Dear Troy Dannen, the Athletic Director of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and Jonathan Bateman, the Associate Director of Compliance of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln,

NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness, and it’s a way for athletes to get paid. Players get paid directly from the school, brand deals, and paid appearances. Unfortunately NIL is getting out of hand, with LSU having “a reported $50 million roster for 2026, and if that number is close to true, the private NIL deals we don't know about are otherworldly. If LSU, like most heavyweight Power conference programs, uses 75% of its $20 million-ish media rights pool money toward football, that's roughly $15 million of the $50 million roster … If you can't win a championship on the field, you buy one through NIL” (Matt Hayes in ‘This isn’t NIL anymore — it’s a nine‑figure bidding war’). The author also writes, “Now imagine the deals that aren't so cut and dried and legal. Because if you do the math, there's no chance the CSC's $300 million number comes close to covering the nut. This leads us to an obvious fork in the road: Either these roster budgets are wildly overinflated, or there are more under the table deals than anyone wants to admit … Because if LSU is at $50 million, you better believe Texas, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Alabama and Texas A&M are close behind. If that group of six heavy spenders is even at $40 million each, that’s $120-plus million in private NIL deals from that group alone. But it’s not just football. Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee all have reportedly moved past $20 million for men’s basketball rosters. SEC schools use roughly $5 million of media rights money on basketball salaries, leaving the remaining $15 million-plus coming from private NIL deals. That’s $75 million in private NIL deals for those five SEC basketball schools. Again, I’m no mathematician, but that means $200 million of the $300 million the CSC has cleared ― a whopping 66 percent ― has been spent by a handful of universities. That, or there’s all kinds of under the table money floating around the remaining 130ish FBS programs and all FCS programs. By programs, I mean all universities, all sports” (This isn’t NIL anymore — it’s a nine‑figure bidding war). There’s a clear problem in college sports: the best teams are paying to win. Nebraska, which was once seen as one of the most prestigious programs in the country, hasn’t been able to keep up in the legal and illegal NIL economy.

As a fellow fan of the University of Nebraska, I know we share the value of success of the athletic program. However, although you claim to believe in success, the smaller NIL fund goes against that value because our program isn’t able to keep up with bigger schools, even though we were seen as one of those accomplished schools, before falling behind. This matters to me in particular because my family is from Nebraska, and I watch a lot of the sports that Nebraska competes in. Seeing a team lose not only makes me feel bad about my school, but also wonder what change could be made to solve these embarrassing defeats.

Our critics might claim that sports are irrational because people act like they are on the team, and that there are some fans that don’t live there that are fans. They are mistaken. Sports are not just a game, they are events that bring people together. This is especially important in the state of Nebraska, where people are spread out and isolated, but virtually all are University of Nebraska fans.

I respectfully request you address this issue by having the university host a 3 day event on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In this event, fans from all over Nebraska can attend. One ticket is one day of admission. While there, fans can tour all the stadiums (except for days where sports are playing in their stadium), can auction for game used memorabilia, and meet the players. If fans don’t want to pay for these things, they can just experience the overall college gameday feeling. All proceedings will go to the NIL fund, and big donors can be brought to be shown if they should pay more money. Players that are thinking about committing to Nebraska can go and also experience the fans and atmosphere. That weekend, all sports that play can have a blackout, which is when the team, fans, and field all wear and use black, like last year. This should be planned by August 20th, but actually be done in October, whichever weekend is best. A fundraiser to support athletics at the University of Nebraska is essential because although Nebraska has and can get brand deals, these deals have not been able to carry the load of paying for everything; there needs to be a new idea in which people will actually enjoy.

This fundraiser will help us live up to the idea of the common good because having an increased NIL fund can lead to a better athletic program, causing a not only  happier school with an increase of students, but also a happier and better connected state, also with an increase in tourism. So, this increase in NIL not only helps the school, but the state in general.

I eagerly await your response.

Thank you,

A passionate Nebraska fan.