With rumors of $35-40 million roster; could NIL be headed for a massive change?

The NIL era of college sports has been tumultuous to say the least. Kids have come from high school to D1 college teams and made more money than their professional counterparts. Athletes have committed to schools, not received their promised NIL money, and bolted mid-season. Some athletes have received their money and then decided they needed more, leading to acrimonious breakups that made national news. Major flips have occurred with tens of millions of dollars involved, with Bryce Underwood to Michigan being one of the most memorable and talked about in recent memory.

All of this NIL stuff has old school college sports fans, analysts and even coaches screaming from the mountaintops that it is going to cause the downfall of amateur athletics. Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been extremely vocal that NIL has made college football unrecognizable. And recently, he joined a college football commission that will look at how NIL can be reined in to make things fair across the board. Recently, Illinois head coach Brett Bielema had some things to say about NIL as well.

“You’re going to see teams this year in college football, just because I know the landscape I am dealing with, that are probably in the neighborhood of $30-35, maybe some of them close to $40-million rosters- which is insanity at its best, but it’s also awesome for our kids.”

– Illinois HC Bret Bielema

Bielema also said he believes the volume spending is happening because schools see an end to the “Wild West” era of NIL coming soon. With political interest and a House settlement stemming from a profit-sharing agreement, this could be the end of pay to play NIL. However, getting the players to agree may be quite difficult. NIL came into existence based on a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling and players have been winning in court on a regular basis. Going to the table and agreeing to limitations or rules seems counterproductive for the athletes. It also doesn’t benefit schools, like Michigan, who have NIL war chests and an alumni base among the richest in the world. Regardless, it is a strange time for college sports and change could be on the horizon.

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