market is what determines a player’s value. Any player who thinks they are worth a specific amount needs to take a step back and understand that they are not the ones to make that decision. That’s not how economics works. Most young kids probably think they are worth more than they really are (many adults, too, for that matter).

The NIL market is a new thing. It is not yet a mature market so it’s hard for players, businesses, and boosters to know for sure how much a player is worth. Now that it’s looking like some schools will be paying athletes directly (at least P4 schools), this market becomes even more complicated.

I don’t know exactly what the long-term solution is. I do believe, however, that only schools and legitimate businesses should be allowed to pay college players directly, not boosters and fans, which means fan/booster collectives would have to be made illegal. If boosters and fans want to donate to a school’s player fund (earmarked for a certain player or not) in exchange for benefits from the school (preferred seating, etc), then great. And if legitimate businesses want to sponsor an athlete in exchange for that athlete providing them a legitimate benefit, then great. But this whole situation of players trying to determine how much they are worth is absolute nonsense, and these fan/booster collectives needs to be legislated against and shut down as soon as possible.

If fan/booster collectives are allowed to stand, what’s to stop pro teams from encouraging their fans to set up collectives so that they can transfer their payroll costs to the fans, thus ballooning their profit margins. To mention nothing of all the shady stuff that can happen if fans and boosters are being put in touch directly with players to give them money. It’s just a Pandora’s box that needs to be shut as soon as possible.