it's completely illegal.
The University can't pay the players shit...money has to come from non-university affiliated 3rd Party, and without any university interaction in the process to be completely on the up n up.
This is what so many are doing that is coloring outside the lines...players can make comparable NIL money "AT" pretty much any of the big boys and especially at ND. But what others are doing that we aren't, is offering them an up front 'acquisition' fee just for coming as a recruiting tool, because it's illegal.
What every team should do if they want to be legit is when a recruit asks about NIL, they say 'we aren't permitted to speak to you about that during the recruiting process or directly (or indirectly) offer any money to come to us, however if you would like to speak to our current players to find out the NIL opportunities available to you once your are part of the program, you are more than welcome to do that anytime you want as often as you want'.