The topic that has so singularly defined both the NCAA and criticisms of it has been in the headlines for years.

Now, amateurism is dead. At least it will be when you wake up on Thursday.

Because of a unanimous 9-0 ruling by the United States Supreme Court, college athletes are now able to monetize their name, image, and likeness for personal financial gain.

In the past this was strictly off-limits and violations could compromise both a player's eligibility and his team's achievements.

But amateurism has been an umbrella term and concept that has created the entire college sports landscape that we have known for all of our lives.

Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh summed up the main criticisms of amateurism in the ruling: ""To be sure, the NCAA and its member colleges maintain important traditions that have become part of the fabric of America — game days in Tuscaloosa and South Bend; the packed gyms in Storrs and Durham; the women's and men's lacrosse championships on Memorial Day weekend; track and field meets in Eugene; the spring softball and baseball World Series in Oklahoma City and Omaha; the list goes on . But those traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA's decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated. Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law."

Amateurism has been used to control the flow of money into college sports and on a practical level it has ensured that the athletes do not see any of it beyond scholarship, room and board, and more recently cost of living stipends which have been relatively modest and have varied depending on the institution and location.

While must has been written and said about how UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart feels about the issue — and it seems like he's either uncomfortable with the changes or what they might bring about as a matter of principle, or just striking a very cautious tone because of the uncertainty — but much of this is going to be outside of his hands.

A lot of people around UK, especially in the football and men's basketball programs, were concerned that the Kentucky state legislature had not taken proactive measures like those bodies in some other southern states to ensure that their institutions and its student-athletes would be in the best possible situation to cope and thrive in a new age for the sport, but the recent executive order by Governor Andy Beshear seemed to erase most of those concerns and put UK athletes on a level footing with some of their peers and other institutions.

Matt Fortuna of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the University of Illinois hosted an event for local businesses to ask questions related to the NIL changes.

On Wednesday evening Jeff Goodman reported that many believe trading product for endorsements by players is going to be a big part of what emerges.

Cats Illustrated can confirm that a number of people at the University of Kentucky and in its athletic programs have had businesses and individuals reaching out with interest in becoming involved in what is sure to become a significant new market.

Schools are still going to be very involved with their players. They will still have certain kinds of access that nobody else does. They're still going to be profiting off jersey sales and a lot more.

While it might feel like the wild west at first, with different policies, procedures, and parameters in place — subject to a school's approval — before long the madness should become more method.

Student-athletes at UK have only gradually caught on to the scale and significance of the changes that are about to occur. From the football team the likes of DeAndre Square, Josh Paschal, and Marquan McCall were among the first to post social media messages announcing their availability for NIL opportunities.

The media world will certainly be impacted as well. With the status of student-athletes as amateurs now over and done with, those players are going to have a lot more control over things ranging from access to branding.

At the professional level of sports media many news stories are the result of relationships between writers and agents. That's how we often find out about trades, contracts, and other transactions. Expect branding experts, agents, and others who swim in those waters to become important go-betweens with players and also media outlets.

The degree of control that a college institution attempts to retain in such a climate will determine the attractiveness of that university for prospective student-athletes. If a player knows that he can go to Institution A and pretty much have the freedom to market himself to a large audience however he wants that's going to make the school look a lot better than one that's known for dragging its feet and not being as proactive in encouraging relationships between players and the business community. Therein lies some of the concern regarding Barnhart's public posture on the issue. Some of the criticism may be over the top and he may feel very differently on the issue than some have assumed based on his press conference and how he generally leans on these issues, but it's safe to say that ADs and other school decision-makers are going to be important tone setters whose choices and emphases do have a trickle down effect on how their school is perceived.

We have all made our guesses as to how players will benefit and which schools might benefit the most. Those schools with the most lucrative deals or strongest relationships with shoe companies or other companies in major industries would seem to have a leg up. Kentucky basketball, Alabama football, UConn women's hoops — these programs with enormous fan bases relative to the rest of the country are also well-positioned from the start, at least on that level.

The end of amateurism gives the sport itself — beyond individual schools who will be competing with one another in the new landscape — an opportunity to counteract the increasing popularity of the professional basketball route right out of high school for players. Hello, legal bidding wars.

The first easy thing schools can do, and one of the most important things they can do, is to help their student-athletes grow their number of followers on social media. The correlation will not be perfect, but in general the players with the most followers will make the most money. More followers? You have more value to the businesses who could sponsor you.

We've heard stories from friends across the sports media industry who have shared that some of the top college football programs in the country are laser focused on growing the follower accounts of their student-athletes. That will help keep their players happy, and it will also eventually become positive or negative data to share with recruits.

You could have some really wild changes, too.

- High school recruits could expect to receive payment for access or information. It's conceivable that some top prospects sign deals to communicate exclusively with one particular company. That wouldn't keep other outlets from finding other ways to get information, but this could be a significant change.

- College athletes could charge younger fans a fee to play Madden or other games on Playstation or XBox.

- It's conceivable that a website or a television station could pay your team's starting quarterback to speak about Saturday's game for 15 minutes, or break down tape, or something along those lines.

UK released its official NIL headquarters on its official athletics website. But nobody, and this goes for everywhere - nobody - is fully prepared for what comes next.