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assimilation
Joined: 3/15/25 Posts: 31
A Select Few Benefit under NIL
Posted Tue, Apr 15 4:15 pm

NIL was supposed to be about fairness. But so far, fairness has meant little more than a handful of athletes securing life-changing payouts while the vast majority continue without any financial support. According to Opendorse, a central NIL platform, nearly 80% of all NIL compensation goes to football and men's basketball players-and the top 1% earns the lion's share.

Meanwhile, athletes in non-revenue sports, female athletes, and walk-ons often see little to no financial benefit. In other words, NIL is reinforcing existing hierarchies-not correcting them.

What's more, NIL has shifted the focus from team goals to individual visibility. Locker room dynamics are changing. Some athletes are driving luxury cars and shooting national ad campaigns; others can't afford textbooks. That breeds tension. And it’s eroding the trust, unity, and identity that have long been the bedrock of college teams.

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Student Baller
Joined: 7/14/14 Posts: 6,578
Nil was supposed to
Posted Tue, Apr 15 5:06 pm
In response to A Select Few Benefit under NIL (assimilation)
Allow players a piece of the money being made off of their individual name or likeness. It was never about fairness to all athletes.
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Spun
Joined: 2/09/05 Posts: 1,612
I think NIL was about paying players their value
Posted Tue, Apr 15 6:25 pm
In response to A Select Few Benefit under NIL (assimilation)
The players that drive revenue are getting paid. Those that don't, are doing things the way they've always been done. That's life in the big city.

Totally agree about locker room dynamics.

To me, it's equally interesting for the non-rev sports. You've got a few athletes w/ big endorsement deals that don't relate to their performance as an athlete. That's gotta be weird when Dunn walks into the gymnastics locker room, decked in designer, with the other ladies having little to no income.
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Westlake Bruin
Joined: 7/25/12 Posts: 4,339
There had to be some system to compensate the players.
Posted Wed, Apr 16 8:19 am
In response to A Select Few Benefit under NIL (assimilation)
The god awful amount of money being made on the backs of these kids, where in the case of football the risks of significant long term injuries are now crystal clear, had to be addressed. We are talking billions of dollars in the pockets of media, colleges, football coaches and staff, etc. Look how much money ADs make now compared to when JD Morgan was there.

However, as is the case most of time, the initial solution is lacking. I dont know what the answer is and I doubt anyone here does as well.

For clarity, if the 1% number is true, for football that would mean 1900 players are getting the majority of the $$ and about 60 basketball players. That is alot more than a few or handful.

However the effect on the game is brutal. The attractiveness of amateur sports is being decimated, in my opinion.
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UCLAlaw94
Joined: 9/07/19 Posts: 725
it’s eroding the trust, unity, and identity
Posted Wed, Apr 16 9:25 am
In response to A Select Few Benefit under NIL (assimilation)
Not just among the players. Also among the fans.


BruinSwin
Joined: 9/20/05 Posts: 3,997

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The current system is much better than equality for all..
Posted Wed, Apr 16 7:35 pm (Edited Wed, Apr 16 7:36 pm)
In response to A Select Few Benefit under NIL (assimilation)
...with some form of everyone gets an equal piece even though they aren't earning it. The rest of the athletes still get a scholarship. It's just that the players who are responsible for millions of eyeballs and the big TV ratings are no longer far undercompensated relative to their value, as they were for decades. If NIL money wasn't forecast to be a good investment, then it wouldn't be paid.
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