taking a deeper look at nil and its impact on college recruiting

We’re still very much in the middle of the NIL controversy. College athletes who are eager to cash in on their name, image, and likeness. This is clearly going to change the world of college and HS sports, and it is doing so already.

Problem is, there’s very little regulation or oversight from the NCAA. And it’s become a Wild Wild West kind of situation. Most troubling is that at the big-time Div I programs, coaches already are complaining that top recruits are being lured by promises of six figure or seven figure NIL deals from colleges.

That, to me, is a problem.

What do you think? To me, you talk to any college athlete or HS athlete and they feel this move is clearly justified. That is, it’s all about free enterprise, capitalism, and cashing in -- but for older sports fans, like me, well, we aren’t so sure. This is making college sports into all about free agency.

In fact, I was just thinking this past week where it was announced that Arch Manning, the nephew of Eli and Peyton, and the grandson of Archie, has announced he’s going to play QB at the Univ of Texas.

I thought that was curious because the Univ of Texas has Quinn Ewers lined up to play QB there. You remember Ewers - -he was the superstar HS player from Texas who decided at the last moment to go to Ohio State because the state of Texas didn’t allow NIL at that time, and the state of Ohio did. Yet last season,, as a freshman at Ohio State, even though Ewers had a seven figure NIL deal in hand, he rarely played.

So Ewers transferred to Texas in order to get more playing time because the state of Texas now allows NIL for its athletes. In any event, you can only imagine Ewers’ surprise when top quarterback recruit Arch Manning decided to go there.

That should make for an interesting competition, both on the field and off the field, in terms of NIL money.

In fact, there was a three day summit recently for college athletes regarding NIL. What was curious was that most of the college athletes said that it was up to them to hustle and to find their own NIL deals – that very few colleges were doing anything to help them. In other words, while some of the big name stars are already collecting big money in college, most of their peers were left on their own to find sponsors.

While some schools have clearly made NIL a priority, many others still are looking to get more direction and trying to staff up to help their athletes. Remember, this is a brand new area, and there are very few experts on NIL.

This seems like an area ripe for change, however. Competition in the NIL space will force schools to adapt -- whether they want to or not.

Some big time programs, by the way, have started what are known as collectives.  This is where groups of alumni boosters and fans contribute to a fund aimed at providing NIL opportunities to their school’s athletes.

While these may seem like a more equitable way to distribute NIL to athletes, again, this is all brand new and part of the Wild Wild West.

Collectives have come under scrutiny due to a lack of regulation and near-constant rumors of inducements to recruits and transfers. Listen to the podcast here: The Sports Edge with Rick Wolff