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Message: [QUOTE="miamicuse, post: 5031044, member: 7237"] The players are "TECHNICALLY NOT" play for pay. They still play for the schools with an amateur status because the NCAA created this NIL thing to "allow pay as long as it's not for play" even though we know it to be otherwise. NCAA maintains that players can make money from using their NIL only, and they can sign contracts with the NIL sponsors but their obligations are signing autographs, may be selling tee shirts, filming TV or radio commercials, appearing at tail gate parties etc...everything BUT pay for play. The schools do not pay the players, the money comes from the NIL sponsors. Technically, a player could sign with a local care dealer to appear on a commercial and gets paid for 500K then refuse to even suit up for the team and there is not a whole lot a coach can do anything about it. Practically though we know NIL is a very important factor when a HS recruit or transfer portal recruit decides on which school to go to. One can argue that in the past schools were doing the same thing under the table with a bag but that wasn't an all out opening bidding situation. NCAA is going to keep up with this pretense of NIL != pay for play for as long as it can to keep the boat from sinking further and the schools know if these players are declared pros then it will be total chaos (and it's already kind of is) plus their non-revenue sports like softball, wrestling, rifle, swimming diving etc...will probably have a hard time getting funded. This situation is not unique to football/basketball. For a long time tennis was in the same situation, you have very young tennis players already playing in the pro-circuit tournaments BEFORE they even start college, and technically they are professionals but the NCAA rules, if applied strictly would prevent these players when attending college to benefit from scholarships or participated in NCAA sports including tennis. They sort of coming up with an exception to let them earn a capped amount of money when playing in pro tournaments. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?