How sports finances will impact the future of sports

All professional athletes, including some college athletes, are getting paid. I will be discussing the payment methods of the NFL, MLB, and NCAA. I will discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks of these methods. These payment methods have a significant effect on these leagues. Some of these methods are new, while others should be changed. Here’s what I think.

The NFL has been paying quarterbacks more and more money. In fact, the highest-paid player changed a few times. First, it was Trevor Lawrence, then Jordan Love, and now Dak Prescott, who is being paid $60 million per year. Tua Tagovailoa and Jared Goff also received big paydays this offseason. Paying quarterbacks lots of money is risky, as it mortgages the future into the quarterback’s hands. In other words, if a highly-paid QB doesn’t play well or gets a career-changing injury, the team that paid him will suffer financially. Some of these deals will work out well, but others won’t. I don’t think signing Daniel Jones for $160 million was a very good move, nor was signing Deshaun Watson for $230 million. The NFL was thinking of making a separate salary cap for quarterbacks, which I completely disagree with. I want the NFL GMs to have to take risks to pay their franchise quarterback long-term. Some quarterbacks have been paid highly before even playing a single snap for the team, such as Russell Wilson’s Broncos deal. I think that NFL teams should stop making quarterbacks the highest-paid players in the NFL unless they have had an enormous impact on their team; Patrick Mahomes is tied for the 12th highest-paid quarterback on average annual value as he’s only receiving $45 million per year.

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The MLB should have a salary cap like the other major professional leagues. A salary cap limits how much an owner can pay every player on his team. Instead, every team’s payroll comes down to whoever is the richest owner and the number of fans each team has. The Mets have the highest payroll at $317 billion, while the Athletics have the lowest payroll at just $63 billion. That’s a $254 billion dollar difference. I think that the MLB should have a salary cap due to the significant differences in payroll. The Yankees and Dodgers (numbers 2 and 5 in payroll, respectively) are in the World Series. The Dodgers won because they paid players like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. The teams with higher payrolls seem to do better because they can pay their players more. Payroll isn’t everything, though, as five of the eleven teams with the lowest payrolls made the playoffs. Those teams were the Royals (20th), Brewers(21st), Orioles(22nd), Guardians(23rd), and Tigers(26th). That doesn’t mean that payroll doesn’t have a huge impact on the MLB, as the top six teams (Mets, Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, and Braves) with the highest payroll all made the playoffs.

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The NIL is a program that pays college athletes for their name, image, and likeness. This deal went into place in 2021. There are pros and cons to the NIL. A pro of NIL is that it helps students profit. Another pro is that it helps an athlete’s value. The NIL helps college athletes have more financial success after college. However, the NIL is unequal, as 98 out of the top 100 NIL players play either football or basketball. I can understand that, but at the same time, other sports are also being played. The NIL also makes college sports as competitive as professional sports. Some may argue that college rosters will change less because of NIL, which I disagree with; I actually think more athletes are transferring because of NIL. Another con is that college athletes will have less desire to compete and make it to the professional level of sports because they are already being paid. I think that most people who get paid highly by NIL deals will eventually go professional. NIL is a good idea overall, but colleges and the NCAA need to consider the cons.

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To conclude, I think that the NFL should take a step back on quarterback deals, I believe that the MLB should induce a salary cap, and I think that the NIL is overall beneficial, but the NCAA needs to be careful before the cons of NIL get out of hand. The NFL should not induce a separate salary cap for quarterbacks because it makes things more interesting. The uneven payrolls make the same teams good every year, which can be a bit boring for people trying to watch. Instead, the MLB should have a salary cap to make teams more different every year. The NIL needs to be careful about inequalities, as some players are not paid or are paid less. The NIL could also put less pressure on college athletes to perform, but it helps athletes prepare for life after college.