Mack Brown addresses how North Carolina has handled NIL

Navigating the new college sports world with NIL and be difficult for head coaches and players. Which is why North Carolina Tar Heels head football coach Mack Brown decided to do something about it. During a recent press conference, Brown discussed how NIL workings are handled in his program.

“The thing we’ve tried to do is just go by the rules. We brought the NCAA in; one of the top enforcement people, and talked to them for an hour and a half, and said, ‘What are the rules? Help us with what this really means,'” said Brown. “They said nobody can offer money to a player before he gets into school.

“So what we’ve done is said that we have a collective. It’s Heels for Life. They do a good job. They do it right. They have an agent named Graham Boone, who’s a 10-year agent for the NBA that’s really, really good at what he does. He meets with the players. I don’t know how many guys on our team make NIL money through the collective; I’m not supposed to. I don’t know how much they make.”

According to On3’s NIL Connect, where you can find all the latest NIL news, the NCAA does have rules that prevent schools from paying players directly. College coaches cannot offer high school prospects money as a recruiting enticement to pick their school. Plus, current student-athletes can not receive compensation for their athletic achievements. And that’s why Brown tells his players and future players to be wary of individuals operating outside of the rules.

“We’ve told our guys it’s not realistic for somebody to be offering you money when you accomplish anything. So if you come here, you earn it; there will be enough people out there that want to go through the collective to help you. And that’s what you got to do. Most of the kids now have agents. We’ve also said your agent’s job is to make money for you. So the challenge is on him. And I’ve told them, don’t let the agent take money out of the collective money you get; they didn’t earn it for you.

“So, we’re all learning to navigate this stuff. But our players seem happy. They understand; we’ve told them that, really, you’re NIL is getting a Carolina degree. That’s on the backend because nobody’s going pay you enough money up front for you not to have to work when you get through. So don’t make a decision based on a little money up front that’s gonna be going fast. You make your decision on where you should be in school and what’s gonna happen for you when you get out. And, like I said, we’ve been so honest with the transfer portal, if a guy doesn’t want to be here, we’ve said go. Go somewhere else. And so far, it’s working. We’re really happy.”

Brown and North Carolina appear to be taking a much more upfront and direct approach to NIL. For them, honesty is key. And that honestly has left everyone in the program and considering it, free of NIL violations, and that makes everyone a happy camper.