Kentucky coach John Calipari pushes for NIL guardrails, transparency at SEC Media Day

Kentucky coach John Calipari has never been shy about expressing his opinion on key topics in college athletics. So, it was no surprise to see him talk at length about how he believes NIL impacts the basketball recruiting process Wednesday at SEC Basketball Media Day.

“How much time do I have to talk about this kind of stuff,” Calipari joked before expanding.

“We need guardrails and all that stuff. I think young people deserve to share in with what’s happening. They deserve (to make money) on the name on the back of their jersey, their signature, their autograph. They deserve that.”

But Calipari said he believes it’s “gone beyond that now.”

“It’s difficult,” he said. “The one thing I’m happy about is some of our players coming in, they’ve already got deals before they’ve arrived on campus for trading cards, shoe deals and all this. So, there’s not as much pressure for us to have to do X, Y, Z.

“But I tell every kid we’re recruiting, if it’s about NIL more than basketball, you shouldn’t come here. The big picture of where you’re trying to take yourself is basketball. That’s what should be the overriding factor. Even though you’ll do better here than any other place you can go, it’s not why you come here.”

Calipari reiterated that he believes transparency is key to NIL now and what players are making at each school should be public information.

“My suggestion has just been to make it transparent,” he said. “So, every school has to say what their kids are doing – not by name – but by number. Do whatever you want to do collectively. Here’s what we’re doing. That way we all know the truth about what’s going on.”

Kentucky players have high On3 NIL Valuations

John Calipari is correct when he says a number of his players have already had plenty of NIL success. In fact, the Wildcats’ 2023-2024 roster has four players with an On3 NIL Valuation over $500,000.

Freshman guard Robert Dillingham has the highest valuation in the bunch at $699,000 – a number that has remained pretty steady over the past 10 weeks. While he’s only executed only NIL deal to date – with KINLÒ sun care brand – he has a massive social media presence with more than 709,000 followers.

The strong social media following could equal NIL deals in the long run. Outside of agreements with NIL collectives, social media posts have become the leading activity for athletes. Boasting a large following across Instagram and TikTok, specifically, can make all the difference in compensation. Dillingham boats more than 470,000 followers on Instagram.

Incoming Five-Star Plus+ recruit and freshman guard DJ Wagner Jr. is another Wildcat with a strong NIL game.

His On3 NIL Valuation of $557,000 is No. 9 in college basketball and No. 94 in the On3 NIL 100, the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. Wagner has executed deals with Nike, Lex Exotics and Drake’s sub-label NOCTA brand. He is represented in NIL dealings by WME Sports.