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The 2025 NFL Draft is next week, and the front-runner for the No. 1 overall pick, University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward, is an anomaly. In any other year, the top prospect being a journeyman who attended three schools in five years and ended his career by losing the Pop Tarts Bowl would be nearly impossible. But now it may be the new reality of the college-to-pro transition. The impact of the transfer portal and name, image, and likeness (NIL) legislation means the traditional “stay or go pro” dilemma is no longer binary. Theres now a third path: Transfer strategically, build your brand, enhance your draft value, and collect NIL checks along the wayall while staying in college. The age of player mobility and monetization For decades, college athletes were not allowed to make money in any way, shape, or form related to their sport or likeness without sacrificing their amateur status. That changed in 2021, when NIL legislation empowered athletes to sign endorsement deals, monetize their social media, and collect appearance fees, ending the era in which players could lose eligibility for something as simple as eating too much pasta at a team banquet. Now, players in marquee positions at top schools can average between $75,000 and $800,000 in NIL dollars annually. In 2024, University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders led all college football with $6.2 million in NIL dealssomething that likely factored into his decision to forgo last years NFL draft and return to Colorado for his senior season. Meanwhile, the transfer portal now allows players to transfer freely between schools without having to sit out a year, as was previously required (think free agency, but for college). Under these new rules, FBS scholarship transfers rose from 1,946 in 2021-22 to 2,303 in 2022-23, reaching 2,707 in 2023-24, according to NBC Sports. In 2023-24 alone, the total number of NCAA football players across all divisions who entered the portal exceeded 11,000. Already this year, more than 400 players have entered the spring portal since it opened on Wednesday, meaning more players are using it every year to take control of their college careers and future NFL prospects. Case study No. 1: Cam Ward Ward and Sanders, this years top two quarterback prospects, took different routes to the draft, yet are each a product of the new landscape. Ward finished high school as an unknown zero-star prospect who went to the only school that wanted him: the University of the Incarnate Word, an FCS program in Texas. Two years and 71 touchdowns later, having made a name for himself, Ward transferred to Washington State, further elevating his national profile over two seasons before declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft. The problem was that some experts didnt even consider him a top-100 prospect at the time. So with the opportunity to improve his draft stockand the promise of NIL dollarshe chose to return to school, transferring for a second time in three years, this time to Miami. As a Hurricane, Ward was a Heisman Trophy finalist and won the Davey O’Brien Award, given to the nations top quarterback. He also landed $2 million in NIL deals along the way while positioning himself as the potential No. 1 overall pick, where he is likely to match or exceed the $39.5 million fully guaranteed contract last years No. 1 pick, University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams, signed with the Chicago Bears. According to one NFL evaluator, had Ward stayed at Incarnate Word, as he would have in a pre-transfer portal world, he would likely be a fifth-round pick at best. Case Study No. 2: Shedeur Sanders Projected to go as high as eighth overall in the 2024 draft, Sanders, who transferred to Colorado from Jackson State before his junior year, passed on the NFL and returned to college, where he earned $6.5 million in NIL deals. The Atlanta Falcons selected Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall in that draft. Had Sanders been that pick, we can assume he would have received something akin to Penix Jr.s four-year, fully guaranteed rookie contract worth $22.88 million with a $13.46 million signing bonus. This year, Sanders has been projected to go as high as No. 3 to the New York Giants, with whom he held a private workout this week. Should that happen, he could expect to receive at least what University of North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye received at the No. 3 slot last yeara fully guaranteed four-year, $36.63 million deal with the New England Patriots (with a $23.46 million signing bonus). If thats how Sanderss chips fall on Thursday, his net gain will be roughly $13.75 million in NFL contract dollars, plus the $6.5 million in NIL money, meaning he will effectively have netted more than $20 million just for staying in school. But Sanders’s gamble carries risk. Recent mock drafts show Sanders sliding, with