🏈 Skirting the Salary Cap

How College Sports Just Professionalized Even Further

Author

Samuel Rogers
November 23, 2025

The House v. NCAA settlement was billed as a landmark. For the first time, schools could directly share revenue with athletes, capped at $20.5M per year. At the same time, new restrictions were placed on NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) collectives to prevent “pay-for-play” inducements.

Sounds like a cap. Feels like a cap. But it isn’t one.

📊 The Workaround

Athletic departments have already turned the system inside out:

  • In-House Agencies: Schools are now acting as marketing firms for athletes, sourcing outside deals or embedding NIL guarantees in sponsor contracts.

  • Operational Models:

    • Some universities built formal, in-house “agencies.”

    • Others lean on athletic department staff to broker deals day-to-day.

  • Shift in Control: Collectives are being sidelined. Schools are pulling NIL pipelines directly under their roof.

🚨 The Recruiting Edge

This isn’t just a compliance move. It’s a recruiting strategy.

Ohio State AD Ross Bjork framed it bluntly:

“We can now help our athletes really serve as a marketing agency … whether it’s corporate, local, or social media opportunities. That’s going to be the next race.”

Translation: Recruits won’t just ask, “What’s the stadium like?” They’ll ask, “What marketing machine are you building for me?”

⏳ Adoption Timeline

  • Boise State: First mover. Built an in-house NIL arm within a year of NIL’s launch in 2021.

  • 2025: Widespread adoption — after collectives were squeezed, schools rushed to reinvent themselves as NIL powerhouses.

💡 The Blunt Insight

The $20.5M salary cap was meant to rein in spending. Instead, it forced schools to professionalize faster.

  • Salary cap applies only to direct revenue sharing.

  • NIL marketing operations remain uncapped.

  • Schools are now competing not just as athletic programs, but as sports marketing agencies.

This is the next phase of the arms race. Facilities, TV deals, and championships matter — but the real edge is in building the biggest NIL engine in-house.

Men lie. Women lie. The numbers never do.

  • $20.5M is the ceiling.

  • But the floor is rising with every new “agency” a school creates.

👉 If you think the salary cap changed the game, think again. The real story is who’s building the strongest NIL infrastructure — and that’s where recruiting battles will be won.

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