By the way, here’s a fun fact from loyal subscriber Bill in Clemson regarding that landmark litigation:

“One of the root reasons Oklahoma sued the NCAA was when The Citadel v. Appalachian State was televised on the same day as Oklahoma v. Southern Cal. Even though TV viewership was heavily skewed toward the OU v. SC game, all four teams received $400,000 each baked upon the NCAA-governed media contract.”

That kind of distribution came to a screeching halt when the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the NCAA’s individual members. That also created a bunch of fiefdoms that exist to this day.

More from Bill, who nailed it again with this:

“In this sea of change, a comment was said recently that it was unfortunate the different conferences are seeing each other as competitors instead of business partners.”

Reader Bill and the person he paraphrased for the win.

Win some, lose some

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom. As with nearly everything else in life, there are winners and losers with all of this.

The Superpowers, for one, win again.

The Big Ten and the SEC already make so much more than everyone else, which means they’ll have more to dole out. Above-board revenue sharing will only provide massive flex opportunities. More flexing will lead to more money, which produces more flexing … you get it.

Here’s another: Oddly, this massive, football-driven event will elevate some places that don’t even play the sport.

Big East schools — by virtue of not needing to concern themselves with football — could go bonkers and allocate the max salary cap toward basketball. That would dwarf what basketball players would get even in the Power 2. Gonzaga could do likewise.

It’s funny how the most transformative things to ever happen in college sports — NIL, the transfer portal and now everything bundled in the House Settlement — might actually benefit basketball. One-and-done nearly killed college’s version of the sport; everything else is positioned to elevate it.

The era of amateurism in college football has officially ended. With Judge Claudia Wilken approving the monumental House v. NCAA settlement, a new age in collegiate athletics begins — one where schools can now directly pay their student-athletes.

It’s the kind of structural upheaval that reshapes not just how players are recruited, but how the entire collegiate sports economy functions. And fans across the country are already raising alarms.

Starting July 1, schools will be allowed to distribute up to $20.5 million annually in direct payments to their student-athletes, with an estimated $13-16 million of that earmarked specifically for football.

While NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals have been part of the landscape since 2021, this marks the first time schools themselves can act as financial benefactors to their players, a step beyond booster-backed third-party arrangements.

In addition to this base cap, players can still enter NIL agreements with third parties. However, any third-party NIL deal valued at $600 or more must now be cleared by a national watchdog — a new Clearinghouse meant to ensure that deals are “for a valid business purpose” and not merely hidden perks.

Despite these sweeping changes, college football fans continue to be divisive about every new NIL update.

For starters, some were so extreme in their reaction to this move that they quickly branded it as “the death of college football.” A few, meanwhile, recalled Nick Saban’s thoughts on NIL after the update. “Can’t blame Nick Saban for retiring… college football is not college football anymore,” wrote one fan.

On the other side of the coin were college football fans who were happy to see a proper regulatory body now overseeing the NIL. For them, this move brings much-needed structure while solving their ethical concerns to an extent.

“This has destroyed the game I loved. Why can’t we go back to the glory days of paying players illegally under the table, when the game was pure,” sarcastically noted a fan.

“I think this is great, there’s a base salary cap for everyone, and big-time NIL deals are vetted by a committee. This adds structure and regulations to the NIL side of college football that desperately needed it,” added another fan.

That said, these progressive changes are rooted in the House v. NCAA settlement, a multibillion-dollar agreement resolving years of antitrust litigation that accused the NCAA of illegally limiting athlete compensation. So now, nearly $2.8 billion in back payments will be distributed over the next decade to athletes who competed between 2016 and the present.

On paper, this sounds like overdue justice. But the execution is complex and the ripple effects seem massive, which is why the NCAA and its conferences are now racing to build the infrastructure necessary to support and oversee this system.

And central to that will be a new oversight body, the College Sports Commission, which has yet to name a CEO or finalize how it will enforce violations. So until then, concerns about corruption, competitive imbalance, and loss of identity may loom large.

Despite all the nuances, the bigger picture remains the same — college football is being remade in real time, and nobody knows how it will end. So naturally, for traditionalists and longtime fans, this doesn’t feel like evolution, but rather the end of something sacred.

The landscape of college football has undergone a seismic shift in recent years, and it’s largely due to one three-letter acronym: NIL. With student-athletes now able to profit off their Name, Image, and Likeness, the collegiate game has entered an exciting era filled with opportunities, but also unforeseen consequences. And according to Eagles star Cooper DeJean, one of those consequences is the declining visibility of NFL talent from smaller schools.

In the latest edition of the Exciting Mics podcast, hosts Cooper DeJean and Reed Blakenship sat down alongside Quinyon Mitchell to discuss everything Philadelphia.

It is while delving deeper into their guest, Mitchell’s college football days, that Cooper DeJean opened the portal to NIL discussion. And he didn’t mince words when talking about NIL’s long-term impact on talent discovery, something he seemed unhappy about.

“I feel like it’s gonna become more rare to find NFL prospects from smaller schools,” DeJean said, explaining how the NIL-driven environment has altered traditional recruitment and development paths.

Digging deeper, the logic behind the former Iowa star’s claim is pretty straightforward. As NIL deals increasingly tilt toward programs with bigger brands, more national exposure, and deeper donor pools, talented players at smaller schools are either lured away by lucrative offers or simply overlooked in the draft process.

For instance, Quinyon Mitchell, who rose from under-the-radar Toledo to become an NFL-calibre prospect, echoed this dynamic. “My last year they hit me in the Twitter DMs… but I stayed loyal,” he recalled, referencing overtures from larger programs attempting to poach him through backchannel NIL deals.

And while his loyalty paid off in the form of personal growth and exposure, not every small-school standout chooses to stay.

But most importantly, Mitchell’s story also shows how rare that path is becoming. As he put it, “Some people got to transfer… you know, just like chasing the bag and stuff like that.”

That chase, while understandable, often robs smaller schools of their elite players, leaving behind rosters that are less competitive and athletes who are less likely to get NFL attention.

Eagles safety Reed Blankenship, who played at Middle Tennessee, underscored how wild things have gotten from a veteran’s lens. “Dudes are coming to the NFL with more money than I’ve made in four years,” he said, calling it “crazy” but also “just what it is.”

Though Cooper DeJean and Blankenship clarified that they aren’t anti-NIL, they also see the fallout. The allure of cash is real, and the trade-off for many athletes is leaving the underdog programs that once served as critical springboards to the pros.

But will it be fair to call this new system broken? Maybe yes, maybe not, but what’s certain is that it’s different. So sadly, if Cooper DeJean’s observation holds true, the days of uncovering hidden NFL gems from overlooked college programs may soon be history. We may never have another Terry Bradshaw from Louisiana Tech type of situation.

The 2025 version of the Texas Tech softball team set numerous statistical records and had the best total season in program history. Now the Red Raiders will try to add a few more pieces through the transfer portal to finish the job in 2026.