Transfer portal and NIL Money, how they have changed college sports".

[Heyjoe4]

I have a friend, retired, who practiced labor law. I talked to him about this. He mentioned something that I thought was actually something that could happen. If players, particularly football and basketball, ask for money from the schools, at the DI level, whatever is determined by law would also effect all schools in DII and DIII, as well as other affiliations. You could kiss all those programs goodbye, because none of them are profitable to start. At the DI level, the number of sports would diminish considerably.

This thing is going to be a real mess before it's over.

That makes sense. Worst case, D2 and below would be wiped out and at the D1 level, there would be fewer schools participating. I mean that’s the worst case, but a good example of being careful what you ask for (NIL).

I understand the ethics behind paying players for helping the schools make money. That’s what is happening, college sports are a big business. Captain Obvious here.

Just seems like there hasn’t been much thought behind NIL. So the law of unintended consequences will be in force.

I don’t think the worst case will happen. D2 and lower will still have athletic programs. How they look though could be very different from what we’re used to.

 

[Voyageur]

That makes sense. Worst case, D2 and below would be wiped out and at the D1 level, there would be fewer schools participating. I mean that’s the worst case, but a good example of being careful what you ask for (NIL).

I understand the ethics behind paying players for helping the schools make money. That’s what is happening, college sports are a big business. Captain Obvious here.

Just seems like there hasn’t been much thought behind NIL. So the law of unintended consequences will be in force.

I don’t think the worst case will happen. D2 and lower will still have athletic programs. How they look though could be very different from what we’re used to.

One thing that should scare the bejeebers out of everyone is unions. For the most part, employees at schools at the teaching level are unionized. I'd venture a guess that a lot of the employees at the schools are also in unions, especially those at state owned schools, since the people employed there would be state employees. As we've already found out, through recent court actions, not even religious organizations can claim exemption from unionization. It's an endless stream of problems, demands, litigation, appeals, and chaos, with the NCAA being right in the middle, neutered by their own doing.

I like your reference to the laws of unintended consequences. Merton's Law. Totally appropriate.

 

[weeds]

I scroll through a lot of sports related news sites including Florio's looking for stories that potentially MIGHT be worth reading - hard to sift through the click-bait. Well, Florio used to be an attorney - probably an ambulance chaser - and seems to have an unhealthy preoccupation with how much athletes make and how much MORE they're worth, it's almost roll your eyes stuff but he claims that "Rumors" is part of the title of the website, so he feels free to post a lot of half-baked stuff.

Still, this one caught my eye and yeah, I think there are going to be a lot of unprepared kids at the mercy of Uncle Sam AND their State's Department of Revenue:

Unpaid taxes are the next wave of NIL complications

As the dust settles on the NIL explosion, Uncle Sam will be looking for his cut.

www.nbcsports.com

 

[Heyjoe4]

I scroll through a lot of sports related news sites including Florio's looking for stories that potentially MIGHT be worth reading - hard to sift through the click-bait. Well, Florio used to be an attorney - probably an ambulance chaser - and seems to have an unhealthy preoccupation with how much athletes make and how much MORE they're worth, it's almost roll your eyes stuff but he claims that "Rumors" is part of the title of the website, so he feels free to post a lot of half-baked stuff.

Still, this one caught my eye and yeah, I think there are going to be a lot of unprepared kids at the mercy of Uncle Sam AND their State's Department of Revenue:

Unpaid taxes are the next wave of NIL complications

As the dust settles on the NIL explosion, Uncle Sam will be looking for his cut.

www.nbcsports.com

Good catch Weeds. Yeah the tax law is actually simple. It says "All income is taxable, except...." and after the word "except" there are about a million pages that provides a full employment act for tax accountants and lawyers.

But at its core, income is always taxable, at least to start. What's worse is that after one year of not keeping up with taxes, the IRS requires us to pay estimated taxes so we aren't paying a huge amount at the end of a year. So there are a few ways the IRS can hurt us unexpectedly.

So a lot of these guys will need agents or accountants or lawyers or all three long before they ever go pro.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

One thing College athletics can do to help maintain the level of competition is to put more focus on tweaking the Transfer Portal. I think they really dropped the ball with it. I have no problem with allowing an athlete to switch schools, without having to sit out a year. However, unlimited incoming transfers for any program is where they made the mistake. Put a cap on the number of transfers allowed by each team in a single year. Vary that number based on the sport and roster size. Teams are currently limited to how many scholarships they can hand out, not much different.

Speaking of scholarships, programs may want to reconsider those too. Why would an athlete making $200K or more in NIL money need/deserve a scholarship?

Lots of big decisions ahead for College Athletic Programs, mostly involving money and how best to split up the big old pie of it.

 

[Heyjoe4]

One thing College athletics can do to help maintain the level of competition is to put more focus on tweaking the Transfer Portal. I think they really dropped the ball with it. I have no problem with allowing an athlete to switch schools, without having to sit out a year. However, unlimited incoming transfers for any program is where they made the mistake. Put a cap on the number of transfers allowed by each team in a single year. Vary that number based on the sport and roster size. Teams are currently limited to how many scholarships they can hand out, not much different.

Speaking of scholarships, programs may want to reconsider those too. Why would an athlete making $200K or more in NIL money need/deserve a scholarship?

Lots of big decisions ahead for College Athletic Programs, mostly involving money and how best to split up the big old pie of it.

Good points. Certainly the TP and NIL are connected. I didn't know transfers were unlimited. To try and maintain some semblance of competitiveness, at least at the national level and ideally within conferences, makes sense to put some limits own the number of transfers per program per year.

And yeah, any player receiving NIL money in excess of his or her scholarship value should have to pay some or all of their tuition. The problem is that scholarships are handed out for a number of reasons, but here they're probably all of the athletic variety. Start clawing that back once a player starts getting paid. Save the scholarship money for bright minds from poor families.

This is all getting analogous to how the tax code is used to affect individual behaviour - tax credits especially. That has failed spectacularly in rewarding those truly in need. NIL will take major and minor NCAA sports down that hole unless some common sense safeguards are put in place.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Not sure how up to date this list is, but the top 25 NIL money athletes are listed.

Bronny James at #1 : $4.9M

Kyle McCord @ #25: $857,000

MSN

 

[Voyageur]

Not sure how up to date this list is, but the top 25 NIL money athletes are listed.

Bronny James at #1 : $4.9M

Kyle McCord @ #25: $857,000

MSN

That's the list of known amounts. It's just the tip of the iceberg.