Michigan Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham’s opinion on NIL is a lot like the one shared by most other college coaches.
During an appearance on the most recent episode of Big Ten Network color commentator and former Michigan tight end Jake Butt’s “The Blue Print” podcast, Whittingham discussed changes he wants to see to NIL deals, calling for a salary cap to control the market. (h/t On3.com)
“The biggest thing that needs to… have some parameters and guardrails put on it is the NIL, which essentially is a salary cap. That’s the direction we’ve got to head,” Whittingham said.
Forgive us for being unmoved. It’s a refrain we’ve heard before, from everyone from Pitt Panthers
head coach Pat Narduzzi to Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian in recent years. If Whittingham really wants to move the needle, he’d call for a cap on how much he and his peers make instead.
Coach salaries, not NIL deals, should be subject to a salary cap
Arguments calling for an NIL cap are easy to dispute. Most operate under the faulty premise that the sport is in a bad spot when the truth is it’s arguably never been more compelling. Stories like Indiana winning a national title or Trinidad Chambliss going from Division II to leading the Ole Miss Rebels to the CFP semifinals in his first season in Oxford would have been unheard of in previous iterations of the sport.
Problems do still exist, but limiting NIL spending isn’t the solution. Situations like quarterback Darian Mensah’s breach of contract leaving the Duke Blue Devils for the Miami Hurricanes is a bad look for the sport, but with tighter regulations and more enforceable rules — which would be possible under a collective bargaining agreement — programs wouldn’t need to worry about players under contract challenging commitments by trying to leave for more money elsewhere.
If a player can maximize his name, image and likeness for a vast amount of money, he has every right to do so, and that should continue being the case going forward.
The far more significant crisis in college athletics is football coaching contracts, which we’re reminded of yearly as schools pay millions for exorbitant buyouts, then millions more on different staffs.
In April, an Investigate TV report found that since 2004, “more than $1.1 billion has been paid to fired coaches, leaving universities on the hook for much of that money.”
At the start of the 2023 season, ESPN’s Heather Dinich shared staggering findings from the Knight Commission, which determined that “Over the next decade, some exorbitant Power 5 football coaching salaries are projected to exceed the total amount their respective schools spend on athlete scholarships and medical expenses for all athletes across all sports.”
ESPN research in 2017 showed that in 39 states, a football or men’s college basketball was their highest-paid public employee.
Tell us again, Whittingham, why athletes are the problem. With a straight face.
He isn’t the first coach — nor will he be the last — to say NIL costs are the true culprit in today’s era of oversized college football spending. But we should pay them all no mind, at least until one suggests their pay be limited, too.
Talk is cheap. Whittingham and his contemporaries should lead by example if they really want change.
We won’t hold our breath.
