NIL

NIL is changing college sports; for better or worse?

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — It’s been nearly four years since the NCAA enacted a new policy allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, and just a few weeks since a federal judge opened the door for college athletic departments to pay athletes directly. Much of the details are still being […]

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2 months ago

May 6, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Much of the details are still being worked out in the courts. Key components like roster limits, scholarship limits and payment pools are still up in the air.

As is a governing body to oversee all of these new rules, since most current regulation is a patchwork of state laws, legal settlements and NCAA rules.

But, we are starting to see the impacts of college athletes getting paid – and what it means for the enterprise as a whole.

Depending on who you ask, the historical shift is: long overdue for athletes who’ve spent thousands of hours grinding for their craft; late to the party in terms of global sports; the official death certificate for amateurism and the “student” side of “student-athlete”; or, an inevitable reality that has to run wild before it gets reined in and regulated.

To the league itself, it’s a positive step.

When a judge granted preliminary approval for a framework for schools to pay athletes, NCAA President Charlie Baker said it would “help bring stability and sustainability to college athletics while delivering increased benefits to student athletes for years to come.”

The push for college athletes to get paid spans decades, with legal challenges and legislative efforts dating back to at least the early 2000s. Which is surprising, considering the NCAA has been a multi-million dollar industry for several decades, and a multi-billion dollar industry for about a decade.

That disparity is due to the idea of “amateurism,” a word many experts and analysts use when they cite concerns about completely commercializing college sports. That idea goes back more than a century, to 1800s England, where sports were only for the wealthy, and the working class didn’t want them to be able to pay their way to victory.

“I don’t want to say [amateurism] is going to die, but it will certainly be the commercial aspects that are going to permeate,” said David Hedlund, the chairman of the Division of Sport Management at St. John’s University. “I think we’re going to see and hear less and less about amateurism, and college sports are going to look more like professional sports, or a training ground for professional sports.”

The idea that sports are for enjoyment and the love of the game rather than money is a noble one. And players can love the game and make money off their talents at the same time.

But many experts say amateurism has long been dead; the NCAA was just, for whatever reason, the last organization behind the International Olympic Committee to let it die. It’s part of an effort to keep pace with the rest of the world. Overseas soccer and basketball players are spotted when they’re 12 to 14 years old, and go pro when they turn 18.

“We’re in a global marketplace,” said Matt Winkler, a professor and program director of sports analytics and management at American University. “We sort of have to keep up with the other nations if we want to strive and have those great moments in sports for our Olympic teams and our World Cup teams and so forth.”

Coaches have long been compensated, and universities have long profited off their sports teams.

“The money has always been there. It’s just a lot more front-facing now, I think, than it’s been in the past,” Hedlund said.

Some sports analysts say it was quite front-facing in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

March Madness was devoid of any significant upsets or Cinderella teams. For the first time in five decades, every team that made it to the Sweet 16 came from a power conference, including all four No. 1 seeds and all but one No. 2 seed.

And, every team that made it to the Final Four was a No. 1 seed.

ESPN analyst Stephen Smith said NIL deals and the now no-limits transfer portal are to blame for why mid-major programs didn’t see much success, and top-tier schools prevailed.

“If there was no NIL, if there was no portal and you have the mid-majors go 0-6 in the second round, please, we ain’t sweating that,” Smith said. “But when you’re able to point to rules that have been implemented that ultimately shows itself to have inflicted upon the game itself, that’s dangerous.

“College basketball as we knew it – which, to me, is all about March Madness – will cease to exist. Because there’s no madness.”

Experts say there is a serious question mark about the current state of how much colleges can pay to entice players, and how many times players can be enticed enough to transfer.

But not all believe it has to be the death of March Madness or competition in college sports. After all, there’s still Division 2 and 3 universities.

Richard Paulsen, a sports economist and professor at the University of Michigan, said it’s hard to gauge the impact of NIL deals and the transfer portal on competition. Because while the top ten or so power schools may be able to offer the most money to the elite players, there’s still a lot of talent out there.

