ESPN had a story on how all the scholarship players at Utah got Ram pickup trucks, and a source reported that Northwestern players all got $10k for participating in some youth camps. If that went to all 100 or so players on the roster, that $1 million!
I wonder what services the Utah players had to perform in consideration to receive the truck in payment. (You can’t just give them stuff. This needs to at least look like a business arrangement)
You can just give them money. That’s legal. However it’s taxed on the giver. If I can call it a business expense then that expense can be written off. Otherwise I make $15K, pay $5K in taxes on it and give $10K to a player and then they pay taxes on it. If it’s a valid expense then I make $10K and give it to a player and they pay taxes.
Here’s the link to the ESPN article on the trucks. They got leases, not ownership of the truck. The article doesn’t say what, if anything, they had to do in return, maybe just posting on social media about it?
Many coaches have gotten vehicles from local dealerships for years.
And as someone wrote years ago, if you know where the players’ parking spaces are, you won’t see a lot of Yugos there.
Coaches’ compensation are under much less regulation from players. As in not much at all.