NIL turns 1

The NCAA’s athletes were limited to a scholarship and a small stipend to cover living expenses before July 1, 2021. While athletes’ dedication to their crafts should be commended, its system churned out hundreds of the country’s major sports stars over the last 50 years. Something was off about coaches and administrators lining their pockets in an industry that brings in billions annually and the players would see chump change.

Oregon quarterback Bo Nix (above), who was Auburn’s starter a year ago, was one of several athletes to announce NIL deals minutes after midnight after the NIL policy was adopted, signing a deal with Milo’s Tea Company. Back in May, the NCAA retroactively passed a bylaw stating its goal was to “promote and support a specific NCAA institution by making available NIL opportunities to prospective student-athletes and student-athletes of a particular institution.” It continued to blur the lines of what kinds of deals and how much they could make off NIL, which has been a constant issue over the past year.

Fast forward to the heart of football season and a good example emerged of NIL helping less-popular players of every team. Kansas’ Jared Casey caught the game-winning, 2-point attempt for a Jayhawks victory over Texas. In a post-game interview, Casey said: “I’m going to Applebee’s … you always have to go for two,” as opposed to the “I’m going to Disney World!” or promoting local Lawrence favorite The Burger Stand at The Casbah.

Applebee’s, known for its 2 for $20 menu options where you get a pair of entrees and an appetizer for an Andrew Jackson plus tax, Casey reportedly received a $1,000 Applebee’s gift card and $800 in cash. That’s a whole lot of Chicken Wonton Tacos.

The first National Signing Day with NIL implications didn’t disappoint. Hunter, a cornerback, originally committed to Florida State in March 2020. He didn’t waver in his next-level decision at all, reaffirming his choice. That was until it was too late for FSU to do anything about it. The No. 1 player in the 2022 class instead pivoted to an FCS school in Jackson State, an HBCU head coached by Deion Sanders, a former Seminole great at cornerback.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel tweeted how NIL likely drove the decision away from Tallahassee. If only the Seminole boosters had known this was coming, their truckloads of cash could’ve seen Hunter stay in the ACC.

The coronavirus pandemic and the advent of NIL appeared to drive away many of college basketballs old-guard coaches. North Carolina’s Roy Williams, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and most recently Villanova’s Jay Wright all exited the collegiate sidelines. Wright’s departure from the Philadelphia powerhouse is most curious when it comes to the timeline of NIL.

That’s all because of his age. Krzyzewski hung it up at 75. Williams was approaching 70, while Wright’s just 60. That’s obviously at least a decade before his contemporaries. The changing basketball landscape has been such a major inconvenience for the elder statesmen of the sport. Yes, coaches like Tom Izzo and Jim Boeheim are still around. But likely not for long.

The outgoing president of the NCAA didn’t regulate NIL at all and then asked the federal government for help. With how politically driven the United States Supreme Court is these days, do you know how bad someone’s case must be for a 9-0 verdict not in your favor? Welcome to the NCAA vs. Alston. The decision stated the NCAA can’t limit compensation when it comes to education-related benefits, and as Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion: “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate.”

Emmert’s ineffective leadership led to hopes the federal government could mandate something to better define the rules of amateurism. In the checks and balances of Washington, it appears all three branches of governments are represented by people who know the NCAA failed. The ruling, penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, says that schools could provide education-related benefits for college athletes, like a laptop. The case states that schools should provide more education-related benefits to athletes. But based on Justice Kavanaugh’s clear statement on paying workers a fair market rate, it seems inevitable that schools themselves will be putting money directly in players’ hands legally.

A big factor to forego eligibility and enter the NBA Draft was money. Now, some of college basketball’s biggest stars can earn cash while still playing under the NCAA banner. Three surefire first-round draft picks decided to stay with blueblood schools for another year in the North Carolina duo of Caleb Love and Armando Bacot, as well as Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe.

Returning to a place like Lexington will get Tshiebwe into two-comma territory. A report says he’ll bank $2,000,000 in NIL deals to be a Wildcat for the 2022-23 season. Bacot has a few substantial NIL deals, with popular Baltimore restaurant Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, the video service Cameo and others. Love recently signed with Priority Sports Agency for his NIL transactions, which represents plenty of NBA players like fellow St. Louis native Bradley Beal.

It wasn’t quite a Jerry Maguire situation, but in late April, Miami basketball player Isaiah Wong admitted through his agent that he would enter the transfer portal if his NIL “compensation” wasn’t raised. The star from the Elite Eight school saw prized Kansas State transfer Nijel Pack go from Manhattan to Coral Gables and secure a two-year, $800,000 NIL deal, not to mention a free car from LifeWallet. That’s the same company that Wong has an NIL deal with and Wong’s incentives aren’t as grand.

Wong came out the day after his agent’s comments surfaced to backtrack all of them and stay at Miami. He probably realized how big of a headache he caused and no high-level team would want to take that on. LifeWallet CEO John Ruiz will appear later in this list, but he said he’d help Wong beef up his NIL package.

The best wide receiver in college football wanted to cash in on his success coming off a Biletnikoff title, given annually to the best wide receiver in college football. Addison had 100 receptions, 1,593 yards, 17 touchdowns in 2021 for Pittsburgh. And he’ll be with USC next season. Addison made it well known that he wanted to join Lincoln Riley in Los Angeles before he entered the transfer portal, signaling a possible tampering situation.

Why the need to convince Addison to join the transfer portal? He had an NIL evaluation of $139,000. That’s well below other wide receivers’. He’ll reportedly be making around $3 million as a Trojan this season. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi didn’t like the situation, allegedly calling up Riley to accuse him of tampering, but no sanction has come from the situation as of now.

In late May, Alabama’s head football coach decided to open his mouth about the business of other schools. It doesn’t sound like the right thing to do because it wasn’t. Saban’s holier-than-thou attitude was aimed at two people, mainly former assistant and current Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, with a sprinkling of Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders, for the Travis Hunter situation already named on this list: “I mean, we were second in recruiting last year. A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right,” Saban said at a May 19 fundraising event, later adding JSU paid Hunter $1 million to play under Sanders.

Primetime and Fisher clapped back hard, with the Aggies head coach throwing his friendship and every one-liner in the book Saban’s way. (“Greatest ever, huh? You got all the advantages, it’s easy.”) Both coaches faced a public reprimand by SEC commish Greg Sankey, but the damage to college football was done. The seal was broken on critiquing publicly how other programs recruit under NIL.

Arguably the biggest NIL figure we’ve seen surfaced this week, almost as the calendar flipped to Year 2 of the legal outside compensation era of college athletics. As Miami secured a commitment from quarterback Jaden Rashada, the figure of $9.5 million in NIL money coming his way to play for The U was also publicized. Whether that figure is correct or not is still up for debate as Rashada took to social media and said: “Any report regarding my commitment to the University of Miami is false unless I was interviewed directly. All reports of my decision involving a NIL deal is inaccurate.”

It gets crazier from there with Rashada’s NIL lawyer, Michael Caspino, admitting to an NCAA violation, with predetermined NIL money coming his way. In the NIL era, it’s the exact thing Saban accused Fisher and Sanders of in plain sight. And it’s likely what the NCAA wanted to avoid by having any kind of NIL program at all. But here we are and it’s not going away.