I’ve heard it, you’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it. Everyone is discounting Ohio State’s national championship win because they paid their roster $20 million in NIL money.

In today’s college football world, it makes a lot of sense. Money runs everything. From $100 million practice facilities to artificially manufactured NIL deals, the country’s top college football schools are spending tens of millions each year on their programs.

Athletic directors know their teams cannot compete for championships without the necessary resources. Therefore, coaches spend a large portion of their time begging boosters for more money. And while money isn’t everything, fans religiously track recruiting rankings for a reason. Talent makes a massive difference in college sports.

However, winning 10 or 11 college football games each year is no longer enough. With an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, postseason play has become the standard. Boosters expect a championship, or that season is considered a failure.

So, is it true that Ohio State spent $20 million on this year’s team? Well, no. They spent much more. Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork was the one who publicly stated the $20 million number earlier this season. However, the school’s largest collective told On3 that ten players on this year’s Ohio State team made over $1 million. And when you combine Ryan Day’s $10.2 million annual salary with the fact that Ohio State is the only public school in the country paying two assistant coaches $2 million each season, the school spent another $20 million on its coaching staff.

That’s $40 million in salaries alone. It doesn’t account for travel, stadium operations, facility upgrades, or any of the other expenses teams have to account for each season.

To be clear, this is objectively an advantage. Spending more money than other teams helps you acquire better coaches and players who can help you win more games. I just don’t think it matters as much as everyone else seems to think it matters.

For starters, no one seemed to care when SEC schools spent years paying players under the table with cash and cars. Oregon and Michigan are funded by two of the world’s wealthiest people, billionaires Phil Knight and Larry Ellison. And while Ohio State is definitely toward the upper echelon of spending in college sports, there are a dozen other teams right there with them, like Texas, LSU, Georgia, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Ole Miss, who all spent $10 million to $20 million on NIL this year.

I mean, just a week ago, everyone said it was unfair that Notre Dame’s independent status allowed them to keep all $20 million from the CFP. Things move fast, I guess.

I am not an Ohio State fan, so save the homer response for another day. My point is that it feels silly to blame money when the allocation of that money is more important.

Ohio State didn’t steal players from other schools by offering them more money than their current school could offer. Sure, the Buckeyes probably don’t win the national championship without transfer players Will Howard, Caleb Downs, and Quinshon Judkins. But three high-impact transfers out of 22 starters is not uncommon at all.

The truth is that Ohio State’s team was built from within. They convinced a handful of late-round NFL draft picks to return to school via lucrative NIL deals, similar to what Jim Harbaugh did at Michigan before the school’s national championship run in 2023.

Some of Ohio State’s best players — Emeka Egbuka, Jack Sawyer, and Donovan Jackson — started and ended their careers with the Buckeyes, and Ohio State had to compete against everyone else to sign No. 1 recruit Jeremiah Smith out of high school.

Other schools would have paid these guys a lot of money, too. But should we blame Ohio State for raising enough money to keep its roster intact? I don’t think so.

The interesting part about this story is that everything will have changed by the time everyone gets their footing set on their side of the argument. The House v. NCAA settlement is tentatively set to begin on July 1, 2025, right before next season begins.

This settlement does a few things, but the part that you need to know is that it will allow schools to share at least $20.5 million directly with student-athletes each year.

Schools are obviously involved in the NIL process today. The main difference here is that this money would come directly from the school’s budget rather than a school like Ohio State working with a collective to line up NIL deals for its roster of players.

Each school will be able to allocate its money however it wants, with the assumption being that most of the money will go to the highest-revenue-generating sports, like football and men’s basketball. However, the implementation of this rule is essential because it creates a de facto salary cap in college sports by placing a limit on spending.

This won’t solve every problem. Legitimate NIL deals will still be permitted, and I’m sure some schools will find a way to muddy the waters enough to gain an advantage.

Schools also aren’t required to spend the full $20.5 million, but every school with a real chance of winning a national championship will likely spend the full amount.

This creates a more even playing field than the one we have today. The NIL collective structure is inherently shady. Many people in college sports have no idea who is behind these payments or what is required in return, much less your average fan.

The new revenue-sharing structure should be much more transparent. It will make college football feel a lot more like professional football. Many teams are already hiring capologists to think through the allocation of this money, including how the budget can be spent on current players, incoming recruits, and transfer portal targets.

We initially saw some coaches leave college for the NFL when NIL was implemented. They didn’t want to deal with the headache of recruiting a player only for that player to leave after proving themselves at their school for a larger offer at a bigger school.

However, these new rules could create a better system to reverse that trend. Given the disparity in talent and resources across schools, winning in college has traditionally been easier than in the NFL. But it’ll be interesting to see if guys like Bill Belichick can transform the college game by implementing a more professional, NFL-like model.

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