If NIL is only a college player thing...

Yep, I saw Mikey Williams (2023 basketball) already signed with Excel Sports marketing. If you have 1mil+ followers on Instagram, you’re about to get paid

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So if they sign a deal in HS it can continue on throughout college? Ex: HS kid signs with nike, then has to play at a nike school.

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That's how college basketball recruiting has been (under the table) for a while now.

However, you might see one kid every 20 years be big enough to sign with nike before they reach college. The only ones that were that big since 2000 would have been Zion and Lebron.

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Sports is being ruined right before our eyes.

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Meh. Don't be so dramatic. The only way NIL survives and thrives is if the sports survive and thrive. They are inexorably linked.

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However, you might see one kid every 20 years be big enough to sign with nike before they reach college. The only ones that were that big since 2000 would have been Zion and Lebron.

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More like one every year at least. Nike will drop contract to anyone they think will pan out as major bucks down the line. These contracts may have stipulations about performance for the big bucks but just getting a Nike contract isn't as hard as you'd think.

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If NIL is only a college player thing...
My question is when do college athletes become university employees with all the advantages & disadvantages of a real job?

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That is a good question. As of now, everything is the player using their talent and marketing themselves in the market place and negotiating with Businesses and Corporations compensation. All of this is in line with free enterprise and free markets. So the compensation to the players are not coming from the Universities.

There was a discussion by the Pitt coach to provide incentives for college players of teams who don't make the Playoffs to play in bowl games. I think Josh Pate at 247 also discussed it and cited the Pitt Coach about providing compensation for players to play in bowl games.

If for example, LSU plays in the Fiesta bowl like we did after the 2018 season. To provide incentives for players to play, LSU uses money from the bowl payout or from its budget to pay players. Under that scenario, the players would be acting like employees. Don't know what issues that would raise, certainly some, but it does seem like a pay to play (those employee, etc).

However, what if in the negotiations with the Fiesta bowl, LSU and the team it is playing come to some agreement where the Fiesta bowl withholds a pool of money that is owed to the Schools. That money is then set aside and split 75% for the winning team and 25% for the loosing team. Starters from the winning team say get I don't know $3,000 for playing, backups who play in game get $1,500 and all members of the travelling squad get something like $500.

So in that scenario, the players are being paid to play, but it is coming from the Bowl itself and the players would get a 1099 from the Fiesta bowl and pay the taxes they owe, etc.

LSU would not have to manage all the tax issues and employment issues (workers comp, FICA and Medicare witholdings, etc)

So as long as there is no money coming from LSU directly to athletes to play, not sure they could be employees.

Now if some future ball player files a legal claim that they should be paid for their athletic performance (and others join in) and lets Say SCOTUS took it up and they ruled in favor of the players, then at that point, you have the situation where college athletes are considered University employees.

You are missing the whole amateur/ pro separation. If they all get paid the they should just all skip college.

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Sports is being ruined right before our eyes.

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Embarrassing take.


Imagine being upset that someone is able to make money based on their own value that they bring to the table. If you have a problem with NLI you’re a child. You certainly don’t like capitalism, that’s for sure.

Why stop there? You can sign the spawn of the superstars right out the womb. We could have sponsored Shaq's son's toddler shoes 2 decades ago and secured his commitment as soon as knew yes from no.