Pittsburgh Panthers’ Pat Narduzzi joins choir of college football coaches in hopes of NIL guardrail

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh football coach Pat Narduzzi believes name, image and likeness rules were “likely” violated over the spring, not-so-subtly suggesting those violations led to the star receiver Jordan Addison’s decision to transfer to USC.

Without specifically naming the Trojans and Addison, Narduzzi said on Monday he didn’t think “there is any doubt” that his players were “tempted”. [NIL inducements] one way or another.”

Addison, who won the Biletnikoff Award last December given annually to the nation’s top receiver, entered the transfer portal just before the May 1 deadline and was officially transferred to USC later in the month.

Narduzzi said he would like to see some sort of guardrail on the NIL rules and called the current setup essentially a pathway for hard-to-regulate behind-the-scenes deals for schools.

“I want our children to earn as much money as they can, but I want them to work for it and do it the right way and not just on the black market,” he said. declared.

Narduzzi, entering his eighth season at Pitt and led the Panthers to their first ACC championship last fall, suggested the NCAA “remove the boosters from the game.”

When it was pointed out that Pitt’s head coaching job was officially named “Chris Bickell ’97 Head Football Coach” after Bickell – a Panther alum – donated $20 million to the program for a series of capital improvements last fall, Narduzzi made it clear that he would like to see a ban on the type of third-party “collectives” that have sprung up in recent years as NIL rules have been relaxed.

“What you’ll see all over the country now is a booster, OK, saying, ‘Do I give my money to the athletic department or do I give it to the collective? “, He said. “I’m saying we should give our money to the athletic department and kind of eliminate that.”

Narduzzi added that he would like to see some control over what boosters can do.

“It has to be pretty equal across the country,” he said. “[There] There can’t be wide gaps or we’re going to ruin college football.”

The Panthers open the season Sept. 1 against West Virginia in the “Backyard Brawl” renewal. The series, which dates back to 1895, has not been played since 2011 after the long-time rivals left the Grand Est.