Iowa State Cyclones Coach Offers Compelling Take on NIL Spending

The college football landscape was forever altered once NIL burst onto the scene, and Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell is fully aware of that.

However, there remain many questions about NIL funding and spending, and while the recent House Settlement cleared some things up in an attempt to level the playing field, many of the aspects are still a bit cloudy moving forward.

Campbell was asked about the direction of the sport at Big 12 media day this week, and he provided an honest answer on how he feels the whole NIL process is unfolding.

"I think it's too early to tell," Campbell said, via Eugene Rapay of The Des Moines Register. "Is this really the number? Are there ways around the number? ... I think we live in a world in college football that looks like Major League Baseball in a lot of ways. ... I hope that we're there, but I don't think we have any clarity."

Campbell is certainly not alone in that regard. NIL has been a hot topic of discussion for coaches across the country for quite some time now, and it will always be something that even the very best programs will have to strategically traverse in the years to come.

That being said, Campbell seems satisfied with the outcome for Iowa State.

“If you look at the top 20 guys in our program — probably could have made a heck of a lot more money at a lot of other places, and we were able to keep our kids home," Campbell said. "That was huge and my hope is we can continue to build forward.”

The Cyclones won 11 games last year, which was a school record. They also defeated the Miami Hurricanes in the Pop Tarts Bowl.

Iowa State's football program has been gradually growing thanks to Campbell. We'll see if the Cyclones are ultimately able to turn into a national power.

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