Ok, so the NIL era is here. College athletes can make money now and no longer do boosters need to pay "under the table." So where are the big blocker buster deals? There were never going to be any. It's all about the visibility and the willingness of local businesses "investing" money into the college athletes at the local university. That is why Nebraska will truly be the only Big Ten West school to really reap the benefits of the new era among the Big Ten West. Sure there will be individual players on various football teams in the big Ten West that will make some decent money, but when it comes to an engaged following for visibility, Nebraska easily dominates that in the Big Ten West.
So far Runza is the only company in the Big Ten West states willing to do the smart thing and that is to grow their visibility by striking deals with Nebraska athletes. Now when the sports teams are playing the Runza name will grow as random people will look up the social media accounts of players, etc, etc, etc.
I doubt Culver's will do a Runza style deal, but I'm sure they will pay some players at Wisconsin to do an advertisement.
The smartest thing that a school can do is have a "average income per football player" analysis for recruiting purposes. At Nebraska the average income per player was $10k. Now compare that to the average income per player at Iowa that was $1,500. Who the hell do you think is going to land the recruits when it comes down to money like that? We all know the answer. The bigger spread that Nebraska can get for a per player income level greater than the rest of the Big Ten West then that is what will truly separate Nebraska from everyone else in the big Ten West and the 500 mile radius (until you get down to Oklahoma).
It may take a single recruiting cycle for the numbers to come out and used as a benefit or two cycles. I suspect if nebraska can ink a few more corporate deals like Runza then the impact on recruiting will be impacted in the 2023 cycle.