Money in NCAA sports has changed life for a few. For many athletes, college degree remains the prize

PHOENIX (AP) — Sponsorship deals were far from Jonny Bottorff's mind when he transferred to Northern Arizona University on a football scholarship. As money-making opportunities for college athletes have boomed since then, the offensive lineman has earned a few hundred dollars through name, image and likeness deals, but nothing that has changed his life.

Bottorff, 23, earned an undergraduate degree and is now working on his master’s degree at the Division I school in Flagstaff, Arizona. He transferred from Missouri Western State University, a small Division II school in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

“I think the reality for most college athletes is things haven’t really changed that much. We just got an extra little bit of cash in our pockets that probably needed to happen,” Bottorff said.

For some players, money from NIL deals has transformed what it means to be a college athlete. But outside the highest-profile athletes, who now can earn millions of dollars while still in school, many players say a college degree remains the ultimate prize.

College athletes graduate at rates that are comparable to and often higher than non-athletes. For Division I schools, the NCAA last year reported data showing a record 91% of athletes are graduating.

Before the Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that U.S.-born athletes could earn money from advertisements, autographs and university boosters, college athletes were under a simple agreement with their institutions: compete in exchange for a degree.

Money received through NIL agreements has changed the equation for athletes like Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, who leveraged their personal brands while still in college, securing endorsement deals with the likes of Reebok, Powerade and Beats by Dre.

Where academics rates as a priority varies with each individual. But several Division I athletes said in interviews the money available to them through NIL remains a small consideration compared with earning a degree and competing in the sports they love.

Anthony Leal, a guard for Indiana University's basketball team, said he is coming back as a fifth-year senior because of school, even though he received his undergraduate degree last year. He said earning a master's in business administration was always the goal.

“I’m about 70% through the program in the Kelley School of Business,” he said. “I wanted to get that degree.”

NCAA eligibility rules allow athletes five years to compete athletically across four seasons. Under the redshirt eligibility rule, many receive an athletic scholarship and practice their first year, but do not compete in games or matches. The NCAA also allowed athletes to extend their eligibility by a year if their team was affected by the pandemic.

For some athletes, NIL money is an incentive to attend and stay in college, but Leal said it's not often that athletes are completely disinterested in school.

“Every student knows that it has to be a piece of the puzzle at some level. So everyone kind of understands the value of school,” Leal said. “But, yeah, sure, some people may have other goals. There are plenty of people, maybe not at Indiana, but there are plenty of people throughout college basketball who don’t care because you’ve got NIL (money) and the transfer portal.”

The transfer portal has become a plug-and-play method for powerhouses and rebuilding programs alike. It has made it easy for athletes to switch colleges and play the next season, rather than sitting out a year under previous rules. And it has become a way for top athletes to shop around for more lucrative opportunities. UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka, for one, walked away from the team in a dispute over a $100,000 NIL payment his agent says was promised but never paid.

The NIL market is expected to reach $1.67 billion in the 2024-2025 school year, according to an estimate by the NIL platform Opendorse. The highest earnings go to top men's basketball and football players.

Even though the NCAA now allows players to transfer without sitting out, the academic transition can be more complicated.

Ray Harrison started at Presbyterian College in 2020, but transferred in 2022 to Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in Phoenix where he is a senior guard on the basketball team. He said NIL money wasn't a factor. It was about finding a better fit for him.

“I just came out here because this is where God led my heart. Of course, we win two (conference) championships and that changes things,” he said. But it wasn’t a smooth transition — a lot of his course credits didn’t transfer. “When I got here, I had to do some catching up.”

Trinity San Antonio, another student who transferred to Grand Canyon, previously attended California Baptist, a private university in Riverside, California. Finding a school that would accept the majority of her previously earned college credits was harder than she expected.

“Coming in as a freshman when you’re really a junior is not ideal,” said San Antonio, who also played basketball for Puerto Rico last summer in the Paris Olympics.

A shot at a college education remains a dream for many younger athletes.

Tavarius Covington, a wide receiver on his high school football team in Chicago, has ambitions of playing in college. But he said his priority is school. He hopes to pursue a business degree.

Covington took a break from football but came back to it last year, hoping it would help him become the first in his family to go to college and earn a degree, he said.

