Surely by now you understand that this isn’t your grandfather’s college sports landscape anymore. And we’re not even talking about the Big Ten being comprised of about 26 teams or the Southeastern Conference possibly including Texas and Oklahoma footballers.
No, sir. We’re talking about there being no need to pay college athletes under the table anymore – you can now place the cash and the contracts on the table. For good or bad – and a lot of people who are involved in the business of college athletics use the term “wild, wild West” to describe what is now going on – NIL has arrived.
It stands for “Name, Image, and Licensing,” which has opened the door for athletes to financially reap the benefits of corporate support while playing sports for colleges. The byproduct of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2021, NIL has wasted little time in reshaping the world of college sports and producing hard-to-fathom numbers.