Louis Riddick: Pitt's NIL Efforts Can Improve

Former Pitt Panthers cornerback Louis Riddick offered his thoughts on the program's NIL initiatives.

Dec 6, 2021; Orchard Park, New York, USA; ESPN analyst Louis Riddick reacts to a fans question prior / Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

PITTSBURGH -- With uncertainty surrounding the Pitt Panthers’ outlook in the current college football landscape, Louis Riddick is optimistic that the program can remain relevant and carve out a space in which it can successfully operate moving forward while utilizing their NIL collective.

“For Pitt, I mean I’m not intimately familiar with what their resources are as far as what they can offer kids from an NIL perspective, and how necessarily they’re trying to go ahead and distribute that.," Riddick said. "I know enough to know that they are working to make sure that they can remain competitive and get the kind of players here that they know that they need to compete at the very highest level that they possibly can.”

As realignment rumors continue to run rampant and the divide between the haves and the have nots continues to exponentially grow, the sport has become somewhat unrecognizable in relation to where it stood just a few years ago. Perhaps a tipping point is on the horizon that leads to a flood of regulations that evens the playing field, but for now many programs remain in a state of flux while trying to play catch-up.

Riddick addressed this notion, stating that the schools at the top of the current pecking order have been afforded an inherent advantage with the NIL resources at their disposal. In turn, that has shifted the expectations and outlook on a season-to-season basis for a majority of the programs in the nation, including Pitt.

"There’s about 10, 15 teams that right now you know from an NIL perspective have got huge amounts of resources that they’re utilizing," Riddick said. "Unless you have the resources to compete with them there’s going to obviously be a division within the FBS as far as what reasonable expectations that you’re going to have.”

Riddick is a proponent of introducing legislation that focuses on narrowing that gap and leveling the playing field in an attempt at adding some sort of structure into the sport that lacks it from an NIL perspective.

"I'm hoping that there’ll be some really smart people who are able to get together and get their arms around this situation so it kind of makes some sense to people, because right now, there is no limit in terms of what you can do," Riddick said. "Not everybody’s operating with the same amount of resources, and I don’t know how that’s good for anyone.”

College football will remain a desired product and largely continue to thrive on a national level, but there's no denying that fundamental issues exist within the core of the sport, particularly regarding NIL. The positives of allowing student-athletes to profit off of their likeness are undeniable, but the ways in which it is managed by the NCAA has intentionally or unintentionally boxed out the bulk of its schools from truly competing.

Riddick recognized that fact, believing that Pitt would greatly benefit from NIL reinforcements for as long as it is forced to contend with the current system in place.

"There’s no question for as much as any of us can help out, pitch in, get people to invest in this program, the better it is for all of us because until they put some guardrails around what the rules are, it truly is the Wild, Wild West out there," Riddick said.

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