If you have access to Nebraska Public TV, you should watch the latest segment of Big Red Wrapup, there was a lengthy discussion of player compensation and how it is affecting recruiting, including NIL and what’s coming next–direct player compensation resulting from the ‘House’ settlement.
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule has been pretty candid about player compensation, noting that a top QB at a major school can cost upwards of $2 million now. And he thinks this is impacting parity, because players who are 3 or 4 star recruits might get a much higher offer from a lesser school than from one of the perennial Top 10 schools, because they’ll be at the top of the recruiting list for the lesser school but further down the list at Football U. And that impacts the overall talent level at both levels.
The panel was concerned about making the players employees as it raises all sorts of issues, workers comp being just one of them. Also, it could put public schools at a bit of a disadvantage to the big-time private schools because most public schools salaries are a matter of public record. They seemed to feel that there will be three components to player compensation: the revenue sharing, the cooperatives and direct NIL payments to players for specific endorsements or services.