making the most money on those athletes - the universities! All the money universities make on tickets, concessions, merch, media deals through conferences, etc is used to pay the coaches, facilities, travel, event management, and to prop up unprofitable sports…not to pay the players generating the revenue. This creates weirdness everywhere!

Student athletes had a right to ask to be paid. Funds that should have paid them were already deployed elsewhere…so NIL was an easy give. What it unlocked is something that has very little to do with name image and likeness…instead it is annoying 3rd party fundraisers to pay for our athletes to perform.