Sam Pittman calls for Congress to help with NIL guidelines

There are a lot of opinions that have emerged this week from the annual SEC spring meetings about the current state of name, image and likeness in college football and what kinds of potential NIL guidelines might better serve the sport.

Many SEC coaches have coalesced around a pretty common talking point.

“I think Congress is going to have to step in and help us with NIL,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “I don’t think anybody can, because we’ve got to combine because different states have different rules. At some point we’ve got to combine so we can figure some of this out.”

The variance in state legislation in terms of NIL guidelines right now is significant.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has been vocal in defending himself and his program after coming under fire for his state having one of the more accommodating NIL policies. Drinkwitz has simply described it as a competitive advantage built in by the state.

Other coaches have more quietly bemoaned their state’s restrictions, which can put them behind the eight ball. Thus the push from coaches like Pittman for more uniformity and more concrete NIL guidelines.

Sam Pittman wants transfer portal changes

Along with is desire to see a more uniform approach to NIL guidelines, Pittman thinks the NCAA needs to further tweak its transfer portal policies.

Speaking at the SEC spring meetings, he bemoaned the way the current process works.

“I think the portal’s open too often and too long,” Pittman said. “I think a kid knows whether he’s going to transfer or not. I don’t think he needs 45 days to figure it out. So I think I would go for a two-week window and you either get in or you stay with your program. I think that’s fair to the kids. I’m not looking for fairness to the coaches, I’m looking to fairness for both.”

As things currently stand, coaches have to manage not just normal recruiting at this time of year, but also transfer portal recruiting. It’s a lot to juggle, especially with NIL guidelines loose and that component playing a much larger factor in both transfer and traditional recruitments.

“Right now May for a coaching staff is miserable. You’re out trying to find high school athletes and then you’ve got a coordinator and a position coach back on campus with OVs,” Pittman said. “Now we benefited from that, but I would hate to be an assistant coach right now. And then June ramps up even more than what May was. It’s a tough life right now.

“I think closing opportunities to get in the portal a little bit more and closing the time, the length you can be in the portal, I think it would help everybody and I don’t think it would hurt the kids a bit.”