KSR SOURCES: Positive NIL developments coming soon for Kentucky

Yesterday, Matt Jones sounded the alarms for Kentucky’s approach to Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), specifically in football recruiting. Apparently, it worked. This morning, Matt shared a positive update on what’s happening behind the scenes in Lexington, teasing a “massive change” coming very soon that will allow fans and donors to contribute the money needed to keep football and other programs competitive.

“I think by Monday, if not sooner, the fanbase will see a massive change,” Matt said. “We’ll see the infrastructure for a massive change. The infrastructure that has not been there and the infrastructure that was lacking and a lot of the things that I was sitting there going, ‘Where is this,’ you’re going to see it in place.”

Matt’s comments on social media last week and on the radio yesterday led to a busy day in the athletic department, with “emails flying” in from fans according to one source.

“In February, if we can look back and go, ‘Man, the Kentucky NIL situation is improved,’ you can look back on yesterday and today as the days it happened,” Matt said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt the comments in the last couple of days ignited a fire, which, to be quite frank with you, was my goal. When I started saying all of this, I wanted to light a fire and it seems like that happened. Yesterday, all the major parties that needed to be talking did that.”

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A shift in perspective at a pivotal time

As for Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky’s athletic director will probably never fully be on board with the concept of NIL; however, the NCAA not cracking down on collectives and in fact, allowing athletic departments to promote them, combined with pressure from fans following yesterday’s show has forced him to change his approach.

“I don’t think Mitch Barnhart is excited about this,” Matt said. “I don’t know that he’ll ever do the things these other ADs do, but I think he’s basically resigned himself to taking some of the handcuffs off and then other people I think now are ready to run with it.”

The shift comes at a pivotal time as the football team enters the final stretch of the season and recruiting and the transfer portal fire up. Not only does the staff need to make up ground in the 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes, they need to keep an extremely talented freshman class from entertaining lucrative offers elsewhere.

“I think everything is going to be a lot easier,” Matt said. “Now, if it ends up being that doesn’t happen, you’re going to hear me midweek next week starting this again but I actually feel so much better about the situation today at 10 a.m. than I did yesterday at noon.”