From Suspensions to Sponsorships

By: Andrew Ferguson

College athletics was forever changed on July 1, 2021 when the NCAA allowed student-athletes

to profit from their name, image and likeness or NIL as it is known in the industry. Before this

went into effect, a player couldn’t so much as walk into McDonalds and get a free Big Mac

without setting off the alarms for grounds of suspension or the swat team busting their door

down.

AJ Green knows this all too well who was suspended for Georgia’s first 4 games in 2010 for

selling his game worn jersey from the 2009 Independence Bowl where Georgia blew out Texas

A&M 44-20 for $1,000. Fast forward 10 years later and the same town of Athens, GA has

Quarterback Carson Beck receiving over $1 million in NIL money driving around in a

Lamborghini with a sleeve tattoo. And if you know this school’s off the field history, he

surprisingly never got any traffic citations.

How have we come so far in such a short amount of time and where did the NCAA lose control?

You can’t talk NIL and players receiving kickbacks without the Reggie Bush story at the

University of Southern Cal. In 2004, Bush went for over 1,400 yards from scrimmage and 13

touchdowns and was a key component of USC winning a BCS Championship against

Oklahoma 55-19. What’s even crazier was that this wasn’t even his Heisman year. In 2005, he

went for 2,200 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns to lock the prestigious award down.

And if you watched this team, to this day, Bush was one of the most exciting players in college

football history. You just had to be there.

But why is some of this missing from the record books? It’s because in 2011, Bush was accused

of receiving up to $300K in kickbacks from multiple agents and sponsors before it was allowed.

Bush received housing, cars, cash under the table and other travel benefits that not every player

in the NCAA was even considered for. This resulted in the NCAA stripping Bush of his Heisman

award and USC being forced to vacate 14 wins including their National Championship trophy.

Money then, that is now comical in the sense of where we are when student athletes negotiate

terms for playing for a school and what is even legal.

Well, the good news is Reggie got his Heisman back. On April 24, 2024, the NCAA reinstated

the award back to Bush due to changes within the laws of NIL, 14 years after it was taken away.

This individual celebration wasn’t celebrated entirely by the community as the NCAA still

deemed USC not eligible to have their 14 wins and their championship trophy reinstated due to

a separately governed set of team rules strictly enforcing penalties for players that were

‘ineligible.’

So where does NIL stand now and how has it affected college sports? Well, it has changed

everything.

Being a college football coach got that much harder during the initiation of NIL. While players

are receiving opportunities for sponsorships and even cold hard cash, they now feel they are

able to take care of their families and even build an empire while still in school. A coach showing

up in your living room interested in you playing for their team and representing a university and

receiving an education has now turned into the coach showing up, with the recruit’s first

question being, ‘how much money is on the table if I come play there?’ Again, we’ve come a

long way.

But the coaches not only have to worry about the high school recruits. This is where the job gets

even busier than before. They now have to recruit within the transfer portal which a quarter of

players (over 3,300 in total) in the entire FBS entered after the 2025 season. And if that is not

enough, head coaches need to recruit their own players to stay at their current school! The

workload for head coaches in college sports has tripled, and it’s led to some legendary coaches

leaving the brand entirely. We’ve seen Nick Saban retire, who many people in his inner circle

argued he still had some years left in him. Jim Harbaugh won a National Championship at

Michigan and went to the NFL. We’ve also seen big basketball names like Jay Wright from

Villanova, Tony Bennett from Virginia and Jim Larrañaga from Miami all step down from their

thrones within their communities. All coaches that have expressed frustrations or burnout due to

new NIL empowerment.

But who is the NIL really hurting here? It’s the smaller schools. The NCAA is turning into power

house programs in major sports with more boosters getting involved. When they realize their

money is actually going to a cause they can get behind, they are willing to spend it. The little

guys just can’t keep up. Sure they can develop talent and get some recruits like they have in the

past, but keeping that talent is nearly impossible.

So what happens next? It’s out of control at the moment and the NCAA has opened the

floodgates. Many are demanding more regulations in place, potential revenue sharing, player

contracts and overall increased oversight by the NCAA.

Many people believe college sports are moving toward a professional model entirely.

Conferences continue expanding, television money keeps growing, and athletes are becoming

more powerful. The biggest question moving forward is whether schools can balance athlete

compensation with the traditions that made college sports unique in the first place.One thing is

certain, the days of suspending players for selling their own jerseys are over.