“The top schools have an advantage in getting the A-level talent, but some of the players that might have sat on the bench at a top school previously could be enticed away with NIL money coming from a second tier school,” Paulsen said. “So I think the impact on competitive balance is maybe a little bit less clear.”

Paulsen says, as a professor, he is worried about the impact NIL deals – particularly million-dollar ones – can have on the students themselves, some 18, 19, 20 years old. It raises the question, does a teenager or young adult need this much money?

Shedeur Sanders is 23 years old, and his NIL valuation at the University of Colorado was roughly $6.5 million. Granted, he’s the son of NFL Hall of Famer and head coach for Colorado Deion Sanders.

But, his 2024 stats were top five in completion percentage, passing touchdowns and yards. Several analysts had him as the top prospect in the 2025 NFL draft, but he slid down to the fifth round, shocking much of the sports world.

Various reports place blame on other reasons – maybe he took more sacks than he should have, maybe NFL executives see traits we can’t see, maybe he bombed interviews with the managers, maybe it had to do with his Hall of Famer dad. And he certainly wouldn’t be the first prospect to get picked later than expected and prove all the teams that passed over him wrong.

But, he’s also losing money by going pro. The iced out, custom “Legendary” chain he wore on Draft Day reportedly cost $1 million.

“It is at least worth noting that five years ago, he wouldn’t have had the online presence that he had, and that could have turned off some NFL teams,” Paulsen said. “Without being in the rooms, I don’t know if it did, but that is possible, and it’s not something that would have been possible even five years ago.”

It begs the question, is it even worth going pro for these top-tier college athletes with insane NIL deals?

In the NBA, new data shows it may not be. The league announced last week just 106 players declared early for the 2025 draft. It’s the fewest since 2015. The number typically hovers around 300.

The drop in early entrants could be lingering effects of the extra COVID year.

But, next year, ten schools will pay their rosters somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million, including several million dollars per top player. That’s far more than the players would make if they were a second-round draft pick in the NBA.

Winkler said the combination of competitive rosters and the scope of these NIL deals has more to do with this drop in early declarations.

“These deals are getting so big that unless you’re going to be a first round draft choice, maybe if you’re going to be kind of a lottery pick or a top 10, 15 pick, it would be better for you to exhaust your eligibility on a major team, because you’re going to make more,” he said.

So, it might be financially advantageous for athletes to wait on the pros. Some announcers were even suggesting Sanders should go back to college if the NFL didn’t deem him ready for the show. (NCAA rules prohibit him from doing so anyway; he declared for the draft and signed with an agent).

But what about the fact that these players, who become millionaires, are still students?

Schools are working to provide resources for these athletes so they can get advice on what to do with their wealth, so that they don’t spend it irresponsibly. Which is not to assume all of them would; it goes without saying this money could greatly benefit an athlete who grew up in poverty and change the trajectory for his/her family.

But Paulsen says he worries about the “student” side of “student-athlete” when we start talking about millions upon millions of dollars and students transferring to whichever school offers them the most. Sometimes credits don’t transfer; sometimes players could feel pressure to fulfill their NIL commitments over their studies, when the stakes are that high.

At a young age, these players are under an unprecedented amount of pressure, from their coach, from their family, from their financial adviser, from social media, from broadcast exposure, from stakeholders, from the tens of millions of people who can now legally bet on them.

“Players should be able to leave bad situations, absolutely, and I certainly support players’ autonomy and chasing financial benefit from their athletic talents,” Paulsen said. “But if we’re going to call them student athletes, we should have some emphasis on the student part of that too. Some of these rules that are helping the athlete are hurting the student.”

One of those rules, he says, is the transfer portal. But in addition to harming the students’ academic careers, experts say this also takes a toll on teams and fans of those teams.

Take Nico Iamaleava for example. The star quarterback abruptly parted ways with Tennessee over an alleged compensation dispute with the school’s collective. He demanded an NIL readjustment to $4 million to keep playing for the Vols, and when they said no, he transferred to UCLA, though it’s unclear if they met his demands.

The exit shocked his teammates in Knoxville, with one of his receivers and defensive backs, Boo Carter, telling reporters, “He left his brothers behind.”

