‘This is a very chaotic landscape’: Southern athletic director has concerns about current state of NIL

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The name, image, and likeness era, or better known as NIL, continues to change the landscape of college sports.

LSU Athletics held a seminar Wednesday, Feb. 2, where local businesses got first-hand information on how to properly engage in deals with their student-athletes.

In the north of the state, there are reports of a potential groundbreaking deal at Grambling State University where every single athlete could get paid.

This is huge news, but some are worried about where this could lead.

“This is a very chaotic landscape right now for division one sports,” said Southern University Athletic Director Roman Banks.

Banks said he fully supports athletes profiting off their image.

He said several local businesses have approached him asking how they can properly execute a deal, and Barstool Sports has a deal in place with a couple Jaguar baseball players.

However, Banks fears the current system could lead into an “arms-race” between schools.

”If this doesn’t change, and you’ve heard football coaches at Power 5′s talk about it, then it’s just going to go to the highest bidder,” said Banks.

One of his other concerns is the affect this will have on recruitment, and some players could become “uncoachable”.

”You probably have student athletes that’s going to get a better NIL deal than perhaps you’re paying one of your coaches. How do you supervise that person,” said Banks.

Banks said he would love to see more defined rules in place to help balance the playing field.

”Just a better system,” said Banks.

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