The members of the SEC and the Big10 are members of the NCAA. It's a member organization. It's easy for aggrieved
fans--"how dare they investigate us!"-- to bash the NCAA, but somebody has to govern college athletics---has to set guidelines, boundaries, rules---and enforce them. It's become an extremely difficult task. Who do you think should govern college athletics--the Wise Fans of Tennesee? Please.
If the SEC and Big10 and the rest of the majors were wise, they'd endorse and comply with the NCAA's ban on using NIL deals as a recruiting bribes. It's a sucker's game. Nobody can win at it. Nobody has an advantage. Every major program has piles of crazy boosters and piles of money from them to throw around. You think we're going to consistently outbid Texas and A&M and Georgia, Bama and 35 other major with money for top prospects? Don't be silly.
Sure, we can land a couple if we go wld and make some ridiculous offers to high-school prospects--but we'll lose more bidding contests than we win, for sure. And this is true for everybody. We're not going to use NIL deals to build a better roster than Georgia, Florida or Bama. You think they and their fans would let that happen? They're as crazy or crazier than we are. You think Ohio State will? Nobody has more money than the Texas schools--one of which just opted to spend $76 million to fire a coach--no sweat--one of the biggest absurdities in the history of college football. So what's the point? NIL in recruiting is not going to change anything--and at the end of the day it just amounts to an unseemly bidding/bribery contest by desperate, hyper-competitive fans. And meantime it's corrupting young prospects--turning them into cynical mercenaries, and half of them will transfer after a year or two, anyway---as they've been doing. So, again: What's the point?