some analysts predicting he could fall outside the top 10. If that happens, his decision to skip last year’s draft might prove a financial miscalculation, even with his NIL earnings. This is the calculus today’s college stars faceimmediate pro security versus betting on themselves while earning NIL money. It’s a high-stakes game with career-defining consequences. Risky for players, good for the NFL NFL draft analysts project only 55 to 65 underclassmen in the 2025 draft, down from the typical 90 to 110 in previous years. The minimum base salary for NFL rookies for 2025 is$840,000, typical for late-round picks. Many of these players can, according to some NFL executives, likely achieve that in NIL dollars if they return to school. So, more mid-to-late-round picks are betting on themselves and staying in school to improve their stock while earning NIL money. This shift transforms the later rounds of the draft. Instead of raw underclassmen taking early swings based on potential, teams now find more experienced players who have exhausted their eligibility. NFL teams are embracing this new reality. The NIL and transfer portal era delivers more polished prospects with real-world business experience from managing personal brands and finances. The transfer portal creates natural experiments demonstrating adaptability across different systems and competition levels. Though scouting becomes more complex with prospects bouncing between programs, teams gain invaluable insights into character development, seeing how players handle wealth and fame before investing millions in draft capital. Beyond the NFL While NIL reshapes football’s talent pipeline, its impact on basketballparticularly women’s basketballreveals how different sport economies create vastly different career decisions. Consider Olivia Miles, who was projected as the No. 2 prospect in the 2025 WNBA draft. Instead of going pro, Miles entered the transfer portal to play one final college season, leaving Notre Dame for Texas Christian University, and taking her lucrative NIL deals with her. If Miles were selected with the No. 2 pick in this years draft, she would have signed a four-year, $348,198 deal, an average annual value of $87,050. While her NIL valuation is undisclosed, the current top earner in womens college basketball (Louisiana State Universitys Flaujae Johnson) has $1.5 million in NIL deals, far exceeding what Miles would make in the WNBA in 2025. Delaying her WNBA entry also helps Miles avoid a four-year fixed rookie contract while the league negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement. With the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media deal taking effect in 2026, players are seeking significant pay increases, and Miles is betting that rookies entering next year will receive substantially better compensation than those locked into legacy rookie contracts. Even USCs JuJu Watkins, perhaps women’s basketball’s most talented player, has no financial reason to rush her ACL recovery and enter the WNBA draft early. Her NIL deals continue during rehab, providing security that previous generations of athletes never had. Cooper Flagg is a special case The case of Dukes Cooper Flagg illustrates the stark contrast between men’s and women’s basketball. Flagg, just 18, is expected to be the No. 1 NBA draft pick after just one college season and could earn roughly $13.8 million as a rookie, escalating to $19.2 million by year four. After his rookie contract, he would be eligible for a five-year max extension worth an estimated $328.3 million, and if he makes an All-NBA Team along the way, that max extension would approach $400 million. If Flagg returns to Duke, experts estimate he could earn between $6 million and $8 million in NIL money. Given his earning potential in his rookie year and the possibility of delaying starting the clock toward a possible $400 million max extension, returning to school would be financially irrational, making Flagg an exception to what has otherwise become a popular rule among prospects. The future is now As the landscape continues to evolve and amateurism becomes more professionalized, the relationship between college athletics and pro leagues will follow suit. The traditional talent pipeline has been reengineered, and it will be on full display at Thursdays NFL draft. Ward and Sanders aren’t just prospects. They’re prototypes of a new business model. Players now operate like startups, leveraging strategic pivots (transfers) and funding rounds (NIL deals) to maximize their valuation before acquisition (the draft). Ward’s journey from zero-star recruit to potential first-overall pick represents the ultimate minimum viable product transformation, while Sanderss $6.5 million NIL portfolio demonstrates the power of calculated patience and brand development. The talent acquisition game in sports has changed forever. The only question remaining is which teams and players are creative enough to use that to their advantage.
