This year’s N.C.A.A. basketball tournament is being played amid a revolutionary change in college sports: The best players are now openly recruited, retained and rewarded with cash. That change began in 2021, when the N.C.A.A. — under pressure from the Justice Department and state legislatures — allowed players to be paid for the use of their “name, image and likeness.” The idea was to let players endorse shoes or sports drinks.
The new system was overrun by groups called “collectives” — made up of wealthy boosters who donated money, and in some cases raised even more, to pay athletes based on their value to the team.