Former USC Trojans Star Reggie Bush Offers NIL Advice For College Athletics

“The next step is for them to get paid by the universities as employees, and then from there, they have to unionize, which they need to do, in order to be able to collectively bargain all those different things,” Bush said on the KTLA 5 Morning News.

As a result of the House v. NCAA legal settlement, college football programs will begin revenue sharing in the 2025-26 academic year. The groundbreaking change is beneficial for student-athletes, but it does not make them employees — at least not yet. That’s a separate ongoing issue, but this new settlement is a step forward. 

Bush is one of the most decorated athletes in USC athletics and recognizable names in college football. However, because Bush received “improper benefits” with attending Southern California, he was stripped of 2005 Heisman Trophy and disassociated from the university for a 10-year period following the NCAA’s decision in the summer of 2010. 

With college football began evolving, the Heisman Trust reinstated Bush’s win last April and the Trojans officially retired his No. 5 jersey alongside 2022 Heisman Trophy winner and current Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ No. 13 jersey in September. 

Collegiate athletes are able to capitalize on their growing celebrity status in a way Bush was never able to. The former Trojans running back is in favor of players having more power over their careers than ever before, but Bush does have concerns about the current direction of college football. 

“I’m straddling the fence because I love the fact that the players have more power back in their hands," Bush said. "They have more control over their careers. One of the issues was, in the area I played in, a college football head coach could get fired or just resign and literally go get hired the next day. For the players, at that time period, you had to sit out an entire season, right?"

“For football players and basketball players, missing a full year of play is tough on your career, and it’s hard to come back from. A lot of guys don’t recover from that. So I love the fact that power is being put back into the players’ hands, but at the same time, I don’t want to see guys just jumping ship, just because there is an element of working through situations, and also not being afraid of competition. That’s what elevated us when we’re at USC, and that’s what I prided myself on, is not being afraid of competition,” Bush continued.

The combination of the transfer portal, which began in 2018 and NIL, college football has become unrestricted free agency when the transfer windows do open in the winter and spring. NIL is a tool for high school recruiting, with a number of prospects signing with the highest bidder. 

With no guardrails around NIL, there is nothing stopping program from doing just that. And every year players get lured into the transfer portal with tampering running rampant in the sport.