Most people Kirk Herbstreit has spoken with have accepted that NIL is here to stay. There’s a general understanding now that players are going to get paid. That’s just the nature of today’s college football.
But as Herbstreit sees it, the frustration isn’t about the money but about the total lack of structure.
No rules, no regulations, no consistency.
While he remains a staunch defender of the college game, even as that gets harder by the year, Herbstreit has a major issue with players threatening to walk away if demands aren’t met, whether that means skipping bowl games or playoff appearances or, in the case of now-former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, reportedly leveraging his status despite already securing a significant payday.
Tennessee has since moved on from Iamaleava, a decision Kirk Herbstreit later applauded.
That said, it underscores just how unmanageable the current landscape has become. Even highly touted, well-compensated quarterbacks can attempt to strong-arm their way into better deals or more playing time, knowing there’s little standing in their way.
That’s why Kirk Herbstreit leaned on his good friend Pat McAfee to illustrate how ridiculous this would look in the NFL. Imagine Bijan Robinson suddenly deciding midseason that he’s done playing. Or Brock Purdy declaring he’s underpaid and walking away in Week 7. It wouldn’t fly because NFL players are under contract. There’s accountability.
But in college football? Right now, that kind of chaos is not only possible; it’s already happening.
“In college football, we don’t have that,” Kirk Herbstreit said on Wednesday’s The Pat McAfee Show. “You get the agents and you get these some I guess sometimes dads, who are playing agent, who are playing a very dangerous game with head coaches and universities, and they try to use leverage. And they try to think they can get something when they can’t. I applaud Josh Heupel for standing up. And not because players don’t deserve to be paid, but because of how this unfolded and the timing of it.
“One thing I continue to think about is if the NFL has an issue, Roger Goodell, the owners, the NFLPA, there’s a CBA, and they work things out, right? They create the CBA, and there are grounds for understanding what the rules and regulations are. Who is that in college football? You tell me. The conference commissioners, is it the presidents? I know everyone wants to blame the NCAA. They have zero power. They have no power over the sport. Who’s running the sport? Who are we supposed to file these complaints to? Who’s supposed to make change? I have no idea who that is. We can sit here and be upset. We can sit here and say, everybody says ‘Guardrails.’ Who the hell is going to create the guardrails?”
And who’s policing them?
“Nobody’s got the stones to become that guy who’s going to be the leader and say, ‘This is what we’re doing,'” says Herbstreit. “Everyone’s afraid of litigation. Everybody’s afraid of the threat of litigation. Nobody says what they really think. Nobody’s willing to be a leader. Nobody’s leading this sport. That’s where we are right now.”
“If you do anything perceived to not be willing to give what the players want, then you’re a problem,” he adds. “You need to be removed… They’re terrified to leave. They’re terrified to make big decisions, and ultimately, they’re sitting back and not doing what, to me, what they need to do, which is having some balls and making some decisions and taking the heat. And the problem right now is if you do that, you get an attorney who either threatens to sue you or sues you, and now you’re in a tough spot because the players win all these arguments. The players win all these debates.
“I’ve seen an ESPN analyst [Ryan Clark or Dan Orlovsky] come out, and they want to blame the NCAA. Like, when in doubt, just blame the NCAA. That’s all you have to do. The NCAA is like the boogie man… Has anyone ever come out and said a player’s ever at fault, ever?”
In this particular case, Kirk Herbstreit made it clear he wasn’t criticizing Iamaleava personally.
In fact, he went out of his way to praise the now-former Tennessee quarterback.
“Let me just say this about Nico. I did about four or five games with Tennessee,” Herbstreit said. “First time I did a Tennessee game, I was very interested to see what it was going to be like in our production meeting; what’s he gonna be like? I saw the pajamas. I heard about the $8 million. I have no idea what’s true, what’s not. And he hopped on our first call we did with him; it was against NC State early in the year… And I thought, ‘Alright, here we go.’ And this dude was one of the typical Polynesian, laidback, calm, quiet, humble, nicest guys I’ve ever spoken to. I was blown away.
“I’m not piling on Nico at all. I don’t know what’s going on. I hear about his dad. I hear about his team. I can just tell you the kind of guy [he is]. That’s what I’m sure it was tough for Josh Heupel to let him go. Nico’s a great teammate. Nico’s a great guy. Nico is a guy, from my time being around him, you want him in your huddle. I talked to Jack Sawyer after the Ohio State-Tennessee game. We’re getting ready to do the Oregon game. And we were just reminiscing about the week before. And he said, ‘I’ll tell you what, man, we knew we had ’em early, but I was blown away by their quarterback. We cracked a couple of his helmets; he just kept coming back. He kept competing.’ He goes, ‘That kid’s the real deal.’ So, I’m impressed with Nico as a person. I’m impressed with Nico as a player.”
From Herbstreit’s perspective, it’s become nearly impossible to criticize a player in today’s college football without being labeled as anti-player or out of touch. The second anyone pushes back, they’re cast as the “old head” who doesn’t understand how things work anymore.
He’s not against NIL — far from it. Players are going to get paid, and that part doesn’t bother him. What does? The chaos. No rules, no leadership, no one in charge. It’s gone from players having no power to them holding all of it. And in his mind, that pendulum has swung way too far.
“That’s not right,” he says. “It’s just not healthy.”