By Steve Brawner, © 2023 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

“Congressional “ and “action” are two words that aren’t used together much these days, but that’s what University of Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek was hoping to help make happen June 7.

Yurachek was scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C., as part of a group of Southeastern Conference leaders seeking to create a uniform NIL national standard. 

For non-sports fans, NIL is the newfound reality where college athletes can be compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness, although that compensation can’t come from the university. It has opened the doors for college athletes to be paid big bucks to endorse products and engage in other activities.

How big? The website On3 calculates the valuation of Bronny James, son of LeBron James, at $6.8 million. That doesn’t mean the incoming University of Southern California freshman basketball player is being paid exactly that, but that’s what the site says he’s worth. The second highest valued athlete is LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, who is valued at $3.4 million. Third is incoming University of Texas quarterback Arch Manning, nephew of Peyton and Eli. He’s valued at $2.8 million. 

The top ranking Razorback is running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, who is 48th with a value of $750,000. 

NIL has transformed college sports. Long a bastion of “amateur athletics,” it’s now professional sports where 18-year-olds can make more money in a season than many of us will make in decades. Instead of rewarding athletic achievement at the college level, it has quickly become, as Yurachek noted, an inducement. High school athletes are making their college decisions based on where they’ll get the biggest paycheck. And it’s all being governed by laws that vary from state to state. That’s what Yurachek wants to fix.

Another major change in college sports is the transfer portal, which helps athletes easily change teams at will – the first time without penalty. That’s a major break from the past, when athletes were required to sit out a year every time they transferred, even as their coaches freely took new jobs for millions more.

Together, NIL and the transfer portal have made every highly-sought-after college athlete a potential free agent, able to play for the highest bidder, and eligible to sign contracts with anyone but the team they play for. 

It means some of the illusions and traditions that made college sports so charming don’t really exist anymore. Gone are the days when fans could believe that athletes played for the Razorbacks because of their love for the team and the state (even if they had grown up in Texas). We’ll less often watch players grow and jell over several years’ time as we did with those great basketball teams coached by Nolan Richardson.

Sports fans benefited from those illusions and traditions, but people always benefit when others are being exploited. Today’s athletes are being paid what the market wants to pay them. Their less-fortunate predecessors weren’t because a few wealthy and powerful people (NCAA leaders, athletic directors and university presidents) colluded to keep them from making money.

In the process, they forced those young athletes to make awkward choices: Put their school in jeopardy by accepting illegal payments so they could make a car payment or order a pizza, or struggle financially because, unlike other students, they couldn’t be paid for their work. 

Are 18-year-olds well-suited to be paid millions of dollars to play a sport (or do anything)? Probably many aren’t – but then most won’t be paid that much. Some will be taken advantage of, though in a different way than before. 

But for better or worse, this is the society we live in. Americans value college athletes who play well, help their teams win, and look good doing it. They’re some of the most famous young people in the country, and they’re making old men very rich. In every other walk of life, absent collusion, they legally would be getting a piece of the pie they helped bake. That’s the American way.

All that said, the same rules should apply to every team, just like they do in other professional sports. The NCAA has shown it can do nothing about it. It’s time for Congress to get into the action.

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 13 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.