NEW ORLEANS, LA – JANUARY 01: Texas Longhorns linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. (0) during the CFP Allstate Sugar Bowl semifinal game between the Texas Longhorns and the Washington Huskies on January 1, 2024, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by John Korduner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) for college football players has always been a poor solution in search of a problem. Let’s hope that Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) recognize this truth before supporting another national solution for college football.
Just because college football is such a lucrative industry, how dangerous is it for the Senators to enter what thrives with a one-stop solution created by the most despised legislature in America. Alas, we are catching up.
Looking back to the pre-NIL era, players were obviously paid. Which is an observation as enlightening as an observation about gambling that takes place in casinos.
Where there’s talent, there’s always money, and lots of it. With some of the world’s greatest athletes playing on Saturdays for schools that used to be attended by so many wildly wealthy alums, it was implied that the money-making players. That the well-paid coaches came as part of the talent package was another blinding glimpse of the obvious. Talent requires the best teaching, and realistically the best of all.
Which is a reminder that in the pre-NIL era, athletes were by no means exploited. Not only was there money everywhere, but their scholarships came with a lifetime deal to complete their degree, facilities that in most cases put those in the NFL to shame, and a rolodex that their peers would give anything for.
What prevailed before the NIL was player-friendly precisely because it was fan-friendly. Take it? The passion of the fans is what brought so much money into the sport. By extension, the copious amount of money that poured into college football is what made a player’s time on campus plush, but also kept players in good shape long after their college (and NFL, if they were lucky) days were over. They could literally dine out for what they did in college for life. It also kept them gainfully employed.
As in the past, he was a known quantity in Columbus, OH used by former Buckeyes. What was true in Columbus was also true in Austin, Knoxville, Norman, Tuscaloosa, or the named team/city.
Fast forward to the present, a 2016 federal ruling ushered in today’s “Wild West” college football system that Cruz and Cantwell want to tame. Since it’s hard to find a college football fan who prefers the mercenary qualities of the sport in the NIL era, the Senators see an opportunity to fix these problems through nationalized television rights, stricter rules on player traffic and eligibility, and “saving” non-revenue sports.
Cruz and Cantwell would be wise to back off. Cruz knows why. Not only did a federal ruling rooted in a false narrative of “exploitation” set college football’s apparent decline in motion, it would be foolish to assume that federal legislation from the Commanding Heights of the US Senate will fix the problems already created. Really, what could go wrong with a national solution?
Better for Cantwell and Cruz to recognize that despite college football’s current drawbacks, it remains a profitable multibillion-dollar business. The former truth speaks to the incentives already in place for the industry powers that be to fix it. And they will, or at least try to.
What should not happen is the federal government taking advantage of nationalization powers in relation to what fans are so passionate about. Cantwell and Cruz know this intuitively, considering the fans in their respective states, especially Cruz. Really, how embarrassing for Cruz if his presumptive 2028 presidential bid falters on a 2026 attempt to nationalize an industry that Texans consider their own.
