Ohio State Football: NCAA assessing how to crack down on NIL

The Ohio State football team has already been exposed to the world of NIL. They have been exposed to the good and bad parts of it. Quinn Ewers rode the bench for a year to take NIL money before going to Texas and never had any intention of staying at Ohio State, while other players have gotten NIL money and been happy.

What almost everyone can agree on is the fact that some of the ways that programs are handling NIL are out of control. Certain programs (you know who you are *cough* USC *cough*) are contacting players on other teams and offering exorbitant amounts of money to leave their current programs high and dry.

I do think NIL is a good thing, but there has to be some regulation to it. That’s exactly what the NCAA is looking into now after enough athletic directors complained about it. Players should get compensated, but how it’s done needs some guidance.

Do I have faith that the NCAA is going to get this right? No. They drug their feet for so long on NIL in the first place that this is now a big issue. Because they ignored the issue, they let it fester and get out of hand quickly. Why would anyone think they can fix it now?

But maybe they get lucky and someone actually smarter than Mark Emmert is able to put forth a plan to curtail the Wild West behavior that’s going on right now. Something has to be done for the integrity of the sport, and that’s true even if the FBS does break away on its own.

It’s unclear how quickly the NCAA would be able to get something done to fix this issue. In the meantime, get prepared to see kids move in and out of the transfer portal in search of the biggest payday possible. I can’t necessarily blame the kids, but I can blame the system that made this possible.