Eli Drinkwitz gave a stern warning to all of college football on Wednesday by saying things are going down a dark path. The Missouri head coach offered up his thoughts on NIL with On3, and painted a bleak outlook if things keep trending in this direction.
"If you're going to have teams that have $45M rosters competing against teams that have $15M and $20M rosters, you're going to run the risk of turning into Major League Baseball, where you have the LA Dodgers and the Florida Marlins," said Drinkwitz. "And that's a professional league that's not growing, and that is struggling in their TV deals."
The Mizzou head coach has often talked about poor current state of college football, and piled on again while also finding time to hit the Marlins with some strays.
Eli Drinkwitz speaks out on the need for salary caps in the NIL era
It's not the first time Drinkwitz has criticized the current college football system, and probably won't be the last. He's often be on the front lines for trying to make things regulated and, more importantly, sustainable.
While NIL has become a polarizing force in college football, a lack of parity is nothing new. Although NIL could certainly use some more rules and regulations, the idea that it would create some sort of level playing field is probably far fetched. Maybe that's not Drink's full point, but a salary cap would definitely help to keep things from getting too out of control.
A salary cap could fix some issues, but the problem where every player in the country becomes a free agent after every season is still an issue that also needs some fixing. The rules about tampering are non-existent, and just about every major program has tried to sue a former player or another school at this point.
Ultimately, Drinkwitz is probably right, but the NCAA needs to take things a step even further, or risk becoming an even bigger clown show.