Christian Laettner Wants NIL Removed From College Athletics, Is Very Concerned About 'Culture'
We're less than five years into the NIL era with student athletes being able to make money off of their own name, image, and likeness, but Duke legend Christian Laettner has seen enough, he believes NIL should be removed from college athletics.
Laettner joined Mike Greenberg on ESPN radio on Thursday on what was the 32nd anniversary of his all-time-great shot against Kentucky in the Elite Eight of the 1992 NCAA Tournament. After reminiscing on his game-winner against the Wildcats for approximately the 438,000th time in his life, Laettner elected to share his thoughts about the current landscape of college athletics.
(Photo by John Biever /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X42590 )
Instead of giving some generic comments about how ‘something has got to change,’ Laettner went straight for the jugular and said that NIL needs to be removed entirely.
"They've got to take out the NIL, they've got to wipe that out," Laettner explained. "They've got to change the transfer portal. I know everyone’s saying the horse is out of the barn and you can’t take stuff back, but how can you establish any type of culture at a school when you’re getting new kids every year?"
"That would mean every year was like my freshman year at Duke; and you’re so much better your third, your fourth year when you’re under one system, one program, one coach, one specifically defined culture…"I don’t know how the coaches do it in today’s game, and that’s why some of the better ones are starting to quit."
Anyone who possesses an ounce of common sense is willing to admit that NIL money and ‘rules’ regarding the transfer portal have reached a level of absurdity. College athletics turning into the wild, wild west over the last couple of years in particular is also the reason you can't just remove NIL entirely.
As Laettner said, "the horse is out of the barn and you can't take stuff back."
The NCAA missed a vital opportunity when NIL was getting off the ground to self-govern and set boundaries that would have made us reaching the point we're already at far more difficult. Now it's too late, everyone knows it, and the NCAA is now at a point where it's operating in hopes that today won't be the day it gets dragged into a court room.