Opinion Page: IRS Rejects idea NIL money for athletes is a charity

The world of high-level (translation: big money) college athletics was notified by the Internal Revenue Service last week that their NIL (name, image, likeness) operations might not be the charitable organizations they claim to be. Many colleges have NIL collectives that accept donations from fans and distribute the money to athletes as compensation for endorsement deals and similar activities. These collectives often are organized as charitable nonprofits, but lately the IRS has questioned whether their purposes are really charitable. In April, the IRS recognized that some NIL collectives are set up as for-profit limited liability corporations (LLCs). For-profit NIL LLCs are not limited to how much athletes may be paid for providing certain services.. . . 

And so another brick has fallen from the facade that college sports at the highest level are anything other than professional athletes working as part of the marketing arm of their schools. NIL was supposed to be a way for athletes to receive part of the billions of dollars that flow to the NCAA and its members each year. Instead it has served to further separate the haves from the have-nots — the large-market schools from the ones in smaller markets.

darryll jones