Michigan A.D. Warde Manuel: ‘I’ve been a proponent of NIL’
Michigan has been publicly criticized by its players and coaches for falling behind in NIL, seemingly slow to react in the new era of college athletics. But U-M athletic director Warde Manuel said recently he’s always been in favor of the players being paid for their name, image, and likeness, and he reiterated it Friday.
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But Manuel also told Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast there was a difference between NIL and pay to play — and that he’s not in favor of the latter.
“NIL is something I’ve been a proponent of since the concept was first raised,” Manuel said. “It’s something I’ve never felt as an administrator that we controlled the name, image and likeness of our student athletes. Why not allow them to benefit from jersey sales; from the ability to go out and do endorsements? To do signing of autographs and get revenue from that and many other things they do?
“The biggest thing for me has been inducements. Schools telling kids, ‘we will pay you ‘X’ if you come to our institution.’ That’s not a part of where intercollegiate athletics should be. But it is something we have to deal with, and I know President [Charlie] Baker of the NCAA is trying to work and figure out legislation. We’re working to try to push for legislation as ADs and presidents and our conference commissioner and others in different conferences are doing the same to try to find some balance.”
There’s no guarantee, of course, that any such legislation will prevent the pay to play that yes, is still illegal as an inducement. It’s been going on for years with other methods — some haven’t even tried to hide it and don’t apologize for it, knowing they’ll likely never get punished — but at least the NCAA is acting as though it’s interested in doing something about it as it pertains to NIL.
As for Michigan and its approach, the recent MPower campaign to raise money for athletes “the right way” is the latest effort from the collectives to level the playing field. Manuel is insistent they do it by the letter of the law.
“I’ve had several meetings with different collectives, meetings with our student athletes, and what I ask them to do is do things the right way,” he said. “If student-athletes are going to benefit from a collective and what you decided to do, that they actually do something for what you are providing … that there are no inducements. That we don’t get into a situation where we’re talking to recruits and promising them money if they’re coming to Michigan.
“What we promise students at Michigan is we are going to support you in NIL and your ability to make money off of NIL. But we are also promising we are going to teach you how to use NIL for life. This is not about just the money you get now, but educating them so for the rest of their lives so they can make money off of their name and who they are. They can understand contracts, how to market themselves, how to get jobs and use that to their benefit and the benefit of their family. How they can use a network and connection and do the things they need to do.”
There are other concerns he has, too, but he continues to work with them, he said, to find solutions. He’s confident the collectives are doing it the way they should be.
“They are taking kids once they get here and helping them secure resources for themselves off their NIL. I believe the ones I talk to all have that value in support of our student athletes,” he said. “But I just emphasize to them to do it the right way.”
The Michigan collectives appear to be getting there, slowly but surely.
