When “Name, Image, and Likeness” appeared inevitable about two years ago, most of the nation’s head coaches got on board and talked about it being a positive thing for their players. And many of them even believed what they were saying.
It would have been recruiting poison to fight it publicly regardless of how they felt, so most billed it as a positive. With the advent of the pay-for-play “Collectives,” however, more and more coaches are speaking out because this was never the intention of the rules. They believe NIL wasn’t supposed to be about boosters buying recruits or encouraging free agency. It was supposed to be about players being able to make some money while they were at a school, as opposed to players making money because they were at a school.
NIL was always going to be an eventual recruiting tool like the NFL or an alumni network or winning, but it wasn’t supposed to be something that a high school player agreed to before ever signing a national letter of intent or enrolling at their school of choice.
And it certainly wasn’t supposed to allow back-channel communications to lure existing college football stars into the transfer portal.
Hell, part of the purpose of the portal itself was to eliminate under-the-table communications, not increase them.
But with all things, if there are any gray areas, green money will find it.
Much of this came to a head when Pittsburgh receiver and 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison was reportedly thinking about entering the transfer portal and that USC was attached with some large dollar amount in mind.
Schools cannot actually hand money over to players or recruits but that doesn’t keep those schools from being attached to the bag men, be they above or below board.
Head coaches are now speaking out against this trend on a weekly basis. They are angry, they are accusatory, and they want fixes. Until they start naming names, however, they’re as complicit as the entities that they are damning.
In the days prior to the Addison news first coming out, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was on SiriusXM radio and said that upwards of a dozen schools or Collectives or entities tried to lure Addison into the portal but that Pitt was able to close the door and keep him.
And then about one day later the Addison-to-USC news and rumors began.
But nowhere in Narduzzi’s tale of being disgusted and frustrated that other schools would come after his player did he bother to name any of those schools. And again, it’s entirely possible that schools are technically not even doing any of the tampering — it’s the Collectives or other entities tied to the school. Narduzzi could very much say there are people tied to USC trying to nab one of his players. Just like he did back in February when he said “people reached out to Kenny Pickett a year ago to go to Notre Dame.”
But even that statement was simply throwing an after-the-fact softball towards a school that has since changed head coaches.
And the thing is, calling out “people” that are attached to schools isn’t even calling out that school’s head coach. Just as coaches who are tampering want plausible deniability, so do the coaches who are trying to shine a light on what is happening in the darkness.
“I never said their coach was tampering,” they could say. “I don’t know if they are or not. I don’t believe they are. I would hope they are not and would assume they are not. I just wanted to make sure people there were aware that this was happening.”
A coach could simply say he was mentioning it to protect another school from being hit by the NCAA.
After all, what’s the best way to get somebody else’s kid under control? You tell their parent. And as much as the agents and the Collectives may not like to hear it, they are still the children in these scenarios and the coaches are still the parents.
But if all a coach is going to do is complain and never name names, then what’s the point?
What are they afraid of?
This isn’t the mafia. There is no Omerta.
Pat Narduzzi isn’t going to wake up one morning with a panther head in his bed because he pointed a finger at USC boosters.
Nobody is going to be sleeping with the fishes.
If coaches are bothered by this and they have a player coming to them and telling them all of the different people they are being contacted by — and the anonymous player is okay with having some of that information shared — then why remain quiet? Why stay silent?
Do they want to avoid upsetting the sacred coaching brotherhood?
It would seem to me that the brotherhood isn’t all that sacred if players are being coaxed into the transfer portal by other coaches.
If you are a coach and you are truly fed up, then you need to start naming names. Be straight forward. Speak of it in factual terms.
Start blowing the whistle.
After all, you’ve got one right around your neck and we all know you know how to use it.
No, it’s probably not going to fix anything, but it would at least stop the complaining from sounding so damn hollow.
When “Name, Image, and Likeness” appeared inevitable about two years ago, most of the nation’s head coaches got on board and talked about it being a positive thing for their players. And many of them even believed what they were saying.
It would have been recruiting poison to fight it publicly regardless of how they felt, so most billed it as a positive. With the advent of the pay-for-play “Collectives,” however, more and more coaches are speaking out because this was never the intention of the rules. They believe NIL wasn’t supposed to be about boosters buying recruits or encouraging free agency. It was supposed to be about players being able to make some money while they were at a school, as opposed to players making money [I]because[/I] they were at a school.
