The Tigers have also made the news recently for their NIL investments in the football program, giving six figures to secure former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold after failing to stick with the Oklahoma Sooners.He also said that recruiting has become more transactional than it once has.With the growing amounts of money being funneled through college […]
The Tigers have also made the news recently for their NIL investments in the football program, giving six figures to secure former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold after failing to stick with the Oklahoma Sooners.He also said that recruiting has become more transactional than it once has.With the growing amounts of money being funneled through college athletics, more people are sure to start raising eyebrows at whether or not it is a good thing.Pearl has been with the Tigers since the 2014/2015 season, he has a 224-120 record at the school. The closest he got to to winning it all was before the NIL era, a Final Four appearance in 2019, but his program has actually gotten much more consistent in the years following.During a recent appearance on Fox News show ‘Special Report’ Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl shared how unhappy he is with what NIL has done to the academic side of collegiate sports.The continuing emergence of NIL in college athletics is changing how student athletes approach school and not everyone is happy about it.This past recruiting class saw three players leave the program and saw three other players join from other schools.Auburn has had at least 20 wins in each of the last three seasons and are off to a hot start with an 11-1 record this year.For Pearl, with his track record, it does genuinely seem to come form a place of worry about academics. His school has done well with the transition, so he has little reason to be bitter about the transfer portal because of results on the court.”Graduation rates have been destroyed because the combination of NIL and transfer portal working together,” said Pearl per Jeff Poor of 1819News. “Understand families being in a situation where they may never make more money than they are making right now, and so that’s what they are being guided by. And so we are teaching kids to flee, not fight.”The coach also said that he is happy about players finally getting compensated for what they are worth, while acknowledging that he believes this is the cost of that happening.Johni Broome, one of the top players in the sport, was a transfer portal addition back in 2022, after leaving the Morehead State Eagles of the Ohio Valley conference.They are not a team that usually competes for a top recruiting class, but does typically do well in the transfer portal.The constant shuffling of players and schools can be hard for some coaches to come to grasp with, but Pearl has seen his school stay competitive despite it.
