Colin Cowherd denies NIL is making college football worse: ‘Don’t buy the fear-mongering’

If you believe college football has leveled up into something more luxurious lately, Week 1 is all the evidence you need.

There’s NIL king Arch Manning and his Longhorns, suddenly in the SEC, up against Ohio State, which set a new bar in 2024 with what was allegedly the most expensive roster in the history of the sport. The next night it’s a Miami program that bought its way back into relevance hosting a Notre Dame team that may have “hacked” the College Football Playoff. To close out on Monday, it’s Bill Belichick, minted by the Secretary of State to turn a basketball school into a football power, and North Carolina in their nationally televised debut.

Colin Cowherd isn’t buying it.

While some decry the professionalization of college football, now that teams can pay players directly and help orchestrate NIL deals, Cowherd believes the sport is as top-heavy as it’s always been. The difference now is that we just don’t like having it rubbed in our faces.

Anyone saying differently, according to Cowherd, is just “fear-mongering.”

“The thing about college football, the money is so in your face now,” Cowherd explained this week in an appearance on The Joel Klatt Show. “We’re like, ‘I’m not comfortable with this. It is getting lopsided!’ Oregon is the only top-eight program that has emerged in 30 years. It’s always been a have and have-not sport. Sports has always been have and have-not. International soccer to college football. But because the NIL is discussed and we know what they make, it’s icky.”

Indeed, in the College Football Playoff era (which dates to 2013), just six schools have won championships. Going back to 2010, which includes four years under the BCS system, we can get to eight schools.

Cowherd believes that college football has long been a sport defined by its major powers. It’s just that now, fans are confronted directly with the realities of why those teams dominate. And it isn’t something mystical about the part of the country they hail from or the fascinating leaders who came through town.

“We always know in sports (that) there’s dominance. There’s no such thing as parity,” Cowherd said. “It’s the same big dogs that have been dominating sports my entire life. But we’re OK with it if it’s topography or geography or great coaching … we don’t like it when it’s money.”

Later, Cowherd echoed an argument many have made about smaller schools making the most of college football’s new systems. With more transfers and money flying around legally, smaller programs can still break through. Cowherd listed Arizona State, Ole Miss and Illinois as examples.

While others including Ryen Russillo have argued that other issues within the sport like the continued expansion of the CFP show that leadership is only hungry for money, Colin Cowherd believes college football is largely intact from a competitive standpoint. The people who dislike it, Cowherd argued, are just ginning up negativity.

“The NIL makes people uncomfortable, but college football, there’s plenty of second-tier programs flourishing,” he said. “Don’t buy the fear-mongering. I love where the sport’s at.”