Adapt or you die': Why Sun Belt football coaches are wary of greater divide from NIL

[Coach Andy Mac]

What exactly was Name, Image and Likeness implemented to be?

There are plenty of Group of Five football coaches asking that very question.

With college football already deep into its second recruiting cycle with NIL taking up much of the talking and operating space, some coaches at smaller schools could make the argument that how it’s being utilized is splintering the sport even more than what already existed.

How G5 coaches approach NIL, current players and prospective players wildly differs than their peers at most Power Five institutions that inhabit conference with lucrative TV deals and deep athletic budgets.

 

Several P5 programs have organizations set up to practically guarantee NIL money to players once they become part of the football team. Schools at the G5 level mostly have those same facilitating groups in place, but there are no built-in guarantees.

For Louisiana's Michael Desormeaux, the first-year head coach of one of the more successful Group of Five programs in recent years, NIL at the G5 level mirrors how it was intended to be.

read more:  https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/ul/2022/07/31/sun-belt-football-coaches-leery-farm-system-nil-benefits/10149239002/