One of the biggest storylines in sports right now is the Name, Image and Likeness deals in college athletics.
Players are finally getting paid, but it’s created a little bit of chaos with the amount of transfers — exemplified by quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s highly-publicized dispute with Tennessee over NIL money. He eventually left the Volunteers and transferred to UCLA, where Rams safety Quentin Lake went to college.
So during the Rams’ first organized team activities on Monday, reporters asked Lake what he though out about Iamaleava joining the Bruins. Lake called Iamaleava “the last missing piece” for UCLA, but added that the entire NIL conversation needs to be fixed. While he noted that it’s fine for these players to make money, Lake said that the NCAA should be a salary cap on the process to keep it a bit contained.
“You can’t be mad at it because guys are trying to earn money,” Lake said. “Some guys deserve the money that they’re getting, but I think at that point you might as well just make it the pros. Put a salary cap on it and all that stuff. There are pros and cons to it. I think they kind of need to reel it in just a little bit, but at the end of the day, that’s the atmosphere that guys are living in now and you kind of have to adapt and adjust to be successful.”
This idea would be interesting but comes with a lot of questions that neither Lake nor anyone else in the NFL can actually address. However, the fact that college sports now has money flowing to players from outside forces creates an adverse situation that emulates professional sports. Putting a structure in place to stabilize it makes sense, and at least one NFL player understands that it would likely help.
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