College Sports and NIL

I’ve been a fan of college sports, particularly football and men’s basketball, for most of my life. I have always loved bowl season and March madness. Like most fans, I have teams and conferences that I follow and support. However, the landscape of college sports has been changing rapidly over the past decade and these changes have created some stress for long-time fans. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Conference Alignment

The Atlantic Coast Conference, for example was founded in 1953 with eight members: Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina, NC State, Clemson, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. The Big Eight Conference also had national stature up until it dissolved in 1996 and included Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa St. and Colorado. Six of the original ACC teams have won national championships in mens basketball while two of the original Big 8 schools have won football championships and Kansas has won multiple basketball championships.

We could conduct a similar analysis for the original Big 10, Pac 8 and Southeastern conferences as well. These conferences were built around in-state, border-state, and regional rivalries. Each school was a bus ride away from its next game. Bowl games featured teams from different conferences and different regions who wouldn’t typically play each other. The NCAA basketball tournament had real regions – the best teams from the East played in the Eastern Regional while the best teams from the West played in the West Regional.

Student athletes were recruited by universities and selected their ultimate choice based on the coach, the program and the university. Transfers from one school to another by star players were rare and were usually based on a coaching change, homesickness or issues with grades. Transfers also were required to sit out for a season before becoming eligible to play at their new school.

But as the pile of money these sports generated started to grow, change was inevitable. TV contracts became more lucrative and more accessible when the ESPN and Fox Sports networks came along, and ultimately, conferences began forming their own networks. More and more games were being televised with more and more advertising dollars being generated. Nike and Under Armour became huge influencers. Dr. Pepper and Allstate also joined in with lucrative sponsorships. College football and men’s basketball went from being sports that at least paid for themselves to becoming big-time revenue sports.

The money also meant that teams weren’t limited to buses – they could use jets as well. The tight geographies, cost and time to travel that confined the early conferences were no longer an issue. A basketball team from the East can play a team on the West coast on Wednesday night and be back for a home game on Saturday without an issue.

Naturally, schools began to pursue opportunities to gain a larger share of the windfall, which meant profitable conferences began to poach teams for the promise of greater economic activity. Boston College and Miami (among others joined) a conference that used to be neatly based in NC, SC, VA and MD. The Southeastern Conference, which originally had 10 teams will grow to 16 teams when Oklahoma and Texas officially join in 2025. Southern California (USC) and UCLA will be joining the Big 10 in 2024, a conference that formerly was based in the upper mid-west. These moves don’t make much geographic sense, but they make a lot of economic sense.

Paying Players

As the money continued to grow and the universities postured to try to gain access to a larger share, the players began to ask the question – “Hey, what about us?” That’s a completely fair question. The stadiums and arenas were expanding, the TV audiences were growing and coaches salaries skyrocketed. It’s natural for the student athletes to start feeling under-appreciated. In the old days a full scholarship to a state university was plenty of compensation for a college football or basketball player. But in 2022, the league minimum in the NFL was $705,000. Players on an NFL practice squad make more than $250,000. The league minimum in the NBA is $925,000. What’s a future NFL draft pick worth to Ohio St. or Alabama or a future NBA lottery pick worth to Kentucky or Kansas?

In 2021, the NCAA approved NIL (name, image and likeness) rules that allow players to profit financially from their talents. The original intent was for players to be able to get commercial or endorsement deals with local or regional companies, but clever university alumnae have figured out how to create non-profit organizations as a flow-through that essentially enables these groups to pay huge sums directly to select student athletes. Bryce Young of Alabama reportedly had over $3 million in NIL deals for the 2022 season. Spencer Rattler of South Carolina has pulled in over $2 million as quarterback for a team that went 8-5.

Likewise, the one-year wait for transfer eligibility was questioned. There were always people who suggested that circumstances like the firing of a coach or a school being placed on probation should negate that wait. Ultimately, the transfer year was completely waved and the now famous (or infamous) transfer portal was established. In 2022 more than 3,000 FSB football players transferred schools. I can’t find data for transfers prior to the formation of the official “portal” in 2018, but I would wage the number of transfers was a fraction of that number in 2010, 2000 or 1990. A star player on a team in a Power 5 conference (SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac 12) could theoretically be enrolled and play for five different schools during his four years of eligibility.

Is all this good or bad?

The capitalist in me says that it’s more good than bad. For years the NCAA stated that these sports were amateur endeavors played by student athletes. But they’ve had their fingers crossed behind their backs for at least the last 20 years. Everyone knew that these sports were raking in huge sums of money for the universities and media entities, and all the while the universities were demanding more and more from the athletes, without providing any compensation. Like prohibition, strict NCAA rules prior to NIL lead to more creative ways to beat the system. Now, at least, the veil has been lifted. Major college athletics are a professional/semi-professional endeavor.

I must admit, however, the fan in me is disappointed with these developments. Between “one-and-done” players in basketball who jump straight to the NBA after one season, and not knowing who’s going to make up your favorite team next season because of all the transfers, there seems to be a loss of continuity for the fan. In some ways it’s worse than the professional leagues. The New York Giants and the Los Angeles Lakers have many of their players signed to multi-year contracts. Yes, there might be trades or some free agent signings, but the rosters don’t radically change from one year to the next.

College players are all essentially on a one year contract. So 100% of the star players from 2023 could theoretically change teams in 2024.

There will be lots of this type of conversation among casual college fans in the future:

I thought Jones was our Quarterback – he’s just a junior.

No, Jones transferred to Faber. Smith will be our QB this season.

Who’s Smith?

He transferred in from Discordia U. He’ll start unless Johnson, the freshman recruit, beats him out. Heard he got a great NIL deal.

Hardcore fans used to keep up with their school’s recruiting, but once a player arrived and started playing, they developed a “relationship” with that player. He was “our” guy. Now they’ll not only have to keep up with recruits, but with transfers as well. Players will go from being “our guy” to the opposition’s “guy” – a Benedict Arnold, if you will.

I don’t know if it’s all this change or just a sign of my getting older and shifting priorities, but I find myself less and less interested. I still watch games occasionally, but I’m more likely to watch a quarter or a half of a football game than an entire game. I might watch my alma mater play basketball, but rarely watch any other teams play. While I used to schedule my weekend around important match-ups, now I might record them and watch them later. They aren’t a priority to be worked around anymore.

I guess the TV ratings over the next decade will determine if it’s just me or if a significant slice of the population starts tuning out.