Hellooooo HHSC fans! Question for you, do we all understand the most frowned upon four-letter word in polite society? Yes, good, we do… Now, what about the most horrible three-letter word we could utter into existence for the sake of culture, goodwill, and quality of life throughout this wonderful land of ours? What would first come to your mind? To me, it is a Shaq style slam dunk... BOOM -- NIL.
I get that the NCAA and college sports aren't always on our mind -- not everyone buys into the games outside of professional sports, I respect that. Buttt hear me out! Whether you are a fan or not, it has now come to be that NIL (Name Image Likeness) has burst out and become a Game of Thrones-style Dragon that is capable of scorching our beloved playground of passionate cheering for our favorite teams. I won’t get into the boring legality of it all (please google NIL should you feel highbrow and intelligent beyond the Banter!), but in a nutshell smaller than the HHSC Taco’s love of the Yankees. NIL means that players in college can be paid. They can negotiate, they can have an agent, and they can transfer to whatever school will pay them the most. Hmmm sure sounds like they are taking a self business management class for the professional level when they make it, right?! NOPE Mind as well consider the NIL the "farm league" especially for football as there are none like baseball with A / AA / AAA ball and basketball with the G-League.
Back in the day (yes before people were being "influencers" on Instagram and the need to document what you ate by pic's on Facebook) there was GRRREAT (Tony the Tiger Frosted Flakes voice) debate over whether or not collegiate athletes should get paid for their participation in a sport. Some thought yes, and others believed that a scholarship to a university was ample compensation. It literally was a split that had no majority. We, as a collective, love the purity of the amateur game in sports - and collegiate sports gave us that. It wasn’t controlled by owners sitting in luxury boxes or marketing deals driving a player’s decisions beyond the field and court… there was an innocence to young men and women competing at the highest amateur level in their chosen sport! However, let’s face it - the bigger schools, for every sport, did indeed entice players with money from the wealthy alumni and donors that wanted to win. There was little chance of a player getting caught getting a little grease for the skids, and the Big Boys had the means to tilt the field and turn happy players into winning players and into championships. That is now understood fact -- people cheated. All the time.
Now does the idea of pay the players LEGALLY make more sense? Sure it does, boys and girls. And that understanding of the reality of all things money ultimately led to NIL…and NIL was supposed to bring everything out into the public purview and take away the backroom dealings and envelope stuffing of wads of cash into a coed’s pockets whilst in line at Burger King. But NIL was initially abused (omg, DUH!), so then there were lawsuits (DUH!) and more lawsuits (DUH!), but then there was an agreement and we are now at a point all is supposed to be as calm as a still lake in Upper Minnesota during August. Again, google is your friend if you want details. But…one second… a name to know = Shemar Stewart. Who??? Exactly! Well, he was the 17th overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, and he threatened to not sign a contract and to go back to his Texas A&M minor league club (did I say that? sorry…) and make more than he would with a rookie NFL deal. Excuse me, Newman? Um, sorry, but once you declare for the draft, you give up your coed stud status, no? Yes… the only way dude can go back to bilking Oil Kings out of millions for spending Saturdays preening for the 12th Man is to go to court and SUE for that move…and that is why this entire NIL has gotten out of hand and has become such a hated 3 letter word for anyone that loves collegiate sports and doesn’t want to see it all become a giant beach ball bouncing back and forth between District and Circuit and Federal and Supreme Courts throughout the land more vibrant than the shooting of the Washington Wizards clanking off the rim. The NIL has opened a can of worms that will ultimately destroy collegiate sports at the Division One level. It will happen as fast as Daenerys Targaryen can command her dragons and prove to us all that there is and always has been a bad, offensive five letter word that we should be afraid to admit and say exists… GREED.