I think there's some misunderstanding of how NIL, Scholarships & Transfer Portal are designed to work (and how pro athletes get paid)
There's nothing stopping a pro athlete from signing a billion dollar sponsorship endorsement either, which is essentially being paid for his NIL. There's no maximum there either.
As for the schools themselves, they don't pay the NIL, that's up to donors and other sponsors. At present it has essentially the same regulations as the pro athletes get for their sponsorships (almost none). D1 Athletics has essentially a salary cap. For football FBS pays 85 players a flat salary for their work on the field. FCS allows the equivalent of 63 full scholarship players, though they can split that money up over 85 roster spots, so basically they are both working with a salary cap. FCOA covers athletes total cost to attend the school (on average).
Alston payments reward academic excellence.
The present rules prohibit an undergrad from making more than one school change (with some exceptions) unless they opt to move down a level.
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SD, if anything the NIL and transfer portal are free market capitalism. Literally the opposite of socialism in that every athlete gets compensated to the degree that the market will bear.
The previous version was basically a union job where everyone gets paid the same regardless of contribution level. On top of that there was a non-compete clause. That's quite literally a socialist ideology where the entity in charge controls the access to and means of production. The NCAA maintained centralized control over the commercial aspects of collegiate sports. By controlling the ability of an athlete to be paid for their NIL it basically took the money they generated and redistributed it to the other governing agencies.
Screaming that something is socialist/communist doesn't make it so, just like defending something that is socialist doesn't make it capitalism.
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Then just have everyone in D-III with no scholarships. The Alston payments are small potatoes compared to the free tuition, room and board, tutors, and other benefits many student athletes get. It sounds like some schools make these payments just to scholarship students while others also provide them for walk-ons.
It's OK to not be OK.
Hey dumbasses, college football was never set up to be a business. So all this crap about players deserving money is just garbage. For most of the last century the only compensation was free tuition and that was good enough. Also, it took a lot more than college athletics to build up the university system of today and without that there wouldn't be the spectacle that fans are drawn to watch.
I understand the point you are making, but there isn't a true parallel between the two. The difference is the revenue stream funding the NILs. Pros are traditionally funded corporately in exchange for representation. a true NIL. Collegiate NIL collectives are primarily donation reliant and not divvied out in direct exchange for representation.
In a perfect world fans would be as excited about wearing a Cole Peyton Jersey as they are about a Kirk Cousins jersey, but sadly fans are not that enlightened.
Isn't college free for everybody now eh???
Lardsin must go!