Russell Report: What does NIL mean for college athletics moving forward?
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - If I have talked to you about anything in these last few months, it has been about name, image and likeness. Lots of words you can use is discussing this, words like confusing, frustrating, demoralizing, crazy. You get the idea. But let’s take a little deeper dive into what is happening, specifically at the University of Florida.
Although it is difficult to find exact figures, one thing is certain from talking to administrators, coaches and even players about this. For whatever reason, Florida fell behind in the NIL world and now it is trying to play catch up. Other schools in the SEC and elsewhere have bigger war chests of money to throw around to entice athletes to their schools, and make no mistake, Florida has lost out on more than its share of athletes who really liked the school and the program but were lured away by more nil money and perks. It’s really that simple.
One coach told me that in their sport, at least at first, it might take say, $300,000 dollars to stay competitive. Now, that figure has shot to over a million dollars and the sport I am talking about isn’t football or basketball. And those numbers won’t go down. The NIL world is spiraling out of control with more and more money needing to be raised for schools to truly compete. Sadly, some schools will never compete and that can’t be good for college athletics.
For whatever reason, Florida as an athletic administration was not on the same page when it came to NIL and I am told there is still a split today. Some just can’t stand the idea that NIL is even in place, and some believe that it will be eventually legislated away or at least controlled. The other side sees what is happening now and realizes Florida has to get off its duff and do something now to remain athletically competitive in the NIL world.
The good news here is that if you look around at some things going on, specific athletic programs are having fundraisers to help out their particular sport raise necessary NIL dollars. And Florida Victorious, the NIL fundraising arm at Florida, is also working to find ways to raise more money so that Florida can remain athletically and financially competitive. But I believe there is still confusion among fans about NIL, about what they can or can’t do when it comes to making a donation and work needs to be done to educate them on all the nuances name, image and likeness brings to the table.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t see an announcement about some big plans by Florida Victorious to raise serious money through some very innovative ideas and strategies. It is needed and overdue. And what looms over all of this is what may or may not happen with congress, the NCAA or others who might again change the rules regarding NIL. In short, NIL is not going away so the best thing to do is to make the best of it. I’m Steve Russell, that’s the Russell Report.
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