The NCAA changed college sports in 2021 with the long-awaited introduction of its Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies for student-athletes. These policies granted college athletes the right to earn money through endorsements, sponsorships, and social media platforms.
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Previously, the NCAA’s rules banned athletes from profiting from their personal brand in any form. NIL has opened doors for young people, especially those from financially challenged backgrounds. Unfortunately, it has disrupted the stability and culture of college athletics.
Before the current NIL era, student-athletes transferring schools often had to redshirt and sit out for a year before returning to play. The redshirt rule, which has long been a target of criticism, aimed to keep rosters stable and reduce the frequency of short-term transfers, but those days are now long gone.
Now, athletes switch schools more freely and frequently to find better financial opportunities through NIL deals. This newfound “freedom,” while lucrative, is reshaping recruiting and ultimately roster management across college sports.
The NIL system has its share of critics, with Shaquille O’Neal being among them. Shaq did not hold back about his issues with the way the current system operates. On the latest episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, he slammed players for transferring too often due to NIL incentives.
“If I write you a check for a million dollars, you can’t stay for 300 days,” Shaq said. “You gotta at least give me 2 years.” O’Neal believes NIL athletes should show loyalty if they accept money from collectives.
“I think there should be some rules and regulations because you got all these guys going into portals and guys that are high school players unless you’re [an] All-American like myself [you are] not going to get a shot,” O’Neal remarked, raising a less-talked about issue regarding players in the NCAA transfer portals.
Shaq’s criticism of how this trend will ultimately affect young high school athletes seeking college opportunities was brought up during a press conference in February by tenured NCAA college coach Rick Pitino, who stated, “We’re not recruiting any high school players.”
Do today’s (would-be) college athletes weigh program prestige and coaching alongside potential NIL earnings before committing to a school? Some believe they solely look at their earning potential, with many choosing to transfer if another university offers stronger branding or better collective support. That trend worries coaches, who fear fractured locker rooms and fleeting loyalty.
Even Dwyane Wade and WNBA icon Tina Thompson have spoken out about how the NIL is slowly defeating the main point of college athletics- students getting a good education. Like Sam L. Jackson said in Coach Carter, college ballers are students first, and athletes second. Their education cannot be compromised for the sake of basketball.
Thompson, in a conversation with Wade, echoed the same sentiment. “These kids are transferring colleges, going to a different school every single year. You can’t get an education that way,” Thompson said. “Like, you’re not getting a degree. The money that you’re getting, 75, 100,000, 300,000 dollars- you think it’s a lot of money because you’ve not made any money.”
While both Thompson and Wade have raved about how the NIL finally allows student athletes to make money off their own hard work, the flip side of it does tend to outweigh the pros. Will the NIL’s legacy be the financial freedom it gives students or the adverse effect it has on their education?
