This article originally appeared in the Off-Script print issue, in stands November 2025. It has not been updated and some information may be out of date.
In today’s collegiate athletics world, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals have changed the way sports are played and perceived forever. With changes in recruitment, brand deals, negotiations and many other categories, it is an entirely new playing field that everyone is trying to learn. In 2021, the NCAA officially allowed athletes to profit from their own names. This started as athletes being able to profit from things like autographs, merch and simple endorsements. This has evolved completely into new things such as collectives, new revenue streams and more for these athletes.
For Utah Athletics fans, this is not something to skimp on. Recruiting in the college world, and especially being in a power-five conference with lots of schools, wanted a piece of the pie.
Recruitment: pay-to-play
First, let’s investigate how recruitment has changed with NIL and how it can be controversial in a couple of ways.
What was originally a competition based on player-fit, coaching, facilities and environment, is now a competition for who can pay a certain player the most. One example of this is the case of Quarterback Jaden Rashada, who was promised a $13 million payout if he flipped commitment from Miami to Florida. The money was never fully there for him, thus leading him to start a lawsuit against head coach Billy Napier for the lie.
Another example is QB Matthew Sluka, who was promised $100,000 in NIL. Sluka walked away from UNLV despite the team being undefeated. Sluka claims he only received $3,000 total. He would later transfer to JMU in the offseason.
One last example of the controversies within recruitment is schools that have an advantage in recruitment money-wise. Many big and well-known schools have made it clear that they enjoy dishing out money to athletes, with a large amount of the funds coming from booster collectives from the schools.
The numbers tell the story: Ohio State’s NIL collective reportedly raised over $20 million in its first year of being formed. The University of Texas leveraged its alumni network and its sponsorships/partnerships to make one of the best-funded collectives in college football.
Nick Saban, former head coach of the University of Alabama football, had some words for the Texas A&M football program.“A&M bought every player on their team,” said Saban.
Meanwhile, the University of Utah tries to play a different game. The U focuses more on local businesses and collecting money from the Alumni network for their booster program to help support these deals. The U has the Crimson Collective, which is a booster program that allows the U to receive funding for its athletic programs through alumni donations and local businesses. The progam provides member benefits as well, such as meet-and-greets, autographs, events and more. With this collective, this the how the U makes a lot of their money to fund the programs and the athletes too.
The transfer portal
Arguably, one of the biggest impacts in the college sports landscape is the transfer portal. Before the transfer portal, players would commonly play out their college career with one school, as they would feel more attached to the program and know how it operates. With the new transfer portal, we have seen a massive increase in yearly transfers.
For example, we can look at the NCAA men’s basketball transfer total year-by-year. In 2019, the total was 957. In 2021, it was 1,653; in 2025, it is now 2,320 players. That’s 40% of the total number of men’s basketball players in the NCAA. In women’s basketball, 29% of total players were in the transfer portal this offseason. Some players have success stories with this, such as a better program and more money. Some do not have the same luck. Many players end up not being the right fit for the team, while some excel.
The transfer portal’s impact is visible right here in Salt Lake City. An example of a team receiving many transfers is the University of Utah men’s basketball team. After hiring new head coach Alex Jensen in 2025, the U has completely changed the squad. The Runnin’ Utes added seven new players for the 2025-2026 season through the portal.
Regulatory confusion
Since NIL is still new, the NCAA has a lot of red tape and holes within its regulations. Some states have laws that protect athletes, some restrict schools heavily. There seems to be a lot of inconsistency within the NIL rules. The NCAA themselves have changed rules many times, and attempting to regulate NIL collectives and schools’ roles has led to lots of confusion around the country.
Recently, the “SCORE” Act has been drafted by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill’s goal is to regulate agents who represent student athletes and prevent schools from taking back scholarships due to injuries and bad performance on the field. Many athletes are teenagers when they sign these deals, and this bill can help prevent fraudulent agents from representing future college athletes or even high schoolers.
There is a hidden unfairness when it comes to NIL, and that’s the money. The NCAA currently has set no boundary on how much a school can pay out to its team each year, and this creates unfairness even towards schools in the same conference that do not have the funds to do so. There should be some level of regulation at some point if we want fairness in the college realm.
The main issue, once again, however, is the inconsistent system that several schools and states are trying to implement separately with their own NIL regulations. Once an order has been made at the executive level or by the NCAA, NIL has the chance to level out its regulations and be clearer.
The NIL era is the largest change in college athletics, and there’s no going back now. What used to be a simple way for athletes to make money is now a reboot of how colleges and athletes think for their programs and themselves individually. There must be an addition in some of the rules mentioned to ensure both sides of the party are in agreement in terms of contracts and promises. Overall, NIL has been beneficial for athletes who risk their bodies on the fields they play on, on which the school profits from. However, if there is a way to get some consistency across some of these issues, NIL has lots of potential to be something even better than what it is now.
