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Dan Hurley laughs to himself - half-incredulous, half-self-deprecating. He’s a two-time national championship-winning coach; a coach who came inches away from leading the likes of LeBron James and Anthony Davis; one who once yelled at a referee that he was the ‘best coach in the f***ing sport’. He sighs, pauses, then continues reading the children’s book ‘The Three Little Bears’ - all while being recorded for a video being sent to a Pittsburgh-based UConn fan as a gift for their 40th birthday. It’s a sign of the times after the so-called ‘House settlement’ granted colleges and universities the ability to directly pay their athletes out of the revenue share they earn from ticket sales, television rights deals, and other streams. Long seen as a potential obstacle for schools, the fallout from the settlement presents itself as an opportunity - especially as part of a growing arms race for cash to win recruits. As a result, the collegiate athletics experience has become increasingly capitalistic in 2025. Coaches are spending more of their time drumming up funds, NIL collectives are selling off any item you could think of to pocket cash, and schools are offering rare gameday experiences to offset these new expenditures. The eyes of a fan now see a rapidly changing, hyper-commercialized world of college sports which would be alien to followers as recently as six years ago. But for the decision makers, it’s a new reality where every stone must be turned in the name of sporting success. In 2021, after centuries of forced amateurism by the NCAA, college athletes started being paid in the form of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. Before, schools kept all of the profits of the athletic accomplishments of ‘student-athletes’. The NCAA also shut them out of any money-making opportunity from their accomplishments. But since that change was implemented, athletes - mostly in college football and basketball, but with a few exceptions like Livvy Dunne or Suni Lee - have been paid handsomely. It was an arrangement that allowed schools to keep all the money they normally would, while companies and donors separately agreed deals with athletes. This summer, that all changed with a court ruling in the case ‘House v. NCAA’. The same judge who paved the way for NIL - The Hon. Claudia Wilken - confirmed a settlement allowing schools to directly compensate athletes out of their revenue share. For the first time in 119 years, schools could ‘opt-in’ to giving as much as $20.5million (this year) to their athletes out of revenues received from television rights contracts, merchandise sales, ticket sales, and more. Almost instantly, a majority of the top schools competing in FBS football and Division-I basketball opted-in - recognizing the opportunity the rev share presented to lure top recruits. NIL still has its influence. They combine with the rev share to form some sort of financial nuclear bomb which institutions drop on top recruits to form a mushroom cloud of money that rains down on them. Per On3 Sports, Texas quarterback Arch Manning earns $4.8million in NIL money as the top-earning athlete across all sports. Behind him is BYU basketball freshman AJ Dybantsa - who lined up a reported $4.4m in deals before even stepping on a college court. So how have things changed in 2025 from 2024? Paul Grindstaff, the executive director of Anchor Impact - the NIL collective for Vanderbilt University in Nashville - says the June ruling on the House settlement left many schools scrambling to adjust their budgets as most institution's fiscal years end on June 30. But despite the late ruling, Grindstaff tells Daily Mail Sport, ‘Everyone got things buttoned up by June the 30, one way or the other. And that was for this competition year. ‘Now, the challenge is looking at recruiting portal season for football, which just had a new date, retaining basketball rosters and things like that. Schools know what the number is going to be, rev share-wise from the House settlement. And universally, if you're a full payor, that ain't going to be enough. ‘So when collectives are still involved or third parties or whatever, true NIL, partnerships, things like that, that's the over and above.' Since 2021, NIL blossomed into its own beast, with collectives of donors popping up to help their alma maters. Now, some schools are moving toward bringing their NIL in-house - combining fundraising efforts and centralizing donors and businesses in one entity to deliver the best offers to recruits. Now, with this combination, schools and collectives are concocting more creative ways to attract money in a rapidly commercializing world: ‘I think when the NIL began, you didn't want it to be transactional. You didn't want it to be quid pro quo,’ Grandstaff admitted. ‘The way it used to go was, “Listen, I'm going to ask you a question. If the answer is anything but no, totally understand. But we're trying to win some games. Can we count on you?” That was it. ‘Well, now, call it donor fatigue, call it whatever. Fans and donors, benefactors, they want something in exchange.’ So, both NIL collectives and schools have started to provide that: selling off experiences and merchandise to raise the most money. NIL collectives have started selling anything they can think of. Many sell specially made and branded bottles of whiskey or bags of coffee. Florida State’s NIL collective offers a $750 hand-painted portrait of Seminoles football coach Mike Norvell. But in the Big East this summer, nothing may have been more discussed than Seton Hall’s ‘Pirate Pesto’. With proceeds going to the school’s collective, Onward Setonia, basketball fans could spend a minimum of $45 for three tubs of the green pasta sauce. The conference’s terminally online fans quickly meme’d and posted about the product, but men’s basketball coach Shaheen Holloway seemed unaware of its existence: ‘Seton Hall’s selling what?’ the coach said when asked by Daily Mail Sport at Big East Media Day in October. It’s believed that, among the Big East’s 11 member schools, Seton Hall has the toughest time raising funds. Holloway has always been gracious in handling questions about it. ‘Our sport is changing every single day. Every single day, there's new rules,’ Holloway told Daily Mail Sport. ‘I think you just got to adapt and adjust with times. As far as a lot of NIL stuff, that's for the powers that be. I'm the coach. 