There was a recent article that I think Dennis Dodd had a major school AD mentioning his departmental budget was like a crime scene due to player payroll/NIL taking a bite.

The bite is going to get a whole lot bigger with House vs NCAA, etc. coming up in 9 months.

directly paying players out of his athletic budget, presumably under the guise of "NIL"?

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it happens just like the $100 handshake used to happen, but I'm pretty surprised an AD would brazenly admit that he's doing it to a writer.

the House case ruling going against them and future anticipated player payroll expenses. My initial post was not an accurate recollection of the article - here's a snippet:

"One Power Five athletic director recently winced after taking a glimpse at his balance sheet. His financial outlook is not much different than his peers' with multiple high-speed bullet trains all coming into the station at the same time. The most unpredictable of all being expected revenue sharing with athletes through collective bargaining.

"It feels like my budget is about to look like a murder scene," that AD said.

Those projections -- typically called pro forma budgets -- are based on "what if?" hypotheticals. Like any good business person, an AD attempts to determine what expenditures are ahead and how much revenue will be coming in. Right now, they are struggling to project either."