NIL can be a big help for Michigan football, basketball

NIL is changing college sports forever and here’s how Michigan’s football and basketball programs can take advantage of it. 

With news that NIL has arrived in college sports, it is a fresh new start for the outlook of college sports.

Although NIL is finally here, it has largely garnered mixed reviews from college sports fans, coaches, and media members.

Pretty much the only frowning faces are the more old-school-style coaches and media members like the Dick Vitale’s of the world.

It doesn’t really make sense why these old-school-style coaches and media members don’t want athletes to profit off of their own name, image, and likeness. These coaches are making several thousand to millions of dollars off of these athletes who work their butts off each day to improve their games.

How come coaches get paid hefty salaries to coach players who aren’t paid themselves? Athletes risk serious potential injury each time they practice or they play a game. What money would they receive if they had to be hospitalized for an extended period of time? There’s no such thing as health care in college sports. They pay everything out of pocket.

It also doesn’t make any sense that these old heads don’t want athletes to get paid when that is already very obviously happening already. We all swoon over certain players cause they’re so talented, but sometimes they were getting paid under the table. It’s a fact. Not every athlete, but some programs cheated when NIL wasn’t out at the time.

Michigan can use NIL to its advantage

NIL will definitely help balance this out now. It bodes well for every Michigan Wolverine sport. For Michigan football, it means now Jim Harbaugh can incorporate NIL into his recruiting pitch, mentioning U-M’s very large following worldwide as part of the pitch.

We as fans can hopefully start to see an uptick in 5-star recruits, and some guys that will make several thousands of dollars over time off their NILs. That means the days of OSU, Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma ruling football recruiting won’t be as scripted every year, and Michigan football can actually compete with these teams in recruiting.

On the basketball side of things, Juwan Howard can also use the NIL to his advantage. He’s already pulling in number one classes. Imagine now what he could do with the NIL?

That means maybe, just maybe, Michigan can swoon a guy like Emoni Bates to stay in college instead of going to the pros. Not just him though. A lot of these elite athletes who thought they’d have to play in a professional league to make money before the NBA can now see college as a serious option to making money, playing elite, and getting drafted.

Hopefully, in the coming years, U-Ms Fab Five banners will be put back up into the rafters, because they are a serious part of college basketball’s history and deserve all the respect and all the glory.

Yeah, there are some downsides to this. Mainly, the programs that were cheating before NIL became official won’t be caught now and punished.

Lastly, people have concerns over the potential feuds in locker rooms over money and athletes comparing their money to each other. That is stupid. Athletes are athletes. They compete with each other over even smaller things. There are going to be distractions regardless so it’s inevitable. And if you are a great coach (like Juwan Howard) you know how to check egos at the door, even with this new NIL rule.

As fans of the team, and college sports in general, we sometimes have differing opinions on certain subjects and situations, but one thing I have to ask is this: wouldn’t you want to be paid if you were an athlete and risked potential injury every single day and your head coach makes millions off of your body and performance?