But the new pay-to-play system does also beg the question of school loyalty, not just for the players, but the fans too.

Paulsen says roster continuity, players spending all four years playing for one team, has been an endearing feature of sports like women’s college basketball, when you look at the legacies, for example, Caitlin Clark built at the University of Iowa, or Paige Bueckers at the University of Connecticut.

“I do think there’s definitely some extent to which all this player movement can have negative consequences,” he said.

But, some experts doubt fans of teams need to see the same or similar team year to year.

After all, this past NCAA Men’s March Madness Championship between Florida and Houston – the one ESPN’s Smith said featured no madness at all – scored 18.1 million viewers on CBS. That’s up 22% from last year’s championship, and the biggest audience since 2019.

The Final Four games, featuring all No. 1 seeds, ranked as the most-watched games in eight years.

In other words, so far, so good when it comes to college sports fandom.

One thing broadly agreed upon among experts is that competition must remain intact. The Florida-Houston matchup was a nailbiter.

“The biggest thing that would kill sports is if there is no competitive balance,” Hedlund said. “It is known when you have a really great team being a not-so-great team, if the great team probably will win, people don’t want to watch.”

People still appear to be watching. If they stop, one could assume the NCAA would change its course, or it’d be out of all its money too.

Plus, these experts expect regulation soon – possible measures like transfer restrictions, collectively bargained salary caps, conference realignment to avoid concentration, turning athletic departments into LLCs, putting degree completion into bylaws and evening out the number of roster spots, among other rules.

Experts say: be patient, wait for the legal fights to run their course, and wait for the brightest minds in sports – and Congress – to come up with a solution that pleases the players, teams, coaches, schools and fans.

“This is fundamental to the success of sports, so we just need to figure out what rules, what regulations, what governing bodies, how do we facilitate this?” Hedlund said. “We don’t want to ruin sports. That’s what’s at stake here.”

Winkler says it all comes down to the most “hardcore” stakeholders: fans and alumni. If the SEC and Big 10 just ganged up and created their own Premier League and college sports turned into checkbook sports, it could threaten that school pride.

“This year, we definitely saw cracks in the system,” Winkler said. “If the best athletes just go to the top, are [fans] rooting for an inferior product? Are they still going to have that affinity for their school, their team, their degrees, and people that are doing it? This is really going to test that.

“[Schools] have two key pressure points: keep getting a lot of money from TV so you can fund your athletic department, and keep alumni, fans and donors still feeling as engagedThere’s a lot to be worked out in the next several months and probably the next year to really get a boiler plate idea of what the rules and regulations need to be.”

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$2.7 million star expands substantial NIL empire with latest deal

Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams is making the most out of his Freshman All-American season by expanding his NIL portfolio. Williams broke out as first-year wide receiver in 2024, leading Crimson Tide wideouts with 48 receptions for 865 yards with 10 total touchdowns. The former five-star raised his On3 NIL valuation to $2.7 million entering […]

Published

54 minutes ago

June 28, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams is making the most out of his Freshman All-American season by expanding his NIL portfolio.

Williams broke out as first-year wide receiver in 2024, leading Crimson Tide wideouts with 48 receptions for 865 yards with 10 total touchdowns.

The former five-star raised his On3 NIL valuation to $2.7 million entering the 2025 season and holds partnerships with nail polish brand Sally Hansen, Hollister and Uber Eats.

Williams is also paired with Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith on the deluxe edition cover of the new EA Sports College Football 26 video game.

Williams’ latest NIL move was revealed on Thursday by football equipment brand NXTRND.

The select group of NXTRND athletes includes Williams, Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, Oregon wide receiver Dakorien Moore and Georgia safety KJ Bolden.

Multiple NXTRND products are listed as Williams’ gear, ranging from towels to socks, gloves and wristbands.

Williams, only a sophomore, ranks 15th in NIL value among all college athletes. And there are a wealth of opportunities ahead for the Alabama star, especially as he improves on the field throughout his career.

Alabama will open the 2025 season at Florida State on Aug. 30 at 3:30 p.m. ET (ABC).

