ole miss - contract mess
We are finally seeing the downfall of the contract and NIL in college football. What am I talking about? News came out yesterday that a few of the Ole Miss players have shared their NIL contract exposing that some players are in fact not making the same amount. I am not sure if they are stupid or oblivious but every player isn’t making the same amount. This news has caused a few players who previously committed to returning to the program to now hit the portal. As someone in the corporate world while somewhat taboo it is common place for people to share their salaries or pay and although this is frowned upon by managers or leadership it happens everyday. This is how you keep upper management honest and competitive pay throughout the office. How do we fix this from happening in the future? The easy answer you can’t because there is always going to be someone making more than someone else unless there is legislation that states every plan has to be compensated the same amount across the board. In my opinion a way to get past this is give each school a competitive cap that is the same across the board i.e., Power 4 schools has a cap space of $20,000,000 and Group of 5 has a cap of $10,000,000. How the schools divide the $20,000,000 amongst their guys will be at the discretion of the school. For example if you believe your QB is worth $5,000,000 you give that to him but then that means you have $15,000,000 to provide amongst 50 players and you may not be able to stack your defense or your best defensive player who is demanding a highly salary will have to walk.
As Nick Saban says, there has to be some parameters with the transfer portal to keep competition fair and ultimately competitive. While we have seen a spread of competition because of the transfer portal and NIL with your Indiana and Tulanes rising back to greatness, we will get to the point with your schools with the largest alumni bodies or schools with the largest donors will begin to dominate the NIL space and honestly it is already happening. We have seen this past year and this year that the schools in Texas with deep pockets are taking over the transfer portal. Michigan backed by Larry Ellison can bring in a $10,000,000 QB. Oregon ‘s Phil Knight reloading year over year. I do not fault these schools as they are using this lawless state of the NCAA to their advantage. If FSU had someone like Phil or Larry I would love it but that is not the situation. Something needs to be done in the coming years to keep the integrity of the NCAA. We saw this in the NFL with the Cowboys until there was sanctions put in-place.
