(NIL) or Name, Image, Likeness has affected college sports in good and bad ways ever since 2021.  It has changed the recruiting process for many Division 1 schools.  NCAA did this so athletes can profit off their name, image, and likeness.

NIL matters because student athletes now receive profit for their performances instead of the universities.  Before the universities received all the profit from media deals, ticket sales, donations, sponsorship, and championships.

NIL has changed the recruiting process because they are paying recruits to be a student athlete at their university.  The biggest example of NIL is Bryce Underwood.  He got paid 12 million dollars to be a student athlete at the University of Michigan.  Athletes aren’t just getting paid; donors sometimes convince them to de-commit and go to their school.  This means Big Ten and Sec schools can overpower the recruiting process. But most of the time this is an opportunity for athletes to build a personal brand and making deals with companies to help them in the near future.

Overall, NIL will completely change college sports.  I think we should stop this because there is a wide variety on how much teams are spending.  This is also a problem in the MLB, and I think a solution for this would go back to the rule of players not getting paid beyond a scholarship.