I put this in basketball because there was no general college sports category that I could use. I did not think Misc sports covered it.

I had a conversation with someone within the athletic department that better understands how NIL going forward will work and some of how it is functioning today.
Next year BYU and other universities will have to put aside funds to pay athletes directly from the university. This is part of the NCAA settlement. That amount will be $22M and certain amounts will be allocated to each team.

There can still be outside NIL deals done but the university will have to hire an outside third party to evaluate the deal and to assure everyone that there is a valid business agreement in place where the business is getting a fair value for their payment to the athlete.

Donors can still make donations to the university to assist in defraying the costs of this initial $22M but if I understood correctly that amount is the floor and not the ceiling. If that is the case, then the question I asked was how would this impact smaller schools who do not generate the income that that larger schools do with their media deals? The response was rather blunt but made it clear that it would hurt these schools disproportionately more than the power schools.

That would have to be a negative impact on schools like Utah State and the rest of the reconfigured PAC/MWC. Their media deals are worth far less and their ability to generate the sums of money needed are also less. We have already seen with the easing of restrictions on transferring players who demonstrate their ability at these smaller school moving to a power conference school.

Financially BYU is in a good place. They are generating more and more revenue. The price of my football season tickets went from $1250 to $1450. That is about an 18% increase. I would expect my basketball tickets will increase in price similarly. It tells me that if BYU wants to play with the big boys they are going to have to charge and pay like the big boys. The athletic department will have to encourage donations and seek other sources of revenue. I have never understood why BYU does not charge for parking. I get a parking pass with my tickets, but other schools still require you to pay for parking. I would recommend that the athletic department get all the revenue from concessions instead of splitting it with BYU Food Services.

The world of college athletics is changing, and I am not sure it is a positive change. There may come a time when scholarships are regarded as part of the compensation and becomes taxable income to the recipient. In the end I don’t think we will recognize college athletics twenty years from now. It used to be that schools had athletic teams but is rapidly morphing into athletic teams having schools attached to them.