Jimbo Fisher comments on impact NIL, transfer portal had on Texas A&M recruiting class

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher has been criticized for his stances on the transfer portal and NIL in the past, and further discussed those matters on The Rich Eisen Show this past week. The Aggies headman revealed his approach on how he navigated the uncharted waters of recruiting and came out on top with the No. 1 recruiting class this offseason.

“There are NIL [deals available in College Station], it’s probably less than most schools across the board,” Fisher said about allegations of using NIL as leverage to gain the top recruiting class. “You can look our we have state law, we’re not allowed to do that and plus the results of who has [NIL deals] are out there. So we’re way below most of everybody else and where they’re at.

“In my opinion, people don’t understand and appreciate how good Texas A&M is and what we’re building and it was a shock to him that we have the number one class but we’ve never, since we’ve been here, had less than sixth in the country. We’ve always been in the top six classes in the country since we’ve been here.”

When Fisher was at Florida State he had multiple No. 1 recruiting classes, the likes of which won him a national championship with the Seminoles in 2013. Now with the landscape of NIL, the same types of highly-ranked classes Fisher puts together now are being pointed at for buying players, something Fisher is strongly against.

“We’ve always been able to recruit well and I think, you know, is NIL a part of our world? Is it a problem in recruiting?It can be. The portal, all that’s going to be a problem, but people were insinuating that’s the only reason we got our [No. 1 class], that’s what I said,” Fisher said. “That was the only issue I had with that whole thing.”

When asked to expand on the biggest threat to recruiting top prospects through the transfer portal, Fisher did not hold back. The Aggies head coach threw out a major accusations about other programs and questioned the current state of college football.

“I think that if people do get into trying to buy players, the kind of people that are messing with other guy’s players in the portal,” said Fisher. “It’s amazing that some of these guys in the portal, the day they get out – which they can’t have contact with an outside school – but the day they get out of the portal, they’ve already signed with another school. How does that happen? So I think there’s tampering with players, I think all those things go on and I think people are enticed with NILs in the transfer portal.

“That’s the problem in college sports that you don’t want to happen. You do not want that to happen. I’m a true advocate of that, 1,000 percent.”