SEC Coaches Sound Off on NIL, Revenue-Sharing: ‘Upside Down’

With the college basketball season tipping off in just over two weeks, concerns about the shifting NIL (name, image, and likeness) and revenue-sharing era are top of mind for coaches in the SEC.

Speaking this week at the conference’s preseason media days in Birmingham, Arkansas coach John Calipari said he aims to be transformational, and more importantly, not transactional, in the final years of his career. “If I become transactional, I’m going to pay you this to do this and that, then I won’t do this anymore,” Calipari said. “I don’t need to.”

Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington labeled the current landscape “extremely complicated” because there are still many unknowns. “It’s ever-changing,” Byington said. “I thought we might get to a certain spot where revenue-sharing is in place, and now we know what we’re going to deal with—and we don’t. Things are still changing.”

Texas coach Sean Miller echoed Byington’s thoughts. “The one thing that we’ve all learned over the last 24, 36 months is that what was a year ago is no longer in place,” Miller said. “It’s flipped upside down two or three times when you start talking about NIL and some of the rule changes.”

Alabama coach Nate Oats simply wants clarity on the rules. “I think the guys that complain about it don’t figure out how to work within them,” he said. “Just give us what the rules are.” Oats also said it’s “great that our student-athletes are able to get compensated. There’s a lot of money in college sports. They’re the ones playing. They should be able to get a piece of the pie.”

Tourney Talk

After the SEC sent a record 14 teams to the men’s NCAA basketball tournament last season, the potential expansion of March Madness remains a hot topic.

Calipari, 66, who has won one national championship and made six Final Four appearances as a head coach, doesn’t want to see the tournament grow. “I just think you leave it how it is because if it’s not broken, go with the known, leave that unknown alone,” he said. “We don’t know what will happen to it. I’m not worried about money or anything else.”

Calipari also cited uncertainties around the transfer portal and player eligibility as his main concerns. “I would leave the tournament alone, but that’s just me,” he said.