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2025 College Football Predictions: 10 Matchups that will Shape the Regular Season

Joel Klatt Lead College Football Analyst Every week, it feels like the college football season is getting just a little closer and closer. I truly can’t wait for what’s in store for the 2025 regular season. So, I decided to look at the schedule for the regular season again and try to pinpoint which 10 […]

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2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Joel Klatt

Lead College Football Analyst

Every week, it feels like the college football season is getting just a little closer and closer. I truly can’t wait for what’s in store for the 2025 regular season.

So, I decided to look at the schedule for the regular season again and try to pinpoint which 10 games will have the most impact. These aren’t necessarily the 10 best games, although some look to be epic. Rather, they’re the 10 games that I think will shape how we view the season and might have the biggest impact on the College Football Playoff.

There are plenty of games early in the season that will certainly have some sway in how things get determined in 2025, with a couple of monster matchups taking place in Week 1. Let’s start off our list with the one that I’ll call for FOX.

It’s a rematch of one of the CFP semifinal games, with Ohio State winning that game en route to a national championship. Both teams look poised to make another deep run in 2025. In fact, there’s a chance that Texas and Ohio State might be the top two-ranked teams in the country entering Week 1. At worst, I think this will be a No. 1 vs No. 3 matchup.

Not only will this be a monster matchup, but this will also be the first start of the Arch Manning era for Texas. This is his team and program, and he’ll get a chance to prove what he’s made of on the road against the defending champs. That’s pretty awesome.

We also don’t know who Ohio State’s quarterback will be. Is it going to be Julian Sayin? He’s incredibly talented and I’ve enjoyed watching him when I’ve seen him practice. The Buckeyes will also have new playcallers on both sides of the ball (Brian Hartline and Matt Patricia).

As for the coaching battle, Steve Sarkisian has gotten the Longhorns back to where they’ve wanted to get to for the last decade. He’s done a remarkable job, and he’s a top-five coach, but it’s time for him to take a step forward. He’s going against a top two or three coach in Ryan Day, who has to feel he is entering the season with the monkey off his back. That might be beneficial to Ohio State.

Another Week 1 matchup that I think will feature two teams ranked in the top 10. Brian Kelly needs to win this game for LSU. Kelly went all in on the portal this offseason and is returning his quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier. But Kelly has gone 0-3 in season openers during his time in Baton Rouge, and LSU fans need to see this program progressing. It’s fair for us to ask when the breakthrough is going to happen for Kelly at LSU. I do think we’ll see that this year.

Yet, I actually feel better about Clemson between these two teams. Dabo Swinney has bet on himself over the last few years, and it feels like Clemson has reloaded for another run. I’ve got Cade Klubnik as my No. 1 quarterback entering the season and that defense is really talented.

There’s also the conference element to this game. If LSU wins this matchup, and Clemson goes on to dominate the ACC en route to a conference title, the SEC will argue that the ACC should only get one CFP participant. But the SEC also needs a giant non-conference win after how the CFP and bowl season played out for the conference last winter.

Michigan needs a bounce-back season in Sherrone Moore’s second season after going 8-5 a year ago. The defense was fine last year, the offense was not. We know the Wolverines got Bryce Underwood, who was one of the most sought-after recruits in a long time, and this might be his first major start. This is also right before Moore will serve his self-imposed suspension.

Brent Venables also needs a bounce-back season at Oklahoma. Everyone was excited when Venables was hired to be the Sooners’ next head coach, but now they need something on the field to feel good about. Oklahoma was able to poach quarterback John Mateer and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle from Washington State, who I expect to help the Sooners take a step forward. But the Wolverines’ defense is going to be outstanding, and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale figured things out late last season.

The winner of this game will really get a big boost ahead of conference play, and this game could also help establish the perception of the depth between the Big Ten and SEC.

This was a great game in College Station last season. We all believe in Marcus Freeman, who led Notre Dame to a national championship game appearance last season. This feels like a program that can compete at the highest level and potentially win a national championship. I’m bullish on them this season. A win against A&M likely gets Notre Dame back into the CFP with how its schedule looks after Week 3. If it loses this game, it’s another September loss for Freeman. Notre Dame lost three games at home in September over his first three seasons as head coach.

