Former Alabama DC Kevin Steele opens up on NIL's impact on recruiting, questions NCAA's role

During his coaching career, which started in 1980 as a student assistant at Tennessee, Kevin Steele saw college football change in multiple ways. Arguably the biggest change came in 2021, though, when athletes were given the ability to profit off their name, image and likeness.

NIL has become a crucial part of recruiting, and that conversation has ramped up this week. Tennessee is at the center of an investigation into alleged violations, and the state filed a lawsuit over the NCAA’s rules on the issue. That inquiry comes after Florida State received multiple punishments regarding NIL-related infractions and another investigation began at Florida around the recruitment of Jaden Rashada.

Coaches cannot be involved with NIL, and collectives cannot be part of the recruiting process. As a result, Steele said that makes for some interesting conversations during the recruiting process.

“I’ll give you an example, and it’s a real example. And I’m not opposed to players getting paid. I’m not sure where the lines are,” Steele said Thursday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “You go in the home and the mom tells you, ‘Coach, we loved you. We’ve been up there 15 times, you know everybody in the family’s name. We trust you, we know we’re gonna get developed there, we know we’re gonna have a chance to become a first-round draft pick, we know we’re gonna have a chance to win a national championship. But you guys aren’t in the ballpark in terms of the money.’ Well, we as coaches, we can’t be involved in that, per NCAA rules.'”

The NCAA found itself fighting multiple legal battles over the last year. But the lawsuit from the Tennessee and Virginia attorneys general could have some major implications. The suit argues the NCAA doesn’t have the right to put restrictions on compensating student-athletes.

NIL isn’t the only area in which the NCAA went to court, though. In December, a West Virginia judge granted a 14-day temporary restraining order that allowed athletes to play if they were waiting on a transfer waiver or had one denied. It later became a preliminary injunction, and those athletes were able to play immediately.

Those legal challenges could have long-term ramifications for the NCAA’s future. Based on Kevin Steele’s recent experience, though, he had some concerns about how things are going.

“If you look at the track record over the last couple of years with the lawsuits and those kinds of things, I don’t know – and I can say this now, I couldn’t have said it two months ago – I don’t know what role the NCAA has, as a coach,” Steele said. “Now, I’m not an administrator, I’m not somebody smart enough to figure it all out. But just as a boots-on-the-ground soldier, it doesn’t seem to have any effect anymore.

“But again, the NCAA is college administrators. They run the NCAA. That’s who the NCAA is. So we need to get it figured out pretty quick.”