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For some Pac-12 coaches and admins, NIL means ‘now, it’s legal’ as unintended consequences chaotic
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 65,004 
By Bruce Feldman
May 4, 2022
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The three-hour meeting of Pac-12 football coaches and athletic directors Tuesday morning inside the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale felt different than any previous similar meeting. The coaches and ADs had gathered together, along with commissioner George Kliavkoff, at the annual Fiesta Summit. The elephant in the room was the increasingly thorny issue of name, image and likeness (NIL) and its unintended consequences and the presumption that the college sports world has quickly gone over the edge.
In some coaching circles, NIL has come to mean “Now, it’s legal!” — as in schools, and more specifically their boosters, have an umbrella rule where they can pay recruits for play or to commit to their programs. What was happening under the table and behind the scenes for decades — reeling in prized recruits and transfers — is now happening above board, tasked to these newly formed, deep-pocketed collectives. Agents, seeing the money grab, had been sending their new clients, 16- and 17-year-old high school prospects, on recruiting tours to spur bidding wars as egos and, in some cases, desperation to revive powerhouse college football programs that had sunk to irrelevance, have become the biggest front-burner topic here where the majority of the college sports power brokers convened.
“We all know what is going on at some places, and it’s now the wild, Wild West,” one Power 5 head coach told The Athletic. “It’s out of control, and it’s been getting dramatically worse by the week, by the day, it seems.”
In March, The Athletic reported that a five-star 2023 recruit signed an NIL deal with a school collective that could pay him in excess of $8 million; he was to be paid $350,000 almost immediately, followed by monthly payouts escalating to more than $2 million per year once he begins his college career. Word of that deal ripped through the college sports world, kicking off a feeding frenzy.
“Do we really want to get into this world where we’re gonna induce kids that are 16 or 17 or 19 to choose their program and leave their high school or their college for what turns out to be a donor’s dollar?” another Power 5 head coach said Tuesday. “What time of message are we sending and what happens next? The coolest part of having NIL pass is being able to help kids in a scenario that they weren’t able to be helped before. Not in order to get into unrestricted free agency. There’s just that fine line between the two where hopefully there’s some form of regulation that we don’t look into this world and turn around where it’s just whoever wants to pay the most get its, and it’s now legal. Crazy times, man.”
At the Pac-12 meeting Tuesday, several coaches told The Athletic that they were pleased to hear how Colorado AD Rick George addressed the biggest issue head on and told the league’s coaches and his fellow athletic directors his suggestion to the NCAA: that the conference would search coaches’ phone records to investigate whether there were inducements to players being discussed with the threat of the schools and the coaches being fined and punished. If Pac-12 leadership finds out a coach has a burner phone, he’s already guilty.
Several coaches in the room have had frustrations with what they see as egregious violations they hear are taking place with the collectives that have been springing up. “You can’t provide inducements — that’s pay for play,” said one coach. “The (NCAA’s) booster rule is that once you’re defined as a booster, you’re a booster for the rest of your life, and if you are a booster, you’re not allowed to give inducements. That’s 100 percent illegal. That’s not a gray area. Boosters aren’t supposed to be having contact with players. That rule hasn’t changed. (George) also went off about how if you have a tiered (NIL) system, that’s pay for play, and I looked around the room and a few people were squirming.”
There was also a moment noted by several coaches in the room Tuesday when Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson took the floor to passionately discuss rule breakers, which multiple sources said was dripping with irony as his football program is in the midst of a full-blown recruiting scandal involving Herm Edwards and his staff that has cost numerous Sun Devil coaches their jobs.
“Ray going on his soap box like that, was really something to see,” one source told The Athletic.
“It was so bizarre,” said another coach. “I’m thinking, oh my God, is he really going there?’”
One of the coaches The Athletic spoke with said he appreciated the tone set by George and Kliavkoff but also wasn’t very optimistic the NCAA would be able to do anything to manage the situation. “It’s always, how quickly is the NCAA actually gonna act on this? I’m sitting here watching (Kansas basketball coach) Bill Self holding court in the bar over there and he’s got a bunch of Level 1 violations from like five years ago and they just presented him with the championship.”
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Also this: https://wsj.com/articles/ncaa-name-image-likeness-collectives-11651761397?mod=hp_listc_pos1
https://247sports.com/Article/Former-USC-WR-Bru-McCoy-commits-to-Tennessee--187136229/
Former USC wideout Bru McCoy announced his commitment to Tuesday evening.
McCoy entered the transfer portal back in mid January and the Vols immediately reached out. McCoy took an official visit in March and since then, it always seemed like more a matter of when, not if, he would announce for the Vols.
“There were a lot of factors that went in to his decision,” McCoy’s father Horace said. “A big one was the culture at Tennessee. We met the players and the entire coaching staff and everything they talked up lined up when we saw them in action.
“We watched a practice and just saw how the players and coaches interact on and off the field. He wanted to be around a positive culture in a great learning environment with players who want to be there and it just felt like home for Bru right away.”
The offensive scheme was another big plus for McCoy.
“The scheme they run is perfect for Bru,” McCoy said. “When you’re looking for a school, scheme fit is so important and he loves the offense and how they can use him.
“Bru is a big kid, 6-3, 225 pounds right now and that offense allows receivers to get the ball early and then get up the field. It also allows you to make plays down the field in 50-50 situations and obviously coach (Josh) Heupel has shown he likes to throw the ball a lot so it’s a phenomenal fit.”
Tennessee already has a strong wide receiver room in place but according to Horace, that was another plus.
“That’s what Bru wanted,” McCoy said. “Bru thrives on competition, it’s why he picked Mater Dei when he did and also USC. You look at the WR room at USC, it was stacked but Bru is the kind of kid that wants to be pushed and push others.
“Tennessee has some dudes over there. Cedric Tillman is a guy Bru played against in high school when we played Bishop Gorman and he went off against pst. Jalin Hyatt can go and they have a few others too so Bru is excited about competing and making everyone better.”
Too soon?