SEC still afraid to show NIL data, Ohio State/Big Ten more forthright

The Ohio State football program has been pretty vocal about the fact that the new NIL rules are a good thing for its players. They also haven’t been shy in terms of saying that their players have a number of NIL deals. It’s not just the football program either; it’s all Ohio State sports.

Apparently, the SEC is still afraid to show their NIL data. This comes after the Nick Saban/Jimbo Fisher spat that happened during SEC media day where both said they had nothing to hide after Saban claimed A&M bought all their recruits, while Fisher told people to look at Saban.

Well, it turns out that they both have something to hide. In a report from ESPN, neither Texas A&M nor Alabama would release their NIL data. This is despite the fact that A&M said they would release documents to ESPN. Instead, nothing happened.

In contrast, Ohio State and other Big Ten schools were much more honest when it comes to their NIL deals. Ohio State provided ESPN with a slide presentation that showed they have $3 million worth of NIL deals across all sports. $2.7 million of that comes from the Ohio State football program.

Numerous other Big Ten schools who were asked to provide data did so. Illinois, IU, Maryland, and Purdue all released the data they had on NIL deals at their respective schools. Meanwhile, the SEC is actively fighting against the release of NIL information.

According to the ESPN report, both LSU and Kentucky have been actively trying to get bills passed to prevent such records from being released. Florida, A&M, and Bama all refused to release the data when contacted by ESPN  about the records too.

This goes to show you that the Big Ten has nothing to hide while the SEC continues to operate as shadily as possible. They don’t want people to know that they’re cheating. But they’re not fooling anybody. They’re buying recruits like every other school is. At least the Big Ten has a legal way of doing it.