Steve Spurrier 'feels sorry' for Mississippi State with NIL budget

Legendary head coach Steve Spurrier watched his Florida Gators go into Starkville and beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs last weekend, where one of his major takeaways was that he feels bad for the school’s NIL budget.

Roster building has changed in college football thanks to changes like NIL and the Transfer Portal. That’s let some teams push ahead while others have fallen behind, and as Spurrier explained on Another Dooley Noted Podcast, he believes the Bulldogs are slipping behind their competition.

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“In a way, I feel a little bad for Mississippi State because Ole Miss has a huge NIL fund,” Steve Spurrier said. “I don’t know what they’re spending but they’re spending right there with Ohio State and Texas and all those schools. And poor Mississippi State, I don’t think they’re spending much. They don’t have it to spend.”

Steve Spurrier used Ohio State as an example of a school with a large NIL budget and the Buckeyes certainly do fit the bill there. It has been previously reported that the Buckeyes had a $20 million NIL budget to build its roster during the offseason. That included adding several players in the Transfer Portal while retaining other players already on the roster.

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“That’s the way college football is nowadays,” Spurrier said. “The schools that have the most money should be able to get the best players, but then again, the team with the best players don’t always win. We know that.”

The current Mississippi State NIL collective is called The Bulldog Initiative. It was unveiled back in May of 2022 and was founded by Charlie Winfield. With the support of the school’s athletic department, the collective has “the goal of helping MSU athletes promote the university and the surrounding area through NIL opportunities.” Football, basketball, and baseball are the sports that the collective is primarily involved with.

Just prior to the game against Florida, Mississippi State did receive a massive donation of $8 million to the State Excellence Fund. It was an anonymous gift and the second-largest, non-facility donation in the school’s history for athletics. It’s also pledged to the football program, largely with changes like NIL.

Mississippi State ended up dropping the game to Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators by a score of 45-28. With that, the Bulldogs fell to 1-3 in head coach Jeff Lebby‘s first season with the program.

Next, the Bulldogs will turn their attention to a massive test next Saturday when Mississippi State travels to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns.