{"id":5687,"date":"2026-05-03T17:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T21:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soc.hamiltonlits.org\/sharingsociology\/?p=5687"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:21:18","slug":"the-unintended-consequences-of-nil-on-college-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soc.hamiltonlits.org\/sharingsociology\/fall-2022\/the-unintended-consequences-of-nil-on-college-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unintended Consequences of NIL on College Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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College athletics are a multi-billion dollar industry that generates revenue through media rights, ticket sales and merchandising (Garcia, 2025). Despite these profits, prior to July 1, 2021 student-athletes were barred from\u00a0 any monetary gain. This was a rather exploitative system in which the NCAA and its member institutions were the primary benefactors. This changed with the implementation of Name, Image and Likeness(NIL) policy, which allowed college athletes to sign endorsement deals, so they could profit off their abilities.\u00a0
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Without a doubt, the institution of NIL was necessary for college athletics. A highly touted football recruit could generate upwards of $650,000 dollars for a university. Depending on their circumstances, a college basketball player could generate 5 times that amount for their school (Lens, 2024). Prior to its implementation, student-athletes were not able to access any of the money that they helped their schools generate. NIL has allowed student-athletes to make life-changing amounts of\u00a0 money while still competing at the collegiate level; thus gives them the opportunity to benefit from their own talent, hard work, and public image. It also helps address the imbalance of power between athletes and institutions, ensuring that those who drive revenue and fan engagement are no longer excluded from the economic system they sustain.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the surface, this new world order in college sports seems like a more equitable approach as athletes can get compensated for the revenue they help the schools bring in. The unintended consequences of NIL, however, have gone to reshape the landscape of college athletics making them unfair in other ways. 
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College Athletics Before NIL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prior to 2021, the NCAA was strict in regulating the movement of players as well as the benefits they were allowed to receive. The sole benefit that NCAA athletes could receive was a free education. Players picked schools out of high school and were meant to stick with that school throughout their collegiate career. This would all change with the implementation of NIL.
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Reggie Bush receiving the Hesman Trophy in 2005.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the NIL era, athletes receiving benefits from donors or other organizations violated NCAA regulations. One of the most famous punishments for such a violation was when Reggie Bush\u2019s Heisman trophy, the highest honor in college football, was taken from him.<\/a> In 2005, Reggie Bush was a running back for the University of Southern California\u2019s football team, when, at the top of his game, he won the Heisman trophy. In the spring of 2006 reports circulated detailing that Bush had accepted thousands of dollars, cars and rent-free housing from agents and donors. Bush was forced to return his Heisman Trophy. The NCAA forced USC to vacate wins from the 2004 and 2005 seasons and banned them from being able to compete for a National Championship for two years. Additionally, they had to give up 30 scholarships over 3 years, hindering their recruiting abilities (Read, 2023).  The NCAA opted to rule with an iron fist implementing extremely harsh punishments to a university, for a single player receiving benefits totaling only around $100,000. 
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The NCAA\u2019s inflexibility with athlete transfers prior to NIL is also notable. At the conclusion of the 2019 season, Luke Ford, a tight end on the University of Georgia\u2019s football team, made the decision to transfer to the University of Illinois. <\/a>He was not searching for more playing time nor money, but a chance to play in front of his dying grandfather one last time. NCAA rules stipulated a player had to sit out a year before playing at their new school. Considering his rather noble cause, Ford opted to apply for a waiver for immediate eligibility. The NCAA swiftly denied his request and Ford never got the chance to play in front of his grandfather, who then passed away shortly after this transfer (Taylor, 2019). 
