The world of college athletics has been forever changed by the decision to allow players to be compensated for use of their Name, Image and Likeness.
After college athletes had historically not been permitted to be paid, they are now able to receive payment for use of their NIL by teams. This allows them to enter into sponorships and brand deals, which in some cases can lead to generational wealth for young athletes.
This has had a massive ripple effect across sports, as the money being made by athletes in college is now a major factor in their decisions to either remain at that level or enter the professional ranks. As a result, the NFL Draft has seen some of its depth become depleted as more underclassmen elect to remain in school.
As Detroit Lions Director of College Scouting Brian Hudspeth revealed during a recent interview with team reporter Tim Twentyman, this attrition of depth has had a significant impact in the overall talent pool within the draft.
“The downside of NIL for us is the NIL entices these kids to stay in school now. So there’s a lot less depth in the draft,” Hudspeth said. “Generally, at the peak of underclassmen coming out, you had about 120 to 130 players. Now it’s down to 55 to 70, so you’ve lost essentially two rounds of players in some regards. That’s making the assumption that they were all gonna be in the top rounds, and they generally were, but you’ve kind of lost some depth. So the NIL world has changed us a little bit that way, so that has been kind of one downside of it.”
A big part of the financial impact in the new world of college athletics is the consistent attrition and roster turnover with the emergence of the transfer portal. In totality across all levels of college football, thousands of players have entered the portal in search of new opportunities.
During the spring transfer portal period, which closes on April 25, ESPN reported that over 2,700 student athletes had entered the portal in search of a new opportunity. Among them is Nico Iamaleava, who elected to transfer from Tennessee after a brief NIL-related holdout.
This has had an impact on how Detroit evaluates prospects, as they have been forced to dig even deeper in order to gain a total understanding of the players they are interested in. Because of this, the Lions lean heavily on their area scouts to develop honest relationships with staffers who can provide clear pictures of prospects.
“It does hurt some positions. You have a quarterback that has been in three different systems in three years,” Hudspeth explained. “You have guys that have never solidified themselves on the depth chart, so you’re constantly wondering what happened at the previous place. It causes us to have to do a lot more research and a lot more vetting of the multiple stops before, and the story can always change so you have to find those relationships that you really lean on.”
On a positive note, the world of NIL has allowed scouts to efficiently evaluate how prospects handle their money, and who they depend on. In the pre-NIL era, scouts were eager to learn how the prospects planned to manage their money upon being drafted.
“Number one, one of the questions we always used to ask when we went through schools was, ‘How is this kid gonna be when he gets money? Who’s gonna be in his support group? Who’s gonna be in his circle? Who’s he gonna have to take care of? How is he gonna handle going from no money to now having millions of dollars in his pocket?’” Hudspeth explained. “That question now is answered, so we have a little bit of insight as to who’s in their inner circle.”