NIL Craziness Leads Iowa's Kirk Ferentz To Seek College Football 'Intervention'

Iowa's 66-year-old football coach Kirk Ferentz doesn't like the current state of college football and thinks more structure, by way of an intervention, is needed to provide schools and recruits with some clarity.

Ferentz's issue has nothing do with X's and O's. His concern stems from the wild, wild, west that is name/image/likeness, or "NIL," which has made college student athletes millions - sometimes under questionable circumstances - since being introduced last summer.

“I probably wouldn’t be the only person to say I’m really concerned about the path that college football is on right now and eager to see where it heads and what direction we end up taking,” Ferentz said Tuesday during Big Ten media days.

Now entering his 24th season with the Hawkeyes, Ferentz later added: "I think we're in a really precarious place. There's just a lot of vagueness, a lot of uncertainty. We really don't have a firm structure. We don't have a basic set of operating rules. I don't think anybody right now can really explain the NIL in detail, what you can and what you can't do."

Head coach Kirk Ferentz of the Iowa Hawkeyes speaks during the 2022 Big Ten Conference Football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium on July 26, 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Ferentz, 178-110 during his Iowa tenure, used his time at the podium to seek more transparency moving forward. "I know you can't entice recruits, but it sure seems like maybe that's going on a little bit," bemoaned Ferentz. "There's just a lack of overall clarity."

Though he doesn't have an immediate solution, Ferentz is of the opinion that the combined braintrust within college football should gather to begin to sort out the murkiness that seems to be lingering over the sport.

"We need some intervention," Ferentz added. "And then my bigger concern is: Who's going to do it, right? Where's it going to come from? Where's that leadership going to come from, because we're all busy?"

With no known intervention on the docket, Ferentz will have no choice but to attempt to keep up with the Joneses while turning his attention to the Hawkeyes' upcoming season.

Iowa opens the season at home on September 3rd versus South Dakota State.

 

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