College sports have been big business for decades, but the money has only been flowing (legally at least) to players for a handful of years.
It went from a trickle to a heavy stream almost overnight when name, image and likeness (NIL) money overran its original purpose and became paid free agency.
That changed to a fire hose in 2025 with the House settlement stating that schools needed to pay their athletes an additional $20 million-plus per season directly.
Without all that, there’s a good chance Koi Perich would be getting ready for his third season with the Gophers instead of transferring to a national title contender.
But my lament here doesn’t lie so much with Perich. He’s exploiting a system and is about to get paid. And he put in two years with his home-state team, which is two more than his pedigree might have suggested he would.
Like Chip Scoggins wrote about Perich, who reportedly has visits scheduled with College Football Playoff teams Texas Tech and Oregon after entering the portal, this is the business of college football now.
The Gophers will probably invest money they had allotted for Perich into other players. Life will move on, even as the No. 3 jerseys gather dust, as I talked about on Thursday’s “Daily Delivery” podcast.
Players getting paid is good for them, even if the system is out of control and everything happened too fast.
