Fifteen college football seasons ago, I stood inside the Georgia Dome and watched Alabama shock Tim Tebow and his Florida team in the SEC Championship Game when Tebow Crying on the sidelines while Alabama players mock Gator Chomp after the emphatic victory.
I covered Tebow for three seasons in Gainesville, and he remains arguably the best college football player ever. I watched him happily sign all kinds of autographs for kids, seniors, everyone – hats, shirts, jerseys, anything – until things got so overbearing that he shyly asked for a job in Florida Personnel used a golf cart to get him in and out of practice, which is understandable.
A few years later, I was standing in a hotel atrium talking to five-star quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields about recruiting, the good and the bad, what they loved about the process and what they hated. NIL was nothing at that time. Money was never discussed. This was not even considered at the time. There is no portal either.
A few years ago I wrote a week-long series about NIL for Rivals, naively simply taking a look at what NIL had accomplished in just a few years. It is basic and touches on the broader subject of NIL, but the names, images and likenesses have taken many forms and have changed recruitment so much that it would have been difficult to understand even a few years ago.
Things have taken to a different level in recent days with former four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada suing Florida State coaches Billy Napiercollective operator Hugh Hathcock and former Gators employees were indicted for fraud in what has become the most famous NIL deal that never happened.
Landmark news emerged Thursday night in the House v. NCAA settlement that will pay billions in damages to thousands of former players and, more importantly for the recruiting world and the college football world, Each school will make its own decision on whether to pay its athletes with a share of approximately $20 million in revenue each year.
This settlement involves a lot of detail and legalese that would bore even a law student, so I’ll spare you the details.
Essentially, it boils down to this: College football and college sports have changed forever in a short period of time. The unthinkable is about to become law. What was once completely objectionable to everything the NCAA stood for (right or wrong) now serves as the baseline for where we want to go.
Wow.
the problem still exists. a lot of. I won’t conclude that I know any of the answers because no one does. That’s the reality of college football today — crazy times, changing times, uncertainty, and everyone is in this together.
The first question is how many schools will distribute all of the $20 million or so to student-athletes, whether the funds will be distributed equitably across all sports, including men’s and women’s programs, or whether some of the funds will be used to generate revenue sexual sports, and less money is spent on sports. Essentially, will a star quarterback make as much money from a school as a backup goalie on a women’s soccer team? If not, will litigation come?
There are important Title IX considerations here, too, and it’s just a whiff that lawyers and advocacy groups on all sides are taking a stand — especially now that big money is coming into play and perhaps some colleges feel they don’t have a legal obligation to allocate that money equally. This will be an interesting thing to watch.
What do unlimited scholarships and proposed but vague roster limits mean for each program from a recruiting standpoint? This could change the recruiting landscape in many ways.
What does this do to NIL? Will its importance increase or decrease, whether introduced internally or retained through the collective? What difference, if any, would it make if a star player made money from school and could then bring in some change as icing on the cake?
It feels like a hundred years ago I was standing on the lawn of the Georgia Dome with a tape recorder plugged into Nick SabanHis face was begging for some postgame comments as Crimson Tide fans screamed in excitement.
The recruiting process for Lawrence and Fields feels like it was a long time ago. They, and the way players choose programs, have changed a lot.
Thursday brings another big change to the sport. The saying “the only constant is change” has never been truer in college football, for better or worse.
