NFL sees NIL chaos — and smells a threat to its empire | Opinion
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Would you look at that, the NFL has decided to weigh in on the great college sports debate.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the multi-billion dollar corporation benefiting greatly from college football’s free farm system has decided that, yes, college sports — which, practically speaking, means college football — needs federal help to keep its house in order.
Federal assistance that will limit player earning power, and movement.
The very things the NFL tries to quash during every Collective Bargaining Agreement with its players.
The NFL, NFLPA and NBAPA all sent letters to Congress on Tuesday, June 16 extolling the virtues of everyone working together in peace and harmony to find answers to fix college sports. The players associations of the two leagues support the Protect College Sports Act because it provides medical and healthcare benefits, a less publicized but important factor in the bill.
The NFL, everyone, has its own agenda.
I’m no mind reader, but my guess is the NFL isn’t too thrilled about drafting players who are — how can I say this? — more hungry for money and social fame than the grind of football. The free farm system of decades past has become a babysitters club of the biggest and brightest divas.
The NFL is wasting developmental time getting a group of pandered, me-first players acclimated to you’re about ready to get your ass kicked in a real job. It’s a short leap from no rules to no accountability.
And the NFL just can’t have that.
Life was easier for all involved when the No. 1 question recruits had for college coaches was how quickly can you get me to the NFL? Players wanted to compete at the highest level of football, and wanted to earn in the process.
Now the first question college coaches hear is how quickly can I make my first million? Or millions.
Reaching the NFL, playing with the best of the best, has become secondary. When the drive and desire to be and play with the best is stagnated by cash and attention at the college level, the NFL product suffers.
There’s a reason the NFL has a three-year rule for entry into its exclusive league. You can’t enter the NFL Draft until you’re three years removed from high school graduation.
Again, that’s not an NCAA rule, it’s an NFL rule. Why, you ask?
Because the NFL gets free development from college football. If the NFL had no age requirement, it would be dealing with the same maturity issues now plaguing college football — to say nothing of eliminating the critical benefit of players who leave campus three years later with a completely changed physical body and a greater understanding of the game.
But there’s the NFL, in its infinite wisdom, sending a letter to Congress that says, “Healthy, stable, and thriving collegiate athletics is essential to the future of American sports, including Olympic sports. By utilizing proven models like the voluntary pooling of media rights under the Sports Broadcasting Act, which supports broad, fan-friendly distribution of NFL games, this legislation will support college athletics and ensure fans will be able to access their favorite games across today’s changing media landscape.”
I’m gonna puke.
The NFL, the most successful professional sports league on the planet, knows damn well pooling media rights is a crapshoot. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.
It works famously for the NFL because it has 32 mouths to feed, not 138 — and the 138 also have Olympic sports to supplement. It works for the NFL because a limited amount of games create demand for an elite product.
You know, like the limited amount of Big Ten and SEC games creates demand for their product.
Ask the NFL if it wants Congress in its business, half demanding a free and open market, and the other half desperate for collective bargaining. Ask the NFL if it wants Congress to inform the league that it will pool media rights with the United Football League, and the Arena League and its various counterparts, to supplement their growth and expansion.
The NFL doesn’t care about Olympic sports, the NFL cares about football. Their product has become more difficult to manage in the NIL era, and throwing their weight at anything that could limit earning and movement for college players is a win.
Player movement is a big problem, easily the No. 1 issue facing college football. Free movement drives up salaries, and roster salary caps have exploded from Ohio State’s $20 million investment in 2024, to Texas, LSU, Oregon, Ohio State and a few others in the $40 million range two years later.
This has nothing to do with NIL, and everything to do with free player movement. The NFL has heavy restrictions on free player movement — first round picks are locked in for as many as five years — and the last thing it needs is a bunch of free-wheeling players joining their league with thoughts of movement.
Because it may not happen immediately, but the current NFL CBA ends in 2030, and a strong percentage of players in the league will have gone through the Wild, Wild West days of college football. And suddenly, the bargaining dynamic changes.
The last thing the NFL’s billion dollar ATM wants or needs is a player strike. It’s a lot easier to get 1,700 players to strike because they want greater movement flexibility (or more money) than it is for college football players to coalesce and get more than 14,000 to walk out.
So yeah, the NFL isn’t exactly doing this out of the goodness of its saving American sports heart. It’s doing it selfishly.
Which places it in the same boat as everyone else in this twisted game.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL isn’t saving college sports. It’s protecting itself
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