NIL stands for name, image, and likeness, which is mostly meant for how an athlete’s identity is used in things like commercials or video games. However, it has turned into colleges straight up paying players to go to their school. 

NIL has allowed college players to be able to earn money by being in commercials and even video games. The biggest example is the NCAA College Football game that came back in 2024 after being taken down about ten years earlier for the exact reason of player’s identities being used for a profit, and they were not getting anything in return. The NCAA first adopted new policies in 2021 allowing college athletes to make money from their name, image, and likeness, which began the NIL era in college sports.

I think NIL is great for making college video games and allowing players to make money from sponsorships, but it’s gotten to a point where the line needs to be drawn. Colleges are offering millions of dollars to recruits to try and get them to go to their school, even just through the transfer portal. Schools handing out huge payouts to players from smaller schools is making it impossible for smaller schools to develop and keep great players to improve their team. It can even make it harder for high school athletes to get recruited to top schools straight out of high school since top schools are recruiting most of their players from smaller teams. Adding on to high school recruiting, high school athletes are no longer happy with only getting a free education to play at the next level, and are demanding huge amounts of additional money. This also makes it harder for smaller schools because they do not have as much money to offer recruits, giving them an even lower chance of landing high rated players.

NIL was meant to give collegiate athletes a chance to earn money, but it has just become a competition of who can pay the most money to recruits, and not just allowing players to gain some extra cash.