Big NCAA Changes Coming

There is a LOT to digest today. A new 100-page form agreement from the NCAA in its joint settlement of three antitrust lawsuits revealed some major changes coming to the way NIL is governed and structured and the number of scholarships allowed in every sport. 

The real question is: did the Big 12 get closer to the SEC and Big Ten with these changes or further away? Read on to find out. 

Speaking of NCAA changes, this installment of the anonymous player survey has Big 12 players breaking down the reality of tampering and the transfer portal – including a great story about a particularly brash assistant coach doing his best to tamper with a Big 12 star.

What You Need to Know

• Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger has a comprehensive breakdown of the NCAA’s attempt to police NIL deals after revenue sharing with the athletes kicks in. That could help level the playing field for the Big 12, but will it hold up long term?

• Dellenger also breaks down the changes to scholarship limits across all sports, including an extra 20 scholarships in football starting in 2025. Upping the limit could allow Big Ten and SEC powers to store players on their roster that otherwise might wind up in the Big 12. More on that below.

• Texas Tech flexed its NIL power by landing the best softball player in the nation, NiJaree Canady, with a $1.05 million NIL deal. The Red Raiders are as flush with NIL cash as any school in the Big 12. Watch out if Joey McGuire gets the football program truly rolling.

• The same can be said for Gus Malzahn and UCF. The Knights just flipped a 2026 four-star Alabama commit, and they continue to recruit at a level higher than almost anyone else in the new Big 12. Their 2025 class is second only to TCU.

• K-State quarterback Avery Johnson made headlines by showing off a new lavender Corvette he got through an NIL deal. He also paid for a skill position retreat for his K-State teammates in Kansas City over the weekend.

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Big 12 Player Survey: SEC/Big Ten Tampering

In the transfer portal era, we hear plenty about tampering. With 2,300 college football players in the portal last year alone, we know it has to be happening. But just how prevalent is it? 

I asked nearly 20 Big 12 players (who will remain anonymous) how often Big Ten and SEC schools have tried to tamper them into the portal.  

Here’s what they said.

“I personally haven’t experienced it, but I have heard of guys on our team and guys who are no longer on our team experiencing that. That’s definitely a real thing.”

“It’s very real. I think it’s more about the players that score the touchdowns. It’s just how the world works right now. It’s a part of being a football player.”

“The game has evolved. Recruiting has evolved. It’s all a part of what it is now. If you’re at where you want to be at, that stuff doesn’t affect you. If you’re somewhere you don’t want to be at, that stuff will affect you. That’s just how it is now.”

“A couple just came directly to me on social media. Those were wild. I was like, ‘You’re an idiot. You’re going to get yourself fired. I’m deleting this message. I’m not going to be involved in this.’ There were others that just went through my Dad or someone else.”

“The last three years I’ve had teams reach out to me. Just saying hey we have amount x,y, and z if you come and play here. I never really entertained them.”

“I think it goes both ways if you’re a guy that really shops yourself out there just to see what options are out there.”

“With the time we’re in right now, it’s known for teams to come after players. You’re just able to tell what players are loyal to the program.”

“It more happens from the group of five level to the power five level than it does the power five to the power five level. It used to be if you had a good player at North Texas he was there for four years. That doesn’t happen anymore.”

“It’s a thing that happens but I didn’t pay any mind to it. I never really thought about going anywhere else.”

“People try to reach out, but it never came across my mind to even try to seek those things out.”

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The Bottom Line

I’ll level with you here. I have a mere communications degree from a state school, so I’m not exactly cut out for reading legal documents.

But I can read excellent reporting from Ross Dellenger, which means I can offer you a breakdown of the most important details of the aforementioned NCAA form agreement in the antitrust lawsuit settlement. 

In addition to giving former athletes NIL back pay and sharing revenue with the current athletes moving forward, here are the other keys we didn’t know about until late last week:

• Scholarship limits have increased almost universally across the board. There are 750 new scholarships that can now be offered by each school across all 40 NCAA sports. 

• The football scholarship limit increases from 85 to 105, which is somewhat of a compromise between what the Big Ten and SEC wanted (a higher number) and what the Big 12 and ACC wanted (a lower number). 

• Boosters can’t cut NIL deals with players unless they prove that they are legitimate deals at a value comparable to “similarly situated individuals with comparable NIL value.” Basically, you can’t just hand over a bag of cash. The money has to be market value and it has to be in return for something – an event appearance, a commercial, etc.

• Any NIL deal over $600 has to go to a clearinghouse to be vetted. Athletes can be ruled ineligible and schools can be fined if the deals aren’t above board. 

• Those punishments can be appealed to a neutral arbitrator, and there will be a final ruling within 45 days. 

• Specific rules can be put in by the NCAA and conferences to keep schools from circumventing the cap. 

On the surface, there’s good and bad here for the Big 12. 

The bad news is that giving 20 more scholarships to the most well-funded Big Ten and SEC teams means they can hoard more players that otherwise wouldn’t have had a spot. 

A player that Ohio State would typically have to pass on who would then go to West Virginia or Cincinnati will now have a spot with the Buckeyes. 

That should set off alarm bells for anybody over the age of 50 reading this. It’s a big part of how schools like Oklahoma and Nebraska built dynasties before scholarship limits were put into place in the 1970s. 

The good news is that the NCAA is making a legitimate effort to keep the NIL arms race under control. They’re trying to greatly limit the ability of a school to pay players beyond what the revenue sharing limit allows. 

Theoretically, that means a pretty equal financial playing field for the Big 12 – if every school can hit the ~$22 million revenue sharing number. 

Having said all of that, there are still too many variables to truly know how this will affect the ability of Big 12 schools to compete at the highest level of college football. 

The transfer portal might keep the Ohio State’s of the world from stashing more Big 12-worthy players. Those players will probably leave after a year of being buried on the depth chart. 

An end to NIL bidding wars might actually hurt Big 12 schools who have used money to overcome bigger brands that they’re competing with. Remember K-State paying $2 million for Illinois basketball star Coleman Hawkins? Or Texas Tech’s newest softball addition?

If the amount of money available to pay players is basically the same for everyone in the sport, would recruiting go right back to where it was 5-10 years ago? That was when brands and facilities were what truly mattered, which favors the Big Ten and SEC anyway. 

Plus, there are likely to be legal challenges to the NCAA’s ability to regulate NIL deals. It seems far from a certainty that this NIL framework will even hold up in the long run.

At the end of the day, here’s the only thing I can say without question about what all these changes mean for the Big 12’s standing in the world: it’s too early to tell. 

Call it lame. Call it a cop out. I call it reality. 

Everybody still has more questions that answers at the moment, including athletic administrators and ADs. 

One thing I can assure you: Brett Yormark gives the Big 12 the best chance to maximize its value no matter what comes next. Trust me on that. 

For more analysis on this topic, check out my latest YouTube Livestream from Sunday night.