Miami Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich addresses NIL, transfer portal, football program, facilities, teams flipping conferences & more

Miami Hurricanes Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich is excited about the football program’s 4-0 start, but it isn’t something that’s surprised him.

“I’ve had the really good fortune of being around some incredible football coaches (coming to Miami from Clemson), and there’s no one that works harder than Mario Cristobal,” Radakovich said on CaneSport’s The Lamar Thomas Show on Wednesday evening. “He is a pleasure to be around because you know he’s singularly focused on making the program the best it can be. That’s something our fan base is beginning to learn and understand. As time goes on we’ll be able to see that manifest itself into not only really great student-athletes, but winning football that will bring more and more people to Hard Rock Stadium.”

He hopes to see plenty of people at the stadium this weekend, and Radakovich is excited about Miami having a night game at home against Georgia Tech.

There’s going to be a lot of top recruits on hand and the team will be wearing its Miami Nights all-black uniform.

“They (Georgia Tech) were embarrassed last week, embarrassed at home against Bowling Green,” Radakovich said. “And I know that didn’t sit well with those folks, so we have to be ready for the Yellow Jackets to come in here on Saturday.”

Radakovich also spoke a lot about infrastructure and NIL.

He says fans are starting to see the investment the University of Miami made in football start to pay off after a rough 2022 season.

“Bringing Mario back was very, very important – he was hired first, and then I came after that,” Radakovich said. “The University was making that big commitment. Up to this point we are methodically moving – these things don’t happen overnight.

“You have to be patient. It’s terrible to go through. But the results you see (starting).”

Radakovich says in modern college athletics you need great facilities and great NIL opportunities to compete, and said he wouldn’t have come to Miami if not for the financial commitment to having both.

He says UM “is in a pretty good spot” currently with NIL.

“John Ruiz and his company LifeWallet did a great job in the early stages, Dan Lambert and his company were very helpful,” Radakovich said. “We have to be able to move forward and morph into the next step of what we need to do. The Canes Connection is the official collective we have, has been doing some really good things, raising money, helping our student-athletes get their deals as well as having opportunities for student-athletes in general to do charitable activities as well as working with other sponsors they have – autograph shows, appearances to earn the NIL money.”

Radakovich also said that NIL and the transfer portal coming at the same time into the college football universe was a bit difficult to manage.

“The transfer portal is going to be here, don’t think we’re going to go back, but the period is going to be shorter – it’s 60 days now (for a transfer window), will go down to 45, which will be good because if the student-athlete really wants to get into the portal it’s hard for me to believe they weren’t thinking about it for an awful long time,” Radakovich said. “The longer that window, the longer time for tampering from other places.

“NIL I think what we really need and it’s hard to even say this but the federal government needs to come together and make the rules the same everywhere. That’s going to be hard to do because I don’t think we’ll get anything with this Congress, all of a sudden get into the presidential election year in 2024, it may not happen then.”

Radakovich also pointed to how congressmen might look at all the college football attendance and the high TV ratings and might “scratch their head and say `What’s wrong with it?’”

“(But) it’s not equal for everyone,” Radakovich said. “I look at it this way: Pre-NIL Ohio State was always going to have more money than UL-Monroe, they just were. They were going to build bigger facilities, pay coaches more. So you’re not going to be able to legislate things (exactly evenly).”

Radakovich says an issue in the current system is that donors are choosing between donating to NIL and giving money to a school. He’d like to see universities be able to choose how to split up the money and manage NIL themselves.

“Long-term it would be great to have the University be able to do these kinds of things or help management instead of it always being done by an outside entity,” he said.

Radakovich also touched more on the potential of Congress passing national NIL legislation at some point.

“They have much bigger problems than intercollegiate athletics,” Radakovich said. “They just can’t grasp how different it is for student-athletes today vs. when they were in school. Unless you’re on a college campus and see it, or a relative involved with it, it’s a very different environment.”

As for the new facilities being built, when will shovels get in the ground?

“We are moving through that process,” Radakovich said of the $150-250 million facility (not including the parking garage price tag). “Each and every day it’s top of mind to clear the hurdles and get it done this fall.

“It’s going to be a striking building, something all of campus, alums, fans will be proud of. … It’s the forever home of the University of Miami football team. It’s going to have a great locker room, sports medicine area, weight area, nutrition area, cafeteria, coaches’ offices and great student-athlete area at the top.”

Radakovich also said that today the NCAA council put forward a rule that photo shoots at programs will only be allowed on official visits.

“(It) hasn’t been adopted yet,” Radakovich said. “We’ll see if it passes, but I don’t think there’s not a college football coach in the country that wouldn’t say that’s a good idea.”

He also spoke about teams flipping to different conferences.

“I know a number of my colleagues talk about that revenue gap, disparity, and it’s there, it’s real,” Radakovich said. “If you’re in the ACC, this is a great league for the University of Miami.

“It’s still a people business – it’s about the people. Texas has the largest athletic budget, hasn’t won everything (since 2005). Texas A&M hasn’t won everything. … Where it gets harder is keeping those good people.

“You can still compete.”

So what if an FSU or Clemson winds up leaving the ACC?

“It would affect us because we have a great relationship with both schools,” Radakovich said. “But the league would still be where it is, we’re not going to fall below a number that would allow ESPN to come in and say `We don’t want to have the league anymore.’ … Where are (Clemson and FSU) going to go?

“I think the ACC is in a good position. The addition of Cal, Stanford and SMU has been really good, created a pool of money that the presidents have said we’re going to take it and if you’re successful in this league you’ll be able to get a larger share. So nobody is going to go backward. … If you’re good, you’ll get rewarded.”

*Radakovich also hinted that perhaps Miami is working to get a softball program up and running.

“We got a little corner that (we can use for a stadium) if we can get the right people to put their thumbs up,” he said.