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[QUOTE="OttosShoes, post: 5715666, member: 10231"]
Oh I totally agree that it's not easy, and I'm sorry to nerd out on you lol, but this is a fascinating topic for me and I think the NCAA is pretty firmly in a "could, but won't" situation.

I'm sure you already know that Pro sports regulate endorsement deals with Collective Bargaining Agreements to ensure there aren't backdoors around the salary cap. IMHO that's the best way to do it, but the NCAA would then have to admit students athletes are employees, and allow them to have a union to negotiate fair wages.

As it is, the free market pretty clearly shows that $20.5M is undervalued at the top level of college sports. But without a players union to negotiate more, the colleges can "hide" behind the $20.5M cap and ask/beg/expect/benefit from fans picking up the difference. I mean, SU had a $133.3M surplus in 2025 and then has to beg fans to make NIL deals? It's not just SU, either, it's the way it's set up.

At any rate, I think this slides because it's all so new, but I don't see how it's sustainable, something is going to have to give. My comment about the IRS was only half-joking; if NIL deals are really just backdoor salaries and companies are writing them off as marketing I don't know that that would hold up to an audit.
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