]

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Though Name, Image, and Likeness is often criticized through the current era of chaos college sports have found themselves in, NIL is very often used for good as well.

That was the case this week in a new deal for Texas A&M Aggies star quarterback Marcel Reed.

Reed became the fourth college athlete to sign an NIL deal with a private jet company after headlines were made by former Texas Longhorns star Quinn Ewers, former Georgia Bulldogs and current Miami Hurricanes gunslinger Carson Beck, and former Ole Miss Rebels signal caller Jaxson Dart.

Reed’s deal with ENG Aviation is different from his predecessors though and has a charitable impact tied to it.

According to Boardroom, the partnership between Reed and ENG has a goal of raising awareness for organ donation.⁠

ENG is a premium private jet service, however they also fly organ transplants to hospitals all over the country in order to give those who are in desperate medical states the best chance possible at survival.

On their website, ENG describes their operation in organ donation to “enable transplant centers to minimize the time the organ is in transit and maximized successful patient outcomes.”

Reed is going to be sharing ways fans can become organ donors as part of the deal and is even going to be visiting a hospital in the city of Houston this summer in order to meet with both organ donors and recipients as well as medical teams who make these modern miracles happen.

The Aggies star is entering what will be his redshirt sophomore season and first full year going into the campaign as the undisputed starting quarterback in College Station.

Last year, he racked up 1,864 passing yards and 15 touchdowns along with 543 rushing yards and another seven scores on the ground.

Hopes are high this season for Reed to take the next step as a quarterback, and clearly he is using his newfound major platform to make a big impact in the world outside of the football field as well.



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The NIL revolution

In the summer of 1991, the year before one of UTEP’s most successful basketball seasons, an investigation roiled the university’s athletics department when it determined that a slew of violations were committed against NCAA regulations. 0

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The NIL revolution

In the summer of 1991, the year before one of UTEP’s most successful basketball seasons, an investigation roiled the university’s athletics department when it determined that a slew of violations were committed against NCAA regulations.

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