How Money, Greed, and the NIL Destroyed College Football… Or Did it?

When you think of the college football rivalry between the Williams College Ephs and the Amhearst College Mammoths, you probably don’t have the same vision as the nationally known big-time college rivalries, such as the one between Ohio State University and the University of Michigan.

You probably have never thought about the Amhearst and Williams rivalry… you probably have never even heard of it.

The rivalry between these two schools is not only one of the oldest in college football history, dating back to 1884, it may be one of the last true bastions of football that is about tradition, competition, the schools, the game and the passion for the sport.

This is no longer the norm for most universities.

Over the span of multiple decades, college sports, specifically football and other high-profile sports, slowly morphed from being centered on rivalries, comradery, tradition, passion for the sport and the competition, to being more about money and the potential to make millions playing professionally after college.

This decades-long transition to monetary motivations eventually filtered down directly into the college ranks when more pressure came down on the NCAA to correct the discrepancy between the billions of dollars college sports generates and the athletes that do not make one dime from playing those sports. In 2021, the NCAA finally found a compromise with college athletes and compensation. The decision, many claim, is the final nail in the coffin that has now fully destroyed college athletics from what it once was many moons ago.

College athletes are now allowed to make money off their name, image and likeness (NIL). This move by the NCAA has been criticized by many folks claiming the new rule will result in top high school players only going where the money resides, with current college players taking advantage of new, and friendlier, transfer rules to change schools more frequently as opportunities pop up with more potential to make money elsewhere.

For those purists, the move officially ends the whole idea of collegiate sports being about tradition, the school, the rivalries, the towns… and most disappointing, it’s no longer about the passion to simply outplay, outsmart and physically endure, pushing one’s self further than they thought they could. It ends the idea that college sports are complimentary to the education in the classroom.

It’s all about the money and the million-dollar payday.

While the NIL rule may be the final blow to a bygone era that was already basically dead at universities across America, not everyone was affected by any of this.

In fact, for many colleges across the nation, it never was an issue and still isn’t. College athletics as we traditionally know it is still alive and breathing strong.

Just look toward the state of Massachusetts when Williams takes on Amhearst, for example… and it’s not only these two schools with such a deep and passionate rivalry that has no real financial or professional incentive for the players. There are more schools just like this in lower NCAA divisions and even some in Division I. For hundreds of schools and thousands of students, the reasons they step on the field are about those traditions, rivalries, and the chance to outplay, outsmart and physically endure beyond their opponent. These games have nothing to do with money because NIL opportunities don’t really exist and the odds of ever playing professionally are almost zero.

For these schools, it has always been this way since the first games they ever played and the changing face of both college and professional sports over the decades has had little influence on them. Despite professional American sports and college athletics both growing into multi-billion-dollar world-wide industries, these schools have remained relatively unaffected. That era many would label “bygone” at other schools is not “bygone” at these schools.

If you go back far enough in history, it was like this for most every college in America. College sports was once more about education with the opportunity to get that education paid for by agreeing to play a sport for the school. It was about tradition, rivalry and comradery and pushing one’s self physically and mentally. Professional careers in most sports decades ago were considered a second job because they didn’t pay that much for most of the players. Yes, there were some exceptions in the 1920s through the 1950s in baseball, and in football, but for most players, the million-dollar payday simply didn’t exist. Regular jobs after college graduation could pay as much, or much higher, depending on the career choice.

That began to change in the 1960s when professional sports’ salaries rose as television came into the mix and salaries began to rise on par with other careers and beyond. By the 1980s, athletes were getting rich. Today, professional athletes make more now in a short career than most Americans make in a lifetime, even those that are just average players, down to third-string bench warmers.

As this evolution happened into the new millennium, college athletes began to no longer see athletics as just a ticket to a free education, nor appreciated the comradery or traditions as much as prior generations. Rather, they saw this as the next required step in their career to millions of dollars playing a sport. This shift led many college athletes to view their college playing careers as the most important aspect of college because their performance would dictate their spot in a draft and the numbers that would appear on the contract they would sign.

While the NFL instituted rookie salary caps to mitigate the issue of overblown contracts to unproven college players drafted into the NFL, the NBA, MLB, and even the capped NFL, all still pay a boatload more money than most every other job right out of college.

This evolution of college athletics was inevitable.

The NCAA became a billion-dollar industry off these young men and women and they received no monetary compensation in return. Some argued that students were getting a free education out of it, but over time, that seemed to become irrelevant to many college players. Times had changed. Pursuing a professional sports career was not only a legitimate path, but much more lucrative than any job a college degree could get them. For a lot of collegiate athletes, college was nothing more than a required road they had to take to get to professional sports. A free education carried little or no value to many of them because that’s not why they were in college to begin with.

The NIL decision seemingly makes the transition complete. College sports are no longer about school pride and rivalry. That’s dead. This is about money and getting paid. Competition to be the best is not about school pride, tradition, personal growth, challenging one’s self or rivalries, it’s about how many zeros will appear in one’s bank account.

Despite all of this, there are still many places one will find that bygone era.

In November 2021, I had the opportunity to attend the Harvard University and Yale University football game in which Harvard strung together a last-minute drive to win it 34–31. Although the stadium wasn’t as big as a national championship, the crowd was absolutely insane, and the rivalry is as vicious as any other school rivalry in the nation. These two schools do not like each other and haven’t… for centuries. When Harvard’s quarterback Luke Emge pulled off a difficult 12-yard throw over the heads of two defenders to wide receiver Kym Wimberly in the back of the end zone with 22 seconds left, the fans lost it and bodies stormed the field.

Some may say this isn’t the same. They do not want to see a bunch of third-rate players that will never go professional playing for small-time schools. They want to see Heisman Trophy candidates. They want to see powerhouse schools in huge bowl games. They want to see the best college players in the country battle on the field… and you still can. However, if you want to see the best college players in the nation, you must pay the price.

What’s the price?

Whatever those players command and it will likely be at the expense of the things you actually love about the collegiate game.

The question you have to answer is which is more important to you?