Smith: Summers past

Every time I hear the acronym NIL—that dastardly trio of letters—I can't help but flash back to another era and reflect on how much college athletics has changed.

 I enjoy reminiscing, but I also wonder whether the athletes of yesteryear—the few still with us—feel cheated by the financial windfall now available to today's players.

As recently as five years ago, before NIL, a student-athlete's c…