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Trying to get from point A to point B? If only it were that simple! With any manner of travel these days, youve got options: planes, trains, buses, ferries, and beyond. And finding the best path to embark on isn’t always easy. Even finding all the available options can sometimes be a pain. But it doesn’t have to be. For over a decade, Ive been using a tool that demystifies how to get from one location to another. Its a great way to see all the available travel options in a single spotcomplete with estimated prices and travel times. Notably, theres absolutely no AI at play here. AI travel tools may be interesting for brainstorming ideas, but this tool will show you only real transportation options with up-to-date information. Lets get moving. Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures! Google Maps who? The next time you encounter a complicated web of route options, remember a site called Rome2Rio. Rome2Rio shows every last possible travel option in a single streamlined place. It even finds routes Google Maps missesthats the main point. To get started, head to the Rome2Rio website. You can also install the free app for your Android device or iPhone, if you’d rather. Whichever path you pick, you wont need to create an account or jump through any silly hoops to get going. Just plug in the destination youre starting from, the destination youre headed toand thats it. Youll instantly see all your options, with prices attached. Rome2Rio has two boxes to fill out: where you’re starting and where you’re going. The site will even provide options that string together multiple modes of travel. If the best method available for a given trip is to take a train, board an airplane, and then jump on a ferry, Rome2Rio will tell you. You’ll see every travel option imaginableand how much it costsin a matter of moments with Rome2Rio. You can actually book your travel through Rome2Rio, too, but Ive always just used it as a search engine and a starting point for my travel planning. Ultimately, Rome2Rio is a huge, regularly updated database that does one thing and does it exceptionally well. It even beats most AI-powered travel tools in 2025, assuming you just want to know concrete ways to get from A to B. Rome2Rio is available on the web, as an Android app, and as an iPhone app. The service is completely free. (It makes money with ads and affiliate links, if you use it to book travel.) Rome2Rios privacy policy says the service will never sell your personal information. And again, you dont even need an account to use it. Navigate your way to even more productivity-boosting goodness with my free Cool Tools newsletter. You’ll get an instant introduction to an incredible audio app and a new off-the-beaten-path gem in your inbox every Wednesday!
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If you have investments in the stock market, the past several weeks have probably felt a little worrisome. (And by a little worrisome I mean just barely keeping oneself from sobbing in the bathtub with a pint of Ben & Jerrys.) U.S. and global markets have yo-yoed in reaction to the current administrations inexplicable tariff wars. And since this market volatility is a direct result of Americas foreign economic policy rather than normal economic fluctuation, its difficult to know what to expect. Theres no promise of fiscal unicorns and rainbows when we get to the other end of this trade warbut before you cash out your 401(k) and bury the money in your backyard, keep these important facts in mind. Yes, this does feel different If it feels like this market turbulence is different from others in recent memory, thats because it is. The current market instability stems from the presidents tariffs rather than a market crash (like the 2008 housing bubble collapse) or a disruptive global event (like the 2020 COVID-related market downturn). Thats significant because economists and investors know what to expect from market crashes, which are relatively common and repeat on a somewhat predictable 7-to-10-year pattern, followed by an average recovery time of 1.4 years. While the 2020 market shenanigans also felt unprecedented at the timesince none of us had ever lived through a global pandemic beforethe recovery within four months of the markets lowest point made it clear that everyone wanted to get back to business as soon as possible post-COVID. In both of those cases, it made sense to HANK TOUGH! and stay the course through the market downturns, since there was a long history of the market rebounding from similar situations. But our current heartburn-inducing market ride stems from Americas global retaliatory trade war, and we cant necessarily count on the natural rebound that has occurred after every other destabilizing market event in recent memory. Any countries angry about U.S.-imposed tariffs could make long-term financial or policy changes that will continue to affect our domestic market for years. There is simply no way of knowing what long-term effects there will be on our investments. But there is a precedent Just because we have never lived through a tariff-triggered market downturn doesnt mean our current situation is unprecedented. Almost 100 years ago, isolationist tariffs introduced by Utah Senator Reed Smoot (yes, that was really his name) and Oregon Representative Willis Hawley exacerbated an existing financial crisis. You may only remember the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 as part of the mind-numbing lecture Ferris Bueller missed on his day off, but this act raised import duties in an attempt to protect American farmers and businesses. Unfortunately, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs prompted retaliatory tariffs, and the American economy suffered for nearly a decade. Thankfully, we are in a much better situation than our ancestors were. The Great Depression started with the 1929 stock