Strong Words from Urban Meyer Surrounding NIL

Urban Meyer has national championships for the Florida Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes, so when he shares his thoughts on things surrounding college football, people tend to listen. Although Meyer has not been on the sidelines coaching in six years, he did have some strong words to say about how he feels NIL has affected college football.

What did Urban Meyer say about NIL?

During an interview on the “Lou Holtz Show, ” Meyer stated that he feels the NIL is an “arms race.”

"If you're a woman basketball player like the great girl from Iowa and they want to put her on a billboard and pay her, they should be able to do that," Meyer said. "But that's not what happened. What's happened is the arms race of collecting money from donors and the donors are simply paying players. That's what I understand is happening, and I don't like that."

Meyer is not wrong here as the world of NIL is evolved into who can pay athletes the most, and athletes meeting with coaches during their recruitment and while on campus wondering who is going to pay them the most, not how they can improve. This is the same reason former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban retired this off season.

"There's these things called collectives where they go out and get money from donors and get this big, giant mass of money and they pay players," Meyer said. "That's not what the intent is."

A recent example of this is Jaden Rashada, the former Florida Gators signee who switched from Miami to Florida last minute due to Florida offering him more money. Fast forward and we know that the NIL with the Gators fell through with a pending lawsuit, but that is besides the point here.

The point is exactly what Meyer is trying to say- in that NIL has spoiled college football and is not at all what it was intended to be.