Adapt or get left behind.
Adapting is exactly what universities across the country need to do in order to keep up with the demands in the current state of college athletics – specifically when it comes to name, image and likeness.
Cardale Jones, the former national championship-winning quarterback from Ohio State, felt strongly about his alma mater’s inability to adapt to the new way of college football. He believes if their approach doesn’t change soon, Ohio State could fall behind some of the other powerhouse football programs in the nation.
Jones openly complimented Florida, Alabama and Texas for working “hand-in-hand” with their NIL collectives. After putting those universities and collectives on a pedestal, Jones essentially called out Ohio State, saying that the university has done a poor job of supporting NIL.
“[THE Foundation is] completely different; we don’t work for Ohio State,” Jones said on 92.3 The Fan. “Sad to say, but we get very little support from Ohio State, and all we are trying to do is help them continue to win games by getting great recruits, by pretty much trying to solidify coaches’ jobs.”
Jones and Brian Schottenstein run THE Foundation — the Ohio State-focused NIL collective.
Jones and Schottenstein appear to have what it takes to run the collective, but there’s only so much they can do if they aren’t getting any help from the most powerful people at one of the biggest and most powerhouse universities in the entire country.
Over the years, Ohio State has recruited some of the top prospects, but if they don’t open up to working with NIL collectives that support the university, there is no guarantee that the Buckeyes remain as the cream of the crop.
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