Blame for NIL Bidding Wars Starts at the Top

If Pitt fans want someone to blame for the Jordan Addison transfer, start with the NCAA itself.

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Panthers football head coach Pat Narduzzi had just opened training camp in August 2021 ahead of the coming season. A week before, amid a national movement to get college athletes paid, the Pennsylvania General Assembly had just passed laws that superseded the authority of the NCAA and allowed college athletes to earn money using their Name, Image and Likeness. The balance of power in college football was about to swing heavily towards the player, and coaches were worried.

At ACC media days the week before, Narduzzi had called the new NIL deals “legalized cheating.” When pressed on what specifically he thought college football needed to help safeguard itself against the "pay-for-play" model that he feared so much, Narduzzi said he was unsure.

"There’s got to be regulation," Narduzzi said. "I think this Name, Image and Likeness stuff got pushed on the NCAA a lot faster than they expected to or wanted to. … Now they’re sitting there saying ‘Oh what do we do now?’ There’s got to be parameters or it’s not good. … I don’t really have any ideas myself but hopefully that’s what the NCAA is doing."

Nine months later, one of his best players is in the transfer portal, reportedly fielding multi-million dollar NIL deals from blue blood schools, and doesn’t seem to be entertaining a return to Pitt anymore. In addition to losing a Heisman candidate quarterback, offensive coordinator and key position coach, the Panthers will lose one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the sport right now.

It’s been roughly a week since the Addison rumors began to fly and in that time I keep seeing some version of the same question asked by everyone from fans to national writers — who should Pitt fans be mad at?

It’s natural to be upset that Addison is moving on, but if you had millions to take or leave, you’d probably take it too. I can’t even bring myself to blame USC and Lincoln Riley, or any of the other schools recruiting Addison, even if they did it outside of the outlined rules. College football is a lawless industry without good oversight, so if there are no consequences for breaking the rules, why stop?

Ultimately, it is the NCAA that’s at fault and who I think Pitt fans should be most angry with. The one institution charged with keeping the playing field level is either unwilling or unable to impose the kind of constraints on NIL that so many coaches are calling for and their inaction comes at the expense of schools like Pitt.

The solution is fairly straightforward. If the NCAA acknowledged that the players were employees, they could impose rules like a salary cap or defined free agency periods. But that would be the ultimate white flag, a sign that the NCAA is giving up its defense of the sham amateurism that defines college athletics. They won’t do that unless they are incredibly desperate.

Instead, the NCAA has abdicated all responsibility for dealing with the sport’s biggest issues and hung schools like Pitt — the ones that can’t afford to outbid the USC’s, Texases and Alabamas of the world — out to dry. 

If you’re looking for someone to blame, start at the top. 

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