Since the advent of the NIL in college sports, it can be argued that no team has won more than those of the University of Texas and other Texas universities, such as Texas A&M. With the influx of money and agents players are seeing across the country, there have been calls for regulations on what some have described as an idle system with few or no rules.
Now, years after the arrival of the NIL, one of the biggest voices advocating for regulation in college sports is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who spoke about the possibility of regulations at a panel in Washington on Tuesday.
At that panel, Cruz said there was a 50 percent chance the regulations would be seen and that negotiations were ongoing.
“It’s not too late to do it, but we’re getting closer to it being too late to do it.” I still think there are elements to a bipartisan deal. We just couldn’t get everyone to sit down at the table to sign.”
What would the regulations look like?
No specific regulation was discussed, but Cruz said he hopes something is passed to standardize how athletes can be compensated for their names, images and likenesses.
The idea behind standardization is that it would give the NCAA and its various conferences the ability to govern college sports without the looming threat of lawsuits and state laws impeding their ability to enforce regulations.
One possibility that has been floated by NCAA President Charlie Baker is to create a new tier of Division I sports as a way to require certain schools with more lucrative operations to pay their athletes.
Baker expressed that he would like to avoid a situation in which college athletes claim to be employees of their universities.
Who else is speaking on the panel?
Aside from Cruz, the most notable name on the panel was undoubtedly Nick Saban, the former Alabama head football coach.
“All the things I’ve believed in all these years. 50 years of coaching doesn’t exist in college athletics anymore,” Saban said of how much the NIL has changed college sports.
Others on the panel included Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
UT sports dominate the NIL standings
According to the On3 rankings, a website that calculates and ranks athletes’ NIL values, at the end of 2023, the Texas Longhorns dominated the individual and team NIL rankings.
Of the schools with players in the top 100, Texas has the second-highest player value on the list, as the 10 Longhorns represented have a combined value of approximately $10 million. That number is topped only by USC, which despite only having five players on the roster, boasts huge value from players like Bronie James and 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, the first and fifth players on the roster. this time.
Other schools rounding out the top five include LSU, which has this year’s Heisman winner and a value of $9.5 million; CFP contender Alabama, worth $5.9 million; and Ohio State, which has five players who have accumulated a value of $4.3 million.
The Texas stars also managed to land some lucrative deals as Quinn Ewers signed with 7-Eleven, HEYDUDE shoes and C4 energy. The exact value of those deals is unknown, but it makes him comfortably one of the highest-paid athletes in college sports.
Texas backup quarterback with the titular name Arch Manning made a deal with trading card company Panini that netted him $102,500. However, Manning didn’t take a cent from the deal and instead donated all of that money to the Ronald McDonald House Charity in Austin.
Beck Andrew Salgado covers hot topics in the Austin business ecosystem for the American-Statesman. To share additional tips or insights with Salgado, email [email protected].
