Bill Belichick on NIL, transfer portal guidelines: ‘Tell me what the rules are and we’ll play by them’

The college sports world remains in a state of limbo while U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken enters her fourth week weighing final approval of the revised House v. NCAA settlement after defendants capitulated to her request to grandfather in any student-athletes that are negatively impacted by the settlement’s proposed roster limits.

Wilken’s delay — June 7 will mark a full month since she received the revised agreement — in finalizing the landmark House v. NCAA settlement continues to create consternation within the NCAA ranks, especially for Power Four coaches and administrators that are depending on it to help regulate the current free-wheeling world of NIL and the transfer portal.

That includes new North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach who is entering his first season in college after five decades in the NFL. The 73-year-old Belichick opened up about the ongoing challenges collegiate coaches face within the currently unregulated system during a recent sitdown with ESPN’s Rece Davis alongside Clemson‘s Dabo Swinney.

“For me, it’s really pretty simple: I’d say, tell me what the rules are and then we’ll play by them,” Belichick said during ACC Spring Meetings last month on a recent episode of ESPN’s College GameDay Podcast. “Right now a lot of it is up in the air, and once the House settlement is done and once some rules are solidified, and honestly, it’ll probably take a year for this to settle in and see how things go. There will be some adjustments made, it sounds like the judge has already committed to that too, and we’ll take a look at things later on.

“Whatever it is, however the money is distributed and however the contracts are written, whatever the length of the contracts are and so forth, then we’ll figure it out,” Belichick continued. “But I’d say right now it’s a lot of ‘we’re not sure,’ ‘we’ll have to wait and see.’ Some people view it one way, some people view it another way. And you just have to come to an agreement on that. I think things will settle eventually, but right now they’re a little bit up in the air and we’ll see what happens when everything has a bit more declaration to it.”

Swinney chimed in: “Yeah, I mean, I think there are no rules right now. We just want some rules. Tell us what they are.”

Of course, what and how those rules would be implemented remain uncertain at the moment.

Report: NCAA to cede enforcement to new organization if House settlement receives approval

With a decision expected in the near future, college athletics continues to prepare for the House v. NCAA settlement. If Judge Wilken gives final approval, it would also lead to major changes in enforcement.

The NCAA would no longer be in charge of enforcement, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported. Instead, a CEO of a new enforcement organization, the College Sports Commission, would be in charge of handing out punishments and deciding on whether rules have been violated.

The new CEO is expected to be from outside college athletics, according to ESPN. The expectation is that a hire would come soon after the House v. NCAA settlement is finalized.

“All the institutions are going to have new membership agreements that we’re all agreeing to these new rules,” an industry source told ESPN. “The CEO is going to have responsibility to make sure everything is enforced and the governance model is sound. It’s a critically important role for the future of college sports and college football.”

Yahoo! Sports insider Ross Dellenger also reported the Power Conferences drafted a contract that would bind schools to new enforcement rules while also waiving the right to sue over decisions. The proposed “affiliation” or “membership agreement” is directly tied to the new enforcement organization and is meant to be signed by all Power Conference schools and others that opt into the House settlement.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.