Ohio State Football: Gene Smith begging for NIL money is a bad look

NIL has become exactly what I thought it would be. It’s essentially paying players for play and it’s making it harder for teams to come up with recruits. That shouldn’t be an issue for programs like the Ohio State football program because of how much money they make.

Apparently, it is. There are rumors the Buckeyes could lose a running back because of NIL money being offered by another school. Despite Ohio State getting some big NIL money for certain players early in the year, it sounds like Ohio State is still falling behind.

There have been fans that have criticized Ohio State for their seeming lack of ability to get collectives to get enough money to keep players on the current roster. It seems Gene Smith is listening, but his solution is for you to spend your hard-earned money on it instead.

Gene Smith is begging Ohio State football fans for NIL money.

Smith sent people a statement along with three links to NIL collectives asking for people’s help to donate. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not donating my hard-earned cash for something like this. This is a problem I didn’t create and shouldn’t be asked to solve.

With a program that makes as much money as it does, there’s no reason they should be begging for help to pay recruits. I also know that universities are not supposed to be funneling money directly to recruits. My response to that is who cares?

The NCAA has no idea what it’s doing in regard to NIL. They have no rules in place to help enforce this, so why not pay recruits directly from the profits you’re making from the football program? Don’t ask me to fund your NIL collectives. Most Ohio State football fans don’t make millions of dollars like the program does.

I’m not sure how a university this big is fumbling this issue so badly at the moment. I can only hope that they fix it and come up with better solutions to keep recruits and current players happy.