Under the current NIL-driven system, the Miami Hurricanes have done pretty well for themselves. Despite being in the ACC, the football program has remained reasonably competitive at least when they actually play defense and Miami basketball has a pair of deep runs in the NCAA tournament in recent years. Now, the recent NCAA compensation settlement has fundamentally changed the college sports landscape forever (again).
The details and short-term impacts of the settlement already seem pretty well known. All NIL deals over $600 after July 1 are now subject to oversight to ensure that they are for a “valid business purpose” and not just pay-to-play and each school can distribute up to $20.5 million to student-athletes as compensation.
However, what has yet to be understood is how this new system will really impact existing NIL deals and if the new oversight will actually limit spending from alumni/boosters the way everyone seems to want.
Hurricanes’ strategy of targeting top recruits with big dollars hangs in the balance after NCAA settlement
Under the terms of the settlement, any NIL deals paid out after July 1, 2025 will be subject to oversight to determine if they are legitimate payments or not. That seems fairly simple, but the impact on existing, but yet-to-be-paid deals for guys like top Canes recruit Jackson Cantwell who command large NIL paydays under the current system is trickier. The payments to Cantwell will obviously be regulated as he is a 2026 recruit, but does the $20.5 million cap on payments from the school change the calculus on Miami’s end and threaten to get Cantwell’s NIL deal voided because it isn’t “legitimate” depending on where the money is coming from?
This raises another fundamental issue for Miami and schools like them: the NIL oversight provisions themselves. Who exactly is going to be determining whether a deal is legitimate and will those judges change from case to case? Are power conferences going to get preferential treatment because their brands are already bigger and therefore more “legitimately valuable” when it comes to assessing marketing deals? How strict are these NIL overlords actually going to be?
We don’t have the answers to many of these questions yet and it could be a while before we do. The transfer portal is the Wild West right now as guys try to move around and get deals paid before the July 1 deadline. Once the dust settles and we start to see how this system actually operates, the Hurricanes may find that this “creating a level playing field” could end up costing them overall.