NIL

NIL is changing college sports; for better or worse?

Published

8 months ago

May 5, 2025

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 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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College football team set to be without nearly 20 players for upcoming bowl game

Published

13 minutes ago

December 20, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The perception of bowl games and their significance to college football programs and players has undergone a rapid shift over the last decade.

In the current age of the sport, teams are turning down postseason bids while the transfer portal is filling up before most bowl games even kick off.

That’s just the reality of the situation. Normally, it’s the needy who are hit the hardest as G6 schools and poorly constructed FBS programs have their rosters raided.

Just take a look at what’s happening at UTSA.

UTSA’s Jeff Traylor: ‘I Hate What’s Going On In College Football’

Since transitioning to the FBS over a decade ago, UTSA has established itself in the Conference USA and the American Conference.

Head coach Jeff Traylor has led the program to six consecutive bowl games. That includes an up-and-down campaign in 2025, when the Roadrunners started 0-2 and won two of their final three games to finish 6-6.

UTSA is a week away from taking on FIU in the First Responder Bowl on December 26.

Going into the matchup, the Roadrunners could be without as many as 20 players. Many of those losses are due to the portal.

“We’ll be a shell of ourselves, but whoever we got out there, we’re going to go out there and play the best we can,” Traylor said, according to KENS 5’s Vinnie Vinzetta. “It’s just the numbers are so big with all the tampering. All the agents, it’s coaches too, it’s all of them. Our kids are being promised such incredible numbers, they’re getting lured into the portal.

“I just hope all the things those coaches and agents are promising they’re going to do for my kids. I hate it because I really want to coach them in a bowl game, but they’re getting leveraged out of it,” Traylor continued. “Their agents are telling them, they’ve got to not play in the bowl, they’ll get this number, they don’t play in the bowl [they’ll get this number].”

“I hate what’s going on in college football. I just think the numbers have gotten so large. You’re talking about teams that have $26 million to $40 million, and the number’s just too big, and who knows if they’re being told the truth? It’s sad, it really is sad,” Traylor added. “I never thought we’d be punished for making a bowl game by being leveraged, that if you don’t give them a certain number, they’re not going to play in a bowl.

UTSA Roadrunners head coach Jeff Traylor | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Traylor is focused on the players still with the team, but he couldn’t help but recognize that college football looks a lot different than it did in his first season on the job.

“I’m going to celebrate the kids we have left, whoever that is, we’re going to go out there and play our tails off, and I’m very grateful for them,” Traylor said. “Again, I hate we’re talking about the 10 to 15 that probably are not going to play in the game, or 20, whatever that number ends up being. We should be talking about the 90 to 85 that are going to play with their teammates.”

“It’s like I just woke in another world as compared to where we were six years ago,” Traylor added.

Is there a way to combat what’s going on? Not really. There have been calls for coaches to report instances of tampering.

Most of the time, it’s hard for the people in charge to get the specifics of whose saying what.

“There’s no such thing as tampering. Coaches talk to players, agents talk to players,” Traylor said. “Oh, then turn them in, coach. You think those players are going to give me the coach that’s actually talking to them? Why? It’s driving the price up. The more they get driven up, the price goes up higher and higher.

“As long as there’s people gonna pay it, who’s going to stop it? What’s going to stop this? What’s going to stop it? Only the freedom of process is going to stop because when there’s no money left, what are we going to all do?”

As of December 19, four players who started multiple games for UTSA have announced plans to enter the transfer portal, including cornerbacks Davin Martin and KK Meier, defensive end Kenny Ozowalu, and defensive tackle Chidera Otutu.

More attrition is possible in the next seven days.

USC Trojans Leaning into New Era of College Football with Wave of Re-Signings

Published

1 hour ago

December 20, 2025

Your Sports Nation

USC Trojans Lincoln Riley Big Ten Transfer Portal USC Trojans College Football Re-Signings Jayden Maiava Chad Bowden NIL — Aug 30, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches from the sidelines against the Missouri State Bears in the first half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Major college football program missing 26 players for bowl game

Published

2 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The Pinstripe Bowl was meant to serve as a bridge year moment for Clemson, a chance to reset expectations and evaluate younger talent with an eye toward 2026.

Instead, Dabo Swinney’s Monday media session revealed that 26 scholarship players won’t be available for the Tigers’ Dec. 27 Pinstripe Bowl against Penn State.

