Without question, NIL has changed the landscape of college sports, opening up a world of new financial opportunities for athletes.
NFL analyst Michael Irvin addressed this new reality in a new wide-ranging interview with 247Sports. One of the things the “Playmaker” stressed was players needing to take their time and make sure they are arranging the best possible deals for themselves.
“Yeah this is crazy man,” Irvin said. “This is the wild west. And everybody thinks, ‘Oh, that’s great players get paid. There’s a lot of decisions in that.’ You get a guy like Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. You got to now understand, you’re a businessman. Not just a businessman, you’re a business by yourself. So let’s make sure you’re not selling your business short.
“If I’m a college student, (I don’t want) somebody to come up and give me a $5,000 car deal. OK, because you understand now you may have taken your name out of that category where somebody had a million dollar deal down the road. So don’t take pennies, don’t step over dollars, to get those pennies. I think that (players) have to make sure they navigate and be careful with it.”
Irvin isn’t the only big name to discuss NIL recently. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and Alabama head coach Nick Saban, both supporters of NIL legislation in the past, recently expressed their concerns with how it has altered college football.
Saban and Smart called for possible regulation of NIL before their two teams met in the national championship game earlier this month.
In our opinion, any kinks that have to be worked out with NIL are worth it. The concept of athletes being able to profit off of themselves was long overdue.
[ 247Sports ]
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