Oklahoma's Brent Venables Welcomes NIL Structure From the NCAA

DUNCAN — Less a year after after the NCAA permitted athletes to profit off their Name, Image and Likeness, voices around college football have called for change.

As the calendar turned to July last year, the NCAA turned NIL rules over to individual states, creating an uneven playing field across the country as rules are different from state to state.

Last Monday, the NCAA announced more guidance to schools across the country, emphasizing that boosters cannot assist universities in recruiting athletes to campus.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said he welcomed the structure from the NCAA, though the new guidance handed down didn’t strike him as groundbreaking.

“Yeah, I mean the booster rule has always been there,” Venables said during a media availability ahead of his OU Coaches Caravan stop in Duncan on Tuesday. “I think (the NCAA) just came in an re-emphasized it.”

Still, Venables said there are places around the country where the guidance likely isn’t being followed.

“Is it going on? Yeah, it’s going on,” he said. “So I mean, I think we all need the guidelines. There needs to be some structure to what you’re doing.”

Welcoming structure to the NIL conversation doesn’t mean Venables is opposed to NIL by any means.

In fact, he’s maintained since he was hired at Oklahoma that NIL is great for players.

“I grew up. I went to college. I walked on to earn a scholarship, I still needed money,” Venables said. “I needed money and paid back student loans until I was 38-years-old because I took out all the money. I couldn’t get any money from home and eventually I was able to buy a car. I saved up enough and I could buy a car and I needed gas and I needed insurance and I needed to buy clothes and just entertainment, you need some money.

“I think it’s cool that we have finally wised up and created a call space for that.”

Venables is proud that Oklahoma has been able to help provide a megaphone to the platforms of the players in Norman, but he said he still hopes that student-athletes can stay locked in on the larger goals he has set for his program.

“We have a co-branding at the university and that’s great,” Venables said. “Sell your jerseys and make some money. Go sign some autographs and make some money… I think that’s a great exchange.

“But don’t lose focus on the real return on investment.”

In the process, Venables said it’s important to him that his program provides the necessary resources to set his players up for lifelong success.

“We’re going to work hard to educate our guys financially,” he said. “The financial literacy piece is incredibly important. Whether that’s taxes or an LLC, certainly how to invest money. How to open a bank account. How to be smart and mindful.

“… So we’re trying to do what we can to help our guys be an industry leader in that space.”

On top of all of the opportunities through NIL, Venables said he’s going to continue to stress the importance of getting a degree while his players are at Oklahoma so they can continue to open doors for themselves in life after football.

“I want to empower our guys through education,” he said. “Through opportunity created through getting their degree.

“It’s a huge achievement and I just feel like it’s not emphasized enough.”

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