Pitt Football
‘It Gets Harder by the Day’: Pat Narduzzi Talks NIL and Transfer Portal
Pat Narduzzi is prepared for it every time he walks into a meeting. When he meets with the coaching staff, with current players, with recruits, with whoever, it’s hard to avoid NIL these days.
He knows it’s coming up, but thankfully, it doesn’t come up all the time. And if it’s the first thing that comes out of a potential recruit’s mouth, it makes him wonder. What does that recruit really care about?
When it comes to the 19 recruits in the class of 2024, NIL didn’t come up for at least half of the signees — if not more. But Narduzzi himself tries to have as few conversations about NIL as possible.
“You know what? The great thing is, I have no discussion,” Narduzzi said Wednesday on the South Side. “I have zero discussion on NIL because I let other people take care of that. I’m a football coach, like coach (Mike) Tomlin and coach (Bill) Belichick, I wanna coach football. I’m not talking contracts, and our kids know that, our recruits know that, our signees know that and that’s the way it is.”
But there’s no doubt that NIL is a major factor when it comes to the current landscape of college football. It may not have been Narduzzi, but Alliance 412 helped facilitate the returns of key offensive and defensive players across the roster.
A couple of the portal exits came about as greater NIL opportunities. I mean, the very first instance of a star player leaving for a bigger NIL opportunity was Jordan Addison.
Narduzzi is an old-school kind of coach, one who still values the interpersonal aspect of coaching, going as far as to take issue with how Colorado head coach Deion Sanders used the portal to completely overhaul the Buffaloes’ roster, and he wants to bring in football players who love the game. If NIL is the topic of conversation, Narduzzi will look in a different direction.
“Because you know what? We gotta deal with it now and we’ve maybe made that mistake in the past,” Narduzzi said. “If you’re talking about it so much now, guess what? In a year, we’re gonna be talking about it. And then after spring ball, ‘I want to talk about it again,’ I don’t really want to talk about it.
“We want guys that want to play the game of football, learn, develop and make generational wealth in three or four years when they end up in the NFL like Brian O’Neill and Avontae Maddox and Damar Hamlin and Dane Jackson and Aaron Donald, all those guys.”
But even if Narduzzi prefers that old-school approach, playing for the love of the game and a chance at the next level, it’s not that simple anymore. It’s essential to have an active, influential NIL collective, as evidenced by the way Pitt has promoted Alliance 412, and it’s essential to use the transfer portal, too.
Pitt has used the portal often this offseason, adding what appears to be several starters offensively and defensively. And there will be more additions this offseason.
The transfer portal allows players to transfer immediately to a new team, and a new NCAA memo has made it so that second-time transfers this fall and winter will be able to transfer immediately without a waiver. And Narduzzi isn’t a fan of that becoming the norm around the college football landscape.
“I think there’s no group in this country that’s more disappointed than us last week hearing about a possible transfer as many times as you want, like, what are we talking about?” Narduzzi said.
“Is anybody going to get a degree anymore? And it’s discouraging to think that in the game of college football, and student-athletes, I will still call them student-athletes until I die, is that we’re not talking about degrees. And if you transfer every year, you’re never going to get your degree.”
Narduzzi said that the No. 1 reason he got into coaching was to make sure that kids get their degrees. Football is the avenue to pay for the degree (and the end game for some of his players), the fun part of the job, but it’s just football. And it’s changing.
“It gets harder by the day,” Narduzzi said. “I can tell you that. The rules, you know, everything that’s going on out there, and I don’t want to get into the weeds about all this stuff, but it gets harder every day, it’s not easier.”
There likely wasn’t a coach, Narduzzi included, that wasn’t stressed with the increase of NIL opportunities and prominence of the transfer portal, but Narduzzi and Pitt have handled the early days well.
Narduzzi may not like how the sport of college football is changing, he may not want to get more and more involved with NIL, but he’s adapted — or at the very least, he’s delegated important responsibilities and resources to his staff.
College athletes were were used, abused and excused for far too long. While everyone else got rich off their hard work, they were treated like slaves. I for one am glad the Federal government stepped in to stop this abuse. A fellow engineering major in Swanson developed a computer program which made him a young millionaire. The college and university didn’t benefit nor should they. Relevant comparison.
And don’t bring up that tired and worn out argument “they got a college degree”. Too many schools funneled the players into physical ed and other useless degrees.
Yea all that free education, room and board, free clothes/gear/swag, and $tipends were such abuse
Let’s quit pretending they are college students! It’s college for god’s sake!!! Most couldn’t EVER get into the main campus of a D1 school, let alone pass and get a degree. Let’s call it for what it is, a joke. Yes, some were taken advantage of, but a lot never see the field and get a free education, per diem, room/board, books, etc. And BTW ask Salk’s family how much they received from the polio vaccine (developed at Pitt). Football should have a farm team, like baseball. Let the real student athletes go to college and the other non academics… Read more »
Don’t act like they didn’t get their ‘bag’ before, lol. The corruption is now out in the open and they can go to the highest bidder while still trying to continue this illusion of amateurism. I actually like it now; you can spot the frauds more easily, ie Addison or Caleb Williams.
Blah blah blah. The Band boy pontificates
The band boy, I’m older than your father and knew JoePa was a fraud a half century ago. Accepted to your Alma mater and ask to apply to your business school by the Dean. JoePa nauseated me. Hail to Pitt.
Always thought these kids entered college voluntarily in order to play football at the collegiate level…never knew they were being forced into hard labor like slaves.
Seriously though, although I agree that the players should be compensated, the current NIL setup is a total cluster that needs to be fixed.
Too many lawyers, not going to change. The kids get paid.
Bullshitt the good players have always been paid
The players have always gotten paid, whether under the table in the form of cash, cars, clothes, tats… it’s always been there. I have a good friend that played at Rice (a fantastic institution of higher learning) in the old SWC in the late 70’s, and depending on how he played, would find anywhere between $400 and $2500 in his shoes after every game. The tired old song of “treated like slaves…” is an idiotic argument. They are going to COLLEGE. If you went to USC and had to foot the bill yourself for 5 years (the length af a… Read more »
Oh please, spare me the Athletes are slaves nonsense: You want to get a good chuckle google “South Park – College Athletes Slaves” and that will give you a good chuckle. The NCAA made TWO radical changes relatively close together with the transfer portal ’18 in allowing players to change schools without sitting out for the year then NIL agreements “21 which ultimately open the flood gates. You also have guys that are in college for like 6 years maybe even 7 years which is ridiculous(SIU-Carbondale #93). I remember watching MTV Cribs back in the 2000s when Florida State was… Read more »