Nebraska's Matt Rhule: 'People were not happy with me' after NIL quarterback comments

Two weeks ago, Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made waves when he candidly spoke about how much a top-tier quarterback “costs” in the transfer portal. The reaction, it’s safe to say, was swift.

“Some people were not happy with me,” Rhule said on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday afternoon. “I’ve had some other college coaches kind of get on me and say, ‘Matt, you reset the market.'”

Rhule said a “good quarterback” would cost around $1-2 million in the portal. That wasn’t exactly a little-known secret around the NIL world, but Rhule was the first coach to publicly discuss that figure. Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck later said that was “probably accurate.”

The reason Rhule brought it up, though, wasn’t to ask Nebraska to effectively pay up for a top-shelf talent at quarterback. He wants to start a dialogue — one NCAA president Charlie Baker attempted to kickstart with last week’s proposal to create a new subdivision of schools that could directly negotiate with athletes.

“I do think it’s important that people know because A, what I’m afraid of — I went to the NFL. I’m gonna say what I think is right, and when people like it, they like it. When they don’t like it, they don’t like it,” Rhule said. “I’m gonna say what’s happening. And at the end of the day, there are no contracts. And Charlie Baker from the NCAA’s trying to make it where the colleges — we can’t even have the conversation with the players about the money.

“So now, you have all throughout college football, you have players getting agents. Sometimes they’re great agents, NFL agents, sometimes they’re not certified. There is no NFLPA regulating it. They’re dealing with third parties for each school, each school has a different amount. There’s no system to it.”

Matt Rhule: ‘We can’t even have a conversation’ about NIL agreements or ‘we get in trouble’

Under current NIL rules, coaches can’t talk about deals with players. That’s the role of NIL collectives — a third-party organization driven by deep-pocketed donors that can facilitate deals with athletes. In addition, players can transfer one time and receive immediate eligibility.

One idea Matt Rhule heard from the NFL was to make the agreements binding. It’s not that simple, though, and that’s where things can get off the track.

“I had an NFL GM text me this week and he was like, ‘Bro, how come you guys don’t just make it binding?’ I said, we can’t even have a conversation or else we get in trouble,” Rhule said. “So it’s them dealing with a third party. They can tell a kid, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get $1 million,’ and then you can transfer from Nebraska, go somewhere else and then they say, ‘Hey, you know what? We don’t have that money anymore.’

“And oh, by the way, once you transfer, you’re stuck at the second school. So you get penalized for recruiting a kid out of high school. He can leave for more money somewhere else. But if he goes somewhere else, he’s stuck there until he graduates. So there is no system, and I think it’s important that people know that because you know what? Some good coaches are losing their jobs and some good programs, they’re building players up and then, players are leaving.”

Since taking over at Nebraska last December, Rhule made his stance on NIL clear. He’s entirely in favor of players profiting off their name, image and likeness. However, he said the system — particularly when it comes to the idea of tampering and making sure deals follow through — needs to change.

“And let me say this, I’m all for players making money. I’m all for NIL. I just don’t think people should be walking into your program and offering a player on your roster money,” Rhule said. “Like, that would never happen in the NFL. You’ve got to trade them, you have rules, there’s tampering rules. … I worry about the players. Some players are gonna get a lot, but a lot of players are gonna enter the portal and end up with nothing.

“A lot of players are gonna be told they’re getting X, Y and Z and getting nothing. And at the end of the day, not everyone goes to the NFL. So I think we have to have the conversation about it, we have to talk about it — and not talk about it to get rid of it. Just, man, make it competitive and make it real.”