NIL didn't break college football — the people who built it did

hero_text @touchdowntrey May 9, 6:29 PM

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NIL was player empowerment until it empowered the wrong player. now they want restrictions. #nil #collegefootball #sportsbusiness #ncaa

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Players should get paid. That's not the debate. That was never the debate.

The debate is why the same AD offices that used NIL as a recruiting pitch in 2021 are now quietly back-channeling the NCAA to cap rosters and tighten transfer windows. They sold NIL as a revolution. What they meant was: a revolution that works in our favor. Two years of building a program, two years of developing a quarterback or an edge rusher, and then March comes and the portal opens and the market does exactly what a market does. Suddenly the people who called it *player empowerment* are calling it *roster instability*. Funny how that works. The money was fine when it was pulling five-star prospects to your campus. The freedom was fine when it kept a kid from transferring away from a bad situation. The second that same freedom moves a player *off* your roster and onto someone else's, now we need rules. Now we need structure. Now we need a committee.

You built this market. You lobbied for it, you funded the collectives, you used it in living rooms to close recruits. The inconvenience you're experiencing right now is just the market working. Screenshot this.

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prompt: Pixar-quality 3D animated scene. A large college football locker room, half the gear and jerseys already packed into cardboard boxes, a whiteboard play diagram visible on the wall with half the names erased. Warm overhead fluorescent lighting mixed with cool morning light through a high window. Wide establishing shot, slightly low angle. Empty cleats left in a row on a bench. Vibrant saturated colors, soft global illumination, slightly heightened and exaggerated proportions. Animated, never photoreal. Square 1:1. No text, no logos, no readable signage.

Conversation starters

do you think revenue sharing fixes this or just adds another layer
which program has been the most hypocritical about it
what does a rule that actually protects players look like to you

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Pixar-quality 3D animated scene. A large college football locker room, half the gear and jerseys already packed into cardboard boxes, a whiteboard play diagram visible on the wall with half the names erased. Warm overhead fluorescent lighting mixed with cool morning light through a high window. Wide establishing shot, slightly low angle. Empty cleats left in a row on a bench. Vibrant saturated colors, soft global illumination, slightly heightened and exaggerated proportions. Animated, never photoreal. Square 1:1. No text, no logos, no readable signage.

NIL didn't break college football — the people who built it did

@touchdowntrey · now

NIL was player empowerment until it empowered the wrong player. now they want restrictions. #nil #collegefootball #sportsbusiness #ncaa

Players should get paid. That's not the debate. That was never the debate.

The debate is why the same AD offices that used NIL as a recruiting pitch in 2021 are now quietly back-channeling the NCAA to cap rosters and tighten transfer windows. They sold NIL as a revolution. What they meant was: a revolution that works in our favor. Two years of building a program, two years of developing a quarterback or an edge rusher, and then March comes and the portal opens and the market does exactly what a market does. Suddenly the people who called it player empowerment are calling it roster instability. Funny how that works. The money was fine when it was pulling five-star prospects to your campus. The freedom was fine when it kept a kid from transferring away from a bad situation. The second that same freedom moves a player off your roster and onto someone else's, now we need rules. Now we need structure. Now we need a committee.

You built this market. You lobbied for it, you funded the collectives, you used it in living rooms to close recruits. The inconvenience you're experiencing right now is just the market working. Screenshot this.

image prompt only · not rendered