Mark Stoops explains how recruiting has "totally changed" in NIL era

Mark Stoops has plenty to say about the new era of recruiting in college football.

The Kentucky Football head coach came on KSR Thursday morning to talk about the upcoming season, Will Levis’ draft stock, and, most notably, the new name, image, and likeness (NIL) laws that have turned recruiting into borderline free agency. In Stoops’ own words, the landscape has “totally changed” and he’s not particularly excited about the “pay-for-play” path it’s going down.

“Yes, completely changed. It has completely changed the college game, at least in college football,” Stoops said on KSR. “I mean we deal with 85 scholarship players, and it has totally changed. It’s really different. I’m on record to say basically is this really what we signed up for? I mean, is this what we want? I’m all for the players, it makes total sense for players that are in your program, and that have helped you build your brand, helped you build the University of Kentucky, helped share in some of the money and some of the things that are going on, I’m all for that. Everybody’s for the players and especially the players that have been here and worked hard for you and helped you win football games. But is this what we really want?”

It hasn’t even been a full year yet since it was first introduced and NIL has undoubtedly altered how high school athletes and transfer portal prospects are being pitched by schools, particularly the ones with plenty of money. Large sum deals are being publicly reported left and right, reaching as high as seven figures over multiple years. During his appearance on KSR, Stoops referred to it as “pay-for-play” and unrestricted free agency, except with 5,000 free agents instead of the usual number every year in the NFL. Only in the pros, there are just 32 teams.

“Was it really intended to say, ‘hey, give me 25 super-wealthy boosters, put a collective together with $25 million in there and let’s buy recruits left and right?’ That’s pay for play.”

Until someone or something steps in to enforce new rules, this is how recruiting is going to be moving forward.

“I think there’s some people working hard to try to get some things in place to help attract players and to help those players if they’re thinking about Kentucky. Because you have to,” Stoops added. “To think in this day and age that players walk in, yeah they’re really interested, they love what you’ve done and everything else. Bottom line: how much can you get me? These high-profile transfers, why are they out there? Because they’re unrestricted free agents. They’re gonna go to the highest bidder. And you can’t blame them. That’s just the rules that somebody put forth in front of them. They let them do this.”

Stoops said that some form of federal legislation needs to be put in place. But regardless of what does or doesn’t happen in terms of potentially stricter guidelines, the head coach said he’s fully prepared to do whatever it takes (within the confines of the current rules) to stay afloat.

“I’m always gonna play by the rules that we have and do them the damn best I can, you know what I mean? And I’m gonna fight and we’re gonna put our team in a position to win,” Stoops said. “That’s what I did nine years ago since I’ve been here to try to continuously build this program and I’m gonna continue to do that. We’re not giving up, I mean, we’re gonna fight, we’re gonna punch and we’re gonna play by the rules and I’ll fight for our players.

“I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep our program on the upswing because I think we can all see the work that we’ve done for our program. I’ve worked too hard, we’ve worked too hard for too many years to tee our program up to put it in a position to take it to the next step. And then boom, you get hit with this.”

Stoops pointed to former Kentucky Wildcats such as Luke Fortner and Josh Allen, who are both now in the NFL despite coming to Lexington as low three-star recruits, as examples of what most people first had in mind. He said those are the players that NIL was originally meant for — the players who develop over the years and have consistently contributed to building a program. Stoops mentioned current quarterback Will Levis and Kentucky Men’s Basketball superstar Oscar Tshiebwe as the intended benefactors of NIL, who are reaping the benefits.

But that’s different than offering half-a-million to a kid who he’s never played a snap or seen the court in a Wildcat uniform.

“Is this what we really want?” Stoops reiterated. “Do we really want to go throughout the state, go out to our boosters or who has the most money and booster organizations that want to give it directly to high school student-athletes? Is that what we want? To pay high school athletes millions of dollars to come to your school where they may not even be a player?

“In our case, look how many two-stars, three-stars come up and look at Luke Fortner, going to the NFL, Josh Allen, they come out of nowhere, they’re two-star, three-star, not getting any money but develop themselves into an NFL player. That’s what I like and love about college football. Not that I’m against (paying) players. I’m on record saying that I love our players, I want them to get everything they can, I always have been, but is it really what we want to just get a big collective together? Get 10, 20 million dollars together and give a bunch of guys that are proven money out of high school just because you have to just to compete? Is that what I really signed up for nine years ago?”