“I was watching my little brother play. We were going to his games and the family was excited for him. It made me interested in the game again,” he said. “Part of it is trying to establish a foundation for him, too, as a first-generation college student, hopefully. I want him to know there is more to look forward to coming out of high school.”

Marot reported from Indianapolis.

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Northern Arizona University's Jonny Bottorff took advantage of new NIL money making opportunities and rebooted his college football career. Bottorff poses for a photo on the campus on NAU on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Flagstaff, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)

Northern Arizona University's Jonny Bottorff took advantage of new NIL money making opportunities and rebooted his college football career. Bottorff poses for a photo on the campus on NAU on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Flagstaff, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)

Northern Arizona University's Jonny Bottorff took advantage of new NIL money making opportunities and rebooted his college football career. Bottorff poses for a photo on the campus on NAU on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Flagstaff, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)

Northern Arizona University's Jonny Bottorff took advantage of new NIL money making opportunities and rebooted his college football career. Bottorff poses for a photo on the campus on NAU on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Flagstaff, Ariz. (AP Photo/Josh Biggs)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine residents this week overwhelmingly approved a referendum to limit donations to political action committees that spend independently in candidate elections, setting the stage for a legal showdown over caps on individual contributions to so-called super PACs that spend freely in elections.

In the nation's only campaign finance reform initiative on the ballot on Election Day, residents voted to cap individual donations to super PACs at $5,000. Supporters fully expect a lawsuit that they hope will bring clarity to PAC donations after the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to unlimited spending by super PACs.

The measure was carefully crafted to survive legal challenges as states try to find a way to regulate campaign spending after the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, said state Sen. Rick Bennett, a supporter of the proposal.

"We’ve become a place where our democracy is being bought and sold by the richest people in our country," said Bennett, a Republican from Oxford. “People of all political stripes support this measure. The only people who really oppose this are the monied interests who abuse the system.”

The Supreme Court opened the floodgates for big business and labor unions to spend freely on elections in the Citizens United decision, and a Court of Appeals decision three months later lifted limits on individual spending.

The Maine initiative doesn't attempt to limit independent spending on behalf of candidates. It focuses instead on limits on individual donations to super PACS, an area the Supreme Court has not ruled on, observers say.

Cara McCormick, leader of Citizens to End Super PACs in Maine, said the goal is to reduce the outsized influence that super PACs currently enjoy through so-called “dark money” spending.

Political nonprofit groups are not required to disclose their donors and do not have to reveal much about how they spend the donations they receive. A super PAC may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to campaign independently for candidates for federal office. Its activities must be reported to the Federal Elections Commission but is not otherwise regulated if not coordinated with the candidate or campaign.

“We have the right to stand up to the big money in politics in Maine. We’re asserting our right to limit the amount of money that someone can give to a super PAC to eliminate not only corruption in our politics but the appearance of corruption in our politics. We think that’s something worth fighting for,” McCormick said.

In Maine, the limit would only apply to PACs spending money on behalf of candidates, not ballot committees involved in referendums. Maine law currently limits contributions to candidates, not PACs. For general elections, individuals can contribute a maximum of $1,950 to a gubernatorial candidate and $475 to a legislative candidate.

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, a longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, and his Equal Citizens nonprofit backed the Maine referendum. A similar citizen initiative effort in Massachusetts was blocked by the attorney general on constitutional concerns.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue of individual contributions to PACs, and long-established case law supports the notion that states can limit individual contributions to PACs despite a decision to the contrary by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Lessig said.

The concern with unlimited individual contributions is the risk of a quid pro quo even when super PACs are spending independently and not coordinating directly with a candidate, Lessig said.

The matter will ultimately have to be decided by the Supreme Court.

“I’m very optimistic that the U.S. Supreme Court will apply existing jurisprudence that states are free to limit contributions,” he said. “The issue that this case would raise is not asking the Supreme Court to change its jurisprudence, not asking them to overturn Citizens United.”

The Maine law goes into effect this winter, if there is no legal challenge, after an emphatic vote. Nearly 75% of voters supported the citizen initiative.

A voter-approved Maine limit on PAC contributions sets the stage for a legal challenge

Voters fill out their ballots on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine. (AP Photo/Joel Page)

A voter-approved Maine limit on PAC contributions sets the stage for a legal challenge