Sean Miller on NCAA’s NIL issues: ‘You’re flying the plane and building it at the same time’

At the SEC spring meetings this year there are a half dozen hot topics being kicked around. If you ask new Texas basketball coach Sean Miller, there’s one that sits front and center. But that’s not the case for all coaches.

Many of them view different issues as the most pressing. But for Miller, the one that takes the cake is clear.

“I think the hot-button model is just singular. It’s the name, image and likeness and how that’s going to work moving forward,” Sean Miller said. “And, look, as a coach, I don’t think any of us can be presumptuous or act as if we know the answer.”

That will, in part, be up to the decisions made when it comes to the House settlement. Things remain in a state of limbo there as the powers that be negotiate a potential landmark settlement for college sports.

In the interim, though, there’s a large swath of confusion. Nothing is all that clear, leaving coaches fending for themselves in what many have described as the ‘Wild, Wild West.’

Sean Miller had another interesting analogy for what’s going on. He shared.

“Part of it is just we’re in this period of time of the unknown,” he said. “And I think the analogy that I’ve heard is you’re flying the plane and building it at at the same time. And to some degree in terms of sports that’s true. Where you’re trying to make the best decisions for your program, most importantly for the players that you’re coaching in real time, knowing certain things may not be the same in the future.”

That uncertainty has made things quite difficult to manage for coaches like Sean Miller. Not impossible, just difficult.

Miller pointed out, though, that that’s true of any period with significant change. There’s always a learning curve.

“And by the way, certain things aren’t the same today as they were even a year ago,” Sean Miller said. “So I think it’s that unknown. There’s never been more of it when it comes to that, which affects recruiting, the lifeblood of what we all do.”