Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin discussed the NIL bidding war
As we have seen in recent months, there seems to be a NIL bidding war for recruits. We have seen it recently with former Pittsburgh Panthers WR Jordan Addison. There have been anonymous reports that he had a six-figure NIL deal on the table if he transferred out.
While this could a total fabrication, it could also be true and we will leave that up to your interpretation. However, we would be gullible to believe that there aren’t deals of this magnitude floating around. The NCAA opened pandora’s box when they allowed athletes to cash in on their name, image, and likeness. I am fully in favor of athletes taking advantage, but deals such as the ones floating around come with the territory.
Recently the NCAA Board of Directors recently released guidelines for NIL moving forward.
“Today, the Division I Board of Directors took a significant first step to address some of the challenges and improper behaviors that exist in the name, image and likeness environment that may violate our long-established recruiting rules. While the NCAA may pursue the most outrageous violations that were clearly contrary to the interim policy adopted last summer, our focus is on the future. The new guidance establishes a common set of expectations for the Division I institutions moving forward, and the board expects all Division I institutions to follow our recruiting rules and operate within these reasonable expectations,” said board chair Jere Morehead, president, University of Georgia.
As far as the Auburn Tigers and head coach Bryan Harsin are concerned, the head coach stated that he isn’t involved at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham on Wednesday.
The Montgomery Advertiser’s Bennett Durando detailed Harsin’s comments in regards to NIL and how Auburn is handling it.
“No – NIL is so new, but no,” Harsin said. “And there’s not really a NIL department (at Auburn). This topic is one that there are a lot of questions about it, not just from the media but everybody. It’s just so new, so there’s really not a good answer on how everybody’s handling it.”
When the Advertiser asked Harsin last week at an alumni event in Huntsville whether NIL is bleeding into the recruiting space, the second-year coach said, “Everything that anybody does, no matter when bleeds into recruiting. It’s always about that. As a coach, you always have to think about that.”
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