Of course it's a good rule. If there was no rule, then schools would keep feeding the guys things they can sell without any limit. It would be the same as paying players. Like what? Would players start selling cigarettes out of the back of trucks or something? Game merchandise is valuable because there is a very finite supply of it. All schools would have to do is line up people unaffiliated with the program to buy jerseys for hundreds of thousands of dollars and make that promise to kids during the recruiting process. There's no reason they couldn't sell their memorabilia for far more than its actually worth. Regulation, even if it was theoretically possible, would be quite impractical. I don't really consider that selling merchandise. That's more like bribing someone with $100,000 and saying 'Oh, this isn't a bribe, I was just paying 100k for this briefcase that's worth more like $300." What you're talking about is really no different than straight up paying players. I don't think selling a conference championship ring for 1 grand or whatever is remotely the same. Edit: I also don't think that would be any easier or harder to police than just straight pay for play scenarios.