Will UCLA Have to Make Tough Decisions Due to NIL?

UCLA has a proud athletic department and sports program that features competitions ranging from typical collegiate sports to Olympic sports and other events. As a result, the UCLA athletic department is in massive debt, but at this point, it's nothing overtly concerning due to their nine-figure deal with the Big Ten and financial reservoirs provided by the university itself.

However, Kirby Smart shared a warning that NIL may put various non-football sports programs in jeopardy during a recent appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.

“Very little has happened,” Smart said. “It just shows you how hard it is to make changes and correct things, probably when they’re needed, because … people have talked about Congress. That’s not easy. Not a lot gets done quickly there and where we are right now. Like, I think every coach agrees we’re in a good place with being able to compensate players. Call it pay for play, call it NIL, I don’t care what you call it. 

“We’re all in a good place for that. We just want it to be in a way that’s sustainable. I just want to be able to have a freshman come in and not make more than a senior, and I’d like for other sports to be able to still survive. We’re on the brink of probably one to two years away from a lot of schools cutting sports. What’s the pushback going to be then when you start cutting non-revenue sports? I don’t want that to happen.”