ANALYSIS: Collective Bargaining May Be College Sports’ Best Hope

Since the US Supreme Court in 2021 granted college athletes name, image, and likeness rights, the landscape of college sports has been compared to the Wild West. With NIL rights, college athletes have the ability to use their name image, and likeness to make money for themselves through endorsement deals with companies, and even receive money from college-affiliated collectives for playing. The resulting explosion of options for elite college athletes—particularly for high-revenue sports like football—has made it possible for them to behave much like free agents in professional sports, offering their services to the highest bidder without having to ...