ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit gives harsh warning on NIL

Kirk Herbstreit believes NIL isn’t being used the way it was intended. In a Monday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, the ESPN analyst said the NIL’s purpose was originally for players already on college rosters.

But lately it seems schools are trying to sway recruits with promises of big paydays.

“When they came up with the NIL, it wasn’t intended to become a bidding war on 18-year-old recruits,” Herbstreit said. “It’s intended to help a guy like Jaxson Smith-Njigba or CJ Stroud at Ohio State who are established brands. Those are the guys that are supposed to profit off of NIL. When you start getting boosters involved in NIL for a kid that hasn’t even stepped on campus, that’s when I think you start to get into a gray area that I don’t know is necessarily in the best interest. At some point they’re gonna have to put some parameters on NIL. Right now it’s just ‘do whatever you want.’ I just don’t see that lasting very long.”

This past season was the first it was legal for student athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness. This has impacted recruiting heavily, with players such as Quinn Ewers earning million-dollar deals straight out of high school.

Many coaches such as Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin have echoed the sentiments of Kirk Herbstreit on NIL regulation. As of now, the only guidelines are the laws for each state, which are obviously different. The hope is eventually a federal bill will be passed providing a set of rules for the entire country to follow.

“We don’t have the funding resources as some schools with the NIL deals. It’s like dealing with salary caps,” Kiffin said. “I joked I didn’t know if Texas A&M incurred a luxury tax with how much they paid for their signing class. Somehow, they’re going to have to control NIL. You’ve got these salary caps. (Schools) giving players millions to sign before they play and other places not able to do that. What would the NFL look like if two or three teams could pay 10 times more in salary cap?”

Texas A&M signed the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022 according to On3’s Team Consensus Rankings. That is highlighted by five-star receiver Evan Stewart, whose NIL valuation of $778,000 ranks him second in this year’s class. Defensive lineman Walter Nolan is behind him with a valuation of $114,000, while four more Aggies recruits have values above $50,000. In all, Texas A&M’s 2022 recruiting class have an average NIL Valuation of $59,000 according to On3.

It’s not as if current college players haven’t also reaped the benefits of the recent changes. CJ Stroud, whom Kirk Herbstreit mentioned, has an NIL Valuation of $1.1 million, the second most of any player in college football.

But the ESPN analyst’s point about using NIL as a recruiting tool still stands. Until there are regulations put on the amount each school can give, others will be at a disadvantage.