Eighteen Nebraska football players just got $7.5 million in name, image, and likeness deals approved by the College Sports Commission, and if that doesn't tell you where universities' priorities sit, nothing will.
The Associated Press reported that the CSC initially rejected these deals between Nebraska's multimedia partner Playfly and the players. An arbitrator upheld the rejection, finding the deals lacked a "valid business purpose" and that Playfly had violated rules against "warehousing" NIL rights—paying for access now to use later. Nebraska simply restructured and resubmitted. Athletic director Troy Dannen confirmed the approvals, saying players will be paid after they fulfill their deal responsibilities.
Here's the structural problem: schools are allowed to pay up to $21.3 million in revenue sharing with athletes in 2026-27. But marketing firms partnering with schools provide third-party NIL deals that let programs blow right past that spending cap. The cap is a fiction. The money keeps flowing.
Meanwhile, UCLA head coach Bob Chesney used Big Ten Media Days to push for expanding the College Football Playoff even further. Newsweek reported Chesney compared college football to pro sports, noting that 45-70% of teams make the playoffs in the NFL, NBA, and MLB, while only 8% of college football programs get in. "That's a little odd to me, that there's not more of an opportunity for guys to get in there," he said. Chesney acknowledged the counterarguments—more games mean more wear and tear, and bowl games in dependent towns could disappear—but the thrust was clear: more teams, more games, more revenue.
Heavy's look at Indiana's post-championship roster turnover illustrates the machine's churn. The Hoosiers lost their quarterback, top receivers, and defensive core to the NFL draft after a 16-0 title run. The portal and the draft now strip programs bare annually, and the solution is always the same: spend more, bring in transfers, keep the product on the field.
The question nobody in the college sports apparatus wants to answer is simple: who pays? Not the players—they're finally getting a cut. Not the administrators—they're building empires. The American family pays, through tuition hikes, student fees, and taxpayer subsidies that underwrite stadium expansions and coaching salaries at institutions that can't produce graduates who can read at an eighth-grade level. Every dollar that flows to Playfly deals and playoff expansion is a dollar that doesn't go to the classroom.
The playoff will expand. The NIL cap will keep getting circumvented. The industrial complex feeds itself. The only question left is how long families will keep paying for it.
