Good point.

I've seen stories of bigger companies, like Dr. Pepper, who wouldn't otherwise be considered "boosters" begin to join this movement. I can see the corporate side of this working at a purely local level, but local deals hardly justify the large amounts of money that are being reported early. I shook my head at that one having worked on the corporate side of sports deals for a while now.

I still think there will need to be some regulatory oversight to this, and until there is it will be a mess. Seemingly innocuous relationships could have unstated strings attached, especially with boosters, to shave points, for example. I could see that happening in basketball quite a bit since it's easier for the individual player to impact the game.

For football, the gap between haves and have nots will of course widen, and even some schools that have historically fielded ok teams could fall apart even if they are wealthy simply because their boosters don't care that much about football.

One thing I could see Notre Dame do is advise athletes on reverse morals clauses. In the event a player is sponsored by a company, for example, and that company falls into disrepute, which could happen with all these startups and shadow firms set up by boosters, the player can bow out.