then Stewart had a pretty good gig. Not sure if walk-ons got to share in on that NIL. But Stewart isn't good enough to dominate at any level. So he could go down to a low-major to try to get more playing time, but then probably gets zero NIL at a low major. By being loyal, he's going to get his degree paid for as well as earning some NIL.

If an elite school wants to get good talent at the 9, 10, 11 spots on the roster (let alone 12-13 spots), then they'll probably have to pay some decent NIL to persuade the talent to come in and be backups or be in a platoon situation.

And an additional counterpoint is that if a player can get up to a P5 team and can even be a backup (like 15 minutes a game) then that is enough to showcase their ability to then get a better NIL. Khalifa was actually playing 19 minutes a game, and parlayed that into a better NIL deal at Lousiville. Saunders was a backup with 20 minutes a game and parlayed that into a better NIL deal and being a sought-after commodity in the portal.