FSU coach Mike Norvell is a proponent of NIL enforcement in proposed Salary Cap Era of college football

Mike Norvell views the proposed salary cap and subsequent enforcement that is supposed to go into effect if and/or when the House Settlement passes as a “good thing” for college athletics.

Florida State’s head coach views the idea of “checks and balances” in terms of regulating the spending on college athletes as a healthy endeavor as most major college programs seem to be in unison that extra compensation via NIL should be regulated if schools are going to exceed to $20.5 million to be spread around towards all sports.

“I say, checks and balances in a sense of what those deals are. And obviously guys have to go out there and earn whatever opportunities can be provided,” Norvell told the Tampa Bay Times and other outlets during a booster stop in Tampa over the weekend. “To be able to have a little bit of an understanding through Deloitte and what they can do, it’s going to be, I think it will still be up to each football, each athletic department to where they disperse those funds. 

“I think it will bring everything to a more comparable situation based off the university. Just big picture within college athletics, I think it’ll be a good thing.”

Norvell’s reference to Deloitte is about a clearinghouse, with the major accounting firm being tasked with moderating how much Name, Image, Likeness deals should be worth and then enforcing said deals. Currently, NIL has largely been used as a way of compensating college athletes beyond of off-field value (although the intent of NIL was initially for solely off-field value).

How enforceable that is, remains to be seen. The House settlement is still being finalized, and it was reported on Monday that a CEO and new enforcement agency (beyond the NCAA) will be in place if the settlement is passed this week. The CEO of the College Sports Commission will be tasked with aspects like doling out punishments for rules violations and enforcing the salary cap.

Per a Yahoo report, the P4 programs that do not agree to be a member under the CSC would risk “the loss of conference membership and participation against other power league programs.” The state of Tennessee signed a bill earlier this month that would allow schools and their NIL collectives to “break House settlement-related rules” and “prevents college sports’ new enforcement entity from penalizing those schools” per a Yahoo report.

FSU athletic director Michael Alford has consistently voiced his understanding and support of a cap as well as NIL regulation with the House settlement presumably on the horizon. It appears that Alford and his head football coach are in unison on the matter in this ever-changing landscape of college football.