Bill Belichick Is Happy To Play by NIL, Transfer Portal Rules if There Were Any

College football leaders were expecting to have a decision on the House v. NCAA settlement as the July 1 date looms—for both the approval date and the start of the athletic fiscal calendar.

As U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken evaluates the revised agreement she received for what will be a month on June 7, it’s left the state of college sports in a limbo period with time running out.

Power Four coaches simply don’t know how to operate within the NIL landscape and the transfer portal without the presumed guidance from the settlement terms.

New North Carolina Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick was likely expecting much more clarity in his entry into college football after five decades in the NFL, and he is one who is calling for regulation.

How Can College Football Coaches Follow NIL Rules They Don’t Know?

Belichick was candid in a recent appearance with ESPN’s Rece Davis alongside Clemson‘s Dabo Swinney on the College GameDay Podcast.

“For me, it’s really pretty simple: I’d say, tell me what the rules are and then we’ll play by them,” Belichick said. “Right now a lot of it is up in the air, and once the House settlement is done and once some rules are solidified, and honestly, it’ll probably take a year for this to settle in and see how things go. There will be some adjustments made, it sounds like the judge has already committed to that too, and we’ll take a look at things later on.”

It’s a murky territory for coaches who are hoping not to be the first to violate the new era of NIL payments in college sports towards athletes, but who are also trying to build championship rosters to make a play at the College Football Playoff.

“Whatever it is, however the money is distributed and however the contracts are written, whatever the length of the contracts are and so forth, then we’ll figure it out,” Belichick continued. “But I’d say right now it’s a lot of ‘we’re not sure,’ ‘we’ll have to wait and see.’ Some people view it one way, some people view it another way. And you just have to come to an agreement on that. I think things will settle eventually, but right now they’re a little bit up in the air and we’ll see what happens when everything has a bit more declaration to it.”

“Yeah, I mean, I think there are no rules right now. We just want some rules. Tell us what they are,” Sweeney chimed in to add.

The problem is, what exactly are those rules, and when will they be put into practice?

What entity will be enforcing them?

Coaches may not even realize that they’re in violation of terms at this point and are clearly begging for clarity from the top down.

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