To be clear, this kind of neg against the program will have a very short life. There is data out there around it and more being put together regarding impressional reach and impact from university brands, and forecasts, and so forth. Texas and a few others are inarguably head and shoulders above the pack. The SEC pitch right now and going forward will be about repetition of eyeballs and depth of coverage. However, that is somewhat isolated to a specific region, and that region isn't incredibly valued from a buying demographic perspective if you wish to be associated to premium and/or luxury brands.
The other open issue that impacts NIL is where things go, if anywhere, with realignment. Texas is covered en masse when it sucks, and overcovered when it's on fire, so the brand and impact stand on their own, but any potential alignment towards a coast would be a pretty big fucking deal.
I've been reading a lot on the NIL stuff, but the volume of content, and the categories of the content on this subject is currently overwhelming and much of it is inconclusive. One of the discussion items in articles going back to the beginning of this is that of the furthering of disparity in college sports. Oddly, there's less concern about what a 4 team playoff is doing to the sport than there is what NIL rights will do for certain schools.
Almost always, and I mean damned near everytime, in the examples of risk for unbridled NIL rights for players are Texas, USC, and Notre Dame. These are 2 down teams and another yoked to all kinds of circumstantial problems, yet they're what drives worry from both the media and the politicians, at least in interview exemplary form. My view is that the SEC and Big 10 remain pretty fucking good at manipulating the narratives. That shit is planted. Are Bama and Ohio State any different? Michigan? Not really, but let's not talk about that. They do not want those Texas, USC, and ND having unlimited rights for their players to leverage all assets and coverage, because in many minds, this shit will flat out dwarf what shithole schools like Auburn and Ole Miss are able to do for uncles with under the table dollars. For different reasons, Texas, USC, and Notre Dame will be disproportionately advantaged in NIL and I don't see how the sport is able to get around it. Nor do I want the sport to get around it.