It's not the kids that are being wronged, it's the whole system. NIL is becoming, it appears, almost any type of payment for almost anything. As originally construed it was a rather tight definition that was supposed protect universities from the charge that they were direclty paying athletes for work. They were to be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness. While showing up for job and being paid for it is not a direct payment by the university, it is also not a payment for NIL. If individual states have redefined NIL in a way that includes this type of behavior, I think this could eventually lead to charges that universities are indirectly paying players, and are hence runing a pro football operation that its inconsistent with their educaitonal mission. Also, that different states are defining NIL differently is also a potential problem.
Universities are not paying players, directly or indirectly: Independent businesses are paying players, corporations (non-profit or for-profit) are paying players, among others. Are some of these organizations explicitly made up of people who want to help the university's athletics? Yes, and that doesn't change the fact that money is not moving from the university to the athlete.
In what way is running a professional football operation any more or less consistent with A STATE OWNED INSTITUTION'S mission [i.e. educational mission] than is:
-owning/operating sprawling healthcare operations that--for the most part--employ physicians, nurses, and other professionals who are solely or almost completely involved in patient care (of non-students) and have no meaningful interaction with students?
-operating large housing and dining operations (in some cases even doing so at a net gain)?
-organizing intercollegiate athletic events for which an admissions fee is charged? Surely any fitness or character based benefits could be achieved via intermural athletics, right?
Well, I said that I would stop, but I'll make one more post before I implement #mestoptoo.
I realize that these are separate organizations providing NIL money. However, there was an interesting Ohio Supreme Court ruling several years ago that the University of Toledo Foundation was not a private organization and was, in essence, a part of the university and subject all the open records laws to which the university was subject. Those organizations specifically setup to raise NIL money certainly could at some point be considered no more than an arm of the university in terms of the law. This, of course, now applies to the foundations that all state university's in Ohio have set up.
Providing health care for the citizenry and at the same time providing medical education for the medical students, interns and residents seems to fit in with the essential purposes of an institution of higher education.
Providing housing for students seems to fit as well. Non-profit institutions are allowed to make money as long as it is applied in a way that's consistent with its central mission.
Intercollegiate athletics, as it has come to be structured, is more questionable. A D3 setup where you are not giving out athletic scholarships might actually be consistent with an educational institution's mission. But, in truth, even that is questionable. The original roots of inter-collegiate athletics where the students hired the coach, who was usually a graduate student, bought their own uniforms, and paid for transportation to away games, is probably the only really viable model for inter-collegiate athletics in a college setting. We've strayed away from that model and it's distorted the whole educational landscape. What NIL has done, IMHO, is to make a reductio ad absurdum argument against the whole current system.
In time, I think, the whole structure of ICA will crumble. I believe the only question is how long it will take.
#menowreallystoptoo