NIL has blurred the lines between college and professional sports.
Over the years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has been caught in the controversy on whether college athletes can use their name, image, and likeness for money. Historically, the NCAA prevented compensating college athletes until recent legal pressure forced the NCAA to comply. Now we have seen extreme changes to college sports that ultimately turned them for the worse.
A High Disparity League
Firstly, NIL is widening the gap between wealthy programs and smaller schools. These big, wealthy schools can just go out into the transfer portal or recruiting and just out-pay the other schools to get the players they want. In College Football, big programs like the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Texas Longhorns, and the Georgia Bulldogs all spend around $20 million in NIL money per year. Big names like Arch Manning, Jeremiah Smith and Zachariah Branch all have lofty NIL deals in these big schools and are known to be some of the best College Football athletes.
Not only does it lead to big names, but it also leads to better ranks. For example, Texas is ranked thirteenth, Georgia is ranked sixth and Ohio State is ranked fifth. Now, very few small schools even get into the Top 25, with only three group of five schools making it this year because of their lack of NIL money. Showing a correlation between NIL money and quality of play.
Transfer Portal
Additionally, the transfer portal is essentially free agency, with the highest bidder getting the player. Before NIL, players entered the portal for a better fit, coaching, or playing time. Now the transfer portal is no different than free agency in professional sports like the NFL or NBA. Players now enter the portal to see how big a bag they could get.
Big NIL Budget
The budget for these programs has gotten so big that professional athletes from all over the world are going back to college because they would earn more money in college than in their former professional league.
College basketball is guilty of this, with many players coming from out of the Euroleague or even the G League to go back to college. Let’s go to the case of Fedor Zugic. Fedor is a point guard for the Creighton Bluejays and was born in Podgorica, Montenegro. He is 22 years old and has played over 200 professional basketball games in Europe, but went back to college to take advantage of NIL and to boost his draft stock.
NIL Over Everything
Another important note is that many college athletes put NIL money over development, academics and culture, heavily affecting their careers. According to Carnegie Mellon University, many 3-star recruits put money over academics, showing a shift in values. Before NIL, many big-time athletes chose a school because of the culture, academics, coaching, etc. However, today, most college athletes value NIL money over everything, which can ruin their development because they choose a school that pays more over a school with better coaching.
Going back to College Football, Carson Beck is a prime example of this. Carson was a quarterback at one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, Georgia, which has won two national championships in the last decade and is now home to one of the best coaches in the sports history. However, in his final year of eligibility, he left to go to Miami because they gave him a bigger NIL deal. Going to a worse conference, worse coaching, and a worse team so that he would get paid more.
This just goes to show that NIL is completely changing the landscape of college sports. Consider them professional sports.
