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Gene Frenette: Biggest challenge for colleges with NIL, transfer portal is not choking on greed
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- Gene Frenette: Biggest challenge for colleges with NIL, transfer portal is not choking on greed
It turns out Gordon Gekko, one of the most notorious villains in movie history, was way ahead of his time when he uttered his famous line in the 1987 movie "Wall Street": "Greed, for the lack of a better term, is good."
Because when you look at the present college athletics landscape, particularly among the big-time programs, almost every university president, athletic director and supporters running NIL collectives has adopted the Gekko credo.
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None of them have a shred of concern about the overall welfare of college sports or maintaining some semblance of competitive balance.
It's all about the money.
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Whether that means NIL collectives enticing high-performing players to lure them away from national brands or mid-major programs, or schools jumping to conferences that burden their athletes with thousands of miles of extra travel, big-time college sports operate with the same cutthroat capitalism as on the real Wall Street.
Led by the SEC and Big Ten, which just formed an advisory group to possibly chart a future path for college sports, the current atmosphere has spawned the worst possible version of a Wild, Wild West atmosphere.
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Altruism is dead, replaced by a level of greed on the part of coaches, athletes and university administrations that has already led to what can best be described as athletic cannibalism.
The Pac-12 got eaten alive by corporate raiders from the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, which enticed USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, California and Stanford into a divorce nobody would have envisioned five years ago.
While the transfer portal and NIL has led to massive player movement, allowing athletes to reap previously unreachable financial benefits, there's an inevitable downside.
The Pac-12 schools who didn't get poached, Oregon State and Washington State, are in limbo. Many in the ACC, starting with FSU and Clemson, are seeking an exit to obtain a better media rights deal because they rightfully wonder if their resources can keep up with the SEC and Big Ten.
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It's hard to argue against players being compensated, but in a climate where the NCAA's enforcement strength is diminishing, lawlessness is bound to become a problem.
Gators, FSU, UT get flagged
Once NIL collectives, transfer portals and players getting paid became standard operating procedure, it was only a matter of time before schools broke the rules or came under investigation for allegedly doing so.
Florida State recently became the first school to get punished by the NCAA for using an NIL offer to entice a recruit to sign with the Seminoles, reportedly a $15,000-per-month incentive to Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims, who ended up staying in Athens.
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Offensive coordinator Alex Atkins was suspended three games for his involvement, and FSU also accepted several other penalties for Level II violations.
Florida and Tennessee are also under investigation for NIL misdeeds. One year after a failed $13 million deal for five-star QB Jaden Rashada, who was later released from his letter of intent and signed with Arizona State, the NCAA is looking into possible UF violations from that transaction.
Florida's football program is being investigated for potential NIL rules violations relating to a failed $13 million NIL deal for 5-star quarterback Jaden Rashada (L), who was released from his letter of intent and ended up signing with Arizona State.
Similarly, UT is being investigated for improper use of NIL in the recruitment of redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava. The school filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, but a U.S. district court judge struck that down, so the investigation is moving forward.
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Don't be surprised if these cases are a precursor to an outbreak of NIL violations, given the temptation out there for collectives or coaches to lure top players from other colleges and high schools.
"Florida and these schools are arguing the collective is doing it without the coaches' knowledge," said Gator Bowl president Greg McGarity, the former Georgia athletic director and assistant A.D. at Florida. "How is that even believable? That's why they're in trouble.
"NIL was designed to be activated once the athlete enrolled in school, not before. Everything that's happening should be expected. You have the bad guys trying to get around the rules. Some get caught, some don't. That's the problem with this NIL, but you've got to start somewhere [with consequences for rules violations].
"I'm sure the attitude is, 'Hell, everybody's doing it and if we don't do it, we're going to be left behind.' Greed is getting the best of everybody. Even the high school kids are asking, 'How much money am I going to get?' "
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The incentive to cheat has never been greater. With thousands of players in the transfer portal, along with coveted high school stars being recruited at the same time, it's impossible for everybody to not cross the line.
Former Florida coach Ron Zook (2002-04), whose last college job was as associate head coach/special teams coach at Maryland in 2021, saw trouble coming right after the COVID-19 pandemic.
"One of my last phone calls to a [high school] recruit, he asked me, 'What kind of deal can you give me?," said Zook. "You knew when they started the NIL and [transfer] portal deal that it wasn't going to go well."
