NIL deals have changed college sports forever, but is everyone getting a fair slice of the pie? From superstar contracts to the future of non-revenue sports, the landscape is shifting dramatically. Discover why a players’ union might be the game-changer every student athlete needs. Are we truly valuing all collegiate efforts equally?

The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era has irrevocably reshaped the landscape of college athletics, bringing both unprecedented opportunities and profound challenges. While student athletes now have the ability to monetize their personal brand and hard work, the implementation of NIL has exposed significant disparities, creating an uneven playing field not only between individual players but also across various sports programs.

A closer look reveals a stark contrast in how compensation is distributed. While prominent athletes, often dubbed superstars, secure lucrative contracts, many of their teammates, who contribute equally to team success through dedication in practice, the weight room, and film study, receive a disproportionately smaller share. This imbalance is particularly glaring when considering walk-on players, for whom even a seemingly substantial NIL payout may not cover basic educational expenses like a single semester’s tuition, highlighting a fundamental flaw in the current system.

Adding to this complexity is the impending introduction of a salary cap, recently influenced by a significant NCAA settlement allowing schools to allocate up to $20.5 million to their players. While this move aims to regulate spending, the overwhelming majority of these funds are projected to flow into high-revenue sports like football and basketball, exacerbating existing inequalities.

The concentration of funds within these two dominant sports poses a severe threat to the viability of other collegiate athletic programs. Sports such as baseball, volleyball, and various Olympian disciplines, despite featuring incredibly talented athletes, are not significant revenue generators for their institutions. As more financial resources are diverted to football and basketball, these non-revenue sports face the daunting prospect of reduced funding, demotion to lower divisions, or even outright elimination, forcing dedicated athletes to abandon the sports they love due to financial pressures.

Despite these significant issues, the core principle of NIL – ensuring student athletes receive fair compensation for their contributions – remains a positive development. For too long, athletes have generated immense revenue for their institutions without directly benefiting, making the advent of NIL a crucial step towards rectifying past exploitation. However, the current system lacks the necessary safeguards to protect all athletes, not just those in the spotlight or in high-revenue sports.

To truly address the inequities and safeguard the future of college athletics, a fundamental shift towards a unified player protection mechanism is imperative. Drawing parallels with major professional leagues like the NBA and NFL, the establishment of a robust players’ union and the implementation of collective bargaining could offer the comprehensive framework needed to ensure fairness and prevent exploitation across the board.

Such a union would empower athletes to collectively negotiate for essential protections, including health benefits, improved working conditions, and equitable wages. Crucially, it would ensure that all players, irrespective of their star power or roster status, are afforded the same basic rights and protections from the NCAA and their respective institutions, fostering a truly inclusive and just environment.

Envisaged provisions within a collegiate players’ union could include mandates for the equitable distribution of salary cap funds across all sports, guarantees of equal NIL earnings from a school’s collective pool for every player, or even the NCAA contributing to a post-college career pension fund for athletes. Ultimately, the priority must be to establish concrete mechanisms that ensure the financial security and overall well-being of all student athletes, preventing a new era of neglect from overshadowing the positive intent of NIL.