If you had believed the NCAA’s NIL fear mongers, let alone its legal arguments in defense of “amateurism” taken all the way to the Supreme Court, here’s what would have happened over the weekend.
No one would have watched March Madness.
Well, in fairness, someone would have, but the audience would have been much smaller than before.
That’s what NCAA power brokers, coaches, athletic directors and attorneys alike argued would happen if college players were allowed to profit off their name, image and likeness. If these athletes started getting “paid,” a substantial number of fans who were, apparently, drawn to college athletics because the players didn’t make any money, were going to stop caring and watching.