Rece Davis weighs in on the current state of college football with NIL, transfer portal

Rece Davis is a staple of college football coverage, so of course he has some of the most interesting thoughts on the state of the sport, including NIL and the transfer portal.

Joining Gramlich and Mac Lain, one of the most prominent voices in college football gave his opinion on the controversial topics.

“I don’t think it’s as dire as some of the old school coaches would have you think,” started Davis. “People don’t like to give up control. That’s true of us in our every day lives, and it’s certainly true of college football coaches, who’ve had a tremendous amount of it over the years. I think that some of them are wrestling with some of those issues. I don’t think that any of them, although I’ve heard some of the older, former basketball coaches who do somewhat begrudge the players getting money, sort of on the old, back in my day I had to do x, y and z before I got money, and that kind of thing. But it’s a different world out there, and in many cases these guys are more marketable than they ever will be in their lives.

“It’s wrong to deny them what every other human being on the planet can do, and that’s capitalize on their talent and their marketability, their popularity or whatever. So, I don’t think it’s as dire. I do think that some type of collectively bargained framework would be good for the enterprise, or for the industry. And the industry is what it is. It’s a giant, multi-billion dollar business. That’s what it is. So, to approach it as a more honest enterprise, and allow the players while they are there to share in that revenue, would be good. But I do think that some collective bargaining would be in order.”

Continuing, the College GameDay host wondered where the sport would go if the players were considered employees.

“Now, how you do that and also cross a bridge as to whether the players are employees or not is a difficult one,” added Davis. “It’s not as simple as me saying, ‘Yeah, let’s let them all share the revenue!’ Now okay, are you an employee? And if you are an employee, then you give up some of the freedom that the transfer portal has given.

“But if you’re not an employee, and the made up term to avoid litigation — student athlete. It’s a made up term. You can be both. If they insist on that, well then you can’t very well say sorry, you have to go to Clemson. You can’t transfer to South Carolina. You know? They get to go to school where they want to go to school, play where they want to play. So, there will be some trade off.”

With so many gigantic decisions at stake, Davis believes the players need fair representation — someone who will fight for them every step of the way.

“I think it’s really imperative for whoever, whatever body, whatever group of people represent the players have their best interest at heart,” added the College GameDay host. “That’s their mission statement. Whether it’s Ramogi Huma, who has been instrumental in a lot of the work that’s already gone into the NIL cases. Or someone else, or some other group, Ramogi in conjunction with some other people.

“It can’t be someone from the quote unquote establishment, saying okay, we’re going to negotiate on behalf of the players, and this is what we’re going to do. It’s got to be an agreement. But I think the first thing everybody is going to have to understand is when that agreement comes, the players are going to get a significant share of the money, I think. Revenue sharing, much like pro sports. That’s really what this is. It’s a pro sport. But the players are going to have to give up something. That’s what a negotiation is.

“I think part of that is going to be unlimited transfers. There may be different windows in which you could do it. What are the stipulations, is it like us, with non-compete clauses? You know, in certain aspects for a period of time. What is it exactly? That’s where the difficulty will be.”

Meanwhile, star athletes at big time programs have already begun getting huge NIL deals, ranging from fancy cars to a lot of money. Still, Davis doesn’t believe that’ll impact their motivation to win, and if it does, it was going to happen anyways.

“As far as the sport being on the precipice of disaster because the players are getting money? I don’t buy that at all,” stated Davis. “I mean, money doesn’t make you not what to win. And if you, if it makes someone not work as hard as an athlete because you’re playing quarterback at Ohio State and driving a Bentley, and all of a sudden now you don’t watch as much tape, well then, that was probably going to manifest itself at some point anyway.

“I think in a lot of cases, guys are driven to prove their worth when they do it. Probably because all of life, and my judgement is a bit of a balance. Then, probably the challenge is to not put too much pressure on yourself, and not perform at your best because you’re trying to prove that you’re worth the Bentley, or you’re worth this deal or that deal or whatever it is. So, I don’t think it’s as dire as people think.”

Finally, Rece Davis wrapped up his thoughts by stating that while he would like to see a framework around NIL and the transfer portal, he believes the market could settle itself if given time to work itself out.

“I would like to see collectively bargained framework so not that everything’s the same, because everything’s not the same in life,” Davis explained. “If someone’s going to go someplace, to a school because they think that they’re going to benefit more financially, well how’s that different from any of us taking a job where we think we’re going to benefit more financially? It’s not. So, that part of it doesn’t bother me in the least.

“But, I think some type of framework so that everybody knows what’s expected on both sides of the arrangement, and whether it be how long a player stays, when they can transfer, what type of incentive is reasonable and permissible. Maybe all of them are, in terms of attracting players. Because I do think at some point, if we don’t do anything about these collectives or different things, I think the market will sort of settle it over time, because how many times would it take for someone to give of their personal wealth, to contribute to this and things go a little sideways before they go, ‘Nah, let’s see here.’ So, I think the market will — but that may not be the best way to settle it. Maybe a framework or parameters are better, but I do think that left to its own devices, the market will probably settle it to an area that will separate the competitors, so to speak.”