Eastern Kentucky opens play in bell-ringing Mississippi Saturday in today’s NIL environment

As Eastern Kentucky University opens its football season on Saturday, the players will face a challenge on the field and off the field. On the turf will be SEC foe Mississippi State. Not far off the field will be the ringing of lots of cowbells, a Bulldog tradition. EKU Head Coach Walt Wells said earlier this week, cowbell music was blasting from speakers during practice and a little more for his quarterback.

“We also have a speaker that we put right behind the quarterback. And literally it’s five yards behind the quarterback. It moves with the hash as the hash moves and just blares cow bells ringing and fan noise,” said Wells.

Name, image, and likeness compensation for college athletes is a part of the American sports scene, and nowhere is it maybe more evident than in college football. Coach Wells said enough people are making money off players, they deserve to be paid. But Wells admits some reining in would help.

“We’re out here in the wild, wild west and you know there’s…NFL’s got contracts, they got rules, they got all these things. And there’s no rules for right now for us..there’s absolutely none,” said Wells.

Wells said he spoke with a representative from Miami of Ohio who said he couldn’t afford to keep his kicker. Wells added that was from one FBS school to another. Kickoff for the EKU-Mississippi State contest is set for 6:00.

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