In 2019, the college sports scene was a relic of what it is today in 2024. The transfer portal had just been created and NIL did not exist. After the NCAA announced that college athletes can transfer without sitting a year of competition, NIL started to gain traction.
By July 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Name, Image, and Likeness rights to college athletes (NIL) giving them the right to monetize themselves and make money regarding their name. Big time colleges gained ground on recruiting as they were able to offer athletes more money and monetization opportunities for committing to them over smaller schools.
Many criticize NIL for letting schools shell out tens of millions of dollars in order to secure national championships. In the 2024 College Football season, Ohio State spent $20 million on recruiting athletics from high school and through the transfer portal. Many other big time schools from notable conferences such as the SEC (SouthEastern Conference), Big 10, Big 12, and the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) followed and did the same thing. This led to another big issue within college athletics itself.
Before the 2024 season, the Pac 12 (Pacific 12 conference) was scrapped due to colleges leaving for other conferences offering better recruiting and monetization opportunities for universities.
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington left for the Big 10 which offered them more money in the tv deals. By using this increase in revenue, these schools would then be able to shell out more money to top recruits as well as saying that they would be playing in the biggest conference that college football had to offer.
Colorado, under new head coach Coach Prime, was another team that left for the Big 12 Conference. Other teams that left for the Big 12 included: Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah.
Stanford and Cal left as well for the ACC which surprised some as a team from the west coast was moving to play in a conference majorly on the east coast.
Teams like Oregon State and Washington State who were unable to find new conferences to move to will hurt big time in the recruiting process as without being in a big conference, the amount of revenue that they will be able to bring in is a fraction compared to the teams that left the conference.
Overall, the addition of NIL hurts colleges in small conferences and helps teams in well known big conferences. NIL will continue to change the landscape of recruiting and competition at the D1 level forever.