I also really like Mike Elko and his fit at Texas A&M. He gets College Station and I think he’ll work out at Texas A&M. But he’ll have to win games like this one to prove that he’s the guy for the Aggies.

A rematch of the Big Ten Championship Game. I think this game is bigger for Penn State than Oregon. I’ve repeated over and over again that it’s time for Penn State to beat someone it’s evenly matched with or upset a team with more talent than it has. James Franklin has done a perfect job at winning the games he’s supposed to win, which is a talent that shouldn’t be underrated. But he and Penn State have to win those matchup games, where you have to beat a team that has equal talent to you. The Nittany Lions got close to doing that last year, playing Ohio State, Oregon and Notre Dame close.

If Penn State can win this game, that would announce to everyone that this group is ready for the big stage and potentially make a run for a title.

From an Oregon perspective, this is Dan Lanning’s first opportunity to show what his squad is made of after getting blown out by Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. There isn’t any shame in losing to that Ohio State team, but Oregon has to show that it has turned the page and can continue to play at a high level. If it can win at Penn State, which I think is the toughest place to play in the Big Ten, that would be saying something for Oregon.

This is a sneaky, under-the-radar one. This game is important for Illinois because the game gives them an opportunity to show they can be this year’s Indiana. Both teams could be 4-0 entering this game. If Illinois wins this game, it’d likely be 5-0, with its game against Ohio State as its only difficult game remaining. That Ohio State game doesn’t look as daunting if Illinois handles business against USC.

Bret Bielema is building something very special at Illinois. However, they’re going to have to fight the chance of being a former afterthought that turns into the apple of everyone’s eye. Illinois doesn’t have the talent to blow everyone out, but Bielema is building something very sustainable.

As for USC, it’s pretty obvious: Lincoln Riley needs to stack some good wins. He did great early in his tenure at USC, but things got shaky over the last couple of years. If USC loses this game, it’s staring right down the barrel of another possible 7-5 season. USC has one of the best recruiting classes in the country for 2026, so it’s building momentum off the field. Now, it needs to build momentum on the field, too.

This is an obvious one. This game is really always a great game. They could play it in a parking lot, and it would be a great game with high stakes. The winner of this game will likely be in the SEC Championship Game.

Then, you get into the implications for both teams. Is Alabama back at the level it was at with Nick Saban? This is a huge early test for Kalen DeBoer in Year 2, and Alabama’s schedule after this game is manageable.

For Georgia, if it loses this game, we’ll wonder if the Bulldogs are slipping. It’d mark two straight losses to Alabama, with a loss in the CFP quarterfinals sandwiched between that.

Alabama & Georgia in Joel Klatt’s top games that will shape the 2025 season

Penn State vs. Ohio State (Week 10)

This is likely another top-five matchup, which will present another opportunity for James Franklin to get a marquee win. If Penn State doesn’t beat Oregon in Week 5, there will be a ton of pressure on Franklin and the Nittany Lions when they head to Columbus, especially in a year where the Buckeyes are breaking in a new quarterback and coordinators. This is also the most experienced and talented team Franklin has had in his tenure at Penn State. It’s a big opportunity for Drew Allar to show what he’s made of.

The loser of this game will be in a precarious spot in the Big Ten title race. We’ll see how it plays out, but Penn State needed a wild loss from Ohio State against Michigan to reach the Big Ten Championship Game last season.

LSU vs. Alabama (Week 11)

As I got to the later weeks of the season while making this list, I started predicting some outcomes from earlier games. Most of us probably think that Georgia will beat Alabama in Week 5. I think Clemson will beat LSU in Week 1.

If those two results happen, the LSU-Alabama matchup in Week 11 will be a monster game with CFP implications. I don’t know if the loser of this game can still make the CFP if it also lost its game earlier on this list. It could be a battle for the third or fourth CFP spot among SEC teams.

