A new era of college athletics is here. NCAA athletes can finally get paid starting today

The day has finally come. College athletes can start making money off their name, image, and likeness starting today. Live look into the old bags at NCAA headquarters now that they can't control college athletes' bank accounts.

College athletes can make money off endorsements, merchandising, YouTube channels, and more. This has been a long-going debate for a long time. Why not let student-athletes make some money on the side? College athletes, especially football and basketball players, are a cash cow for these schools. Other than old people that say "STUDENT comes before athlete" and the NCAA, was anyone opposed to this? The fact that a college athlete couldn't make some extra cash doing a signing at the local car dealership or make ad money from their YouTube video was preposterous. I'm glad they can start making money off their own name.

Now, schools can't offer athletes money to come play for them. They can't say they will pay an athlete X amount of dollars if they score X amount of points. Athletes can only make money off their personal brand. So technically, the school isn't paying athletes. Winks at boosters

College athletes wasted no time. They already got their endorsements and personal logos ready to go.

Imagine if this rule was available for guys like Tebow and Manziel? They would've been millionaires coming out of college. Also, does this mean Reggie Bush gets his Heisman back?

This is another reason we're seeing guys like Coach K and Roy Williams step down. Although the brand of UNC and Duke basketball sells itself, do you think Coach K and Williams could keep up with the changing times? It was perfect timing to retire, as there's a new era in college athletics.

Who makes the most money? Does having more social media followers mean more than how they perform on the field? Are companies like Nike and Adidas going to have a pipeline system for these athletes? All I know is we're one day closer to the return of the greatest sports video game of all time.