The world of NIL in college sports has taken over in the last few years, with some players making more money by the age of 20 than some people will make in their entire lives. Every college handles its NIL money differently, but with revenue sharing now in place, the world of college sports is starting to look a lot like the world of professional sports.
For Louisville NIL official Dan Furman, he sees that college sports are moving more to a professional model with the way NIL and revenue sharing look. Furman started a Louisville almost eight years ago and has served as the Associate Director of Development for Major Gifts before he joined 502Circle, the NIL collective for the Cardinals.
Now with 502Circle, Furman says he is overseeing monthly payrolls for student-athletes, the chaos of the transfer portal, and even sees player negotiations when it comes to NIL deals.
Furman joined Adam Breneman on his Next Up show on Front Office Sports and shared what the world of NIL is doing to college sports and the chaos it is creating. With 502Circle, Furman is making sure that athletes are getting paid what they should be based on their NIL deals. Now, with the House vs. NCAA settlement passed, the schools themselves are making those payments, and 502Circle is assisting the schools in those endeavors.
There is a lot of chaos in college sports when it comes to NIL and the rest of the college sports system. Furman even admitted to that in saying that players now making up to seven figures in one year of college alone is what is creating it, along with the transfer portal.
The chaos of the transfer portal is what is driving frustration in college sports
When asked about what his craziest transfer portal story was, Furman wished he could share just one, but based on the number of insane things he has seen with the portal, he couldn't name only one.
"Man, I wish I could give you one story, but there's so many that happen that create this chaotic atmosphere," Furman said.
A big part of this is the fact that there is not just one transfer portal window, but two. Not only do these guys have to deal with this in December, but just a few short months later, they then have to deal with it in the spring as well.
Some of the chaos includes not even knowing who is representing a player because four different agents could be calling about one guy. However, the toughest part is that the NIL heads can't even speak to players until they officially hit the portal. At this point, the higher-ups have to follow more rules than the players do at times.
It seems like more parameters need to be put on NIL and the transfer portal in order to rein in the chaos of this college football system.