That tally, largely injuries, a cluster of transfer departures and a handful of early NFL opt-outs, compounds a season that started with top-five expectations and ended 7-5.

Swinney said 17 absences are injury-related, five players opted to transfer, and four declared for the NFL Draft; among those not playing are defensive stalwarts such as linebacker Wade Woodaz, defensive end T.J. Parker, and cornerback Avieon Terrell.

Offensively, Clemson still has quarterback Cade Klubnik, who threw for 2,750 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, but the Tigers will be without several key offensive linemen and skill-position contributors, including Antonio Williams and Bryant Wesco Jr., the team’s second- and third-leading receivers.

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney. — Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney directs his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the second quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium. | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

The 2025 campaign itself was already a disappointment by Clemson standards.

A series of close losses to LSU, Georgia Tech, and Duke left Clemson 7–5 and out of playoff contention despite opening the season ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25.

Those results eliminated any margin for error, and the loss of more than two dozen scholarship players now makes the bowl a significant test of depth.

Penn State enters at 6–6 amid a coaching transition, with roster questions of its own but fewer high-profile opt-outs reported so far.

Penn State will be coached by interim Terry Smith after James Franklin was fired midseason and later took the Virginia Tech job.

For Clemson, the situation has immediate implications for its bowl competitiveness and longer-term questions about roster depth, retention, and development.

The Pinstripe Bowl will be played at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 27 (Noon ET, ABC).

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Arch Manning takes NIL pay cut to boost 2026 Texas Football roster

Published

11 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Your Sports Nation

There are plenty of examples of a star in pro sports taking less money in order to help the overall roster. But it isn’t something that’s hit college football yet … until now, thanks to Arch Manning. Manning has asked to take a reduced portion of the Longhorns’ direct payout pool.

Manning’s aim at taking less NIL funds is to help improve the roster around him. Just like Patrick Mahomes, who regularly gives up millions to help the Kansas City Chief’s roster. Tom Brady did it with New England. Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Jalen Brunson, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger have all helped the rosters around them by taking less.

In the pros, there are salary caps to negotiate. While college has no salary cap (yet), there is a finite amount in the NIL house pool. Texas can only spend what it has available. And while that pool is one of the biggest in the nation, Texas still follows a budget.

No doubt, Manning will be hoping the Texas coaching staff uses some of the freed up football revenue sharing funds on the offensive line. The line struggled in front of Manning all season and certainly inhibited his development early in the season.

Two offensive linemen are gone after the Citrus Bowl and Texas might lose a third. Left tackle Trevor Goosby was named first-team All-SEC is now contemplating going pro. Running back Jadan Baugh from Florida is also on Texas’ radar. The talented RB won’t be cheap.

Of course, it’s not like Manning will starve. The redshirt sophomore has one of the highest NIL valuations in nation. Manning has NIL deals with Red Bull, Panani, Uber and Warby Parker. Manning made north of $3.5 million in NIL deals in 2025, according to the Houston Chronicle.

With a big name that attracts major brands, Manning doesn’t need his big deals supplemented. But most college athletes are paid by the common pool of funds. Manning frees up some of that money for transfers.

This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Manning Pay Cut: Texas QB asks for less NIL money to help boost roster

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Top 5 transfer portal landing spots for TCU quarterback Josh Hoover

Published

12 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The NCAA Transfer Portal claimed another big name on Thursday night.

TCU star quarterback Josh Hoover has announced he intends to move on from the program. Hoover spent the last four seasons with the Horned Frogs, taking over as the starter midway through the 2023 campaign and putting up big numbers in each of the last two years.

In 36 career games, Hoover has completed 771/1183 passes for 9,629 yards with 71 touchdowns to 33 interceptions. He added eight more scores on the ground. There’s a very real likelihood that Hoover’s the most productive quarterback returning to the sport in 2026.

Hoover ranks in the top 5 in TCU program history in touchdown passes and total offense. He’s expected to be a coveted option in the portal.

Where are five landing spots that make sense for Hoover?

Indiana Hoosiers

Back in the College Football Playoff with a different starter for the second consecutive season, Indiana has put together one of the most impressive runs in the sport since Curt Cignetti took over the program.