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College Athletics Post-NIL<\/strong>
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The intent of NIL was to enable players to make money from their name, image and likeness, rather than being paid to play for a certain team (Berry, 2024). Players were meant to sign endorsement deals with companies and make money through marketing themselves. Although this goal has been successful, other unintended institutional consequences have arisen in\u00a0 the wake of the implementation of NIL.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major stipulation of NIL was that a school could not explicitly pay players to play. This regulation was swiftly circumvented by the donors of very large universities through the use of third parties in the form of NIL collectives (Garcia,  2025). These collectives operate independently from universities, supported by prominent boosters and alumni who raise millions of dollars to pay players to come to their universities to play. This incites more inequality, as larger universities have more wealthy alumni who can raise far more money for NIL collectives than smaller schools. This dynamic has created notable recruiting advantages for these larger universities enabling them to lure athletes away from smaller schools through NIL collectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Transfer Portal<\/strong>
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With NIL, the transfer portal also was deregulated. The transfer portal is the space a player enters when an athlete declares their intention to switch schools. Once a player enters the portal it enables other schools to start to recruit them  to come to their school. In the NIL era the rule mandating players to sit out a year upon transferring  was eliminated and transfers were able to leave their schools without penalty. Due to this, the transfer portal has become a breeding ground for corruption and tampering. 

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This graphic is of college football quarterback and transfer portal regular, TJ Finley, who announced his intent to transfer to his 7th school. 
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This has generated more chaos and inequity between colleges and universities. Oftentimes big schools will not wait to see if a player will enter the transfer portal, but will instead offer them money to compel them to leave their current school. Bigger schools with more resources at their disposal, thus can poach the best players from smaller schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smaller schools have started to become feeders for larger programs. The University of Nevada\u2019s football coach Jeff Choate, expressed frustration with the transfer portal<\/a>: \u201cYou know what happens when you come to Nevada? You will get $1.4 million in Oregon if you’re developed the right way\u201d (Barnett, 2025). Choate’s frustration was in how he sees himself as doing the \u201cheavy lifting\u201d by taking high school recruits and developing them into excellent college football players. Upon doing this hard work, larger schools swoop in with large sums of money that a school like Nevada cannot match and take their most talented players. 
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The Un-leveling of the Playing Field<\/strong>
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College football is separated into two main categories, the Power 4 conferences and the Group of 5 conferences. The power 4 consists of the Big 10, Big 12, ACC and SEC, which are the conferences that contain the largest, most resource-rich schools, like Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia. The Group of 5 consists of Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Mid-American, and the  American Athletic Conference. These conferences are composed of the Nevada\u2019s of the world, schools that lack significant NIL resources. Power 4 football budgets usually range from $13-15 million with top spenders spending upwards of $25 million on their roster.<\/a> By comparison, Group of 5 programs who can usually only spend between $1-10 million with the majority of teams spending less than $5 million (Zucker 2025). 
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After the conclusion of the 2024 season, Group of 5 schools lost a total of 239 players to Power 4 programs through the transfer portal.<\/a> That being said, on average,\u00a0 a Group of 5 schools lost 4 of their best players to Power 4 schools. 60 of 62 Group of 5 football programs lost at least 1 player to a Power 4 school and some programs lost upwards of 10 players to Power 4 schools (McGrady, 2024). These statistics attest to the fact that NIL is disadvantageous to smaller and less resourced programs, as their best players are able to pursue lucrative opportunities from larger schools with more wealthy alumni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poaching of Group of 5 players by Power 4 schools has translated to wins on the field. In 2019, the last full season prior to the adoption of NIL, Power 4 teams and Group of 5 teams played 95 games against one another and the Group of 5 teams won 25% of those games. In the 2025 season, now 4 years into the NIL-era, the two groups of teams faced off in 89 games with the Group of 5 teams only winning around 13% of these games (ESPN, 2019). This illustrates the fact that NIL has gone to exacerbate the inequality between Group of 5 and power four schools. This system is relegating smaller programs to irrelevancy.\u00a0
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How Direct Payments Foster More Inequality<\/strong>
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On July 1st, 2025, new legislation went into effect that allows universities to directly pay players.This revenue sharing model allows schools to spend $20.5 million out of their athletic budgets on compensating players <\/a>(Toppmeyer, 2025). Schools are allowed to divide these resources between their numerous athletics programs at their own discretion. Many schools did not opt into the revenue sharing model, as their athletics budgets were already established when the policy went into effect. The true effects of this model are still yet to be seen.\u00a0
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The money used for revenue-sharing, however, comes from athletics programs, annual earnings from advertising, merchandising, ticket sales and television deals. Typically, the programs that bring in the most money for schools would receive the greater share of the $20.5 million dollar budget (Toppmeyer, 2025).\u00a0
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One major limitation with this model is that the cap of $20.5 million dollars is far more than most small programs can afford. Large schools have far more lucrative television deals and make more from merchandise and ticket sales, making their athletics budgets much higher. Smaller schools will likely not be able to match the spending of bigger schools on roster building, further contributing to the inequality between the two groups. 
