Name, image, and likeness (NIL) money is becoming a thornier issue in college sports. The case of former University of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, which I wrote about last month, demonstrates this problem. Iamaleava, who reportedly had a $2.4 million NIL package at Tennessee, held out for more. The school said no, so Iamaleava bolted.
The crazy part is that Iamaleava reportedly wound up settling for less money to play at UCLA. His brother Madden has also left the SEC, transferring from the University of Arkansas to join his older brother at UCLA.
Something’s gotta give when it comes to NIL. The situation may only be out of hand in individual cases right now, but there will come a time when it gets out of hand everywhere if schools and conferences don’t rein it in.
Coaches have their worries about NIL and its ramifications. University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart talked with Paul Feinbaum about his worries in an interview on Wednesday.
“We just want it to be in a way that’s sustainable. I just want to be able to have a freshman come in and not make more than a senior, and I’d like for other sports to be able to still survive,” Smart said. “You know, we’re on the brink of probably one to two years away from a lot of schools cutting sports. What’s the pushback going to be then when you start cutting non-revenue sports? I don’t want that to happen.”
The money is less of an issue to Smart than what seems like an ever-changing set of regulations and compliance issues.
“The issue is the inability to pinpoint what the rules are and what we can do,” he told Finebaum. “We just want to know the parameters with which we’re playing by and be able to sustain a budget… There’s no old-school, young-school, there’s none of that. We’re comfortable paying the players.”
But what can college athletics do about its 800-pound gorilla? President Donald Trump has talked about setting up a presidential commission to determine how to establish more stability. The president wants retired Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Texas Tech board chair Cody Campbell to co-chair the committee.
“Though we don’t yet know the scope of the commission or how deep it will dive into issues like name, image, and likeness compensation or the transfer portal, Saban and Campbell’s past public statements provide some clues on what they might seek to address,” The Athletic reported earlier this week.
Saban told Feinbaum that he’s not sure what’s going on with the commission. He even admitted that he doesn’t think a commission is necessary.
“Well first of all, I don’t know a lot about the commission. Secondly, I’m not sure we really need a commission,” Saban said on Wednesday. “I think a lot of people know exactly what the issues are in college football and exactly what we need to do to fix them. I think the key to the drill is getting people together so that we can move it forward.”
Related: The Last Thing College Football Needs Is for Government to Get Involved
In 2023, a group of broadcasters and former players met with Joe Biden at the White House to discuss how to rein in NIL and other thorny issues. Naturally, with a Democrat in the White House, part of the discussion included the possibility of college athletes unionizing.
“I bet that last bit got Biden rubbing his grubby little hands together,” I wrote at the time. “The left would love for college athletes to become union employees, and it’s the worst thing that could happen. Can you imagine if unionized players decided to go on strike and derail a season? It could do untold damage to athletic department revenue — including the players’ scholarships.”
I wrote in 2023 that the Biden administration didn’t need to get involved in college sports, and I’m not crazy about the government getting involved now, even though I support the current administration. However, I would trust a Trump commission that includes someone like Saban far more than anything Democrats could come up with.
But the fact remains that the college athletics community needs to do something.
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