If it smells like Limburger cheese melted on the car's manifold, it probably started in Texas. Kids in HS wanting to hear how much money is in it for them to sign with various schools to play football. It's beginning to sound more like pro sports every day.
I can hear it now. A phone discussion between a recruiter and a Junior in HS.
"We would really like you to visit our university. I think you'll like the campus and the challenge of our football team. As you know, we're only a couple of players away from winning a national title, and you could be one of those players."
"Sounds great!", followed by a hesitation, "How about the rest of it? You know.... the NIL money? Any of it on the table?"
"We can't talk about that Son. You know... the rules? We can't give you anything, and can't offer to have anyone else do it either. Against the rules." Laughter follows. "Did I tell you about the OT from Oklahoma that joined our program? He's part of the offensive line, and every darned one of them is getting an NIL package at $50k a year."
"Wow! That's a lot of money! I could get that much by signing with your school? I'm a center!"
"Well, no guarantees of course. We can't offer them. But all our offensive linemen are getting it. No reason it won't continue while you're here."
You're going to have to explain to me why this isn't already happening. Regardless of state laws, or implementation of state laws, restricting the rights to make a living are going to be a serious problem in stopping this from getting out of control. A legislature that restricts what these kids can make is going to be violating their rights one way or another, and it will be thrown out of the courts. The NCAA is toothless on this.
