Penn State recently signed hockey player Gavin McKenna to a NIL deal reportedly worth $700,000. Sigh...

[Vibroluxer]

And so it begins. How can I root for any PSU team when it seems kids are going to the highest bidder? We here in Pittsburgh are find of saying the Yankees and BoSox are bought teams. So what's different now in college sports? Sure some kids will pick the institution over the money but that will be a tiny minority. Hell ya, if Pitt offered me $700K to wear the blue and gold, I'd say "See ya" to the blue and white.

Do these kids have agents now?

I fully understand how this all came about and fair is fair but we all grew up with college amateurs. It's a sad time.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Yes, it's a bit of a different world now for folks in collegiate sports with NIL.

We Are!

 

[DekeDog]

Is that all? Top NIL Contracts

Apparently, college athletes with NIL deals still have some academic requirements... minimum GPA for example.

 

[ahiddentableau]

It's not that I think the whole ideal of amateurism has no value whatsoever, but those kids take major league risks to their future health in a context where people are making money of their backs. It's only sensible that they're compensated for that. If that means the fiction of amateurism has to give way, then so be it.

Take the money, kid. You won't hear a single unkind word from me.

 

[Lockback]

I graduated from Ohio State and am a nominal Buckeye fan and was rooting for them to win the National Championship last year, which they did. But they spent millions to stock their squad (I think I heard $22 million).
NIL has taken away some of the college football experience for me. Having said that, these guys have been getting paid under the table for decades. But never this kind of money.
Sometimes, I think I'm not made for these times ...

 

[Knows3Chords]

It won't be long before this is happening in high school sports.

 

[Knows3Chords]

It's not that I think the whole ideal of amateurism has no value whatsoever, but those kids take major league risks to their future health in a context where people are making money of their backs. It's only sensible that they're compensated for that. If that means the fiction of amateurism has to give way, then so be it.

Take the money, kid. You won't hear a single unkind word from me.

I agree, but let's separate it from academia. I wonder just how much of the old ideal of strong mind and body that made college sports special still exists. Let's just come out and admit that college sports is a farm club, drafting pool league for major league sports.

 

[Vibroluxer]

@Knows3Chords

You'll get no argument from me. It's certainly a farm club.

 

[Jupiter]

they should get paid

 

[naveed211]

It's not that I think the whole ideal of amateurism has no value whatsoever, but those kids take major league risks to their future health in a context where people are making money of their backs. It's only sensible that they're compensated for that. If that means the fiction of amateurism has to give way, then so be it.

Take the money, kid. You won't hear a single unkind word from me.

Yeah, this.

People bemoan athletes for making a lot of money for playing a game, then curse the player’s name if they get injured and mess up their fantasy team.

Sometimes lesser known players who have no shot at making big money going pro get NIL deals that at least help them pay for college or meals if nothing else.

These are huge industries where players are supposed to act and behave how we want them to, and get paid how we want them to, all while risking long term injury.

If it expands to high school in this same way, I think that’s a problem. But these college athletes are adults, if they can be compensated for generating interest and income to their sport, relative to their impact in doing so, then great.

 

[FuncleManson]

It's as simple as this for me: as an advocate of free-market capitalism, I think it's great; as a fan, not so much. Get used to it, it ain't goin' back.

 

[DekeDog]

It won't be long before this is happening in high school sports.

Apparently it already is. This is unsustainable in an academic environment.

 

[burntfrijoles]

