No doubt Name, Image and Likeness (“NIL”) has transformed the college football landscape.
I remember my surprise in early 2015 when Dan Enos announced his resignation as the Central Michigan coach, after a 5-year tenure, to take the Offensive Coordinator gig at Arkansas. Head coaches voluntarily accepting an assistant job elsewhere was a very rare occurance. More like man-bites-dog news.
Shockingly, 5 such moves have been made since the end of the 2023 season!
Perhaps the least surprising move was Chip Kelly’s bolt from Westwood to Columbus. Allegedly, Kelly had a sour taste when it came to recruiting. Worse, reports indicated that UCLA’s NIL buckets were not exactly overflowing. Given his New Hampshire link with Buckeye head man, Ryan Day, Kelly found an excellent fit.
Another laggard in NIL money has reportedly been Boston College. Not an easy place to win at in the best of times, Eagles’ head coach, Jeff Hafley, bolted to Green Bay for a coordinator gig.
Georgia State’s woes go much deeper than lack of NIL money. The Odyssey attended their 2021 home opener against Army and was appalled at the lack of fans. Worse, Georgia State is located in an NFL town and is not even the top college dog locally with Georgia Tech several miles to the North. Shawn Elliott bolted Georgia State after 7 years to be the Tight Ends coach at South Carolina.
Kane Wommack vacated head man status at South Alabama to being the co-defensive coordinator at Alabama. Mildly surprising since South Alabama is far from being the perennial dumpster fire that exists for Sun Belt mate Louisiana Monroe. Mobile is a great town and their stadium is one of the Sun Belt’s finest.
The decision of Wommack was partly based on money. A coordinator in the SEC will often make much more than a head coach gig in the Sun Belt. Consider LSU. Their horrid 2023 defense demanded big changes. The Bayou Bengals wooed Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker to the sweet tune of $2.5 million.
Buffalo head man Mo Linguist also bolted for Tuscaloosa as he will be the co-defensive coordinator.
NIL has clearly increased the gulf between the haves and the have nots and has been a key element in decimating the Mid American Conference. Blow outs of non-conference cupcakes will increase. Thus, a modest request to the SEC: Please increase conference games from 8 to 9 (and damned what the athletic director at Kentucky moans about! “Oh, it is such a tough league, blah, blah, blah”)