Young athletes across the country used to dream of playing Division 1 sports for the competition, experience, and the love of the game. Now, that dream looks a lot different. With NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness), college athletes can now earn money in addition to a full-ride scholarship. Starting in 2021, the NCAA changed its rules to allow student-athletes to profit from sponsorships, endorsements, and social media. While this gives athletes new opportunities, it has also created new challenges that are reshaping college sports.
There are many benefits to NIL in college athletics, such as more opportunities, supporting families at a younger age, and staying in college longer. Since the addition of NIL, athletes can transfer schools without being forced to sit out a year and risk jeopardizing their opportunity to succeed. Allowing talented players to move into a situation better suited to them can lead to immediate success.
Bijan Robinson, a former Texas Longhorns football running back and current Atlanta Falcons player, signed multiple NIL deals with brands such as Raising Cane’s and Lamborghini. This helped Robinson buy a house for his mom and support his family.
Jayden Daniels, quarterback for the Washington Commanders, used the new transfer and NIL rules to his benefit. The Southern California-born signal caller transferred to Louisiana State University in 2022 after playing four seasons at Arizona State University. Daniels was a projected mid-round NFL draft pick before transferring, but after a Heisman-winning campaign in 2023, he ascended to the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Daniels is a prime beneficiary of the new-age graduate transfer rules.
Along with the many positive developments that have been allowed through NIL, there have also been some drawbacks which are harming college athletics. NIL can give bigger schools with more money an unfair advantage, as well as cause the focus in a locker room to shift from team success to individual profits. For a long time in college football, we have seen dynasties and programs be continuously dominant for years on end.
“One of the beauties of college football is that anyone can win at any time, but with NIL, smaller schools have an even smaller chance at winning,” said Christian Powell ‘27, a diehard USC Trojans football and college football fan.
However, in the NIL era, teams that spend the most will skyrocket to the top, as Indiana Hoosiers football, Texas Tech Red Raiders football, and Miami Hurricanes football did last year. There are also programs such as Ohio State Buckeyes football, Georgia Bulldogs football, and Oregon Ducks football that consistently stay there because they can buy the best players every year.
In modern-day college football, it is proving almost impossible to compete without being in the Big Ten Conference or Southeastern Conference due to the incredibly large TV deals those conferences generate. Although teams like Miami and Texas Tech have had recent success by having a top-five payroll nationally, the Big Ten and SEC continue to dominate, winning the last seven national championships.
Overall, NIL has certainly added many positive aspects to the college sports landscape. With that being said, there are definite regulations that need to be put in place so college football programs aren’t forced to have double-digit million-dollar payrolls just to have a chance to compete.
Luke Chandler, a Loyola English teacher and former Division 1 water polo player at Loyola Marymount University, says, “NIL is a large-scale issue that needs to be addressed from the NCAA, because I think they rushed into it….and the current state of NIL in which people are hopping in the portal to get the highest payday is derailing what college sports is about.”
He also suggested that the NCAA should add a limit to how many times an athlete can transfer in the NIL era in college athletics.
