Urban Meyer Believes NIL Collectives Are Just A Fancy Form Of Cheating

Former college football and NFL head coach Urban Meyer is not a fan of NIL collectives having such an impact on college athletics. He made that stance clear during a chat Thursday with OutKick's Dan Dakich.

The word 'collective' wasn't mentioned in the world of college athletics a handful of years ago, but now, if your school doesn't have a collective with plenty of funding then they're falling behind.

READ: LANE KIFFIN CALLS JIMBO FISHER ON HIS B.S. WHEN IT COMES TO NIL’S ROLE IN RECRUITING

Another wrinkle in the world of NIL collectives is that states and universities operate differently, which puts schools in certain states behind before they even get started.

For Meyer, it's simple, 'collective' is just a fancy word for cheating.

"I don't know," Urban Meyer said to Dakich after being asked how the term 'collective' came to be. "I'm not saying it's all that way, but from my understanding, it's a fancy word for cheating.

"When I hear that word I kind of cringe right now and I hear the stories behind it that they're going to go to donors and boosters and ask for a lot of money and then decide who gets that money based on ability level. Which, I think is 1A of the rule of NIL, you can't do that."


Everyone with a functioning brain understood the slippery slope NIL was going to present in the world of college athletics. Everyone also knows that athletic departments around the country and certainly politicians have a keen ability to bend rules, and even create their own, which is exactly what we're seeing in college sports.

Catch Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich every Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET on OutKickYouTubeFacebook and Twitter.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.