[rjcj2017]

I think that obviously the biggest benefit is for the players - and it is more than past time it occurred.

It might well increase collectors paying attention to college football - but overall, this is a mixed bag for collectors

the Good: NIL will lead to many players having cheaper autographs available - that serves the interest of collectors due to getting the player licensed cards to the market quickly - and before their college break out.

This can also lead to cheaper products with more autographs - Sage Low Series was loaded with NIL guys - even the retail yielded many NIL guys

Should cut down on flippers/Retail Sharks R Us/DBN types - when the big hits include high school players, you don't have the quick flip

the Bad: might increase  speculation

Moves the flipping to college - ugh.

More difficult to follow college players to keep track of how they are doing.

Unless you are a fan of a huge college, you probably are not seeing very many NIL players - USC will get several NIL players, as will Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Miami, Texas, Texas A&M, Clemson and other bigtime programs - however, you are not going to see as much NIL from the small time schools - this actually could cut back the appeal to collectors a lot.  I avoided Bowman U (I've since ordered some blasters) because I wasn't going to pay $180 for a product that lacked players from the colleges I collected.

The money gap in college sports is going to increase - that probably will ultimately result in the splitting off of a "super league" with the biggest money schools - that will be terrible - you'll lose long standing rivalries, the smaller guys don't have a chance of ever winning or scoring the big upset, college football will be much less fun, smaller schools will see top players depart for bigger programs  - but it will also be good - the essentially professional teams can compete with each other - the smaller lower budgeted schools can have  a more student athlete model - they will get small money deals and still can make the professional ranks - it also can provide a place for players who turn out to flame out at the big schools to go have a chance to try to play - and it can still provide educations to players.

Collecting is probably the most minor thing, but one thing is certain - college football is going to be vastly different in a few years once the full effect of NIL is present.

And we also will likely see a more fun budget friendly collectors market - a product like Sage or Leaf is likely to be more fun with the NIL guys - while your odds of hitting things big will be lower, you will likely be able to get the pre-draft things cheaper - and you also have another cheaper option to get players once they reach the NFL.  Especially useful for cases where you have a player who started with a different team who went to your team.

Yep, agreed ... I also wonder how much it will affect a player's actual "rookie cards" or "rookie autos" ... maybe not the NFL stuff because of the pro uniforms, but take Bryce Young for example ... are his "second year" Alabama autos going to be that desirable in the draft stuff next year if he decides to come out?