US Military Teams Schooled By NIL “Reform”?

Any thought given to Army, Navy & AF football becoming a glorified club sport as rich colleges increasingly dominate recruiting with pay to play deals govt cannot allow on top of lucrative NIL brand gigs?

It’s old news by now how NCAA sports and especially college football have changed since a federal judge in 2020 ordered the NCAA to change its rules to let its member schools to pay each athlete up to $5,980 to “recognize academic performance”, then, in 2021 student-athletes won the right to make almost limitless money off their names, images and likenesses. A March Fox Sports article said these were “long needed” reforms. Really? How much “incentive” are we talking? The Fox piece goes on with an example almost contradicting what it suggested was a slam dunk for a new & better world: “The Athletic reports a 5-Star recruit in the class of 2023 – a high school junior, or what we’d call a Year 11 student – has signed an agreement that will see him paid $350K immediately, with monthly payment that rise to more than $2 million a year.”

Let’s not be pikers or make mince-meat out of logic. For the big-name colleges, it’s simple: The “reforms” means their “amateur” college sports history has turned “pro”. Student-athletes at schools like Alabama and Ohio State are turned into newly-enriched student-professionals. And, coaches like Saban & Day are near annual locks to play for the national title at season’s end. What odds, in fact, do you think Las Vegas will every give the US Military Academy teams a chance to get into the AP Top 25 let alone play in the CFP?

Davd Soul