market crashbefore Smoot and Hawley teamed up, ammonia and bleach style, to impose tariffs. As of February 2025, the U.S. was enjoying a robust economy with a growing GDP, while the 1930 tariffs introduced by Smoot and Hawley kicked the wounded economy when it had already been sucker punched by the market crash. The drop in your investment portfolio over the past couple of weeks was nausea-inducing in part because it was falling from a high point. But investors in the 1930s saw their money lose value in the crash and then lose more value from the tariff wars. No one wants to hear a financial expert say, It could be worseand here are some examples of when it was! However, recognizing that the recent turbulence is rocking an economy that had otherwise been stable can help fend off the worst of the panic. Planning for the unexpected Any financial adviser worth their salt will tell you that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but understanding how markets have reacted in the past can offer some perspective on how markets may react in the future. Since we can look back to the 1930s and see how other countries reacted to Americas isolationist financial and foreign policyand how the market responded to tariffs being flung back and forth across borders like a game of hot potatowe can make plans and predictions based on the worst-case scenario. We know from Smoot and Hawley that tariffs often lead to retaliatory tariffs, which can have a negative impact on the market. Even though there is no way of knowing what will happen, its probably a good idea for investors to buckle up for a bumpy ride. Heres how: Remember that the market will eventually recover For anyone who is 10 or more years out from retirement, you can feel confident that things will improve. Unless were in a dogs and cats living togethermass hysteria! type of extinction-level event, consider ignoring your 401(k) balance for a little while. Your investments will do better if you slowly back away from your portfolio and let the market recover. Forewarned is forearmed Just because the market will return to some semblance of normalcy without any effort on your part doesnt mean you should do nothing. Now is the time to shore up your finances by paying off high-interest debt, setting aside money in an emergency fund, finding ways to lower your expenses, and starting some secondary income streams in case of job loss or involuntary retirement. All of these actions will help your finances whether were in for a long stretch of market nastiness or things are about to come up roses. Invest conservatively as you get closer to retirement Your asset allocation is supposed to get less risky as you approach retirement, since that will protect your principal in case of a market downturn at the wrong time. If youre planning to retire in the next few years, you can make sure any new contributions you make to your retirement accounts are invested in low-risk-lower-return assets, like bonds, treasury funds, CDs, or other cash equivalents. While hese investments arent going to grow like the market normally would, the market also may not grow like it normally would. Stashing your contributions into these kinds of investments will offer you more peace of mind that the money will be waiting for your retirement. You still have time for market recovery Once youre no longer in the flush of youth, you may assume you dont have the luxury of investing for the long term. Its not like a 60-year-old can afford to wait out the market like a 30-year-old can. But you can invest like you have decades ahead of you. Because you do! As you approach retirement and even during your retirement, you will keep a portion of your portfolio invested for the long haul. When you retire, you dont need all of your money right away. Youll keep a significant chunk invested for a longer time horizon, which helps ensure that your money will last your entire life. How to respond if youre already retired By far, retirees are the most vulnerable to a protracted market plunge. Going back to work and/or waiting out the market weirdness is generally off the table for retirees, so it can feel like there are no good choices. But that doesnt mean retirees are helpless in the face of larger economic forces. As with current workers and near-retirees, retirees can make plans now for the worst-case scenario. This might include: Reducing expenses: This is easier said than done, considering the price of eggs and everything else, but start thinking about ways to downsize your costs. Selling items: If you have a lifetimes worth of home goods, collectibles, or Precious Moments figurines sitting around, you may want to start selling some off. This could be a good way to increase your retirement income without having to take money from your investments. Considering a reverse mortgage: Since your home is likely your most valuable asset, a reverse mortgage could be a decent way to access cash from something other than your investments. Dont panicplan Panic is the leading cause of selling at the markets low point. Instead of selling off your investments to staunch the flow of tariff-induced anxiety, make a plan instead. If you assume the market may be bumpy for the foreseeable future, how will that change your financial decisions? Making investment choices based on that assumption will serve you well no matter what happens. In the best-case scenario, things will recover sooner than expected and this will be a footnote in your investing career. But even in the worst-case scenario, planning for volatility will help you make more rational decisionsand protect you from making your paper losses real by getting out of the market. It may be a bit of a grim sounding win-win, but its a heck of a lot better than crying into a pint of Chunky Monkey in the bathtub.
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E-Commerce
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