The Ohio State Buckeyes are among the financially well-endowed teams that the College Sports Commission is trying to limit NIL spending for. While explaining the looming potential split between the SEC and Big Ten from the federal government's new enforcement arm, Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger mentioned Ohio State alongside the Oregon Ducks, USC Trojans, and TTUN as teams that could be the most affected.
These programs, plus various SEC juggernauts, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, the Miami Hurricanes, and others, have money that doesn't come from institutional rev-share pools but instead from third-party NIL deals that secure millions for top recruits.
"As the NCAA’s seven-year congressional lobbying effort reaches its climax — a vote on legislation is scheduled for this week in the House with momentum building for a bipartisan bill in the Senate, too — college sports is on the brink of more revolutionary decisions," Dellenger prefaced before saying, "At the center of it all is the landmark, multi-billion dollar legal settlement of three antitrust cases (House) that, while moving the enterprise into the age of direct athlete compensation, has failed to deliver the stability that many leaders sought — and now it poses a risk to roster stability.
"The new enforcement entity’s scrutiny of third-party NIL deals from the biggest above-the-cap spenders — many of them here (Ohio State, Oregon, USC, Michigan, etc.) — threatens to cripple the league’s wealthy behemoths by putting at risk tens of millions of dollars they guaranteed to their players."
The Ohio State University and the sport's biggest brands have too much power for the sport to change from being NIL-driven
The current administration may have talked up a big game with NIL reform, but like many other aspects of its governance, it probably won't be able to deliver on nearly any proposed promise. That is probably a good thing for College Football, with collective record ratings and revenue soaring, but it's particularly good for schools like the Ohio State University. Not to mention the various millionaire high school kids and their families who are the product of college sports.
OSU has a shady, powerful network behind the scenes that will keep the school competing with the University of Texas year in and year out in revenue, and, ipso facto, recruiting spending. That doesn't appear to be threatened in any way, since the guy at the top, Les Wexner, is connected to the President through nefarious third parties.
Billionaires run this country, and thus, run our politicians. Guys like Wexner and Oracle founder and TTUN alum Larry Ellison aren't going to cede record profits to return to the pre-NIL/rev-share before times -- all for the "sanctity" of a sport that has always evolved with the times. It's not in their DNA. They're too connected to let this system fall. And on the off chance it does, they can take their ball and run home, since everyone still wants to watch their teams play.
While college sports were threatened by intervention, under the false pretense that this current administration actually cares about smaller sports and not maximum profits, no less, it seems like the sport's biggest brands will get their desired outcome regardless.
Follow the money, always.
Add us as a preferred source on Google