NIL is only part of it. The House Settlement approved revenue sharing of up to $20 meeeeeellion for each institution. Obviously smaller schools don't generate nearly the revenue of the big boys: Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, LSU, Bama, Michigan, Penn State etc.
School can divide that any way they choose among the sports programs. Football will get a lion share followed by hoops and the rest will be allocated among baseball, women's hoops, gymnastics, softball, etc. I think most schools have developed their own internal system for a salary scale for athletes. You can imagine a college quarterback is going to get slotted at a much higher value than other positions.
NIL however has been ungoverned and strayed far from its original intent: players could do signings, appear in ads, get revenue from jersey sales or other memorabilia. The colleges have agreed to an independent clearinghouse for NIL deals to determine whether they meet fair market value.
Still, there is no "salary cap" so the system gives an unfair advantage to schools with wealthier donor pools. The system has also changed the competitive balance in that schools that were "also rans" but who have big donor bases can now go out and get athletes that would previously only go to the traditional powers. Texas Tech, for example, just received a commitment from a 5 start DL, for a compensation of $5.1 meeeellion over several years. SMU is believed to have rallied their wealthy alums to do whatever it takes to be aa national power in football. We're talking banking, oil billionaires. The coaches want a salary cap. Notre Dame has gotten its mojo back partially because it can now buy players via NIL. That's one reason their recruiting has improved.
There is talk of players becoming employees rather than student-athletes and collective bargaining.
Some coaches have postulated that, at some point, the players won't have to be enrolled in school. In fact, that was said openly at the Big12 media days this week.
College sports as you knew it is dead.

 

[Silent Otto]

Money is our god; greed never says "enough".

 

[Lockback]

they should get paid

I have no problem in principle with them getting paid. But without any kind of salary cap or sanctioning organization, it's totally out of control. Coupled with the transfer portal, it's created chaos.

 

[burntfrijoles]

they should get paid

Absolutely. If the NCAA wasn't stupid, they would have changed the rules on athlete endorsements (NIL). Ten years ago (or before) they could established parameters for NIL to allow athletes to get paid for appearances at stores, businesses; receive a share of jersey sales; signed memorabilia; ad appearances, etc. No, they were high and mighty on the "student-athlete" banner and now it's the hill college athletics died on.
They should be paid via revenue sharing but there should be an attempt at establishing a level playing field.
It says a lot that wealthy alums will subsidize individual athletes but not sponsor several chairs for research at various institutions or fund various scholarships for bright grad students.
Let's face it. This is going to cost smaller schools a fortune that they don't have and for what? So a bigger program can come and poach their players that they have developed.
Why should school finance and fund a farm system for the NFL?
Athletes should be compensated at a fair level plus whatever their true market value is, however, the way it is being done reeks.

 

[beninma]

There is a lot dumb about the whole thing. The schools wanted to make tons of money off the backs of the athletes and obviously not share any of it with the athletes. The NCAA obviously got a lot of people rich too.

Now that they are forced to do so do they take the money from the overpriced coaches or the overpriced university admins who benefit from the business of exploiting "student" athletes? Do they take the money from the overpriced goons at the NCAA?

No, they cut other sports (who usually had "real" student athletes) to find the money to pay the football/basketball players who likely could never cut it academically and would never have gotten in on academic merit. I've just been reading a bunch of articles in the last week about schools cutting their swimming and diving programs to divert the money to NIL. In some cases they are literally showing athletes the door who were performing well in their sports and are well performing students. The NCAA set something up so these athletes can transfer to another school that still has their sport and retain their eligibility. But the whole thing is gross, the NCAA will look at these articles and say "See what you made us do to these poor kids?".

It really is high time we switched to the European style where junior pro training teams are not attached to higher education. It's already been nearly the defacto system for baseball and hockey for a long time in the US and Canada. Soccer seems like it is heading this way as well. And there are other NCAA sports like gymnastics where college is already "the off ramp" for athletes who are not going to be elites on the world stage.

 

[GRAVITY-LHP]

They should get paid. But there should be more guard rails. The current climate produces nothing but the mercenary athlete with no loyalty. It’s bad for college athletics.

Balance is needed now.

 

[Wally]

There is a female athlete here at Texas Tech who received $1,000,000 signing bonus.

 

[schmee]

Yeah, the whole thing is a bit weird. If you're in it for the money, go pro. I really dislike the transfers, moving schools all the time.
Wife and I enjoy watching the College Women's Softball championships. This year one great pitcher, NiJaree "Nija" Canady, was paid 1 million moving to another school. End of season they committed to another million for next year. SIGH.

Not to mention the Pac 12 falling apart due to $ ....getting more TV revenue in other leagues. You kinda lose your reason to root for any particular team.... no bond anymore. In my head the U of Washington is now an eastern team.