Like It Is

OPINION | WALLY HALL: NIL money train now hurtling out of control


If the stories are true, then the system may be broken and can't be fixed.

Jaden Rashada, a 4-star quarterback from Pittsburg, Calif., has apparently accepted a $9.5 million NIL deal to play for the Miami Hurricanes.

It has been reported all or the majority of the money is coming from one Hurricanes booster.

No college player is worth that kind of money.

Rashada may be good, he may be great, but that's professional money and Miami may have a NFL team but it isn't the 'Canes.

Rashada, 6-4, 185 pounds, had more than 30 scholarship offers, and his final five were Miami and SEC members Florida, Texas A&M, LSU and Ole Miss.

His NIL representative and California-based attorney Micheal W. Caspino claims it wasn't the highest offer, that the Gators had made an offer of $11 million, but that Rashada likes Miami much more than Gainesville.

Let's back up to that second paragraph, he's a 4-star quarterback.

In the class of 2023, there are six 5-star quarterbacks.

In fact, according to 247Sports, Rashada is the 45th-rated player in the country.

The No. 1 recruit is Arch Manning, who recently committed to Texas.

How much is Manning worth? His bloodline alone is as good as you can find.

There are more than 60 quarterbacks in the NFL who will apparently make less than Rashada once he's in Miami. Granted, most of them are backups or on practice squads. But a young man who is going to be a senior in high school, who has probably never washed his own clothes and is still using his first razor is going to make $9.5 million.

This makes the SEC look like pikers.

Of course, Alabama's Nick Saban said long before this deal that what was happening is not sustainable.

He is 100% correct this time.

Professional sports have salary caps, but college teams don't.

How are teams like Arkansas State or even Vanderbilt -- a very wealthy school that invests in education more than sports -- supposed to compete?

They can't.

At this rate, it is a matter of time before no team can meet the payroll it is creating.

And what does paying one player that much do for team attitude?

How are the receivers and running backs at Miami going to feel about a quarterback making that kind of money?

Or an offensive lineman, who is supposed to protect the quarterback, or a defensive player, who hits people hard on every down?

It isn't that the NIL wasn't a good idea, it is there is no organization to monitor and control it.

That's why it is out of control and likely to stay that way until every school agrees there has to be limits.

If the NCAA can't do it, then create an organization that can get this thing under control even if it means taking a one-year hiatus from paying players.

The NCAA still claims it is against regulations to give a recruit an NIL deal, that it is boosterism.

Well, that's exactly what is happening and it is out of control.

. . .

It was announced in March, but it wasn't until this week in Las Vegas that Hunter Yurachek, the University of Arkansas' vice chancellor and athletic director, picked up his hardware.

Yurachek was named a NACDA Cushman & Wakefield Athletics Director of the Year.

When he was first honored, the Razorbacks had won a soccer and two track and field championships plus won a New Year's Day bowl.

Maybe they should add a silver star to Yurachek's plaque.

Since he was named one of the award's recipient, Arkansas' men's basketball team made the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, the softball team reached the super regionals and the baseball team made it to the College World Series.


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