CFB Insider makes honest admission on current NIL Landscape: "It can't continue this way"

The landscape of collegiate sports has undergone a significant transformation since the introduction of name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. After several years of restriction, the NCAA eventually allowed student-athlete endorsement about two years ago

NIL deals have emerged as a game-changer, revolutionizing how student-athletes can benefit from their athletic abilities and personal brands. Evidently, it has opened new doors of possibilities in the financial and economic aspects of collegiate sports.

The paradigm shift has empowered student-athletes to leverage their popularity and market value to secure endorsement deals, sponsorships, and other lucrative opportunities. College players now earn to the tune of millions through their endorsement deals.

However, the concept has continued to garner both proponents and detractors. Like any new development, it has needed refinement and adjustments along the way. Despite its abundant benefits, critics believe the idea poses some challenges to collegiate sports.

Joe Klatt calls for NIL restructuring

FOX Sports' Joel Klatt holds the belief that the recent NIL rules require significant attention and improvements in the foreseeable future. Klatt, who played college football with the University of Colorado, believes the NCAA needs to alter some things.

According to Klatt, there is a growing concern that the implementation of the concept has begun to excessively favor the players. This is considering the progress made in other aspects of the sports landscape over the past few decades.

In his words:

“I think that the pendulum has swung too far towards the players," Klatt said. "Again, they’re gonna sound like they’re contradictions but they’re not. They’re not. We are entering into a golden age of college football because of NIL. And, yet, the parameters surrounding NIL have swung way too far toward the player.”

The former Buffaloes quarterback believes he is in a good position to know what benefit and harm the concept could bring to collegiate sport. After all, he was a college athlete and spent years of his life covering the sport as a journalist.

He said:

“I think my perspective is interesting because I played in the early 2000s and now I’ve covered the sport my entire adult life. So I have seen how much better the environment is and the overall life is for a player, even outside of NIL."

He continued:

"The increase in stipend money, the increase in meal plan money, the increase into the investment of mental health, nurtrition, development. That’s even before NIL. Now, put NIL on top of that, and you can actually go out and make really good money. Really good money. And then you can also transfer any time you want. So now the portal is open.”

Klatt stresses there have to be some guidelines in place in each of the contracts to ensure a balanced exchange of benefits and responsibilities for all parties involved. He believes this will ensure accountability on the part of the players and prevent unethical practices.

“There’s got to be some parameters because, in every contract worth its salt and every relationship worth its salt, there’s got to be equal benefits as well as equal responsibility," Klatt said. "There’s got to become recourse. Is it great that they’re getting these things? Yes. (But) does there need to be some parameters? Absolutely. Because every good contract has both benefits and responsibilities”

He continued:

“Right now, it’s one-sided and it can’t continue that way. When I talk with coaches around the country, they all say the same thing. This is unsustainable and it’s unsustainable because there’s no recourse. As soon as there’s some responsibility for the player or some recourse for the school, those contracts will start to even out.”

He maintains that the structure of the deals is currently unbalanced and needs the intervention of the NCAA. The former quarterback in his honest opinion believes it can’t move on the way it is right now.