NIL

Washington Huskies charge forward with new NIL rules in place

SEATTLE — The college sports world has very much changed and has done so in a very quick timeframe. If you told someone in, say, 2020, that the Pac-12 would be a shell of its former self and the Big Ten would stretch from coast to coast, even the most hardened college football fans would […]

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The college sports world has very much changed and has done so in a very quick timeframe.

If you told someone in, say, 2020, that the Pac-12 would be a shell of its former self and the Big Ten would stretch from coast to coast, even the most hardened college football fans would have a hard time believing it.

But here we are.

A lot of the changes have been ushered in by name, image and likeness, which has finally gotten athletes paid for their work on the field, but still needed some fine-tuning.

Certainly, it was overdue for some compensation to come the players’ way, but as many coaches told me the last couple years it was like the “wild wild west” out there, with few regulations to keep the playing field level.

Now, in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement, schools can revenue share and pay athletes directly with a $20.5 million salary cap to be spread among all of an institution’s sports.

It’s not perfect but it’s a start in a world where just last year you may have seen the football powers of the south spending tens of millions while some schools could only muster a fraction of that.

“It’s a huge culture shift, I mean we’re going from no rules for our coaches to rules again. That’s gonna be interesting to see how the environment adapts to that,” said UW Director of Athletics Pat Chun.

Chun says UW is still figuring out how exactly to allocate those funds through all its sports and does point out that this doesn’t preclude athletes from landing their own third- party NIL days, but those will be much more closely monitored for fairness.

To most, the implementation of the revenue share salary cap and regulations are a welcome sight. The changes in college sports felt inevitable, but also went from 0 to 60 in half a second, so to speak.

In other words, the committee charged with putting the regulation together which includes Chun, believes this can help restore order to college athletics.

“There’s a little bit of soul searching that we all have to do in college sports. And if we want to do what’s best for young people for this environment, I am one who is firmly in the camp that the last environment we were in was unsustainable. It was unhealthy for college sports and the most unhealthy for the young people who participate in it,” Chun said, adding, “This participant agreement, this membership agreement, it’s just another step in trying to do what’s best for college sports.”

The work isn’t done.

Yes, the NIL framework was necessary and top priority, but there’s more to come. Chun expressed a great desire to fix the college football calendar, pointing out what so many already know about the transfer portal — that it shouldn’t open during the season.

Chun brought up Penn State losing a backup quarterback while the Nittany Lions were in contention for a national title playing in the College Football Playoff. Closer to home, Washington State fans got a gut punch when the Cougs lost star quarterback John Mateer before WSU could suit up against Syracuse in the Holiday Bowl. It’s important to note, Chun believes those athletes have a right to pursue a better opportunity, but that players shouldn’t be switching schools during the season. He’s hoping for some work on a new calendar by July, but recognizes the difficulty in that coming to fruition. The hope is for something that resembles the NFL calendar as far as the steps that offseason transactions take that make sense and avoid the most chaos.

A lot of work, a lot of information, but ultimately a better and more stable college athletics landscape.

But, lastly, how does it impact the Washington Huskies?

Let’s not forget, the Dawgs have a head coach in Jedd Fisch who lived the salary cap world for an extended time in the NFL.

“To Jedd’s credit, for those who cover football, it’s no surprise, I mean, he has been exposed to a salary cap environment for a lot of his career. He has spent a lot of time on how he wants to model his roster.”

The Huskies open the season Aug. 30, hosting Colorado State at Husky Stadium.



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