Not even Congress can put NIL genie back in the bottle

It was the most interesting moment of the recent SEC media days.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, never one to mince his words, had many words about the current state of college football.

But one stood out.

“Disaster,” said Kiffin.

Name, image and likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal have many (highly compensated) college football coaches lamenting the current state of the game.

I have to laugh. And, then remember what Tulane head coach Willie Fritz said about name, image and likeness last week.

“I have heard a lot of negativity about it,” said Fritz in a TV interview. “And, I think it is wasted negativity. It is here and will stay here.”

Exactly.

When college football coaches and administrators turn to Congress to “fix” NIL, it seems like nothing more than a Hail Mary Pass.

So, let’s see. Let’s turn to one of the most dysfunctional places in America, Washington, D.C., to fix a problem that frankly doesn’t need fixing.

They say, “It is play to pay.”

And, they are right. And, what’s wrong with that?

Kiffin will earn more than $7 million this season.

Remember when former LSU coach Les Miles leveraged a flirtation with Arkansas into a raise to $4 million a season?

Well, in 2023, the coach at the University of Missouri, Eli Drinkwitz, with a record of 17 wins and 19 losses, will earn $4 million per season.

Coach Drink is the 12th- highest paid head football coach in the Southeastern  Conference.

The head coaches at Alabama and Georgia earn more than $10 million per season. And, LSU head coach Brian Kelly is knocking on that door.

The bottom line is that coaches don’t like the fact that, now, the athletes have the leverage.

Before, it was almost impossible for one player at an SEC school to transfer to another.

But, there’s a decent chance that one day soon, former LSU freshman quarterback Walker Howard will be tossing touchdown passes against his father’s old school, for his old school’s long-time rival, the Ole Miss Rebels.

Well, so be it.

You can’t complain about Walker Howard leaving, when Jayden Daniels left Arizona State to lead LSU to an improbable SEC West Division championship last year.

In the meantime, college football seems to be a quite healthy endeavor.

Next season, Oklahoma and Texas join the Southeastern Conference.

USC and UCLA will join the Big Ten.

And, the University of Colorado will return to the Big 12.

This past week, Texas freshman quarterback Arch Manning (yet to throw a pass in a game) announced he had signed a name, image and likeness deal with Panini, a trading card company.

At a charity auction, the company sold a Manning autographed card for $102,500.

That’s neither good or bad.

It is simply change.

In 1975, the end of the reserve clause that would bind a player to a major league team for his career, disappeared.

It was supposed to be the end of baseball.

Eighteen years later, unrestricted free agency arrived in the NFL.

The game has not only survived, but flourished.

NIL and the transfer portal haven’t ruined college football.

They have changed it. And, there is nothing wrong with that.

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