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Kentucky coach Mark Stoops details the difficulty of balancing NIL in recruiting

20200517_134556by:Justin Rudolph•07/08/22

Like many other coaches around the NCAA, Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops is trying to find his footing in the new NIL and transfer portal era of college sports. Recently during an interview with On3’s KSR Digital, the Kentucky head man revealed his concerns about the difficulty of balancing NIL in recruiting.

“I don’t understand, and I don’t think anybody understands where people are gonna police this,” said Stoops. “I have no clue, and I swear I’m not trying to send a jab here, …but I mean, I’m playing against players that I know were given money, and the school and the NCAA knows they were given money, and we still play against them. I mean under the table. Not even above board like it is now. I mean, on top of the table, you’re allowed to do that now, but I’m talking about under the table. And if they can’t police it where you’re giving people money under the table, how in the world are they going to police it when you’re giving it on top of the table.”

Stoops is not the only SEC coach during this off season that has voiced concerns about NIL in recruiting. Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier called the new college football landscape ‘a land with no laws’. The Alabama Crimson Tide‘s head coach Nick Saban sparked up one of the most heated conversations around college football this off season when he said Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies bought their 2022 recruiting class. And this is just the stuff that we know that has gone on above the table, as Stoops put it.

Throughout the world of college sports, coaches and programs alike are having trouble finding the proper balance with NIL. But for now, it appears that Stoops, like many others, will have to tolerate what is going on until a plan is fully formulated. Even after that plan is set in stone, programs like Kentucky will still have to compete with schools that are doing deals under the table. Something that has been going on for far longer than the thought of NIL has even existed.