Yahoo Sports Texas coach Tom Herman says players should be able to be compensated
Count Texas head coach Tom Herman among the coaches who believe their players aren’t getting their fair share.
During the Big 12 media days in Arlington, Texas, Herman expressed support for players financially benefiting from a program’ success.
Tom Herman on players likeness/image compensation: “There’s a strong case for it. This big-time college football model would be shaken to its core. I’m a bit torn but organizations are making 100s of millions of dollars off them, so there ought to be a way these guys can benefit"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 16, 2019
Herman, who makes $5.5 million per year according to USA Today’s coaching salary database, cited how hard the players work as a reason for their entitlement to compensation.
Herman sounds open to players getting paid for NIL: “These players, they literally bleed, they literally sweat, they literally cry for this university. People and entities and organizations are making hundreds of millions of dollars off of them.”
— Brian Davis (@BDavisAAS) July 16, 2019
If there’s a coach that understands how a program can make hundreds of millions of dollars off of players’ efforts, it’s probably the football coach of the University of Texas-Austin. The Longhorns’ athletic department brought in $214 million in total revenue last year according to USA Today, the most of any school in the country.
The NCAA announced in May that is was forming a committee to examine issues “related to student-athlete name, image and likeness,” which could be a first step toward what Herman seems to be hoping for.
Of course, the NCAA is also committed to potentially doing so only on its own terms, as it reportedly threatened to ban the entire state of California from championships if a bill allowing players to be paid for use of their name, image and likeness was passed. California is still proceeding with the bill.
Herman’s opinion runs counter to many of his peers, including Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney who famously said he might leave college athletics if they attempted to “professionalize” it.
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