One of College Football's eldest statesman has spoken out in a big way against the NIL/rev-share era, even unfavorably comparing the NCAA's current recruiting ecosystem to the NFL's rookie, trade, and free agent setup.
Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz revealed to On3's Peter Nakos that he finds navigating the NCAA to be "b*******" these days, and seemingly misses his time in the NFL, when he was with the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns.
“Six years of experience in the NFL, and a lot of things I don’t miss about the NFL, but one of the things I miss is the clarity in terms of expectations and what the rules are," Ferentz said. "As we’ve evolved into the revenue sharing, which I thought was a worthy and needed step, we’re sitting in a quagmire. Just garbage. It’s so cloudy, it frustrates me not knowing what’s real.
"In the NFL, it’s very clear, there’s a ceiling and there’s a basement — you have to be somewhere in between. There’s no (b*******) to it, and there’s transparency, too.”
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Kirk Ferentz isn't familiar with today's NFL, but he still has a point
To be fair, Ferentz is not familiar with the way the NFL does business in the year 2026. Let alone the year 2016. Let alone the year 2006. It's been a long time since he's been a coach anywhere but Iowa City. Ferentz was hired by the Hawkeyes in a year that starts with "19." Not even "20." "19-."
The NFL features myriad politics these days, with super-agents making negotiations more difficult and involved and team owners meddling more than ever. It's not rainbows and sunshine over in the biggest pro league, given who tends to own NFL franchises. Maybe things were simple before the turn of the century, but this isn't the same world in any sense. Not even for most Amish.
With that said, the fact that each state has different NIL laws complicates everything, and especially makes it harder for the schools that aren't flush with the most money and the most enthusiastic donor base to field a winning team.