NIL - Is It What You Expected / Specific Changes Needed

[Jer]

There are a million threads about NIL, and I think it's pretty unanimous that the current model is **** in many ways. Great for players to get compensation, but that isn't really what is being done in a lot of cases.

1 - Regardless of if you wanted player compensation (aka NIL) or didn't, is NIL what you expected?

2 - What specific rules or changes would you recommend to make it better?

 

[cyfanatic]

1. Not what I expected...I thought it would be a sort of stipend and each player would get somewhat equal compensation based on their sport. Naive I guess.
2. I have NO idea! I am in favor of student-athletes being compensated...but I dont' know what can legally be done to even the playing field in college athletics. I don't blame the players though...

 

[Dandy]

Players with literally zero Name Image and Likeness value are getting paid for their "Name Image and Likeness." But the NCAA will tell you it isn't "pay for play" either. Then what is it?

Paying Reggie Bush, Tim Tebow, Caitlin Clark, Zion Williamson, etc for their NIL makes sense.
BYU paying Rob Wright $3M to transfer away from Baylor does not.

A change that needs to be made, and has been needed for years, is each sport needs a Commissioner.

 

[Bader]

Players should be able to get paid to sign autographs, do commercials, market products. Players 100% deserve a slice of the media rights $ and ticket sales schools get. If a charity org wants to give players something as an incentive to come do an appearance that's fine.

There absolutely should not be collectives paying players under the auspices of doing charity work

 

[cykadelic2]

Revisit this topic a year from now after the House Settlement rules are approved (I hope) and implemented effective 7/1.

 

[ClubCy]

Exactly what I expected and have no issues. The money amount is a little crazy but you are worth what someone is willing pay you.

I have more of an issue with how loose the portal is but that’s another discussion.

 

[Dandy]

The tampering is out of control. If a player is enrolled at a school and not in the portal, a different school should not be able to talk to them or their "representatives."

 

[snowcraig2.0]

Fixing NIL is not really possible. That cat is out of that bag.

What you could fix though is the portal. Allow a one time free transfer, but any transfer after that requires a sit out year.

 

[AltoonaFish]

Pay for play and collectives are stupid. Go get your own money working for Hanks Hardware. Monetize yourself on YouTube. Be a spokesperson for Karl Ford. But to just get paid to transfer to play , that is dumb and out of control.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

There are a million threads about NIL, and I think it's pretty unanimous that the current model is **** in many ways. Great for players to get compensation, but that isn't really what is being done in a lot of cases.

1 - Regardless of if you wanted player compensation (aka NIL) or didn't, is NIL what you expected?

2 - What specific rules or changes would you recommend to make it better?

Zero issues with NIL as it is, however NIL with the way the transfer portal is right now is not sustainable or good for any program

 

[Die4Cy]

Fixing NIL is not really possible. That cat is out of that bag.

What you could fix though is the portal. Allow a one time free transfer, but any transfer after that requires a sit out year.

This is exactly the kind of regulation that requires an antitrust exemption and players organization to negotiate. The NCAA would have to have a law passed first in Congress that gives them full control over the money generated by college sports, and once that happens, everything falls into place through negotiation. If something like that doesn't happen, it will always be a cobbled together mess with conferences and brands jockeying for a perceived advantage.

 

[CyCrazy]

It is what it is now. Unless their is a cap and portal changes. Doubt that happens though.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

1. NIL is turning out exactly like I thought it would. I'm not mad at the kids for capitalizing on their opportunities, but I hate losing the passion that I had for college sports that culminated from it.

2. I can poke holes in about every way to fix NIL, but I'd love to see a "salary cap" per team that could be enforced. I'm fine with players getting some money, but the fans are asked to sustain the arms race against schools with huge donors and it sours my opinion of the whole thing.

 

[DSMCy]

The money is probably crazier than I expected, but I shouldn't have been surprised.

I think my biggest want right now are contracts. The piece that feels unsustainable to me is that guys are free agents every year. Schools/teams need the ability to sign players to multi-year contacts with some teeth if they want to break the contract; sit out a year, lose a year of eligibility, buyouts, etc.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

The money is probably crazier than I expected, but I shouldn't have been surprised.

I think my biggest want right now are contracts. The piece that feels unsustainable to me is that guys are free agents every year. Schools/teams need the ability to sign players to multi-year contacts with some teeth if they want to break the contract; sit out a year, lose a year of eligibility, buyouts, etc.

That’s more of a transfer portal issue then NIL issue though, agree with what you’re saying however

 

[Cyclone06]

Players should get compensated based on the amount of revenue generated from the product they create. We were all led to believe the universities and media partners that reap the benefits of the product would foot the bill. But in reality absolutely nothing has changed for the media partners and universities.

In fact the media partners and universities continue to bring in more money than ever before while acting like they are being harmed by having to compensate those who generate their money. Its really gross if you back away from it, and really makes me think hard about caring about sports like I (we) do.

 

[Frak]

I figured it would go crazy like this. Boosters can't help themselves. But the actual amounts surprised me. College players are getting paid more than a lot of pros and that's freaking stupid. There's got to be a way to put a cap on things. I'm hoping that the settlement fixes things and that the NIL committee is VERY tight on what is fair market value. That's what fixes things. If Nike or Adidas is going to pay a college player $1M for being part of a national ad campaign, fine. But collectives giving a kid a bunch of money to sign autographs should be done with.

 

[NoCreativity]

This is exactly what I expected, greed and corruption completely out of control. This result is why some of us were so against this in the first place. It's not even NIL at all.

 

[Frak]

Players should get compensated based on the amount of revenue generated from the product they create. We were all led to believe the universities and media partners that reap the benefits of the product would foot the bill. But in reality absolutely nothing has changed for the media partners and universities.

In fact the media partners and universities continue to bring in more money than ever before while acting like they are being harmed by having to compensate those who generate their money. Its really gross if you back away from it, and really makes me think hard about caring about sports like I (we) do.

I agree. The problem is that it has spiraled so far out of control with coaches salaries and facilities that the athletic departments are struggling to pay the bills plus $20M for player salaries. My issue is that it all falls on the fans. Our NCC donation just jumped $2k last year. Ticket prices aren't going down. AND, we need to donate to We Will to have a competitive team? It's too much.

 

[CYdTracked]

I am fine with athletes getting paid for NIL purposes but it's basically become semi-pro sports now where the portal is just free agency periods. The teams that were paying under the table are just doing it above the table now and still have the advantage of being able to pay more than most schools can afford for the best players. Sadly I think some of the negative side of NIL is going to diminish the interest in college sports once fans start to get priced out of it just like they have with professional sports. Instead of season tickets you may have to put all your eggs into going to 1 or 2 games a season for roughly around what it used to cost for season tickets at the rate we are going.

Probably no sure-fire way to improve things completely. But I think with the universities now having to pay out of the athletic budgets being able to put some things in a contract like committing to the school for more than 1 year and meeting certain terms of "employment" in order to obtain the full compensation of the agreement is a way to keep players from just chasing the dollars every offseason. No more sitting out after 4 FB games because you plan to transfer after the season and want to retain eligibility. Sorry, your pay ends there and you don't get to redshirt and keep the year either for willfully quitting in the middle of the season. Add some more rules around transfers where you have to sit out a year if you transfer more than once for instance. If universities are going to be required to pay out of the AD budgets then athletes need to be treated like an employee and have some type of contracts and terms that also protects the university if that athlete does not fulfill the terms required of their employment. Just like pro athletes get suspended or fined for not showing up for practices or holding out, etc. the same should apply in college now too.