In recent weeks the NBA G league has swayed top college basketball recruits away from signing with their schools of choice and instead signing with a select G League team for up to 14 times the maximum league salary. This could pose a threat to the NCAA. If top players decide to skip college and get paid to go pro the NCAA could stand to lose a massive amount of revenue.

Top recruits like Jaylen Green, Isaiah Todd, and Daishen Nix have signed with the G League for the 2020-2021 season for salaries of up to $500,000. If more and more recruits continue to do this the NCAA will produce a less exciting product with worse players and potentially lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

In response to this the NCAA has released a new NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) policy that will go into effect for the 2021 season. Essentially the NCAA will allow athletes to profit off of their personal brands without being paid by schools. Players can profit off of signing endorsement deals, signing autographs etc. However, it is strictly prohibited that a school pay a student-athlete.

This ruling seems like the NCAA’s long awaited compromise to the debate over college athletes being paid. In my opinion this is a step in the right direction. As an avid college sports fan and a staunch believer that athletes should be compensated this appears to be progress. This initial ruling will allow the NCAA to be able to afford to sponsor athletic competition and athletes to profit off of their hard work. This ruling by the NCAA could possibly be the end of the debt over college athletes being paid.