gardenstatebear said:
Here is a link to a site that itself links to the bills introduced in Congress to regulate NIL. At least the one I looked at didn't simply punt the issue to the NCAA. https://www.saul.com/nil-legislation-tracker
From my quick glancing through the bills they are focused on establishing the rights of players to their NIL and enforcement of those rights by the FTC, or in a few of the Republican sponsored bills, a new Federal commission. The only restrictions being receiving money tied to gambling or other "objectionable" sources. A key point of the bills is "non-waiver ability" so schools cannot sign players to contracts/scholarship agreements where they waive their rights to NIL. Basically, they are just bills meant to firmly establish, at a national level, the NIL rights that many states have already granted and the NCAA has already accepted as the new legal reality. Enforcement of players' rights to compensation will never be "punted" to the NCAA, since the NCAA is essentially the employer organization. Their interest is in restricting player earnings, as they have done throughout their history.
Thus, as I have been saying, if there are going to be any RESTRICTIONS on the amount of player payments, by divisions or leagues, it would require Congress to grant schools, leagues or the NCAA those rights (basically the opposite of what these bills are doing). If there is public outcry after years under the new Wild West, maybe Congress acts, but it will be tough to put the genie back in the bottle as it will face legal challenges.
That is why, my prediction is people will either come to accept the increasingly unequal landscape with losing teams possibly dropping the sport, or as an alternative some sort of market based system will develop or be adopted like relegation, either organized or defacto (weak teams getting kicked out of or quitting strong leagues).
