TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
Derrick Brown, Texas High School Class of 2022
Nick Martin, Pleasant Grove High School Class of 2021
The complaints regarding NIL go back further than just recent conversations. Though it is now discussed more openly, whether athletes should be able to profit from their name has been discussed for years. Dating back to the late 2000s, the NCAA was sued for “violation of antitrust laws” (NCAA v. O’Bannon) by only allowing athletes to be paid in scholarships and school attendance. Another case went to trial (NCAA v. Alston) on March 31, 2021, and was decided on June 21, 2021. This sparked a big question: Is the NIL ruling good or bad? “I think there’s merit to it, and it has its positives,” Pleasant Grove Athletic Director Josh Gibson said. “But I think it has turned into an uncontrollable beast.” Before NIL, the NCAA had regulations allowing athletes to receive checks from their school, called stipend checks. The stipend checks were set amounts of money that varied by the school, given to each player of the team no matter the player’s status on the roster. These stipend checks played a role in deciding to legalize the NIL rule in the NCAA. The stipend checks usually varied from $1,300-$1,600, which also factored in to why the NCAA was so reluctant to allow players
to be given such large amounts of money that, as of right now, do not have a cap. “Even before the NIL, student-athletes at the college level were already being paid,” Texas High Athletic Director Gerry Stanford said. “Certainly not as much as now; we are talking about millions of dollars now. It is not new, it is just a new extravagance of money.” Though the issues and dramas of an organization known as widely as the NCAA seem far-fetched to be caught up in, they do have a direct correlation to Texarkana and the athletes of our community. Texarkana has produced an incredibly large number of division one athletes across the city from all different high schools, and we have athletes in our own backyard directly affected by NIL. Texas High School and Pleasant Grove High School have sent athletes to universities such as Louisiana State University, Texas A&M University, The University of North Texas, The University of Arkansas, The University of Texas, Baylor University, The University of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State University. The NIL has opened up the realm of college athletics to unimaginable levels and has given these Texarkana athletes extraordinary opportunities to do what they love and make a living
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