Did NIL kill Cinderellas?

There has been a major change in college sports that has changed the perspective of the entire country: NIL.

NIL stands for "Name, Image and Likeness", which allows for college athletes to be paid not only by colleges but by other companies such as Nike, Adidas and any other company you can think of.

While some think that college athletes being paid is the right path to go down, I believe that it is almost getting out of hand in its early stages.

A prime example of NIL killing mid-major teams and Power Four schools dominating is the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

It’s the first time since 2008 that all one seeds have made it to the Final Four and a big reason for this is because of the amount of money that prestigious schools like Duke, Florida and Auburn have to pay the best college athletes in the world.

The lowest-seated team to make the Elite Eight was Texas Tech, and they were a three-seed.

The difference between the one seed and the two seeds was the biggest difference we’ve seen in a long time.

There weren’t even that many major upsets in this year’s tournament because they just can’t keep up with the new era of college sports.

And it’s not just college basketball where this problem is coming up; it’s all college sports, especially college football.

For example, the number one football recruit in the class of 2025, Bryce Underwood, received an offer from Michigan that shocked the entirety of the United States.

Underwood will receive upwards of $12 million if he decides to play for the Wolverines for four years. Some athletes stay in college for more years than they need to because they know that they will get paid more in college than they will with a rookie contract in the professional leagues.

It is not just the schools that are paying a lot of money for these talented athletes, but the alumni of certain schools are chipping in to guarantee that these athletes commit to their schools.

The founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, played a major role in the signing of Bryce Underwood. NIL gives so much power to these big-name schools because of how much money they have and the influence that they have during the recruitment process, not just for high school athletes, but for the transfer portal as well.

There should be a limit to the amount of NIL schools can not only on NIL, but how much NIL they have because smaller schools are falling behind and are even being forced to move down divisions because of these money discrepancies.

Saint Francis just made the March Madness play-in game as a 16 seed and now they are going from Division I all the way to Division III.

I wouldn’t be surprised if other schools start dealing with the same problems and have to move down to Division II or even Division III like Saint Francis because of NIL.

Massimo Buonagurio is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mkb6750@psu.edu.