Former Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer was great when he was with the Buckeyes. He helped lead them to the 2014 national championship in the first year of the College Football Playoff. He ended up retiring following the 2018 season, but is still very involved in college football.
As a member of FOX's Big Noon Kickoff, Meyer still travels the country and gets to watch college football games up close every single week. That's why he was invited to a roundtable put together by President Trump. As one of the greatest college football coaches of all-time, he has a unique perspective on things.
Meyer was one of the few collegiate contingents who actually spoke during the roundtable. When Meyer was talking, he made sure to let everyone know what he believes the chief problem with collegiate athletics is. He believes NIL collectives are the biggest issue.
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer hates NIL collectives
Meyer made it clear that he thinks collectives and outside donors cause major issues in college sports.
"Get rid of the collectives. That's cheating! So everyone understands what a collective is, donors put money in a pot, and it's distributed to the players through the coach and the general manager according to your talent level. That's not allowed. You're not supposed to do that. That's called pay-for-play."
The former coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes made it clear that other forms of NIL would be better served without collectives involved.
"NIL in its purest form is America. It's called capitalism. If you can make money upon your name, you should have the right to do that...get the donors out."
Meyer coached in an era where there wasn't player compensation. He is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of that happening the way it is currently going. Meyer even invoked Jeremiah Smith's name to further emphasize his point.
"If a business owner wants to hire Jeremiah Smith and pay him a certain amount of money, he's certainly allowed to do that."
It's clear that Meyer, just like a lot of other collegiate administrators and former coaches, wants to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It's highly unlikely NIL is going to be fully taken away from schools. In fact, most schools want no cap on NIL spending. They don't want less.