Brian Kelly calls for reform: This isn't what NIL was intended to do

New LSU head coach Brian Kelly sees a disturbing trend emerging just a year into the NIL era of college sports. Kelly appeared on the Off the Bench podcast on Friday and discussed how the “unintended consequences” of NIL are unhealthy for a team and player retention.

“Certainly, I’m in favor of the student-athletes promoting their brands and having their name, image and likeness,” Kelly said. “We’re in a situation now where there are unintended consequences. I don’t know that anybody thought that we were going to get to the point where seniors in high school are having multi-million-dollar contracts.

“Now, we’re looking at guys entering the transfer portal because they want to get paid to play. That’s not what Name, Image and Likeness was intended to do. So, there’s going to have to be corrections. It’s not a sustainable model from that perspective. I want to recruit, develop and retain my players. I’m not a big believer of a freshman coming in, not having played a down, and getting a big contract, that’s not good for your locker room. Can they get travel expenses for their families and relocation expenses? I think that’s reasonable. But the big contracts we’re seeing, they’re not sustainable and they’re not healthy for your football team.”

Brian Kelly calls for SEC to set NIL standards

Kelly also revealed he has already been in contact with several SEC coaches regarding the issue of NIL.

A report surfaced Thursday evening that college leaders will propose that the NCAA enforce new guidelines regarding name, image and likeness. The LSU football coach is one of many in agreement.

“We’ve had a couple of conversations already about NIL,” Kelly said. “We’ve got a conference call Monday and then Memorial Day weekend we go to Destin for our conference meetings. We’re all kind of grappling with the same issues and, quite frankly, nobody’s very comfortable with where we are right now. I think the SEC has to really take a lead. The NCAA is not going to. We know that. Our conversations have really been directed at, ‘What can we do as a conference to set a standard relative to name, image and likeness?’ It’s not binding, but if the SEC doing it, I think a lot of people will follow.”

Last July, the NCAA implemented policy regarding players’ abilities to profit off their name, image and likeness. However, it was fairly vague, and boosters are starting to find ways around it. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff met with U.S. Senators on Thursday to fight for a congressional mandate to regulate NIL.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.