re: NIL unsustainable says Saban

quote:

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ans, along with the elite players, will become less loyal and interested.

Regardless, it is not going away.

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The combination of NIL showing how mercenary big-time college had already become, and ESPN/Disney ruling over the game, is eating away at fan bases.

Big-time college football teams have had boosters that paid players for a long time. The boosters were doing it where there was no trail for the NCAA to follow, linking what they were doing to the programs. The only schools that have getting caught having booster pay players, were instances where the boosters were in trouble for something criminally illegal they did, or a civil lawsuit brought the allegations out. In most cases, the government wanted the booster to pay restitution or fines from the money that had been obtained illegally, but the boosters couldn't do that because they had used that money to pay players. That's what happened to Michigan basketball, Miami football and LSU football. USC got caught when an agent sued a kid's parents for not paying them rent for the house they lived in, when the player didn't select them to represent him in the NFL.

The amounts of this NIL money being reported to government agencies, and spread all over social media, is a big change for the money men. I'm sure a few of them will still not want their names being linked to the money. They'll still want some of their money to be used for the same purpose, but they'll want it to go to some fund that doesn't disclose how much each entity donated. If that's not possible, they'll still pay players, but they will not want the players, and their families to brag about getting it. That's probably going to be a big problem for some folks.

We may not have the best seats in our team's stadium, but we've all got front row seats to how this all plays out.