Baylor AD Mack Rhoades on NIL: ‘All of us want there to be a correction’

With NIL now in place, universities can no longer solely rely on reputation or culture to attract the best student-athletes available.

Because student-athletes could now be intrigued to enter the transfer portal for a higher payday, that puts a ton of pressure on coaches to not only woo top-tier talent, but also ensure that their financial needs are met.

Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades believes that could cause even the best college coaches to quit their jobs.

“That feeling you have (that the NIL market has not corrected itself) is absolutely correct,” Rhoades said in his interview with 365 Sports. “All of us want there to be a correction and I think all of us hope there is. When I say all of us, I think I’m even speaking on behalf of schools that have these tremendous donor bases and are primarily just focused on NIL and have these coffers of sums of money when you think about NIL. I don’t think anybody likes it or is enjoying it.”

Rhoades continued: “I think we will have coaches, if things don’t correct themselves, in the future that are going to get out. Those who have been in it long enough to save some money, I think some are going to get out because it’s just not what anyone signed up for. In this moment we are speaking, I think it has exploded when it comes to NIL and the transfer portal. There are more than 1,300 in the portal for men’s basketball. Right now, we literally have a pay-for-play system. We can dance around it, but that is what we have right now and I don’t think anybody particularly cares for it.”

While it’s great that student-athletes are now able to be paid for their NIL, it’s also understandable that coaches want to focus more of their energies on coaching up the best possible program instead of focusing on the business side of the sport.