As far as Notre Dame legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw is concerned, she got out of coaching at the right time. With the emergence of NIL, one more layer has been added to a college athletics landscape that’s becoming as complicated to understand as tax law.

A few months after receiving the NCAA’s Pat Summitt Award, McGraw sat down for an interview with Andy Katz and discussed various topics. When Katz asked her opinion on NIL, she didn’t hold back:

McGraw seems to begrudgingly accept that today’s college athletes are a different breed. Not only are they looking to get paid, but they no longer have the patience to spend their first season or two on the bench. Loyalty in college sports has become as fragmented as it is at the professional level. The days of simply being happy to get a free ride at a prestigious university through an athletic scholarship are over.

No one can predict how this all ends, but we’re at a real crossroads with college athletics. We probably will see a different landscape in five years, let alone 10. College athletes will go where the money and playing opportunities are, and there’s nothing any coach, recruiter, athletic director or administrator can do about it. The balance of power has shifted at long last, and it’s time to accept that.

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