Two things in the last few years have completely changed the landscape of college athletics. The first—realignment—started more than a decade ago when Missouri and Colorado left the Big 12, to be followed by Texas A&M. It is still churning the waters today with reports that the B1G is “targeting” or “eyeing” more Pac12 schools in moves that would obviously also influence basically every other conference like a game of musical chairs. More on that, hopefully, will break in the coming days or weeks.
The second is NIL, which stands for name, image, and likeness. Up until recently, collegiate athletes were (for the most part) prohibited from profiting individually based on their participation in their sports.