NIL debates rage on at SEC spring meetings

DESTIN, Fla. — “In this profession, there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat.”

Billy Napier was making light of the Jimbo Fisher vs. Nick Saban feud, but after a busy Day 1 at the SEC spring meetings, Florida’s first year head coach might as well been referring to the league’s various opinions on name, image and likeness (NIL), the transfer portal and future scheduling. 

College football, as folks know it, is changing. Some consider the current path as the Wild, Wild, West, while others see progress. In between though, there’s a whole lot of grey area. 

In particular, NIL is at the forefront of these issues, and as the most powerful conference in the sport, commissioner Greg Sankey and the SEC aim to lead the future of how the money flow happens. 

To a man, every SEC coach who took the podium Tuesday — Eli Drinkwitz, Shane Beamer, Kirby Smart, Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin — echoed their support for players being compensated, but they all expressed varying concerns about a lack of oversight, guidelines and structure within the current rules. 

Napier said, “There’s a ton of grey area relative to what you can do and what you can’t do. There’s no manual, there’s no parameters, guidelines. I’m using the term, ‘We’re living in a land with no laws.’ I think it very much continues to be a very fluid situation. Y0u hear something new each day.”

Thus far, the NCAA has only acted as if it were a member of the Royal Family in regards to NIL, offering little more than a few tisk-tisks on alleged pay-for-play allegations but no formal legislation due to fear of anti-trust lawsuits. Ultimately, NIL has evolved into an individual state’s issue, with more than 35 states passing or proposing their own legislation. 

The lack of uniformity clearly irks coaches, particularly Saban. Alabama’s head coach believes “equitable national competition is really, really important,” and “we need some kind of transparency in name, imagine and likeness deals to verify that players are doing what they need to do to have the opportunity to make in name, image and likeness. Believe me, I’m all for players making as much as they can. But I also think that we’ve got to have some uniform, transparent way to do that.”

Beamer, Smart and Kiffin all lamented how many recruits are now making their decisions not on relationships, playing time, proximity to home or ability to compete for championships, but on which school can offer them the most money. Kiffin literally delivered a full-throated “I told you so,” admitting he wasn’t afraid to break some sort of coaches’ omertà on the subject.

“You’ve got to embrace things that may not be what you wanted. It’s just the way that it’s going…

“This is what it is, as opposed to hiding behind all of it and saying whatever that little coaches’ bible that we’re supposed to follow about what you’re supposed to say,” Ole Miss’ coach said.

“Like, NIL has nothing to do with why players come to my campus. I’m not going to say those things.”

It’s a dollars and sense game, and fortunately, Napier and Kiffin admitted as much Tuesday. The SEC is raking in cash, with schools projected to receive somewhere north of $65 million annually once the new ESPN media rights contract starts in 2024. As the money keeps ballooning, those providing the actual entertainment in this business absolutely deserve a cut.

How, is at the crux of the dilemma.

“I’m a firm believer that this is a positive. We’re living in a different era,” Napier said. 

“If you go back to 1990, and I did some research the other day, each SEC institution got like $1.3 million a year from the league. Just 13 years ago, I think it was around $6 million or $7 million, and I think this (2024 TV) deal is in the high 60s or low 70s per year. 

“One of the things about my career is I’ve been in the profession and observed this explosion. It’s foolish to say the players don’t deserve a piece of the pie. If there are no players in these stadiums, nobody’s showing up to watch, and they’re certainly not sitting at home watching it on TV. It all leads back to the money and I think the TV industry has the key to the castle. You’ve got to get a lot of people to the table and there’s a lot of dialogue and a lot of conversations that have to happen.” 

The current issue with NIL debates — at SEC spring meetings or elsewhere — is lots of power players have opinions on what’s wrong with the system, with few providing legitimate insight on possible solutions. The inability to separate fact from fiction is at the root of the issue, but coaches, ADs and compliance departments are playing a role in this information gap. They complain how their jobs are harder (true!), yet no one wants to actually give up what they do know.

Ironically, both Saban and Fisher have pined for transparency. Neither have offered many details on specifics regarding their school’s collectives or NIL payments, though. 

Instead, it’s just more griping.

Enough.

Enough of the multi-million dollar coaches fearing the end of the world just because the greatest sport on earth got a little more complicated thanks to an emerging new market. Adapt or don’t.

Thankfully, at least one of the league’s youngbloods admitted as much Tuesday.

“We’re pretty blessed to have these jobs, man,” Drinkwitz said. 

“I coached high school football. I painted lines. In the summer, I opened weight rooms. I got to fly down here on a private jet. I’m sitting at the beach. Is it hard? Absolutely. Do we have the greatest jobs in the world? Absolutely. There’s no way that I’m going to turn this into a ‘Poor me’ deal.”