Lincoln Riley delivers his take on NIL

USC coach Lincoln Riley is calling for patience as the college sports world grapples with how to handle the new reality of NIL. It’s been two years since the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the NCAA’s restrictions on “education-related benefits” for college athletes violated antitrust law.

That opened the door for players across the country to profit off of their name, image and likeness and was widely viewed as a positive for college athletics. However, it hasn’t come without its issues in the early stages.

Among the greatest concerns right now is the lack of a uniform law governing how schools across the country can use NIL. With differing laws from state to state, some programs find themselves in a disadvantage.

With leaders such as Alabama coach Nick Saban making a trip to Washington D.C. in June to make the case for Congress to get involved, Riley offered his stance on the situation.

“Listen, NIL, probably like any new thing, especially something this seismic, has its advantages and its real positives,” the coach said at Pac-12 Media Day on Friday. “Certainly players being able to be treated like the rest of the world, not having restrictions on being able to earn or capitalize off of their hard work, I think we all agree, is a positive thing.

“Is there still regret, maybe even disappointment, I think fair to say disappointment, over how it was just kind of thrown together and implemented? Yes. How do you fix that? Is it Congressional involvement? Is it NCAA reform? I don’t know that I have that answer. I don’t know that I do. I don’t know that anybody does at this point.”

Without federal regulation, leaders such as Big East commissioner Val Akcerman have expressed concerns that the NCAA can’t enforce rules due to fear of litigation. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey weighed in at SEC media days, stressing “the need for congressional action.”

Riley is in agreement with them that the current setup for NIL is far from ideal. However, he also recognizes that only two years in, it’s natural for anything that there would still be kinks to work out. He believes a solution will be reached given more time to analyze the situation.

“We’re learning more about it as it goes, right?” he said. “In the beginning of NIL, it was a lot more just propaganda, a lot more that came out about NIL was false than was true. I think now we’re seeing the market, if you will, starting to settle. I think we’re all getting an idea of what it really is and what it really is not.

“I think as we all understand that more, I think the path forward to maybe regulating it and making it a little bit more organized, I think that will become more apparent as we learn more. You got to figure out what it really is before you know what the solution is. It’s going to take some time and I think people are going to have to be patient.”