NIL blurs lines between collegiate and professional sports, expert says

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Once considered amateurs, star college football and basketball players are now getting paid millions of dollars and are free to market their services to the highest bidder.

Under NIL, athletes are able to be compensated for their name, image and likeness, but the system has few guardrails leading to astronomical payments and pitting rich universities against poorer ones.

NIL has become a space race between universities to attract and retain star athletes. At the University of Michigan, they have reportedly inked a deal to pay high school quarterback Bryce Underwood $10.5 million.

Locally, the University of Pittsburgh has joined the race, just trying to stay competitive.

Eli Holstein, the star quarterback for the Pitt Panthers who’s impressed the college football world with his on-the-field poise and accurate throwing arm, is an amateur, but according to some, he’s making around $500,000 to play for Pitt. Still, as far as elite college athletes in the country, he’s at the low end of the spectrum.

To stay competitive, colleges and universities appear to be in bidding wars for the best athletes and the money is astounding. While QB Arch Manning in Texas is said to be making $3.1 million, the boosters to the University of Michigan just upped the ante and will reportedly pay Underwood $10.5 million to play in Ann Arbor.

“I mean, seven figures for these high school kids. I mean, to me, it’s just outrageous. It’s a system without guardrails. It really is,” said sports and entertainment attorney Rocco Cozza.

In the brave new world of NIL, Cozza says college athletics have become the Wild West, pitting rich universities against poorer ones in an escalating battle nobody wins — not even the young men and women reaping the big bucks.

“You’re giving an 18-year-old $5 million with no guardrails on it or no real advice on why they’re getting it and what they should be doing with it. If I was 18 and got $5 million, I would have probably went off the deep end somewhere,” Cozza said.

In the past, alumni and boosters were prohibited from giving athletes cash or gifts, and outside of a scholarship, athletes couldn’t make money for playing a sport, but that changed three years ago when the state legislature ruled college athletes could make money from their NIL.

Pitt graduate Chris Bickell, who made a fortune in tech healthcare, donated $20 million toward Pitt sports programs and formed a so-called collective called Alliance 412 to pay Pitt athletes. Bickell has asked other alumni to pony up to keep Pitt competitive. 

Alliance 412 currently has Holstein and dozens of other Pitt athletes under contract, paying them undisclosed amounts for the rights to names, images and likenesses. However, rules around these payments are hazy. 

While state law forbids it, critics say the collectives engage in pay-to-play — paying the athletes a salary based on performance just like the professional sports leagues.

“That’s professional sports, if you’re getting paid for performance,” said Cozza.

Both the University of Pittsburgh and Alliance 412 declined to participate in this report. Without enforcement and oversight, universities and collectives appear free to make their own rules, and that means paying whatever it takes to attract and keep athletes. 

Those athletes have what amounts to unlimited free agency to sell their services at any time to the highest bidder.

If a player is dissatisfied with their compensation, they’re free to put themselves on the transfer portal to get a better deal somewhere else — which brings us back to Holstein. He’s been hobbled by injury but fans know he can put himself on the open market.

Andy Sheehan

KDKA-TV Investigator Andy Sheehan began his broadcast journalism career in September 1992, when he joined KDKA after reporting for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for nine years. Andy’s forte is the in-depth investigative story, exposing corruption and government waste.