Lincoln Riley reveals how NIL changed recruiting landscape, why USC is positioned perfectly

Over the past year, the NCAA has dramatically changed in many ways. From conference realignment to the evolving transfer portal to the introduction and rapid evolution of NIL, things look drastically different than they did a year ago. New USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley has seen the impact of NIL firsthand.

Riley, who was at Oklahoma last year before leaving the Sooners to come to L.A., knows that times are changing. While nobody quite knew what to expect when NIL was first introduced, Riley believes that it has been a major factor across the NCAA largely due to the fact that there aren’t a lot of ways to enforce it within the current setup. And Riley loves where USC sits in the landscape of NIL.

“Absolutely it has been. I think we all predicted it pretty quickly, as soon as they instituted NIL with not much legislation around it,” Riley said. “There’s a lot of factors right now. Number one, when I took this job, NIL obviously had already started. Everyone knew it was going to be a part of college football going forward, building rosters going forward. It’s going to be a factor.

“I certainly recognized the opportunities that existed in L.A. and specifically with USC and felt like there was no school more positioned to capitalize off NIL than us. Now that I’m boots on the ground, I believe that even more. It’s probably even more substantial than what I thought it could be.”

Riley on where NIL is headed, how that will impact USC

There has been a lot of debate during the offseason surrounding NIL and what the next steps could be to try to keep things in check. Changes are coming, although when they come and what they look like are major unknowns. Riley foresees changes coming soon, and he believes that the market USC is in will have the Trojans in a great position regardless.

“As it’s evolved, I think what we’ve seen is, as a lot of coaches have said, we have rules that are not being enforced,” added Riley. “One of two things is going to happen: we’re either going to start enforcing the rules that are there or we’re going to create new rules. I don’t know which one is going to happen. I can’t predict that. One of the two will happen and needs to happen. When it does, the thing I like about our position is if collectives and donor-based funding and all that becomes part of the future and the norm, I’m very confident in the people that we have, the resources that we have, that USC will be in prime position.

“If it doesn’t and it becomes more traditional marketing and endorsement deals, would you rather be anywhere than sitting right here in the middle of southern California, in Los Angeles? Whichever way it evolves, we’re going to be ready. We feel like we’re going to be positioned very well. I hope that it does evolve soon, whichever direction it’s going to go, so we can set our sights forward and everybody can move on.”