NIL money questions

[BleedsRedUte]

What started this off was an old article I read that stated Arch Manning, a grandson of Archie Manning, was expected to make between 3 and 4 million a year playing for the Texas Longhorns football program.

I can’t get a clear picture of how NIL works. The simple explanation is that players can make money from their Name, Image, or Likeness.

But with this much money on the line who administers NIL payment and how does he/she get paid what was expected? Especially if the reason the athlete chose the school was because of the expected NIL figure they could earn.

One explanation I read was that a “Collective” of Boosters/Donors would be the ones using the athlete NIL and pay for it. The University/school cannot pay the athlete anything but has some role in how the athlete is paid and assuring tax and legal concerns are followed.

But I have some questions:
Is there any legal standing to the figure of money the athlete can/thinks they will earn after signing with the institution? Is there some kind of contract that uses this figure.

If the athlete doesn’t live up to expectations, gets injured, or whatever may damage the marketabitlity of their brand, can they still get paid? If no contract, what establishes the rules when things go wrong.

If the money is coming from this Collective, what keeps the actions of Donors, Boosters, and any others that want to use an Athletes NIL, on the straight and narrow. Seems like an open door for illegal activities (like actions to “promise” a certain amount of payment for siging with the school with no actual NIL actions required).

If the school has to watch all this, then I’m sure that there needs to be a whole department dedicated to NIL. Who pays for this? Boosters/Donors.

If well to do boosters want to help get a certain athlete to come to the school, but don’t currently own a business that needs advertising, how do they funnel money to players legally?

Lots of questions, and I’m sure there are good answers since NIL has been going on for a few years now and I have’nt heard of any major problems.

[DataUte]

Depends on if you want to know how it was supposed to work (sponsorship deals because their name, image, or likeness was marketable; revenue sharing from jersey sales with their name, etc.) or how it actually works (pay-to-play, agents; collectives collect money, coaches or athletic dept. kind of have to tell them what can be offered, now court-won school revenue sharing, etc.).

You haven’t heard of problems? Nothing? Like QB Sluka at UNLV ‘promised’ money by an asst coach but didn’t get paid – also didn’t get anything in writing? Or players waiting for the last NIL check to clear and entering the portal the next day (like OSU Damien Martinez, now at Miami).

It’s still a mess and some teams are figuring out how to do it better (Pitt has targets but doesn’t pay until the end of the season to keep them hungry and not overpay on hope, but balance it out more for performance). Schools are starting to slot how much each position should be worth or at least a budget for it (many FB programs are hiring a GM role). There could be base rate, incentives for performance, and then of course, what will outside sponsors (think Nike, Dr. Pepper, etc.) offer, etc.

[SteelUte]

To explain it in two words: total $#!tshow !

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