The more we hear about the specifics of NIL, the more I believe there needs to be a heck of a lot of structure put in place. The only good part about it is at least we get the NCAA Football video game back, and presumably NCAA Basketball this winter.
The only way you get that structure is for the schools to pay the athletes and make them employees. NIL is nothing more than endorsement deals, which the Supreme Court has ruled cannot be restricted under the current model. There’s no cap on what any player can make and a company can, if it decided, pay a player to do nothing.
If, however, a player was a paid employee, the University could, if it so choose, tell the player a certain endorsement is a conflict of interest and tell him or her it’s either the endorsement or playing on the team. Likely, the player wouldn’t get the endorsement without being on the team, so the “choice” is obvious. But for now, the NIL ball is in the players’ court.