USC NIL woes might be about organization more than money

USC football has an NIL problem. Where the problem most centrally exists, however, is the true point of debate. It is hard to pin down. You will find a lot of agreement among USC fans that the NIL operation has to be improved. Who is chiefly responsible for that improvement is where the discussion gets thorny and complicated.

Is it athletic director Jennifer Cohen? Is it Dave Emerick, who is the general manager for football? Is it Lincoln Riley? Is it the House of Victory? In truth, all of those people or groups bear some degree of responsibility, but it is less of a coaching issue and more of an administrative problem. Lincoln Riley needs NIL support, knowing that he will be able to coach the best players and give his new defensive staff the best defensive talent. It’s up to the people inside the program and the collectives to create a process which is efficient, clear, responsive, and well-resourced.

On our recent Conquest Call-In Show at The Voice of College Football, we talked about the inner workings of NIL. Tim Prangley noted that from what he is hearing behind the scenes, this issue might be less of a money problem (competing with Phil Knight’s Oregon mega dollars) and more a process and structure problem in which inefficiencies persist and don’t allow maximum money to flow directly from the collective to the athlete. We don’t know the exact details, but again, we can all agree that something isn’t quite fully aligned and in the right place at USC.

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