BYU Football: How to fix NIL in college sports

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Nov 20, 2021; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Christian Jones (70) pauses before a snap during the first quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Third Party Review

Nobody in their right mind would ever actually think that an endorsement deal with a college quarterback is nearly as valuable as an endorsement deal with Tom Brady or Luka Doncic, yet the way that some athletes are getting paid shows otherwise.

Offensive linemen at Texas are getting paid $50,000 a year and all they have to do is help community charities. And let’s not pretend they are showing up five nights a week working 20 hours. They in all likelihood show up two or three times a semester and then to a big charity event at the end of the year.

Nobody in their right mind would ever say that is worth $50,000.

The proposal here is to have an agency set up by independent contractors to look at these NIL deals and deem them fair or unfair. Again this is ‘Name, Image and Likeness’ not pay to play. This would keep athletes from choosing schools just to rack in huge amounts of cash while not doing much to earn it.

Granted, there would be a lot of gray area in this model, but if done correctly, it could be effective in controlling the chaos that NIL is currently in.

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