NIL was always going to be an eventual recruiting tool like the NFL or an alumni network or winning, but it wasn’t supposed to be something that a high school player agreed to before ever signing a national letter of intent or enrolling at their school of choice.
And it certainly wasn’t supposed to allow back-channel communications to lure existing college football stars into the transfer portal.
Hell, part of the purpose of the portal itself was to eliminate under-the-table communications, not [I]increase them[/I].
But with all things, if there are any gray areas, green money will find it.
Much of this came to a head when Pittsburgh receiver and 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison was reportedly thinking about entering the transfer portal and that USC was attached with some large dollar amount in mind.
Schools cannot actually hand money over to players or recruits but that doesn’t keep those schools from being attached to the bag men, be they above or below board.
Head coaches are now speaking out against this trend on a weekly basis. They are angry, they are accusatory, and they want fixes. Until they start naming names, however, they’re as complicit as the entities that they are damning.
In the days prior to the Addison news first coming out, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was on SiriusXM radio and said that upwards of a dozen schools or Collectives or entities tried to lure Addison into the portal but that Pitt was able to close the door and keep him.
And then about one day later the Addison-to-USC news and rumors began.
But nowhere in Narduzzi’s tale of being disgusted and frustrated that other schools would come after his player did he bother to name any of those schools. And again, it’s entirely possible that schools are technically not even doing any of the tampering — it’s the Collectives or other entities tied to the school. Narduzzi could very much say there are people tied to USC trying to nab one of his players. Just like he did back in February when he said [URL=’https://twitter.com/SXMCollege/status/1488989635212685319?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1488989635212685319%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbrobible.com%2Fsports%2Farticle%2Fpat-narduzzi-jordan-addison-nil-transfer%2F’]“people reached out to Kenny Pickett a year ago to go to Notre Dame.”[/URL]
But even that statement was simply throwing an after-the-fact softball towards a school that has since changed head coaches.
And the thing is, calling out “people” that are attached to schools isn’t even calling out that school’s head coach. Just as coaches who are tampering want plausible deniability, so do the coaches who are trying to shine a light on what is happening in the darkness.
“I never said their coach was tampering,” they could say. “I don’t know if they are or not. I don’t believe they are. I would hope they are not and would assume they are not. I just wanted to make sure people there were aware that this was happening.”
A coach could simply say he was mentioning it to protect another school from being hit by the NCAA.
After all, what’s the best way to get somebody else’s kid under control? You tell their parent. And as much as the agents and the Collectives may not like to hear it, they are still the children in these scenarios and the coaches are still the parents.
But if all a coach is going to do is complain and never name names, then what’s the point?
What are they afraid of?
This isn’t the mafia. There is no [I]Omerta[/I].
Pat Narduzzi isn’t going to wake up one morning with a panther head in his bed because he pointed a finger at USC boosters.
Nobody is going to be sleeping with the fishes.
If coaches are bothered by this and they have a player coming to them and telling them all of the different people they are being contacted by — and the anonymous player is okay with having some of that information shared — then why remain quiet? Why stay silent?
Do they want to avoid upsetting the sacred coaching brotherhood?
It would seem to me that the brotherhood isn’t all that sacred if players are being coaxed into the transfer portal by other coaches.
If you are a coach and you are truly fed up, then you need to start naming names. Be straight forward. Speak of it in factual terms.
Start blowing the whistle.
After all, you’ve got one right around your neck and we all know you know how to use it.
No, it’s probably not going to fix anything, but it would at least stop the complaining from sounding so damn hollow.
[QUOTE=”Chip Munn’s Son, post: 602054, member: 3170″]
They can’t speak out because it will crush recruiting. They’ll be the coach who doesn’t support NIL.
[/QUOTE]
How would it crush recruiting?
[QUOTE=”VBCoach, post: 602174, member: 1846″]
HAHA!!! He is for NIL until he isn’t for NIL. As long as he is on top and it benefits him, he will be for it. Once that changes,, like if A&M starts to beat him, he will demand change.
[/QUOTE]
Parity for Nick means nobody has more of an advantage than Bama.