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Larger, resource-rich schools will continue to have advantages under NIL and the new direct payment system for years to come. The NCAA needs to address the institutional inequality these policies create. Everyone wins when there is a more level playing field and more exciting competition.
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References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anon. 2019. \u201cCollege Football Scores – 2019 Season – ESPN.\u201d ESPN<\/em>. Retrieved April 23, 2026 (https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/scoreboard\/_\/year\/2019\/group\/90).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnett, Zach. 2025. \u201cNevada Head Coach: Develop Here and Go Make $1.4 Million at Oregon.\u201d FootballScoop<\/em>. Retrieved May 4, 2026 (https:\/\/www.footballscoop.com\/2025\/12\/05\/nevada-head-coach-jeff-choate-develop-here-oregon-1-4-million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry, William. 2024. \u201cBeyond NIL.\u201d Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law<\/em> 26(2):275\u201395.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garcia, Arianna. 2025. \u201cNIL Collectives and the Disadvantage Dilemma: Disparities and Challenges in Collegiate Athletics.\u201d FIU Law Review<\/em> 19(1):979\u201394.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lens, Josh. 2024. \u201cNIL Tampering.\u201d Brigham Young University Law Review<\/em> 49(6):1593\u20131655.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McGrady, Ryan. 2024. \u201cCollege Football Transfer Portal: Are Group of Five Programs Actually Being Raided by Power Conferences?\u201d CBS Sports<\/em>. Retrieved (https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/college-football\/news\/college-football-transfer-portal-are-group-of-five-programs-actually-being-raided-by-power-conferences\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NCAA. 2020. \u201cEstimated Probability of Competing in Professional Athletics.\u201d NCAA.org<\/em>. Retrieved (https:\/\/www.ncaa.org\/sports\/2015\/3\/6\/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-professional-athletics.aspx).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read, Robert. 2023. \u201cReggie Bush-NCAA Timeline: Why Did Former USC Star Lose His Heisman?\u201d Newsweek<\/em>. Retrieved (https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/reggie-bush-ncaa-timeline-why-did-former-usc-star-lose-his-heisman-1821992).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor, John. 2019. \u201cGeorgia Transfer Luke Ford Denied Waiver for Immediate Eligibility at Illinois by NCAA, Will Appeal.\u201d NBC Sports<\/em>. Retrieved April 21, 2026 (https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/college-football\/news\/georgia-transfer-luke-ford-denied-waiver-for-immediate-eligibility-at-illinois-by-ncaa-will-appeal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toppmeyer, Blake. 2025. \u201cCollege Sports Athletic Departments Face Tough Revenue Sharing Decisions.\u201d USA Today<\/em>. Retrieved April 26, 2026 (College sports athletic departments face tough revenue sharing decisions).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zucker, Joseph. 2025. \u201cWhat Is the Salary Cap Power 4 Execs Use for NIL Contracts? Latest Rumors on Budgets.\u201d Bleacherreport.com<\/em>. Retrieved April 23, 2026 (https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25312604-what-salary-cap-power-4-execs-use-nil-contracts-latest-rumors-budgets?utm_source=chatgpt.com).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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College athletics are a multi-billion dollar industry that generates revenue through media rights, ticket sales and merchandising (Garcia, 2025). Despite these profits, prior to July 1, 2021 student-athletes were barred from\u00a0 any monetary gain. This was a rather exploitative system in which the NCAA and its member institutions were the primary benefactors. 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