I was in favor of NIL - still am sort of - but I thought there would be some guidelines put in place to control the situation. Apparently, I was very wrong! Schools are now packaging these huge NIL deals to land top prospects and the party is just getting started. It sounds like the rich are just getting richer! Players are now entering the transfer portal and teams are now approaching them with guaranteed NIL deals. High school players - including freshmen - are now being courted by schools talking NIL packages already! Forget about a new car, we're talking about some packages worth more than a million dollars! With NIL now in place, the NCAA is now nothing more than a powerless bystander. I'm sure Coach Kelly and LSU are well aware of the new recruiting landscape and will have their NIL package in order, but when does this insanity stop? It's crazy to think that many HS seniors will now be millionaires before they even walk across the stage to get their high school diploma!
I am interested to see what happens with MLB. Some these kids will be getting better money from NIL deals than from the signing bonuses and the low pay from the minors.
Therein lies the rub. Prob less than 1% of D1 football players will see the kind of money OP mentions. Prob less that .01% D1 in total. NIL only enriches the top. Everybody else gets crumbs. Will be interesting to see what happens when the have-nots start claiming disparate treatment.
I had an uncle who was a near star at Clemson during the war years. (He has a “Brick” adjacent to Howard’s Rock (which is a big deal at Clemson.)) I asked him, sometime in mid - late 80s, I think, if he had been in some luxurious facility or building Clemson Football had just opened. I can clearly see the scorn on his face when he said he’d never been there and would never go there because these weren’t college players they were paid and were pro. 1980’s. I bet he is rolling in his grave.
