The Ohio State Buckeyes just won the College Football Playoff national championship, becoming the first champion since the playoff expanded to 12 teams. Now that players are permitted to make money off of their name, image, and likeness, a lot has been made about how much Ohio State players were paid on their national championship roster, and their head coach opened up a little bit about that this week.
Before the start of the season, several reports suggested that Ohio State paid as much as $20 million in NIL money to their players.
During a recent interview on The Dan Patrick Show, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day confirmed that the school does indeed pay players, saying that the Buckeyes do their best to get players “what they deserve and what’s fair.”
“I think the first thing is you have to bring in great people and great families. But you also have to value them and try to do everything you can to get what they deserve and what’s fair,” Day said.
“But there’s also something to be said about being around a program like ours. You think if it’s all equal, we’ll have a chance to get our share of guys. But it is different, there’s no question. I think as coaches we’re all looking for more guidelines on this, everything is so gray right now.”
But even if Ohio State is making sure its players are well compensated, there are still rules in place, and Day wishes that they would be enforced.
“I think one of the big issues that we have across the board in college football is enforcement. You know some of the stories of some of the things that have gone on maybe in the last couple of years, but enforcement is really strained right now. Until we start enforcing some of these rules, like you said, people can just call someone’s agent or someone’s parents and offer them a certain amount of money,” Day said.
If there was anything Day would change about the current college football landscape, it would be that he wants the rules to be better enforced.
“That’s one of the things, to me, that I think we have got to get addressed in college sports and college football. Because now, there’s virtually none, and it’s gotten worse as time has gone on,” Day said.
Clearly, Ohio State is doing well under the current system. We’ll have to see whether or not the team can repeat as national champions next year.
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