Vanderbilt Head Coach Gives Honest Reasoning Why Program Fell Behind in NIL

The Vanderbilt Commodores are nowhere near the top of college football when it comes to resources for NIL

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The common fear with the institution of Name, Image, and Likeness in college football was the rich getting richer, and as a result, lesser programs falling behind the big dogs even further than they already were.

The counter to that was the argument of a complete leveling of the playing field, an 'everyone is allowed to pay players now' type system rather than only the top teams. Reality thus far is proving to be somewhere in the middle.

Programs that were struggling mightily to compete even with a 'level' playing field where technically pay for play was not allowed would be put in a spot where the game became more resource driven than ever before, and they fell further behind. Yet at the same time, for the most part the great programs in college football have stayed great while the programs that have been in the dumps for decades pretty much remained there.

Vanderbilt is an interesting case study of a team that has mostly stayed where they were, at least in terms of wins and losses. The Commodores have not won more than six games in a season since James Franklin was the head coach and have been seen as the laughingstock of the SEC for as long as many can remember.

Head coach Clark Lea, who has already equaled last season's win total just three games into the 2024 season, talked about how his program has fallen behind with regards to NIL and the impact that increased resources have had so far.

"We still have not engaged in the paying of high school players, and we are behind because of it," Lea said via The Tennessean. "There's not a world anymore that exists where that's not a part of the equation."

Lea revealed that while the 2023 team had virtually 0 NIL budget, this year's team had at least triple what it had previously to use in the transfer portal, a cash influx that led directly to the acquisition of their starting quarterback Diego Pavia and numerous other starters on both sides of the ball.

Lea compared his school's approach to that of his opponent this weekend, Missouri, and pointed out the obvious that the Tigers' rise to relevance nationally had at least something to do with NIL.

"I think [Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz) evolved and adapted quickly," Lea said. "And Missouri evolved and adapted quickly to the new landscape. And there's no mystery that this team, again, was battling for bowl games a couple years ago, now is in a position to fight for prominence in the sport."

Ultimately, it's up to Lea to use Vanderbilt's now increasing resources wisely and put the Commodores on a path towards climbing from the depths of the SEC. While five years ago this was a seemingly inconceivable part of a college football head coach's job, Lea's career may now depend on it.