So, how does NIL affect your view of college athletes and how you interact with your team....

[fowl_mood]

Are you going to stick to never booing players? Do you really care about the GPA of the team? Will you be less tolerant of lackadaisical players not showing up? Will you reduce your financial support?

Or maybe, you will hand out some money, for real marketing or on the fly for autographs? Will you follow certain players just to build their followers on social media?

For me, this is a very different game now. Our team has a lot less to do with getting an education at South Carolina and more to do with what the athlete can maximize for themselves.

I don't begrudge these kids getting paid for their image. I do hate to see the end of "the old college try." And, as some of the gleam wears off of this and we develop the team haves and have nots, teams will become transient groups of the rich and disgruntled. Follow the money.

We may as well pay all of them and make them minor league pros.

 

[Gamecock Lifer]

It has absolutely no impact on my opinion of players or my excitement for college football.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

The OP brings some interesting points. We have always deluded ourselves to believe the players were giving their all for the "pride of the school". When the realization starts to seep in that there are some guys out there merely trying to maximize their payout, i.e. sitting out a game perhaps, How long till the booing starts.

We are indeed heading into uncharted waters.

 

[MookieBlaylock9]

The excitement of NIL will wear off quickly. There's only so many lucrative endorsements to go around. I am interested to see how it is exploited in recruiting and if there is any way to stop it.

 

[Steves Visor]

For this season NIL doesn’t affect my view Of the sport at all. CFB will still be a trash product with very few good teams or watchable games this year. Hopefully NIL will improve the sport in the long run and make it more entertaining.

Bottom line- it’s too soon to tell.

 

[king ward]

Very interesting questions posed by the OP. I had already cooled on college sports to an extent. I don't see any way that this will pique renewed interest. I hope we don't lose the idea that these men and women are students representing the school, their fellow students, and the school's constituency. That ship might already have sailed, at least with respect to football and men's basketball. But if the student-athlete model be further degraded, let the rest be lost with it, as far as I'm concerned. It's ridiculous that the actual attainment of an education while at college has become an afterthought to many athletes, if even that. I have plenty of other ways from which to derive enjoyment.