We're roughly six months into the Name, Image, Likeness era in college sports and, last I checked, college football has not been destroyed.
On the flip side, very, very few athletes are making life-changing money.
The new era began with a bang, when a handful of players, primarily quarterbacks -- Miami's D'Eriq King, Oklahoma's Spencer Rattler, Clemson's DJ Uiagaleilei among them -- signed massive deals. Nick Saban reported his quarterback Bryce Young was nearing a million dollars. That was never independently verified, and if true it's hard to find evidence of it in the public eye.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of NIL deals are conducted through social media for very small dollar amounts.
According to data provided by INFLCR to Athletic Director U, the median NIL deal goes for
We're still in the early stages of the NIL era and the market is still taking form, but so far it's clear NIL is not a meteor streaking across the sky set to obliterate college sports. It's an avenue for college athletes to capitalize on their minor celebrity to put some money in their pocket.