Name, Image, and Likeness, also known as NIL, is the biggest blessing and the biggest curse of college football programs. Sherrone Moore got lucky to hunt No.1 quarterback Bryce Underwood against a $12 million NIL check. This is just one side of the coin. The other side features a big loss for Brian Kelly, who lost Underwood. Then came Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, who had to pull the brakes on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who pressurized him for a fatter NIL check. 

Things have just gotten more complicated on the NIL front. The House case settlement will pay billions in back payments to former college players who were unfairly prevented by the NCAA from earning off their NIL. It also has a pool of $20 million to $23 million. As of now, the conferences are on a mission to wade through the choppy NIL waters. Protect the money. That’s when Deloitte Consulting LLP entered the chat.

There has been an introduction of NIL Go—a centralized clearinghouse designed to oversee and regulate athlete endorsements. It will be operated by Deloitte. And this is not sitting well with the Big 12 coaches. As per Yahoo Sports, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham raised his confusion. “We don’t know the rules. The settlement passed, but who knows what Deloitte is going to clear. Until there is clarity, you’re living in limbo.” Well, Deloitte now requires Division I athletes to report any NIL deal worth more than $600. Even though they want to restore order to an increasingly chaotic marketplace that is disguising a “pay-for-play” culture, the Big 12 coaches are still struggling to find clarity.

The implementation of the NCAA’s historic settlement of an antitrust case came at an interesting time. A week later, Big 12 coaches came together as the three weeks of conference football media days kicked off at the Cowboys’ domed practice facility. Right now, college football head coaches are making the most of their NIL collectives to woo high school players. In this case, the schools that have a heavy NIL balance are already at the age to build a stronger roster in the upcoming season.

On that note, Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Scott Satterfield said, “I don’t understand what rules everybody is playing by. The whole point of this was for us all to be playing by the same rules, but we are not. We are not playing by the same rules, particularly this past spring when everybody is apparently front-loading where others are having to now spend their [revenue-share] cap.” While the fight is to implement a “fair market-compensation range” in the NIL front, the College Sports Commission and its Deloitte-run NIL clearinghouse, are bogged down in legalities. And while the legal loopholes still exist, some programs are just making themselves stronger in this dead period. 

Texas Tech striding the NIL front as the July 1 deadline looms around

Well, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are going full throttle on the recruiting trail. And what has fueled their swift ride? NIL, of course. The athletic program has spent more than $50 million on its athletes in both front-loaded money this past spring. This was topped by the revenue-share dollars of this coming academic year. As per the reports, this boosts their NIL reserved with the front-loading of $30 million plus $20.5 million in rev-share.

Now, what does front-loading mean? The college football programs are literally loading upfront on player contracts, as the NIL collectives paid out all or a majority of deals before the settlement’s implementation date of July 1. Crossing the July 1 date will lead the contracts to fall under the new enforcement system that will specifically resist booster and collective compensation. Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire said, “What we do as a conference is so important, but we also got to do it off the field.”

Texas Tech Red Raiders are now all about showing their aggression when it comes to NIL and recruiting. The head coach said, “We’ve got to recruit at this level if we are going to continue to be in the same conversation as the SEC and Big Ten. We’ve got to understand as a conference that we’ve got to commit to that. We have committed to that at Texas Tech and eliminated any people saying, ‘Well, they can’t do it there.’” They have already got the results. Joey McGuire hunted down a five-star offensive tackle recruit, Felix Ojo. Even though Ojo had the eyes of programs like Michigan and Colorado, he signed a three-year, $2.3 million revenue-sharing deal with the Red Raiders. NIL has its claws deep in college football now, and it’s only digging deeper.