By Dr. James Thrasher

$4.8 million is the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) valuation of Cooper Flagg, a freshman Duke basketball player. How is that even possible? In essence, Duke was able to buy the hired gun, Flagg, one of the most highly decorated high school players in the country. Do you think Duke has a recruiting financial formula that has made it the winningest college hoops program in NCAA history? You bet it does. Duke is currently a number one seed in the March Madness tournament.

The onetime under-the-table recruiting deals of colleges and universities are now on top of the table; they have forever changed the student athlete landscape and may bring about the demise of college sports.

The runaway NIL policy of the NCAA, which has been completely mismanaged, is destroying college sports. This is evidenced by the surprising retirement of Alabama’s Nick Saban and Virgina’s Tony Bennett. Saban spoke of the immediacy and seriousness of the situation by saying, “people in Congress — I don’t care who has to get off their butt, but do something.” The warning shot has been fired across the bow.

In 2019, the state of California enacted the Fair Pay to Play Act, and other states quickly followed with their own versions. This forced the unprepared NCAA into approving a NIL policy protecting amateur sports and allowing college athletes to get paid for sports-related employment opportunities. Since 2021, the NIL rules and policies have constantly changed and have taken a direction that is contrary to their original purpose.

Initially, NIL in college sports allowed student athletes to capitalize on their name, image, and likeness, earning endorsements, selling merchandise, and participating in other commercial activities. This entailed accomplishing literal work as an athlete for an actual independent business entity or through personal entrepreneurial efforts.

This original intention has been sacrificed because of three unrecoverable mistakes by the NCAA, bringing to light its lack of integrity and proactive leadership.

First, D1 athletes transferring to other schools must no longer sit out for a year (called red shirting) at their new college before competing. This has opened the flood gates of the transfer portal. Unlimited transferring has prompted athletes to peddle themselves to the highest bidder and position themselves for a coveted national title. Listen carefully, for example, to the March Madness game announcers. Many, if not most, of the starters you are watching are playing at their third university. This was the case with the NCAA football playoffs as well.

Second, universities have allowed the creation of what are called “collectives.” Donor-driven “booster” NIL collectives will make up as much as 80% of distributed dollars to fund athletes in a particular season. “The Foundation” is the name of Ohio State University’s collective booster fund, which raised $536 million in 2022, according to USA Today and the Knight Commission. Ohio State won the NCAA national championship in 2025. The recipe is simple: the more money, the better the roster — which delivers more national championships. This has established a caste system of the have and have nots, directly impacting teams and individual athletes.

Third, and most incredibly, the NCAA just announced this month that it is permanently dropping its rule prohibiting athletes from negotiating NIL deals until after the athlete enrolls in school. This is so ruinous to amateur sports it is hard to fathom. This primary rule was designed to keep schools, specifically booster collectives, from using NIL deals to recruit college athletes. The NCAA boldly states that NIL money doesn’t come from the schools themselves, and that colleges aren’t paying athletes directly. The NCAA says that NIL deals are between the athletes and the “outside the institution” donor collectives. This is a total cop-out by the NCAA.

The college sports industry has adopted a professional sports business model. Well, amateur sports fans, it’s done, game over: three strikes, and you are outta here.

Shame on you, NCAA. Players are now in a modern-day Wild West “pay for play” scenario in college sports.

Amateur sports used to be played for the love of the game and devotion to the logo on the front of the jersey. But now it has devolved into chasing titles and worshipping the idol of money.

Dr. Jim Thrasher is the Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Student Recruitment and the coordinator of the Institute for Faith & Freedom’s working group on calling.