If it's June and Underwood has 13 scholarship players and a 5 Star UNEXPECTEDLY decides to graduate a year early and wants to play at Illinois, something has to give. With NIL, Underwood can tell the player that he will be a preferred walk on and that someone will be calling to discuss financial arrangements to play at Illinois. A member of the Guardians will call and they can discuss the amount of NIL that said player will receive and he can pay his own tuition. What he will receive will be no one's business except his and the Guardian organization. Whether he is on scholarship or not will not have any impact on his playing time, that's for Underwood to decide. And he won't be considered the "14th player" just because he isn't on scholarship. For a 5 Star player, scholarship doesn't mean squat, they don't plan on staying more than a year anyway. With the changes brought about by the portal, I imagine most head coaches of teams in the major conferences are going to keep one scholarship in their back pocket so this scenario isn't likely, but NIL could solve the issue of not having an available scholarship for a coveted player.
