Can we get rid of the biggest thing ruining college sports?
But perhaps the better question is—what exactly is that “thing”
The NIL Tsunami: Liberation or Corruption?
Some argue that NIL is the root of the chaos. For decades, athletes generated billions for universities and the NCAA while being forbidden from earning a cent beyond scholarships. NIL sought to correct that injustice. But in doing so, it cracked Pandora’s box wide open.
Now, we’re seeing million-dollar collectives, 17-year-olds negotiating like NBA free agents, and recruiting driven not by fit, development, or academics—but by the size of the checkbook.
Is NIL ruining college sports, or is it merely exposing how exploitative the old system really was?
The Transfer Portal: Free Agency Frenzy
If NIL is the fuel, the transfer portal is the wildfire. What began as a player empowerment tool has evolved into an unregulated free-for-all. Loyalty is now seasonal. Starters leave after breakout years. Coaches lose their rosters in the blink of an offseason.
Fans, once able to bond with a player for three or four years, now struggle to remember who’s even on the team by the next season.
Where is the line between freedom and chaos?
The Death of Tradition
And then there’s the heartbreaker—conference realignment. Rivalries that defined decades have been swallowed whole by television deals. The Pac-12 is on life support. The Big Ten stretches from New Jersey to California. Student-athletes in “college” are traveling cross-country mid-week, trading time in class for red-eye flights.
All in the name of money. All in the name of clicks, ratings, and subscriptions
So, What’s the Real Villain?
Here’s the twist: NIL, the portal, and realignment are symptoms. The disease? Unregulated greed.
For decades, the NCAA and university power brokers feasted while athletes went unpaid. Now that the power has shifted, they’re scrambling to control what they can no longer contain. The genie is out. But instead of crafting a coherent, fair model that balances athlete rights with institutional stability, college sports is sprinting headlong into corporatization without a conscience.
What’s the Fix?
The solution isn’t to “get rid” of NIL or player freedom—but to govern it wisely. Set transfer windows. Mandate transparency in NIL deals. Reinforce guardrails that prioritize education, mental health, and the sanctity of rivalries and traditions.
College sports don’t need to be perfect—they never were—but they do need purpose. They need a compass, not just a calculator.
Until leadership stops reacting and starts reforming, the biggest thing ruining college sports won’t be NIL or the portal or TV deals.
It’ll be the absence of courage to fix what truly matters.
And that might be the most tragic play of all.
