Just saw that. RIP NLI.
“The NLI will be replaced by a new financial aid agreement that will provide many of the same core functions as the NLI and will likely be tied to a contract related to an impending revenue-sharing model across college athletics.”
Will be interesting to see what that new financial aid agreement will be. Using the phrase “financial aid” seems intentional to still make it seem like these are student-athletes. How about “employment agreement”?
I think the NCAA sees the writing on the wall and doesn’t want to provoke any challenges to their power that will speed the process along.
Instead of trying to bind kids to schools based on “commitments,” they are making it more clearly about the money. So instead of the NCAA governing where kids go, it’s plain to see that the kid is signing a financial contract. Everybody understands that much, and it’s more likely to be seen as fair instead of exploitative.
Of course, that actually depends on the terms in the contracts…