When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing collegiate athletes to be compensated for their Name, Image and Likeness in June 2021, it forever altered the college sports landscape. At the time, there was no way to tell just how drastically NIL would come to impact the NCAA, and even now, almost four years later, it’s effects are still being felt and figured out. But in Austin, at the University of Texas, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has a pretty clear policy on whether a significant NIL deal equates to a larger chunk of playing time.

“I’m very upfront and honest with our guys and I understand not everybody gets paid the same on our roster, but what you get paid does not dictate how much you play in our organization,” Sarkisian told Colin Cowherd. “The players that do things the right way on and off the field, that put the team in the best position to be successful are the ones that play for us. It’s not about what you get paid through NIL, it’s about who gives us the best opportunity to be successful as a team.”

Whether Sarkisian’s assertion is 100 percent true or only partially true is up for debate, but at the very least, nobody can say that it’s completely untrue. Proof of this is that Arch Manning, nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning and one of the biggest NIL draws in all of college sports, spent much of the 2024 season sitting on the bench behind Quinn Ewers, even as Ewers struggled by the standard set by most folks in Austin.

It certainly helps Texas’ cause that heading into the 2024 college football season, only Oregon and Texas A&M were shelling out more money on NIL deals than the Longhorns were, according to 247Sports. To some extent, every player worth playing on the Texas roster is likely making decent money, making Sark’s roster decisions not all that difficult.