The College Gameday cast discussing problems with the current NIL system Photo Credit: ESPN
By Reice Shipley on

On Saturday, the College Gameday cast openly aired their grievances with the current NIL system. But in turn, this opened up Kirk Herbstreit to some criticism regarding his comments.

The topic of NIL was a heavily discussed one on the Week 5 edition of College Gameday, as the crew also specifically discussed UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka deciding to transfer from the program over a failed NIL deal.

Later on, the current NIL system as a whole was discussed, where the likes of Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit sounded off about the system ruining the tradition within college football.

“Well, I just think we need a manageable system,” said Saban. “I think all of the ideas that we presented here will give us a manageable system. But someone needs to understand the importance of this. The passion that we have for college football all over this country & everywhere we go is too important not to have a system that works for the players & works for the competitive spirit of the game.”

“Yes, I think we’ve said it enough,” said Herbstreit. “The players… We’re all for them getting paid. But we’re not for the players having all the control. I think we went from one extreme where the players didn’t have a lot of control to now the players having all the control. There needs to be some accountability for the players. I feel like some players accept colleges, which to me is a four-year extension. That’s a huge decision for them academically and connections and where they are going in their futures.

“I feel like we’re teaching these kids. It’s almost like a 7-on-7 all-star team. And they are missing out on what those relationships can be. The NFL is great. But once that’s done, you need somewhere to have as a home. These guys aren’t going to have a home because they are bouncing around too much.”

This was only a portion of the conversation, which can be heard in its entirety on the ESPN College Football YouTube channel.

There are a lot of good points made here by Saban and Herbstreit about the players largely being able to jump around to whatever school happens to be offering the most money at the time thanks to the current rules of the transfer portal.

However, there are some other factors to consider. College coaches can also leave their current jobs for other opportunities at any time, which has left countless players without the coach who they had committed to play for in the first place.

This exact situation occurs all the time in college football. So it’s reasonable to ask why players also aren’t able to do the same exact thing through the transfer portal as they currently are.

While some agreed with Saban and Herbstreit, others felt entirely differently and voiced their opinions about why they disagreed on social media.

“Awful thing to say out loud,” wrote Mike Ryan of Meadowlark Media. “What control do they have? NCAA fighting to hold on to their control deciding on an 80/20 split their way without that split being collectively bargained is the players having all the control? GameDay’s been embarrassing themselves carrying NCAA’s water.”

“Herbstreit hammers the importance of a four-year decision,” wrote Steven Godfrey of the Washington Post. “One of Herbstreit’s kids transferred from Clemson to Ohio State because transferring is a totally normal, acceptable action. His willingness to walk into these rakes is so strong because he’s never held to anything he says.”

Clearly, NIL is a topic where there are simply going to be drastically different viewpoints. But regardless, Herbstreit didn’t come away from College Gameday in Week 5 without his fair share of critics.

[Awful Announcing on X]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley