I’d imagine some payments would stop if they did.
Yea, surely these NIL deals are getting smarter and holding back a decent amount based on them finishing the season. Not sure the market will let them hold back too much for the bowl games, but surely transfers can't telegraph that they want to keep their options open for opting out of the regular season.
Really they need to be structured where the vast majority of the money hasn't been paid out until they play in their fifth game to stop this opting out to redshirt, or at least save money when it happens. Then maybe make finishing the last game of the regular season get you to 90%, then 10% for finishing out the post season. You'd maybe have some fights when players try to fake injuries to not play and still get around it. And the 5 games thing could be problematic when there is an early injury, but it's ridiculous to pay that much money and then not even get a full season out of them.