The undefeated Hoosiers produced their first Heisman Trophy winner in school history last weekend as star quarterback Fernando Mendoza ran away with the award. Mendoza has another season of eligibility remaining, but is projected to be a top selection in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Indiana has already been linked to Hoover, per CBS Sports’ Chris Hummer.

Miami Hurricanes

Miami has lived in the transfer portal over the past few years, investing plenty of time and money into building a contender for Mario Cristobal. The moves finally worked out in 2025 as a massive financial commitment to secure Carson Beck from Georgia helped power the Hurricanes to the playoffs.

Though the conclusion of the 2024 season was a disappointment, former Miami quarterback Cam Ward was developed into the No. 1 pick in the most recent NFL Draft. Beck will likely get a shot at the professional level as well.

With little proven depth on the roster, it makes sense to bring in another experienced quarterback like Hoover to keep the Hurricanes on the right track. Miami has proven it’s willing to pay up.

Oregon Ducks

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oregon is a known quarterback factory, sending former stars such as Marcus Mariota and Justin Herbert to the NFL. That hasn’t changed since Dan Lanning took over the program in 2022.

The Ducks have had a quarterback drafted in back-to-back years, with Bo Nix going in the first round in 2024 and Dillon Gabriel being selected within the top-100 picks in 2025. Lanning could do it again next April with Dante Moore, who is nearing the end of a career year.

If Moore does leap to the professional level, Hoover would be a solid fit. Nix, Gabriel, and Moore all began their college careers at different schools and later transferred to Oregon, a similar path Hoover is embarking on.

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Suiting up for a playoff contender is pretty cool. Having a chance to win championships and staying home in the process might be even cooler.

Texas Tech has firmly entrenched itself as a program to reckon with in the modern age of the sport. The Red Raiders have plenty of money, and they’ve shown they’re willing to use it to pull in elite talent from the transfer portal and high school ranks.

With Behren Morton exhausting his eligibility following the playoff run, Texas Tech has to decide if it wants to turn the program over to another transfer or a homegrown talent like Will Hammond.

Either way, Hoover is from Texas and he’s already in the state.

Houston Cougars

An outlier among four other programs that have a chance to win it all, Houston is on the come-up. The Cougars haven’t been shy about writing checks, evidenced by the program signing five-star quarterback Keisean Henderson during the Early Signing Period.

Redshirt junior starter Conner Weigman does have one season of eligibility remaining and has stated he intends to return next season. Decisions are quick to change in this era, so never say never.

Would Houston bring in Hoover while Henderson develops for a season? Or should the program stick with Weigman as a veteran leader for Henderson?

Weigman just joined the program as a transfer last year. He was fine, but unspectacular this fall, and an upgrade could help the Cougars break their ceiling.

South Carolina Upstate visits Youngstown State after Carroll’s 31-point outing

Published

13 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Your Sports Nation

South Carolina Upstate Spartans (8-6) at Youngstown State Penguins (7-5, 2-1 Horizon League)

Youngstown, Ohio; Saturday, 1 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Youngstown State hosts South Carolina Upstate after Cris Carroll scored 31 points in Youngstown State’s 80-77 overtime loss to the Robert Morris Colonials.

The Penguins are 4-0 on their home court. Youngstown State scores 80.2 points and has outscored opponents by 10.9 points per game.

The Spartans are 2-5 on the road. South Carolina Upstate is fifth in the Big South scoring 79.6 points per game and is shooting 46.2%.

Youngstown State averages 10.4 made 3-pointers per game, 3.8 more made shots than the 6.6 per game South Carolina Upstate gives up. South Carolina Upstate has shot at a 46.2% rate from the field this season, 3.3 percentage points greater than the 42.9% shooting opponents of Youngstown State have averaged.

TOP PERFORMERS: Carroll averages 3.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Penguins, scoring 16.4 points while shooting 48.6% from beyond the arc. Rich Rolf is averaging 10.8 points over the last 10 games.

Mason Bendinger is scoring 16.1 points per game and averaging 3.1 rebounds for the Spartans. Carmelo Adkins is averaging 1.9 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Penguins: 6-4, averaging 81.3 points, 33.6 rebounds, 15.2 assists, 9.1 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 49.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.7 points per game.

Spartans: 5-5, averaging 75.4 points, 33.5 rebounds, 14.1 assists, 6.1 steals and 5.0 blocks per game while shooting 43.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.2 points.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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