Former national championship-winning coach Urban Meyer believes the current state of NIL deals in college athletics has become a form of cheating. He argues that donors are paying players, rather than allowing them to benefit from their own name and image.
Urban Meyer, the three-time national championship-winning football coach, has joined the chorus of critics slamming the current state of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals in college athletics. Meyer argues that NIL has become a form of "cheating" when it comes to recruiting.
"If you're a woman basketball player like the great girl from Iowa, and they want to put her on a billboard and pay her, they should be able to do that. But that's not what happened," Meyer said during an interview with Lou Holtz.
"What's happened is the arms race of collecting money from donors, and the donors are simply paying players. That's what I understand is happening, and I don't like that," Meyer added.
Meyer believes that NIL was originally intended to allow college athletes to benefit from their name and image, but has since morphed into a form of capitalism where players are being paid to visit charities and attend events.
"If Lou Holtz or Urban Meyer or Marvin Harrison Jr., or C.J. Stroud, they want to go use their name and help sell cars, help a business, that's great. But to have a 17-year-old demand money for a visit, to pay these players a lot of money to go visit a charity for 20 minutes, and they write you a check for $50,000. That's cheating. That's not what this is all about. I'm very disappointed in where it went."
Meyer, who left coaching six years ago, says that NIL was still somewhat unimaginable when he walked away. However, he now believes that it has become a major problem in college athletics.
"There's these things called collectives where they go out and get money from donors and get this big, giant mass of money and they pay players," Meyer said. "That's not what the intent is."
Meyer's comments come as the NCAA is facing increasing pressure to regulate NIL deals. Some critics argue that NIL has created an uneven playing field, where schools with wealthy boosters can offer more lucrative deals to recruits.
The NCAA is currently considering a number of proposals to regulate NIL, including setting limits on the amount that can be offered to players and requiring schools to disclose the details of NIL deals.
Meyer's criticism of NIL deals is likely to add fuel to the debate over the future of the program. It remains to be seen how the NCAA will respond to the growing concerns about the current state of NIL deals.