And as I touched on with both teams’ inclusions earlier on this list, this is a high-stakes game for both coaches. Brian Kelly needs as many high-profile wins as he can get, and you have to think that Kalen DeBoer doesn’t have that long of a runway at Alabama. The way things finished for DeBoer in Year 1 wasn’t very Alabama-esque.

Ohio State vs. Michigan (Week 14)

This game was obviously going to make the list. It’s a battle between the last two national championship winners. You’ve got the backstory of how this game finished last year, with Michigan trying to plant the flag at The Shoe before a fight broke out. Even though Ohio State got its national championship, it still has to listen to Michigan say, “Well, you didn’t beat us, and we won our national championship going 15-0.”

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore improved to 2-0 all-time against Ohio State with the Wolverines’ upset win in Columbus in 2024. (Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images)

This year’s game is going to be epic. Can Michigan actually win a fifth straight game against Ohio State? Thinking back to the COVID year, I didn’t think Michigan was going to win The Game for the foreseeable future. Somehow, it’s won four in a row.

There are some games that were certainly worthy of being mentioned on this list, but these are the 10 that I feel will truly shape the 2025 college football regular season. Maybe I’ll touch more on those games at a later date.

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

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What’s next for the St. John’s star?

It has been a tumultuous offseason for the Big East Player of the Year, RJ Luis Jr. First, there was the highly publicized feud with head coach Rick Pitino at the NCAA Tournament. Pitino benched his star for not giving the needed effort. Luis wasn’t playing well, but according to Pitino, he wasn’t playing the […]

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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The benching and the feud with coach Pitino led to the wing entering the transfer portal, but declaring for the NBA Draft. Luis never had any intention of finding a new team to play for and was determined to play in the NBA. After receiving mixed feedback about where he would get drafted, all of which were mid to late second-round projections. The wing decided to risk it and stay in the draft and forego the rest of his college eligibility.

St. John’s star RJ Luis Jr. has agreed to a two-way NBA contract with the Utah Jazz, sources tell ESPN.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 27, 2025

As the 59th and final pick of the NBA Draft, the Big East Player of the Year went undrafted. It was heartbreaking for a kid who gave his all to St. John’s and had a huge breakout year. Luis did what he wanted to do, but early reports suggest that had he stayed in college, he could have earned upwards of $2 million in NIL money next year. $2 million may have been the floor, given that revenue sharing has now become a standard feature of major college sports.

Luis isn’t the first player to win a major conference player of the year and not get drafted, and he won’t be the last. Last year was a huge breakout year for the wing, and he won the player of the year unconventionally. He isn’t a shooter and scored almost all of his points in the paint. He did get to the line a bit, but not nearly as much as you would expect for a player who got the paint as often as the former Johnnie did. Even with the unconventional play style, he still averaged over 18 points and seven rebounds per game in one of the best conferences in the game.

Luis can play in the NBA for the right team, but he needs another year in college playing at the highest level to show that this last season wasn’t a fluke. So, what is next for the star guard in his NBA journey?

At the time of this writing, he has not yet received a deal with any NBA team. That will come in time. The wing will likely receive a deal with an NBA team for a summer league deal. There have been numerous undrafted players who have worked their way into an NBA deal through the summer league and free agent deals with an NBA team.

*Luis has signed a deal with the Utah Jazz

Alex Caruso, Lu Dort, Austin Reaves, and Julian Champagnie. All of those players were undrafted and have worked their way onto NBA rosters. Caruso, Dort, and Reaves are all NBA Champions. Luis needs to focus on the summer league and prove his worth, which could lead to a two-way NBA deal.

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“You’re Making More Money Than Me”: Paige Bueckers Speaks on Geno Auriemma Adjusting to NIL Era

Looking from the outside in, the NIL is a bad development in college sports, with multiple programs suffering as a result of constant player movement. Some head coaches have also voiced their opinion concerning the state of college basketball. But not every coach views the shift as a bad thing. Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers recently […]

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2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers recently concluded her outstanding college career at UConn as one of the few star athletes to experience the state of the NCAA before and after the introduction of NIL. The change certainly benefited her since it allowed the 6-foot-2 guard to build a brand off of her name.

