How will it work? CFB coaches, AD’s scramble ahead of new ‘pay for play’ era
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Jul 23, 2025
College football coaches and administrators are scrambling to set ground rules and get on the same page ahead of a new era in the sport.
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In 32 days, the new college football season will kick off with a matchup between Iowa State and Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland
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Back here in the states, college coaches and administrators will still be trying to work out all the details in this new NIL pay-for-play era
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Some coaches, like Texas headman Steve Sarkisian, are already deeply involved. During the keynote address at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention Sunday
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Sarkeesian called on high school coaches to fight off outside interests who are getting involved with their players
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namely agents who are now the go-between in player negotiations with college programs
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I think there's a responsibility of the high school coaches to not just fall prey to
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well, now there's money and there's agents and my role's been diminished
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I think they need to be bullish to not let their role be diminished, and we would prefer that, quite frankly
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Agents are going to be a part of this, and let's not act like they're not
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They are. When the season kicks off, Sarkeesian's Longhorns may very well be ranked number one in the nation
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His message to more than 18,000 coaches resonates. He also answered questions about player contracts and what to expect during negotiations
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He made sure to point out the one area he believes will cause problems
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long-term big money contracts for kids coming out of high school. Let's paint a picture
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We sign a young man to a three-year contract. That should mean, in my opinion, if he's on a three-year guaranteed contract
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that he has to stay at my university for three years. The problem I have with that is at the end of year one if Billy doesn like the way it going he a free agent and he can go in the portal and leave That doesn make sense to me That not a good business model
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Another issue athletic departments will wrestle with in the next few months and possible years
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cheating until the newly formed college sports commission can set some ground rules and decide
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on punishments for those that break the rules. Some schools are going to push the boundaries
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Each school has a budget of $20.5 million to spend on college sports programs
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How will outside NIL deals tip the balance of power? At this point, no one is sure
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ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips implored his members to stay within the rules at his conference's season kickoff event
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It's about setting up a standard with transparency, Phillips said. We haven't had that in the NIL era
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Sometimes we can't help ourselves. People know what the rules are relative to the 20.5 million
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They know what legitimate NIL is. You can play in the gray area if you want, but all that does is undermine the new structure
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Phillips reiterated a need for government oversight and continues to advocate for federal legislation to set some guardrails
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but that could take months if it happens at all. That means with the season fast approaching, those in charge will have to stay vigilant
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Is the system perfect? No. Are we trying to get better at cleaning it up to making it better for all parties involved
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I do think we are, yes. But we're definitely a work in progress right now
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Coach Sark is optimistic and believes eventually they'll get to a good place
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But he also can't wait to put the NIL talk aside and just coach football
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The Longhorns, along with many other college programs, begin fall practice on July 30th
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For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis
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