'I got to try to coach the guys here and bring the guys in. Obviously, I play a big part with fundraising, too, but I just try to focus on small things.' The video of Hurley reading ‘The Three Little Bears’ - an interpretation of the classic Goldilocks fairy tale - is one of those efforts any college basketball fan would enjoy. Top-level institutions are increasingly turning to platforms like Cameo to offer fans access to celebrities tied to their schools. Reflecting on the ‘bedtime story’ reading, Hurley lets out a chuckle, saying, ‘I did, I did read him a bedtime story.’ It’s still a seemingly ridiculous prospect, but as Hurley told Daily Mail Sport at Big East Media Day in New York City, it’s becoming an increasingly important part of the job. ‘I think right now it's all about rev share and generating as much revenue as possible,’ Hurley said. ‘When you're considering doing some of these projects, whether it's podcasts or Cameo, you're trying to find any way that you can to pitch in at the university level so we can obviously have a competitive team.’ While Cameos are a new wrinkle to the job he may not have expected when he signed up to be a college basketball coach, Hurley says this is simply an evolution of what coaches had been doing for years. ‘I think you've always had to develop relationships with the donors,’ he revealed. ‘It used to be to fly private planes and to stay in better hotels or to get a practice facility built. ‘Now you're still doing those things with donors, but now more in the direction of rev share. I think it's always been a part of our job, but now it's more important.’ But thanks to the ‘House’ decision, NIL collectives and coaches are not the only ones thinking outside the box to drum up funds. Now, schools themselves are working on creative ways to sell off parts of the gameday experience at premium prices. As Grandstaff explained, Vanderbilt has spun off a new venture called 'Vanderbilt Enterprises', which creates expansive hospitality experiences centered around gamedays. It's run by former Marriott SVP Markus Schreyer and inspired by the City Football Group's growing entertainment and hospitality ventures in the vicinity of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England. Oklahoma generated headlines when they created ‘Sooner Magic Memories’ experiences. The most eye-catching one: bringing fans to press conferences. At the time of publishing, the Sooner faithful could purchase access to the team’s post-game media availability after home matchups against Missouri or LSU for $576. Oregon football fans traditionally sing the song ‘Coming Home’ by local artist Mat Kearney between the first and second quarters at Autzen Stadium. The school sells a package where two people can watch others sing the song from the field at a staggering $461 pricetag. For $500, fans of the Florida Gators can ‘Help the Equipment Staff Prep for Gameday’. The description reads: ‘Help apply helmet decals, set up player and coach lockers, outfit the sidelines and much more.’ But the most egregious actually came from what is deemed a ‘mid-major’ basketball school in Philadelphia. Just days before the college basketball season started, La Salle University offered a ‘Be A Coach For A Game’ experience. For $2,500, donors get to join the team for a pre-game meal, deliver the game ball to officials, get multiple shoutouts throughout the game, take a commemorative photo with the team and the head coach, and wear team gear. But it also - surprisingly - allows fans to sit on the team bench directly next to the players and coaches. While he does not speak for other schools, UConn athletic director Dave Benedict sees these offerings as an extra tool in the shed to build competitive programs. ‘I'm not here to say I think it's right or wrong. I just think at this point in time, "we're not a business, but we are a business," and we have to commercialize every opportunity we can, no different than the professional sports do,’ Benedict told Daily Mail Sport. ‘If someone's willing to pay for an experience that's important to them, and they're willing to pay whatever the amount it is, that's their choice. Passion, emotion drives a lot of things.’ He added, ‘I think all you have to do is look to see what the NFL, the NBA, MLB is doing, and we're probably going to trend more like that. If you think that's philosophically bad for college sports, I think at the end of the day, what people really care about is they want you to win. ‘If part of the equation now is that you have to fill a $20.5million gap, there are some people that might not give you any money - but maybe they will for one of those unique opportunities that you created.’ Benedict also believes there will eventually be patches on team jerseys, similar to the NHL, MLB and NBA. ‘That doesn't change the game,’ he says. ‘Does it commercialize it more? Absolutely. But why not? That's what the demand of the market is right now. We have to create more revenue, and therefore, we have to utilize all the things in our inventory to generate that revenue.’ Perhaps the pushback is not from a ‘this is wrong’ standpoint. After all, professional football might be the most commercialized sport in the world to the point where broadcasts feel built around the advertisements. Rather, it might just be this new landscape fans are struggling to grasp. College sports, for the first time ever, truly feels like it’s revenue-first. For a division of sports which so strongly pushed against paying athletes for years, to suddenly see them get what they’re owed is a good thing. But the decision is still generating aftershocks. The only things preventing this from growing further are legislation that has kicked around Congress and is stalling on a vote, or a move toward unionization which has died out. Until either thing happens, schools and collectives will continue to compete off the field to grow their ever-expansive war chests - all to capture a fleeting moment of glory, before they eventually meet on the battlefield again.
