College football transformed into the Wild West after the NCAA opened the floodgates to Name, Image, and Likeness deals.
Players started making millions while schools scrambled to keep up with the chaos.
And Ron DeSantis just dropped 13 words that exposed the real problem destroying college football.
Florida Governor Calls Out The Broken System
DeSantis helped create the NIL gold rush when he signed one of the first state NIL bills back in 2020.¹
The Florida Governor wanted athletes to profit from jersey sales and endorsements featuring their name.
That made perfect sense.
"If they're selling your jersey with your name on the back, you should get money for it if they are using your name, image, and likeness," DeSantis told The Floridian publisher Javier Manjarres.²
https://twitter.com/Floridianpress/status/1998859217982337528?s=20
Florida later amended the law in 2023 to let coaches actually help athletes navigate NIL deals.³
At the time, DeSantis said this gave Florida schools a level playing field with other states that passed similar laws.
But five years later, the system DeSantis helped build spiraled completely out of control.
Players now use the transfer portal like free agency to shake down schools for more NIL money.
FBS transfers exploded from 1,561 in 2018-19 to over 3,700 in the last cycle according to NBC Sports.⁴
DeSantis Exposes Players' Leverage Over Schools
The portal became a weapon.
Play three games, threaten to transfer, demand more NIL cash.
DeSantis laid out exactly what's happening with thirteen words that should terrify every athletic director in America.
"To then say, I played three games, coach, I need more NIL money, or I'm going to transfer to another school, that's almost like they have more rights than pro athletes do," DeSantis explained.⁵
Read that again.
College players who haven't proven anything yet have more leverage than NFL veterans who fought for decades to build the players' union.
Pro athletes have contracts, collective bargaining agreements, and salary caps.
College players? They threaten to bolt after three games and schools scramble to cut checks.
"I think there needs to be some reform of that," DeSantis added.⁶
The transfer portal fundamentally broke team dynamics.
https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1999840883823489206?s=20
Coaches can't build programs when players use their position for constant renegotiation.
Fans don't know which players will stick around from year to year.
DeSantis Also Tackles Big Tech With AI Regulations
DeSantis didn't stop at fixing college football.
The Florida Governor announced an AI Bill of Rights on December 4 that puts him on a collision course with Trump's Big Tech allies.⁷
"We cannot turn it all over to machines and think it's going to work out great in the end," DeSantis warned at a press conference in The Villages.⁸
His proposal bans Chinese AI tools like DeepSeek from state agencies.
It prohibits AI from using someone's name, image, or likeness without consent.
The connection to his NIL concerns is obvious – DeSantis wants to protect people from exploitation whether it's by schools or by AI companies.
The AI Bill also gives parents controls over children's interactions with chatbots after a Central Florida mother spoke about losing her 14-year-old son to suicide following encouragement from a Character.AI chatbot.⁹
DeSantis included protections against using AI as the sole factor in insurance claims and requirements that companies notify consumers when they're interacting with AI.¹⁰
But the biggest fight comes over AI data centers.
DeSantis wants to stop utility companies from charging Florida residents more to support hyperscale data centers that guzzle massive amounts of power and water.¹¹
A medium-sized data center requires up to 110 million gallons of water per year.¹²
The Trump administration reportedly considered an executive order to block states from regulating AI.¹³
DeSantis made clear Florida won't back down.
"We not only have a right, we have a responsibility to make sure that we're creating sufficient guardrails so that this stuff isn't hurting our kids, our families, our businesses and our senior citizens," DeSantis stated.¹⁴
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1996679744629461194?s=20
Trump's Silicon Valley allies like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg want states to stay out of AI regulation.
DeSantis just told them Florida won't let Big Tech write its own rules.
Whether it's college athletes exploiting the transfer portal or AI companies trying to dodge state oversight, DeSantis sees the same pattern.
Systems without proper guardrails get abused by whoever has the most leverage.
His thirteen words about college football exposed a fundamental truth – when you give one side unlimited power to renegotiate, the whole system collapses into chaos.
Now DeSantis wants reforms before college football becomes completely unrecognizable.
¹ Michael Costeines, "DeSantis Talks College Football, Calls for Reforms to NIL and Transfer Portal," The Floridian, December 10, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Jackson Bakich, "DeSantis Signs Bill to Expand NIL Laws for Collegiate Athletes," The Floridian, February 16, 2023.
⁴ Michael Costeines, "DeSantis Talks College Football, Calls for Reforms to NIL and Transfer Portal," The Floridian, December 10, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Florida Governor's Office, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Proposal for Citizen Bill of Rights for Artificial Intelligence," December 4, 2025.
⁸ Liv Caputo, "'Age of darkness and deceit': DeSantis proposes 'AI bill of rights' in crack down," Florida Phoenix, December 4, 2025.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Florida Governor's Office, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Proposal for Citizen Bill of Rights for Artificial Intelligence," December 4, 2025.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Liv Caputo, "'Age of darkness and deceit': DeSantis proposes 'AI bill of rights' in crack down," Florida Phoenix, December 4, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ WUSF Public Media, "DeSantis proposes Florida AI bill of rights to address 'obvious dangers,'" December 4, 2025.
