For years college football players could not be compensated for anything they did on or off the field. However, that all changed back in 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled that college athletes can earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness, better known as the NIL.
While the NIL is viewed as a net positive, some are skeptical of its overall impact.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders was a star in his day – and still is. He joined the Audacy’s “The Bret Boone Podcast” and gave his take on how the NIL is being handled in college football.
“Good for the game,” Sanders said of the NIL (42:05 in player above). “I love that the kids are getting compensated for their name, image, and likeness. But then you got to ask the question, are they really getting compensated for their name, image, and likeness? We always hear about NIL but we don’t ever see NIL.
“We happen to have a couple of young men – three young men – on this team that you can see on commercials, that you could see doing certain things. You can see NIL, but it’s a difference between NIL and collectives.”
NIL collectives are essentially donors pooling together money and figuring out who to distribute it to, Sanders explained. They tie it into something like showing up to a certain car dealership or other sponsored appearances.
Sanders thinks that’s where it went wrong.
“NIL I don’t mind, but assembling the bag, I got a problem with that,” he said. “I want these kids to get a cut of whatever the NCAA is doing. I want that to happen. But I want to do it right where we have parameters and we have guidelines and we have rules that you must abide by. It’s open season right now.
“I understand, and some of our young men are benefitting and I’m happy and thankful, just give us some better guidelines because right now it ain’t no stopping what’s going on out there.”
While there may always be a gray area when it comes to donors supporting college athletes, setting up stricter rules and regulations would certainly help clear things up moving forward.