The NCAA Transfer Portal forever changed college athletics. Look no further than Tennessee Basketball six months ago. Coming off an Elite Eight run, the Vols lost four players to the portal and had to add four new faces to rebuild a new-look roster.
But don’t mistake NIL and players getting paid for their name, image and likeness as anything new on the landscape.
“People don’t really realize that the NIL has been around for a long, long time,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Monday while speaking at the Knoxville Quarterback Club . “People don’t realize it stands for now it’s legal.”
Up Next: No. 12 Tennessee vs. Indiana, Charity Exhibition, Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, SEC Network+
Barnes joked about the true meaning NIL after being asked during his speaking engagement about players being paid. How does it work? Are head coaches aware of how much players are making? How active is a coaching staff in that area?
“The (player’s) agent talks to the collective,” Barnes said, “and they talk about it. We obviously will have to know what (the money) would be because we’ve got to go build a roster. And we’ve worked really hard.”