This week has been a cruel reminder that the world of NIL in college football is still the wild, wild west. UNLV and their quarterback Matthew Sluka are firmly entrenched in a dispute over an alleged $100,000 of NIL promises made to him during his recruitment process. Bear Alexander just quit on his USC Trojans team after three games to redshirt, hoping to cash in big one more time this coming off-season. Who would finally speak some sanity into all this mess?
Some national media members tried to get some answers and direction out of both Georgia head coach Kirby Smart , Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin , and a number of other top coaches around the country. But surprisingly enough it was LSU head coach Brian Kelly who provided the most in-depth breakdown on the current state of NIL and where things should be headed among all head coaches this week.
When asked about the mess that college football seems like it's in right now thanks to NIL disputes, Coach Kelly had this to say:
"The NIL, because it becomes a third party piece you lose control. And that's why the revenue sharing piece is so important. And getting that legislation passed now puts that back through the universities. And now those contracts can be written a lot differently. When you're dealing with a third party and [NIL] collectives the universities are at arm's length. So it's much more difficult to put in the kind of language necessary to see that maybe a quarterback doesn't leave halfway through the season. Or a guy doesn't opt out for a particular bowl game. Revenue sharing changes the dynamics. Now, I'm not saying that it guarantees all those things go away, but it does now run that revenue through the universities. And contractually now you're in a better position to put forth the language necessary to see that maybe some of those things are more difficult."
One thing many college football fans forget is that a revenue sharing model passed this past off-season that will come into play starting next fall (2025). That will actually alleviate a lot of the compensation agreement issues as things will actually begin to become more standardized. And as Kelly said, things will finally be associated directly between the university and the athletes.
Like Kelly put it, this likely won't "guarantee all [these issues] go away", but the athletes will finally be able to receive compensation from their respective universities instead of some loosely put together NIL collective group. And the one big thing it perhaps helps improve the most? The quality and official nature of compensation agreements for athletes.
The issue with Matthew Sluka and UNLV this week primarily emerged because his representation failed to procure official documentation for the NIL agreement they claim is the reason Sluka will not be playing for the rest of this season.
Kelly was asked about this very issue as well. During Kelly's SEC media call this week Mac Engle of the Fort Worth Telegram expressed to Kelly real concerns on this, sharing horror stories of student athletes being promised things that were never going to come to fruition, "agents" taking advantage of athletes with outrageous commission rates, and truly messy contracts being put in place. Kelly emphasized the importance that LSU's program places on communicating a few key things to players when it comes to their name, image, and likeness:
"Yeah, unfortunately, [NIL horror] stories do exist. And I think there's a couple of things that when we have young men come to our campus, we do spend some time with them on. And the first thing is, you should never give up your your name, your image and likeness exclusively. You should hold on to that. And I think that's the first thing. I think the second thing is, anytime we're talking to the young men we want to make sure that when we talk about "agents" that they're they're certified. And I know that's difficult in most instances, but a certified agent versus somebody that does it as a part time job. Those should be red flags for families, and they should be very, very cautious relative to signing anything if they are not a certified agent or they want your name, image and likeness. And that, to me, are the kind of things that we try to educate when we have the young men on our campus."
It's a shame that Brian Kelly had to even bring that up, but the truth is that there are many people out there seeking to abuse student athletes, steal their rights to their own name, image, and likeness, and profit off these players while acting like they're actually trying to help.
Coach Kelly has surprisingly been one of the most outspoken voices on this issue for some time now. He has consistently communicated adamantly that until a revenue sharing model that is fair for the players is put in place that students, schools, and NIL collectives will continue to struggle in conflict with one another.
Even, with a revenue sharing model on the horizon, conflict is still thriving with players opting out, redshirting themselves, and NIL collectives and coaches continuing to manipulate young people. Hopefully the revenue sharing model that Kelly outlined helps improve things so we can just get back to enjoying the college football played on the field.
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