'It Makes Me Upset': Urban Meyer Weighs In on NIL's Impact in Recruiting

Urban Meyer shared his thoughts on the today's day and age of recruiting and the impacts that NIL can have on a recruit's ultimate decision.

Former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer was one of the best recruiters in the country between his stints with the Florida Gators and in Columbus.

Meyer told The Athletic he treated recruiting "like a game," wanting to "set the bar" with something that became "non-stop."

However, recruiting nowadays is different than in Meyer's time with the competition of NIL potentially factoring into some recruits' college destination decisions.

Meyer said he would have to "adapt" if he were recruiting today.

"I’ve had some really cool conversations with people I respect. They are saying that the upper-tier teams are going to break away. At some point, there has to be a regulatory body," Meyer said. "There have to be regulations. There’s nothing collective about this right now. USC could care less what Alabama is doing. It’s all independent of each other. There are no guardrails."

Meyer, who upon his arrival at Ohio State said the Big Ten's "gentlemen's agreement" about not recruiting players committed to other schools was "nonsense," believes any school nowadays can do anything in recruiting while "most of it is dependent on the financial aspect."

“'We can’t get this player because we can’t pay him enough.”' When I hear that, I say, 'You’ve got to be kidding me,'” Meyer said. "That’s not what this is all about. When I hear that, and I’ll be honest with you, it makes me upset."

That's not to say Meyer doesn't support players earning NIL compensation. He does and said it's"great," but he's not sure that one school winning a recruiting battle because they have deeper pockets is good for college football.

"When I hear that, I wonder what the future of this sport is," Meyer said.

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