Eli Drinkwitz Talks Challenge of Keeping NIL Concerns Out of Locker Room

The Missouri Tigers head coach spoke about the difficulties of building team culture when NIL money is involved.

Oct 1, 2022; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz watches warm ups against the Georgia Bulldogs prior to a game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

In the Missouri football program, there's a hard line of separation between business and the brotherhood.

With student-athletes now also dealing with busy schedules with NIL deals, it could be difficult to build a strong culture on a team if players are too focused on money and not on the team.

In the return of the weekly Tiger Talk radio segment on the Tiger Radio Network, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz spoke of the need to make sure players keep their business affairs separate from the locker room.

"You have to attack it head on," Drinkwitz said. "You have to attack building the brotherhood and connectedness and cohesiveness of a team. You have to separate business from brotherhood. We talk about with our team all the time, the brotherhood is on the first floor, the business is on the fourth floor. Don't let the business seep into the locker room, because that's when bad things happen."

Comparison is a natural thing for any college aged student to do. It is obviously amplified when large sums of money are involved. Drinkwitz emphasizes with his team the need to avoid comparing compensation with teammates and focus solely on the common goal while inside the building.

"It's something we talk we talk about freely. Right now, everybody in that room has blessed beyond measure. The moment you start worrying about what somebody else's blessing is, instead of focusing on what your blessing is, you're falling into that comparison trap, and that's the worst place to be."

NIL is an inevitable part of college athletics now. Programs who adapt the fastest will benefit. It seems as if under Drinkwitz, Missouri has developed a mindset it wants it players to handle the situations with.