Impact of NIL Deals on Upcoming College Football Season
Brad Nessler discusses how NIL deals have impacted college football, shaping athlete contracts and influencing game quality. The floodgates are fully open.
Video Transcript
Did you ever think when they opened up the floodgates and took the genie out of the bottle, when they wanted to pay athletes, that we'd be here as we ready for another college football season?
It's, it's insane, Dan.
It is, You know, even when it started four or five years ago, I thought, "Well, you know, they're gonna have some sorta guidelines on this or, you know, some sort of salary cap or whatever."
I never expected, you know, $8 million contracts for kids playing college football, maybe more than that in some cases.
Your guy down in Miami's making a lot.
And, it, it's crazy.
I- it's day to day.
It's hour to hour, you know?
I, I might get done talking to you and find out there's been a judge's ruling, you know.
You're coming back to play.
You got eligibility, don't you?
I don't know.
Back through the portal comes Sileo.
He's, he's on that defensive line.
That'd be great.
Absolutely, Brad.
And I gotta tell you, I see high school kids now with $2.1 million NIL deals, and there's a list of these high school kids.
Do you think it's in a good place right now, though?
I mean, Brad, here's one thing.
The one thing that I do think that NIL is helping college football, you're keeping the kids in school longer because, again, if you can make more money, I'm gonna stay instead of being a fourth or fifth rounder.
So there's a little bit of a sidebar to that, that, hey, look, if you're not You're against the money, I get it.
But it does make the product better when you keep the kids in school more, does it not?
Do you think it's in a good place right now?
Yeah, I think the product's in a great place.
I, I think the whole system's in a screwed-up place.
I think the product when you get down and, you know, you start this Saturday, and you start watching football, you go, "Wow, it's back and it's as good as ever, maybe better."
and, and you're right.
You know, especially even with college basketball, you keep guys around five years, and you get those backcourts that have two senior, you know, guards, and you got front court people that have maybe been around a little bit, but they've played together a lot.
That helps the product, for sure.
I just think when we say, you know, five to play five, how many years are you going to school?
Are, are You know, it We never even talk about that anymore.
I mean, you know, I very seldom go into a players meeting and say, "What are you majoring in?"
And, and they look at me like I'm crazy, you know?
And they go, "Well, all my classes are online," or whatever.
I don't know if they ever go to school.
But, yeah, the product's great.
I just think it's The, the rest of it's kind of a mess.
You know, the conferences are running the show, not the NCAA, and the judges now are running everything, you know, wherever you might be and whatever the ruling might be.
So it's a day-to-day bizarre scenario right now.
But like I said, when you get to the stadium and, you know, you do your tailgating, and you come in, and you watch the game itself, it's pretty good product I think and, and maybe even getting better like you said because when you get what Indiana did last year and now everybody thinks they can do that.
And that's probably never gonna happen again.
But, you know, you do bring in a lot of talent, and if you've got a lot of experience, you guys If you had guys that have played 40 games, I don't care if it was in, you know, division II, and all of a sudden they come into a, a situation where they fit the system, you got guys that are, you know, 22 playing guys that are 18.
You're gonna win with the 22-year-olds.
Brad, do you think government intervention needs to take place somehow, somewhere because, again, every state, every program, you know, is gonna be under a different jurisdiction because of those state laws.
How do you bring that all together?
Do they need to be unionized?
Do they need to have one commissioner?
How would you put guardrails around this if you can?
Yeah.
I don't know, Dan.
I mean, you know, I guess they're coming back, you know, the, coming back in September for the vote in Senate or Congress, whatever the case might be to save Sports Act.
I don't know if they're saving anything or if they're just screwing it up worse.
I don't know the legalese of all this stuff, so I get lost in all of that.
And, and to be quite frankly, you know, fra- frank with you, I think, I, I think fans should forget about it.
It's hard to because you lose players to another team and you're pissed off about that, you know, so and so went someplace else to make more money, and that made my team weaker.
And I get it from a fan standpoint, but then the fans that are getting those guys are going, "Man, this is awesome."
But, you know, without antitrust laws and all that, I don't know how they're gonna fix it, and I, I don't know what the Great Ame- American Save Sports Act Trump or whatever.
Beats me.
I don't, I don't really know
