Brian Kelly Talks NIL, Regulations During New Era of College Athletics

LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly is all for player compensation, but details guidelines needed to control the unknown of NIL

As the era of name, image and likeness continues, the NCAA has worked to enforce regulations to get a better understanding on what colleges can and cannot do. With a myriad of schools using NIL to reel in top talent, it’s changed the landscape of college athletics.

For the Tigers, LSU has embraced these new rules with a number of partnerships for their athletes. With Gordon McKernan signing Kayshon Boutte, Kyren Lacy, Tre Morgan and other noteworthy Tigers, he has proven he’s more than ready to dip into the NIL space to keep LSU up to speed with this new normality. Along with McKernan, we have seen other major partners throw their name in the mix to show LSU can compete with the top schools pushing for NIL deals. 

LSU coach Brian Kelly was asked his thoughts on NIL during his time in Destin with other SEC coaches and administrators, detailing his overall opinion on the state of college athletics and the effect NIL has had.

"This has turned into a runaway train that has moved well past a student-athlete and is moving too fast toward a professional contract," Kelly said. "I don’t think that’s what the intention was. So we’re going to need some guidelines here before this gets thrown into Congress."

In a talent-rich conference like the SEC, we’ve seen schools go above and beyond in order to land elite high school players, but the major dilemma has been in the transfer portal. With players seemingly entering their name in the portal in the blink of an eye, it’s become more like free agency each offseason.

Kelly harped on the way college athletes are looked at now, referring to NIL deals as professional contracts at times, but the bigger picture is what concerns him most. Educating his student-athletes rather than them just jumping towards the biggest deal is a piece of the puzzle he wants to solve.

"How can we reel this in and make sure the student-athletes have the ability to be educated so they have something that they can build on later?" Kelly said. "I think that’s what we’re all trying to get our hands on. I’m for it in the spirit it was intended for. I’m more interested in developing something sustainable, that is something we can educate our players on.”

It’s a given that regulations will come sooner rather than later with NIL as boosters have begun getting the final say so in where elite talent lands, but how soon? In a conference as powerful as the SEC, Kelly believes that they have a chance to make a difference.

Like most coaches in the NCAA, Kelly is all for NIL and player compensation, but setting ground rules has been a major talking point over the last few months.

“You’re in the SEC and in a conference that’s clearly the best to me,” Kelly said. “When you have a chance to make a difference with a lot of the important pieces that are out there, you leave thinking we can make some pretty strong statements about what we do as a conference.”