Blaze News investigates: The shocking truth about NIL deals in college sports

College athletes always wanted to get paid, and now they are.

The current regime, in which college athletes are allowed to be paid for name, image, and likeness rights, originated from a federal appeals court decision in 2015 that rejected the decades-long argument offered by the NCAA; that college athletes were in fact “amateur athletes,” which exempted the schools from being subject to antitrust laws.

After fighting to maintain the status quo for decades, the dam finally broke in July 2021, when name, image, and likeness compensation officially became an option for college athletes after more than 70 years of NCAA resistance.