Quote Originally Posted by FISHDAWG View Post
I thought the NCAA set eligibility ... the courts just said they could make money on their NIL. I know in professional golf that amateurs forfeited their winnings or had to turn pro ... thus losing their amateur status. It just seems like the NCAA could come up with something if they really wanted to but probably don't want to spend millions in court fighting it
Players could have always earned NIL type money if someone was willing to pay them. NCAA could not have stopped that and it was certainly not illegal. But no booster or business would openly pay a player if it cost that player their amateur status as a college athlete even if there were no potential NCAA sanctions involved for the school. So somewhere in all this mess the NCAA had to have changed their eligibility rules.