Almost 30 years ago there was a comedy/drama movie called Jerry Maguire. Jerry (Tom Cruise) was a sports agent with a single client (Rod Tidwell played by Cuba Gooding Jr. who would always say to Jerry “Show Me The Money.” Jerry’s love interest was Renée Zellweger.

Jerry had been let go by a large firm and ended up only with Rod Tidwell, who was a talented but discontented wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals who could not get the contract he wanted. By the end, however, Rod made a catch that secured a playoff berth and then, on TV, thanked Jerry for being such a wonderful agent which meant Jerry would have more than one client going forward and that Jerry would get Rod the mega contract he wanted. Jerry then pursued and won the girl back as well (“shut up…you had me from hello”). Of course, that movie involved pro football where “Show Me The Money” is to be expected. Now, however, “Show Me The Money” has made its way to the college ranks.

Bryce Underwood is a high school senior from Belleville, Michigan who is a phenomenal football player. He is rated as the number one prospect in the country. At 6’3” and 205 pounds, he is not only a great passer but a great runner as well.

Until recently, he had committed to play football for LSU, which has a history of producing great quarterbacks, including a recent Heisman Trophy winner. But that commitment was verbal and then the University of Michigan came calling.

Tom Brady, often referred to as the GOAT (greatest of all time) quarterback, called Underwood to get him to attend Brady’s alma mater, Michigan. Then Larry Ellison, the Oracle billionaire who also attended Michigan, ponied up $12 million and that cinched the deal. So, Underwood will now be playing for Michigan and is likely to be the starting quarterback as a freshman.

So, you may ask: “how did this happen?” When I was going to college, the scholarship athletes received full room, board and tuition as well as specialized academic help in exchange for their participation on the football or basketball team. Somewhere along the way, an inventive lawyer decided that a scholarship athlete should be receiving money from the university which was profiting from their efforts. So, there was born the NIL concept (Name, Image and Likeness). So, if the university sold a jersey with a football player’s name on it, the player should receive some recompense.

That seemed reasonable, but, like all seemingly reasonable propositions, the devil was in the details. The Supreme Court decided in 2021 that the NCAA rules limiting compensation for scholarship athletes violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. The decision was unanimous, and eight of the nine justices attended Ivy League law schools, which never had football programs anywhere near that of LSU or the University of Michigan. All Ivy League schools had decided many years ago their football programs would not try to compete with the University of Michigans of the world. So, the Justices did not see the Pandora’s box that they had just opened. Only Justice Amy Coney Barrett had any notion of what big time football was about as she had been a student and professor in the Notre Dame law school, but she had only been on the Court for a few months.

There is a reason that the Harvard versus Yale football game is not televised. And there are reasons that Alabama versus Auburn, Notre Dame versus Southern Cal or Michigan versus Ohio State are televised. The reasons are simple. College football fans want to see the “big” games and couldn’t care less about the Ivy League games. It seems that eight of the nine justices were not college football fans and probably didn’t understand what would occur as a result of the decision.

I don’t pretend to be an antitrust expert, so it may well be that the decision was legally correct. However, it created a loophole that you could drive a Mack truck through. All of a sudden there were “NIL groups” in virtually every school where big-time football or basketball existed. These NIL groups were funded by the ever-present alumni boosters who then decided that paying the athlete for his name on jerseys was worth $12 million.

And it’s not only the big money sports but it even extends to women’s softball. NiJarre Canaday was an exceptional softball pitcher for Stanford. She was so good that the Texas Tech Matador Club (its NIL group) suggested that she come pitch for Texas Tech for an NIL amount in excess of $1 million. In spite of her presence and her superb pitching, Texas Tech just lost in the finals of the Women’s Softball National Championship to Texas. NiJarre will be back next year for another million dollar plus consideration. Not only that but the Matador Club has persuaded at least five nationally ranked softball players to transfer to Texas Tech and all of them will receive NIL money.

The Matador Club raises approximately $55 million in NIL money. Most of that is probably spent on football and basketball but a fair amount is being spent on women’s softball, and it will likely result in national championships. So, it actually seems like a pretty sensible investment and will likely increase attention to the sport. But since there is no professional softball league, NiJarre’s ability to make a considerable sum of money is conditioned on playing in college until her eligibility runs out.

Much of this would not be possible without what is called the “transfer portal.” Basically, an athlete can decide to go from one school to the other and the NIL money is a powerful lubricant as the recruitment of NiJarre proved.

Last year’s National Football Championship was won by Ohio State. The Ohio State football players received over $20 million in NIL money which was at least 5 times the amount received by players on the losing team.

So how long will this last? Theoretically, it will soon come to an end. The reason is that there has been a court case where there has been a settlement between the NCAA and various parties, including the large football and basketball conferences. The proposed solution is to allow each school to spend just over $20 million to its athletes (amount increases each year) and to limit NIL money unless there is a “valid business purpose.”

Think about this. Texas Tech’s Matador Club raised over $50 million and now Texas Tech will have to exist on $20 million. Ohio State football players made $20 million in NIL money and now ALL Ohio State athletes (basketball [men and women],softball, lacrosse ,etc.) will have to live on the same $20 million. This probably means that there will now be numerous  “valid business purposes” to justify NIL money.

I’m sure that there are car dealers and restaurants in Tuscaloosa, Ann Arbor, Columbus, South Bend, Los Angeles, Austin, Gainesville, and numerous other college towns that will be happy to have the endorsement of certain athletes. And of course, there is the NIL money to be provided by Nike, Adidas , Under Armour and the athletic gear companies. NIL money, once loosed, is not easily cabined.

Is this the end of the world? No. It reminds me of the change in the Olympics, which allowed professional athletes to compete and abandoned the rule that it only had to be amateurs. People remain mesmerized by the Olympics and the rule change may have made the competition more compelling. However, the rule change also insured that there will never be another “Miracle On Ice,” the 1980 hockey game where US college amateur players defeated the professional Russian hockey team.

One does have to question whether it’s a good idea to reward 18-year-olds with million-dollar bonuses simply for their athletic ability. Have we gone too far? For me, the answer is yes but I’m just an old guy remembering the “good old days” which were probably not as good as I remember.

The present state of affairs probably does mean that the phrase the old “college try” will not be used very much in the future.