Apart from the concern, as stated by Alabama coach Nick Saban, that the name, image, and likeness revolution affects parity of resources in college football, there’s another practical concern as it relates to boosters funneling cash directly to players or into broader fund that disseminate the cash.
Every dollar that a booster gives to players as NIL payment is one less dollar that the booster would otherwise give directly to the school.
Boosters only have so much money to give. And if they can dig deeper for NIL money to go along with their regular contribution, that’s extra money that could have gone to the school.
It’s an intriguing wrinkle to the new reality of big-time college athletics. Boosters will robbing Peter of donations to give NIL money to Paul.
Maybe that’s ultimately why the various universities, hiding behind the NCAA, want to eliminate boosters from the NIL equation. The boosters boost the programs. If they start boosting the players, the programs necessarily get less.