LSU's Brian Kelly is the latest coach give his thoughts on the current state of name, image and likeness (NIL) in college football. Echoing the opinion of many, Kelly is calling for federal top-down NIL regulation to replace the current patchwork of state laws governing the practice.
"College athletics is at a crossroads if this doesn't get fixed," he told ESPN. "Where's Title IX in all this? Where's Division II sports? Where's Division III sports? If every state is tailoring bills to their own self-interest rather than the health of college athletics as a whole, that's not going to work."
Last month Kelly was among a group of influential college presidents, conference commissioners and coaches that traveled to Washington DC to lobby for federal NIL regulation.
"We needed to do something," Kelly said. "There needed to be some publicity behind it."
Kelly isn't the only coach to speak out on the subject. Alabama coach Nick Saban said something similar in May at SEC spring meetings.
"If it's going to be the same for everyone, I think that's better than what we have now," Saban said. "Because what we have now is we have some states and some schools in some states that are investing a lot more money in terms of managing their roster than others."
Georgia coach Kirby Smart echoed Saban and Kelly's thoughts.
"I think that any impact leadership can have on Congress to make this a better situation or at least provide some guidelines would help us. I certainly feel like Congress could have an impact on that," Smart said. "I just love college athletics across the board. And when you start talking about some of the ramifications that are coming down the line, it's going to impact Olympic sports, non-revenue sports -- and I love all sports of college."
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) are two of the lawmakers pushing for federal legislation on NIL. Tuberville was the head coach at Ole Miss (1995-98), Auburn (1999-08), Texas Tech (2010-12) and Cincinnati (2013-16), which gives him a unique perspective on the subject. He spoke about the need for more structure prior to the convoy of coaches and administrators arrival on Capitol Hill last month.
"I'm for players being able to be compensated for their hard work in athletics as well as academics," Tuberville said. "We have to come to some kind of agreement where we can help the NCAA make improvements to this runaway NIL situation that we're in as we speak. Players transferring at any time? Players making deals with the help of agents with schools and then not being compensated after making these deals? We're looking out for the player as much as for the university. But we're looking out for education and we're looking out for the sanctity of college sports."
Several proposals have been discussed, but no official legislation has been brought to the Senate floor. Kelly is hoping to see something materialize over the next couple of months.
"We'll know by August," he said. "If there's nothing on the floor or in committee by the end of July, then we'll know that they can't produce something."
