What Cooper Manning's Comments on NIL Say About Oregon Ducks, Spring Game

With his son, Arch Manning, primed to take over the starting quarterback position for the Texas Longhorns, Cooper Manning spoke openly at the Tulane Book Fest about the current state of NIL and how college coaches, like the Oregon Ducks leader Dan Lanning, are adapting.

Oct 30, 2021; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; Recruit Arch Manning, right, and his father Cooper Manning before the game between Clemson and Florida State at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Ruinard-Imagn Images | Ken Ruinard-Imagn Images

The Oregon Ducks are arguably at the forefront of the name, image, and likeness (NIL) game in the modern college football era. Oregon's NIL collective "Division Street" has produced limited edition gear to support student athletes while Nike founder Phil Knight has funded multiple facilities projects for the programs over the years. The Ducks consistently land highly sought-after targets in the NCAA Transfer Portal, showing that Oregon has become a program using this new frontier to their advantage.

And with the wild west of NIL production and the transfer portal, the father of soon-to-be Texas Longhorns' starting quarterback Arch Manning, Cooper Manning, is giving his thoughts on the state of college athletics.

The dad and member of the iconic football family shared his perspective during the Tulane Book Fest while promoting his father's biography, "Archie Manning: A New Orleans Saints Legacy On and Off the Field."

Jan 1, 2020; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Cooper Manning, left, with his father Archie Manning before the Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-Imagn Images | Chuck Cook-Imagn Images

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“I think it [the transfer portal] makes the job of a college coach, whether it be football, basketball, or anything, the most difficult job in sports. They’re eliminating the idea of a spring game because they don't want someone to get a sense that a player might be third string instead of second string. If they're third string, everybody else in the conference is going to come and say, 'Hey, I heard you're running third team. If you came over here, you'd be fighting for a spot, and we'll pay you a hundred grand to come over, and they leave,'” Manning said.

For the Ducks, the topic of eliminating a spring game is off the table for Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who emphasized that as long as he's with the Ducks, he'll continue with the showcase, even with the potential threat of player poaching.

"I think it's the best way for us to get better. We're absolutely going to have a spring game and play football in the spring game," Lanning said. "We just mentioned new faces, I think that's a great opportunity. Autzen is one of those places where we have a spring game and it's a gameday environment. So creating that environment for those players and the competition that exists in that and our fans and what they bring to that. I think it's a huge piece."

Oregon football players gather for a group photo after the Oregon Spring Game at Autzen Stadium Saturday, April 27, 2024. | Chris Pietsch/The Register Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

Manning also highlighted the struggle for coaches to recruit long-term players in an age of competing NIL deals and transfer portal temptations. Oregon has recently faced some barbs regarding their ability to develop high school talent long-term sans the portal.

“I think it makes it a big mess. I think these coaches are figuring out quickly that, if you can get people who want to be there, as opposed to if this person's offering me $50,000 more or a hundred thousand or whatever, the numbers are crazy. Is that really what you want?" Manning said.

Manning's perspective is similar to that of Lanning's, who opened up to football radio analyst George Wrighster on "The Unafraid Show" about bringing more talent attached to the program, and not the paycheck with developing more talent with years built into the program.

Oregon offensive lineman Marcus Harper II, left, talks to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning during the Oregon football’s Pro Day Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at the Moshofsky Center in Eugene, Ore. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"We've been able to track some unbelievable high school players but we've also been able to attract great portal players that make our team better. So to me, it's a balance. But the bigger portion of our team, and I think if you look over the years, it's gotten smaller and smaller for us in the portal and it's been about the same in high school or grown," Lanning told Wrighster.