A landscape ripe for chaos
St. John's basketball coach Rick Pitino wasn't trying to be an NCAA antagonist, though he's had plenty of run-ins with the governing body — it forced his 2012-13 Louisville team to vacate its national title for playing ineligible players — to be considered an adversary.
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A day after the National Labor Relations Board ruled Dartmouth men's basketball players are employees of the school, which could allow them to unionize and negotiate work conditions, Pitino called for the sport to have a salary cap and for the NCAA to get out of policing college athletics.
The NCAA is being hit with multiple lawsuits that challenge rules on NIL deals and transfers. Even NCAA president Charlie Baker wants a "new tier" of sports for universities with the highest resources to pay their athletes.
Hardly a week goes by where news events or legal challenges related to college sports are not surfacing. Pitino believes major changes are needed.
"I think the NCAA enforcement staff just should be disbanded, it's a joke," said Pitino. "Not because I dislike them, but they're of no value anymore.
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"It's a very difficult time in college basketball because it's free agency. And now I think what's going to happen is, they're going to say everybody can transfer, and then if they don't like it, they're going to take 'em to court."
McGarity agrees with Pitino, saying the NCAA should probably confine itself to just coordinating all the championships outside of football.
"There's so many different rabbit holes you could go down," said McGarity. "You saw what happened with the Dartmouth athletes being viewed as employees, that's just the beginning. Now you will have to set up a revenue stream for 600 kids.
"On top of that, you got Title IX. How do you make sure women's softball is treated like men's baseball?"
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Paying all college athletes at varying levels like professional players sounds fair given the revenue they produce. But good luck trying to keep the big-name programs, with their recruiting machines, from not constantly bending or completely ignoring the NIL rules.
Cherry-picking the mid-majors
With all the transfer portal movement and NIL collectives at top programs raising millions of dollars, there's another downside: mid-major schools seeing top talent leave for greener pastures.
Last year, both the University of North Florida men's basketball and baseball programs were stung by the exodus of their most impactful players.
University of North Florida basketball coach Matthew Driscoll's program was victimized by the transfer portal, losing four of his top five scorers from last year's team to schools who had NIL money to offer as an incentive for leaving.
Basketball lost four of their top five scorers to the transfer portal: point guard Jose Placier (South Florida), guard Jarius Hicklen (Oklahoma State), and forwards Jadyn Parker (East Tennessee State) and Jonathan Aybar (FIU) all left for NIL deals.
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The baseball program, already transitioning head coaches from the late Tim Parenton to Joe Mercadante, had to replace its three best players. Center fielder Austin Brinling (South Carolina), shortstop Alex Lodise (FSU) and second baseman Aidan Sweat (Liberty) were all enticed by NIL money that is currently unavailable for Ospreys' athletes.
While UNF athletic director Nick Morrow is hopeful boosters and local businesses can put a collective together soon, he knows the school's best athletes with eligibility remaining are likely going to get recruited by schools offering NIL deals, even if their names aren't in the portal.
"[Basketball coach Matthew] Driscoll develops talent and schools know he doesn't recruit bad dudes," Morrow said. "It's going to be hard to build a program at our level. Kids are going to go to the shiny new thing.
"We're the new JuCo. Those years of developing a Carter Hendricksen [former UNF player who stayed five-plus years] and keeping them are gone."
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Just look at Florida's basketball program, which is hovering on the NCAA Tournament bubble. It could go down to the wire whether the Gators are a part of March Madness in Todd Golden's second season.
But would UF be a Big Dance contender without Golden plucking its two best players, Zyon Pullin (UC Riverside) and Walter Clayton, Jr. (Iona), from mid-major schools?
There's no telling what the college landscape will look like in 5, 10 or 20 years as NIL deals and the transfer portal evolves.
For now, upheaval reigns as decisions made in courtrooms may have more impact than games on the court and field. College rosters are churning at alarming rates throughout the country, with no end in sight.
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"In your wildest dreams, if you never thought something could happen, the unexpected is just around the corner because there's no stability right now," McGarity said.
With a 12-team College Football Playoff starting next season, and the conference musical chairs game showing no sign of abating, college athletics is at an inflection point.
Only one thing seems certain: the greed permeating college sports is a runaway train that isn't going away.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com : (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Can Florida, FSU navigate transfer portal, NIL without breaking rules?
