I think keeping their egos in check and behavior in-line will be a much bigger priority than keeping them happy. And if the NCAA and member schools want to keep some semblance of the notion of student athlete, good luck with that. I think this really has the possibility of creating more academic scandals than we've seen in the past. Sure, a kid making $300k can afford a private tutor, but it's a lot easier to pay someone to do the work or bribe a TA, etc, etc.
Over the past 25 years, the things that turned me off from pro sports have been slowly creeping in and ruining college sports. NIL may be a way for SOME kids to benefit from the money that certain sports generate and it's somewhat of a relief that it's not all going to the ultra corrupt NCAA, but it's a far cry from equitable and there's no way it's going to fix what's wrong (the problem is too much money, adding more doesn't come close to fixing it). There's a lot yet to be seen but I'm concerned this will do more harm than good.
The term, "student athlete" was created out of thin air by the NCAA because they didn't want to be on the hook for paying worker's comp to injured football players. And it's been meaningless for a long time already. You've got guys who made the Academic All Big Ten teams literally score illiterate on the Wonderlic intelligence test at the NFL combine, seriously, dude scored a 9 when a score of under 13 is considered illiterate. You've got dozens of kids graduating from 1 Big Ten Football program without ever even having to declare a major. Serious, you can get a BA with Undeclared written on it at some Big Ten schools.
Love that the recruits and players are finally getting paid. It was a totally corrupt system before, now at least it's out in the open. This is a $10 Billion a year industry, the reason people pay for it is the players and they were getting nothing. They were getting forced into joke majors for the most part because, let's face it, not everyone belongs as a student at a major university. At least now they're getting a head start on life with some money in college. And for some, it might be the only real money they ever earn from sports.
And it's appearing like it will drive some real parity into the game. TAMU broke Alabama's streak of top recruiting classes with the best class of all time. Louisville right now just landed the #1 Rb in the country in 5 star Reuben Owens, and are in on several other big time recruits. MSU seems to have stepped up recruiting.
This is a shake up. A shake up to a system where coaches, schools, and TV networks were making $billions off the free labor everyone is paying to watch. A system that used kids up and threw them out if they got hurt. A system that would sell that player's jersey's for a profit long after they left the school and not give them a dime of the money. You had video games generating $millions with the names of the players being used in the games and their pictures on the covers to advertise them, and the players getting zilch for it.
Student Athlete. It hasn't met anything really since the 60s for the bulk of college football and basketball players. The coaches are getting rich, the Ads are getting rich, the support staff is making money, the vendors are making money, the referees are paid, the parking attendants get paid, the announcers are well paid, so now the players who are the reason for all of it are getting something, good.