She made a guest appearance on the NILosphy podcast, where she opened up about her experience with NIL and discussed UConn’s handling of the change in player and team dynamics.

“They wanted us to make money, and they really enjoyed that we got this opportunity,” Bueckers said. “They never wanted to get in the way of what we had to accomplish.”

The UConn Huskies have been the most dominant program in women’s college basketball throughout recent memory. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if head coach Geno Auriemma weren’t a fan of NIL, since it pushes players away from building cohesion within a team. Instead, he didn’t find a problem in adjusting to this new era of college basketball.

“He was very receptive to everything going on,” Bueckers revealed. “But at the end of the day, he always wanted our priorities to be basketball. IF you’re coming to UConn for money, you’re not coming to the right place.”

Auriemma always pushed his players to seek the best financial opportunities for themselves. After all, their time at UConn is brief in the grand scheme of their lives. At most, these players spend five years playing under him, and many of his athletes don’t proceed with a professional basketball career.

The adjustment stage hasn’t been too hard on Geno either, considering he just led the Huskies to a National Championship this past season. The dynamic is different between coaches and players, but Buerckers claims he always diffused any tension whatsoever with his unique brand of humor.

“He would always joke, ‘You’re making more money than me now. Why do you need me?’ He’s just joking, but he was happy for us,” she said.

More coaches need to have the approach Auriemma has toward NIL because it isn’t going anywhere. Players are only going to make more money as the years go by. The ability of head coaches to navigate these changing times may be the deciding factor between the groups that can win titles and those that don’t.

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Tennessee Pitcher Ryan Combs Enters Transfer Portal After One Season In Knoxville

The Vols will still have to survive the MLB Draft to get Ford, Edmondson, Estrada and Newman to campus. Ford and Edmondson are particularly strong draft risks. The complete list of Tennessee players to enter the transfer portal this offseason include Combs, RHP Tate Strickland, RHP Ben Martin, INF Dane Morrow, C Brooks WrightWright, RHP […]

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2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Tennessee Pitcher Ryan Combs Enters Transfer Portal After One Season In Knoxville

The Vols will still have to survive the MLB Draft to get Ford, Edmondson, Estrada and Newman to campus. Ford and Edmondson are particularly strong draft risks.

The complete list of Tennessee players to enter the transfer portal this offseason include Combs, RHP Tate Strickland, RHP Ben Martin, INF Dane Morrow, C Brooks WrightWright, RHP Austin Breedlove, LHP Andrew Behnke, RHP Beau Revord, LHP Michael Sharman, RHP Andrew DuMont, RHP Tanner Wiggins, LHP Brayden May, LHP Luke Payne, LHP Dane Bjorn, RHP Stratton Scott, RHP JJ Garcia, LHP Dylan Loy, RHP Bryson Thacker, infielder Robinson Martin, RHP Austin Hunley, OF Colby Backus, LHP Brayden Sharp, RHP Thomas Crabtree, RHP Ryler Smart, infielder Alex Perry and 1B Jack Jones.

NIL

Paige Bueckers Talks Favorite NIL Deals

In this episode of NILOSOPHY, Deja Kelly sits down with Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, for an unfiltered interview. From dominating at UConn to navigating injuries, NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals, and building a brand off the court—Paige shares it all. Paige talks about why she declined […]

Published

3 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Your Sports Nation

In this episode of NILOSOPHY, Deja Kelly sits down with Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, for an unfiltered interview. From dominating at UConn to navigating injuries, NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals, and building a brand off the court—Paige shares it all.

Paige talks about why she declined an additional year of eligibility at UConn, how she built a multimillion-dollar NIL brand from scratch, and the real business behind NIL deals, social media, and agents. She also discusses what it’s like to get drafted and play for the Dallas Wings; behind-the-scenes stories from working with companies like Nike, Gatorade, and Verizon; and why she’s fighting for change in the WNBA’s next CBA.

Paige also reflects on the power of relationships, her coach Geno Auriemma’s evolution in the NIL era, and the real mental toll of being a public figure at the top of the game.

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