Urban Meyer has strong words for NIL and current state of college football

It has been a minute since Urban Meyer last coached in college football. The three-time national champion at Florida and Ohio State is one of the best to ever do it. However, health issues and NFL dreams led to him being off the sidelines and on a television set. Meyer has a way with words, so it was only fitting that he would use those to his advantage while speaking with his mentor, Lou Holtz.

While appearing on The Lou Holtz Podcast, Meyer certainly had some beef with the way NIL has impacted college athletics. As a capitalist, he seems to have no problem with players who have brands being compensated for their names, images and likenesses. Where he loses it is over the power it plays in inducement. Keep in mind that Meyer was an ace recruiter as a college head coach.

Meyer got out of the college game well beforehand, but was present for those early NIL discussions.

“I think NIL, and I sat in those committees for many, many years, I think it’s great. I think if it’s capitalism, for example, if a great player like Marvin Harrison Jr. And some car dealership in town wants to hire him, they want to put his name on a billboard and pay him money, sign autographs. He wants to put something on an Instagram or they sell that. But that’s not what’s happened, Coach. What’s happened is it’s cheating."

While calling it cheating is a bit rich, Meyer does have a point in the collectives being out of control.

“And there’s these things called collectives, where they go out and get money from donors and they get this big, giant mass of money and they pay players. And that’s not what the intent is. That name and likeness, that’s America."

What I will give Meyer credit is he seems to have a dividing line in this: Selling cars over pay for play.

“America is built on name and likeness. If you have Lou Holtz or Urban Meyer or Marvin Harrison Jr., C.J. Stroud. They want to go use their name and help sell cars, help a business – that’s great. But to have a 17-year-old demand money for a visit or pay these players a lot of money to go visit a charity for 20 minutes, and they write a check for $50,000. That’s cheating. That’s not what this is all about. So I’m very disappointed in where it went."

As it is with everything, the road to hell was paved with good intentions. NIL seems to be no different.

“I think the purpose or the reason for doing it is right. A player should be able to do that. And especially, think about this, Coach, these other sports. 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."

The weird part in all this is Ohio State is one of the schools that has turned the NIL spigot on full blast.

"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. And that’s what I understand is happening, and I don’t like that.”

Here is the entire episode of The Lou Holtz Podcast in which Meyer appears on to speak about NIL.

Let's try to unpack all that Meyer said on NIL to see what he has gotten right, and what he did not...

Urban Meyer gives his NIL thoughts to mentor Lou Holtz on his podcast

To me, I think what is troubling is Meyer seems to be blissfully unaware that this was how NIL was going to be implemented once it first became a payment construct. The haves may have wanted to do it by the book, such as Ohio State giving players with well-deserved brands like wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. a car. However, the have nots were always going to go for the pay for play route.

I am not going to harpoon any program in specific about doing that, but we all kind of know who they are. Whichever schools is landing way more transfers than they used to and don't have their coaches and officials whine about the collectives would be those universities. However, the irony is not lost on Ohio State being a major player in NIL ever since Ross Bjork took over as their new athletic director.

This is not to disparage Ohio State by any means. In fact, it should be viewed as a compliment. Ohio State has a strong enough football brand that the Buckeyes did not initially have to dip into murky waters other lesser programs may have swan dived into. Ohio State is never bad, which is why the university has the infrastructure to do what is necessary to be on its P's and Q's with its collectives.

I think the biggest issue I have with Meyers' thoughts, or gripes to be honest, on NIL is that if we truly want a level playing field in college sports, the have nots were always going to cut corners, and by that I mean pay for play, a premium in most instances. In truth, the programs that want to be taken seriously and want to be good will pay a price to make that dream a reality. Some don't have to pay...

In time, I think power programs like Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State will be willing to wade in those waters lesser programs are basking in all their glory in. This is because if you don't take advantage of these resources, you end up getting lapped. It is why schools like Clemson who used to dominate no longer are because of the way the Tigers' head coach Dabo Swinney wants to run his ACC program.

Overall, I don't have a ton of beef with Meyer's comments. They just needed a little bit of refinement.