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.
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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.
“I don’t think NIL was ever introduced with the purpose of using it to recruit,” Desormeaux told The Daily Advertiser during Sun Belt Media Days earlier this week. “I think NIL was introduced so that the players that you have on your team have a name that means something, an image that people recognize and a likeness that people will represent, they have the opportunity to make money. No one has problem with the players making money.”
The biggest concern among G5 coaches and programs is the probability that the lower tier of FBS becomes a sort of farm system for Power Five schools. There have already been countless instances of high-profile players at G5 schools that transfer to more prominent programs, some of those cases with the belief of a higher amount of NIL money factored in.
“You either adapt or you die,” said Texas State football coach Jake Spavital. “We’ve had some high school guys that we’ve lost due to other Name, Image, Likeness deals. I’m never going to knock a kid if he wants to further himself or go somewhere else but as a roster management standpoint, it’s gets very difficult at the Group of Five level. You have to recruit your current players.
“At the Group of Five level, we’re in a gray area because we also need facility upgrades and people wanting to do Name, Image, Likeness collectives.”
G5 schools have to approach NIL, as well as high school recruiting, in innovative ways. Arkansas State coach Butch Jones said his program has focused on creating personal and monetary value for its players.
“We have to build an affinity in our players for Arkansas State. We have to show them you can accomplish all you want to at Arkansas State and not have to go to another program,” said Jones.
The importance of relationships through recruiting hasn’t changed for G5 schools in the NIL era. How those relationships have formed, however, have been altered.
“I believe I think if you’ve got really good relationships with people and your administration does things to make their experience really good, like, can you pay cost of attendance, what are their meal plans? All those things,” Desormeaux said. “Are there NIL opportunities within the space you’re in to keep them there? At our level, you have to make that as good as you possibly can.
“I’m not naïve enough to think, ‘Everything’s for sale.’ There’s a certain amount of money where it doesn’t matter. If someone says they’re not concerned about it, they’re not being honest. That is the issue, that we become a farm system, that our best freshmen and sophomores bolt.”
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at [email protected].
