The college football season returns in full-swing today—which many of you are well aware of, since you’re reading this at a tailgate with your phone in one hand and a beer in the other.

As you enjoy your cold beverage, consider that this is the second season in which name, image, and likeness (NIL) rules are in effect for college football, transforming the labor economics of this “amateur” sport in name only.

Quick recap: Last summer, the NCAA allowed college athletes to profit off of their celebrity for the first time. Player advocates believed this decision was long overdue, given athletes’ key role in a booming industry.

• According to an ESPN analysis a few years back, a college football coach was the highest paid public employee in 28 states. (In 12 others, a college basketball coach was.)
• The Big Ten conference just inked a TV deal that’s worth more than $7 billion.

So now that we’ve entered the second college football season with NIL…what have we learned?

1. College football dominates other college sports. Football players will land nearly half of the estimated $1.14 billion in NIL money this upcoming year, according to NIL platform Opendorse.
2. Some players have become millionaires. 12 college football players are valued at $1+ million entering this season, according to NIL platform On3. Alabama QB Bryce Young inked more than $1 million in NIL deals before he played a single game.
3. “Collectives” are becoming a force. Boosters at many powerhouse schools have formed controversial collectives that aim to funnel money into athletes’ pockets. At Texas Tech, the Matador Club collective is paying every football player and women’s basketball player $25,000 a year in exchange for event appearances and community service.
4. It’s causing major recruiting drama. In the spring, Alabama head coach Nick Saban got into a brief tussle with Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher by saying that A&M “bought every player on their team” with NIL deals.

Looking ahead…college football is about to get even more big-time. Yesterday, the College Football Playoff’s board of managers voted to expand the playoff from four teams to 12. The change could come as early as 2024.—NF

Serena Williams says goodbye to tennis. The superstar closed out one of the most impressive careers of a professional athlete ever after being defeated in a marathon match by Ajla Tomljanović at the US Open last night. Williams, who earlier signaled she’d retire from the sport following the tournament, has said she’s going to focus on her startup investments post-tennis—so this isn’t the last we’ll see of her in the Brew.

G-7 plans price cap on Russian oil. The group of wealthy countries is moving ahead with a unique solution to dent Russian oil revenue and stabilize energy markets: It’s going to ban the insurance and financing of Russian oil shipments unless they’re priced at a certain level or below (TBD: what that level is). Western countries believe this can work given their stranglehold over the maritime insurance market—a London-based association insures more than 90% of the world’s ships, per the WSJ.

Meanwhile, Russia delays reopening a vital pipeline. Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, said the critical Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe wouldn’t reopen as planned, raising fresh concerns in Europe over scarce energy supplies. Russia had pledged to restart gas flows starting early Saturday after three days of maintenance, but yesterday Gazprom claimed it found an oil leak that would require the pipeline to be shut down indefinitely. EU leaders are skeptical of these maintenance problems, and accuse Russia of withholding gas as payback for Western sanctions.

“Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” pictured above, won the top prize for digital art at the Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition last week. Game designer Jason Allen created the piece in large part by using an artificially intelligent image generator—and some human artists are big mad about it.

How it was made: Allen created 900 image variations on the theme of “space opera theater” by feeding a text prompt into AI image generator Midjourney. He then edited his favorite creations in Adobe Photoshop (like editing in a head Midjourney forgot), and sharpened the quality using another machine-learning tool before printing them out on canvas.

One online skeptic said that Allen’s win is like “entering a marathon and driving a Lamborghini to the finish line.” But Allen argues that AI “is a tool, just like the paintbrush is a tool.” Fair spokesperson Olga Robak likened AI to photography, which “was not considered an art form for a long time; people said it was just pushing a button.”

Another critique of AI-generated art is that it constitutes plagiarism. Machine-learning tools, including Midjourney and DALL-E 2, rearrange elements scraped from millions of images across the web—meaning each image they generate is an algorithmic soup of countless human artists’ work.

For their part, the competition’s judges and even its third-place winner said they don’t have a problem with Allen’s piece.—JW

Considering so many of our Back to School Week stories were on the heavier side (the pandemic setting learning back decades, spanking coming back, etc.), we wanted to wrap up the series with something everyone can laugh about: all the tech—some useful, most ridiculous—that we encountered at school.

Let’s start with the biggest flop in classroom technology…

10. iClicker

Coming in dead last is the expensive hunk of plastic that every 2010s-era college freshman had to purchase to help track attendance and let students interact in a lecture without any hand-raising. The iClicker was invented at the University of Illinois in 2000 before spreading to the rest of the country like an invasive bug after Macmillan bought it five years later. The device cost anywhere from $40–$60, and while there were probably other uses for this gadget, it was mainly a tool for Intro to Geology professors to confirm you attended their 400-person lecture.

9. Hoodies with earbuds in them

Finally, a way to listen to Seether during AP US History. Nothing looked more natural or felt more comfortable than having your hoodie strings shoved into your ears. These sweatshirts were usually sold at Kohl’s, and always seemed to be grandma’s favorite gift.

See the rest of the list here.

Stat: We never thought this day would come, but in August the average US home sold below its asking price for the first time since March 2021, according to Redfin. The housing market has finally been softening as spiking mortgage rates spook would-be homebuyers.

Quote: “Where does one even buy a floppy disk these days?”

Japan’s Digital Minister Taro Kono “declared war” on floppy disks, which, along with other outdated storage solutions like CDs and minidiscs, are still required for around 1,900 different government procedures. For all of the country’s advances in cutting-edge tech, Japan’s government has remarkably antiquated IT systems—in 2018, its cybersecurity chief acknowledged that he’d never used a computer. After he’s done vanquishing floppy disks, Kono said he’s coming for the fax machine.

Read: Kids yell “poop” at Alexa, and these musicians profit. (BuzzFeed News)

Labor Day weekend conversation starters:

• Is he good?
• How The Big Bang Theory was censored in China.
• Was King Arthur a real person?
• How long do animals sleep?

Forget thought leadership: This is how to win on LinkedIn.

Brew crossword: Sharpen your No. 2 pencils and head back to school with today’s crossword. Play it here.

Open House

Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section that smells like Cottage Breeze. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing, and you try to guess the price.

Today’s compound is a 60-acre section of late Yankee Candle founder Michael Kittredge II’s estate in Leverett, Massachusetts. Just like lighting a large jar of Autumn Nature Walk next to a three-wick Vanilla Cupcake, this property has too much going on. Amenities include:

• 16 beds, 13 baths, 12 half-baths
• Nine-hole golf course (who doesn’t love the smell of fresh cut grass?)
• Panopticon-style office

How much for this home that’s fun but doesn’t really make much…scents?

Working hard or hardly working? Makes no difference when you’re celebrating Labor Day weekend with some well-deserved relaxation. Take it easy and shop our sale NOW for discounts starting at 50% off!

Check out more from the Brew:

President Biden is canceling $10,000 of student debt, and people have a lot of opinions. We asked New Yorkers what they thought about it. Watch here.

Start Q4 on a high note with the eight-week Business Essentials Accelerator, which is designed to level up your career while you maintain your 9-to-5. Apply today with code BTS150 to get $150 off!