NIL deals lead to athletes, not schools, calling the shots

John Calipari says Kentucky players are making more NIL money than anyone. (Photo by Vicky Graff)

Author GK Chesterton wrote this quote in his book “The Thing” in 1929: “Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.”

He went on to say that by tearing down the fence, without understanding its purpose, you can create secondary and tertiary consequences that were not recognized or anticipated before the fence was torn down. In other words, big bad things can happen if you don’t know what you are doing.

That’s exactly where the world of college athletics finds itself living today. The “fence“ was a barrier erected to keep amateurism in college athletics while providing for the athlete’s educational needs via a scholarship that covered tuition, room and board, and books among other things.

As times changed so did the additional benefits provided to athletes but the original “fence” remained in place. Then the NIL program (name, image and likeness payments) came along and completely obliterated the “fence.”

The powers-that-be in college athletics had ignored the cry for some type of monetary compensation for athlete’s participation for so long that they sounded like Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, who is said to her court when she was told the French peasants were too poor to even buy bread, “Let them eat cake.” Of course that callous comment and attitude led to the French Revolution that ultimately destroyed King Louis XVI, his queen Marie Antoinette and the French Monarchy.

The NCAA administration seemed to constantly be telling their athletes the same thing, “Let them eat cake,” callously telling their athletes that they couldn’t care less about them or their monetary needs as they raked in billions of dollars for television rights to all their major sports.

Now the fence has been torn down and just like in the French Revolution, the peasants have taken over. The tail seems to be wagging the dog.

Recently when the University of Miami basketball program signed a high level basketball player via the transfer portal, a basketball program booster company, Lifewallet, kicked in several briefcases of cash to finalize the recruitment. When one of Miami’s current star players, Isaiah Wong, found out about the NIL deal signed by his new teammate, Nijel Pack who transferred from Kansas State, his agent Adam Papas said, “If Isaiah and his family don’t feel that the NIL number meets their expectations they will be entering the transfer portal while maintaining his eligibility in the NBA draft and going through the draft process. Isaiah would like to stay at Miami. He had a great season leading his team to the Elite Eight.”

Wong’s agent went on to say, “He has seen what incoming Miami Hurricane basketball players are getting in NIL and would like his NIL to reflect that he was a team leader of an Elite Eight team.”

All of a sudden the peasants seem to be in control and are calling to anyone that will listen — “off with their heads” — in reference to the coaches and administrators that turned a deaf ear to their pleas for so long.

Across the board in all major sports athletes are now turning the tables on coaches and administrators by demanding how much they will be paid, how they will be treated and how much playing time they will get.

A recent transfer portal participant, Baylor Scheierman from South Dakota State, was looking for a new home and all of the blue blood programs, including UK, were interested. Then all of a sudden Scheierman’s camp, in true “wag the dog fashion” said this per a tweet from The Athletic’s Kyle Tucker about his recruitment by Kentucky, “Don’t think Kentucky is going to promise the NIL dollars + featured role that Baylor Scheierman’s reps are seeking. ‘We aren’t gonna play the Kellan Grady role’ was communicated. Cats showed heavy early interest and then backed off. I’d expect him to go elsewhere.”

Since then Scheierman has verbally committed to Creighton.

It just goes to show that there can be many secondary consequences from tearing down a fence if its purpose is not clear. All of a sudden college athletics are in chaos, players are dictating terms and some schools are agreeing to those terms while others are backing away and saying no thanks.

The end result is an extremely confusing landscape in college sports where those who used to be in control (coaches and administrators) have now been de-throned and those (athletes) who used to not have much say in how their athletic future played out once they signed a letter of intent are now wielding a big stick.

Going forward it will be interesting to see how the University of Kentucky navigates this new landscape in college athletics.

TJ Beisner, UK’s Director of Player Development for men’s basketball, recently tweeted this about how the Kentucky Basketball Program plans to handle the new NIL/Transfer Portal moving forward.

Beisner tweeted: “Our basketball program has and continues to be ahead of everyone else. I know. I have these conversations with recruits and other schools. We just don’t flaunt it on social media…BECAUSE WE DONT NEED TO. It’s Kentucky! The biggest stage FOR EVERYTHING!”

He went on add: “Cal hired me — a non-coach — to his coaching staff for this very reason. And we have done better than everyone. But we will not guarantee money as an inducement. To anyone. Ever. Period. Because we don’t need to. And we haven’t missed out on anyone because of that.”

So it looks like the Kentucky doesn’t intend to be the dog that gets wagged. But will that stance allow them to successfully compete with other programs that are willing to provide those things? Beisner believes it will.

He tweeted, “Our stance continues to be that there is no better place on earth for a young person to develop as a player and person…and now there’s no better place for NIL. We target players and families who share that same vision. Some don’t…and that’s fine. But we are confident.”

Beisner then added some additional comments directly from UK Coach John Calipari: “I’ve pushed for NIL for 10 yrs publicly and no one is more supportive, which is why our players are making more money than anyone, the right way. NIL won’t hurt us & hasn’t for any kid we’ve REALLY wanted. If NCAA or federal govt make changes, we’ll adapt and continue to lead.”

Beisner went on to say that the direct comments from Calipari hopefully would clear up some of the confusion that is currently swirling around the handling of the NIL process within the Kentucky program.

Time will tell whether John Calipari’s position on NIL will allow UK to continue to recruit and sign the best of the best going forward. If it can, then Calipari can continue to claim the title of the “gold standard” of college basketball but if it doesn’t and other programs continue to move ahead of Kentucky in recruiting that “gold standard” may start to look a little tarnished to Wildcat fans.