Former Tennessee Vols assistant coach makes bold claim about how much agents are earning from NIL deals for college football players
Former Tennessee Vols assistant coach Walt Wells, who is currently the head coach at Eastern Kentucky, made a bold claim on Monday during an appearance on 102.5 The Game about much money agents are earning from NIL deals for college football players. Wells, who was an assistant coach for two seasons at Tennessee (including one […]
Former Tennessee Vols assistant coach Walt Wells, who is currently the head coach at Eastern Kentucky, made a bold claim on Monday during an appearance on 102.5 The Game about much money agents are earning from NIL deals for college football players.
Wells, who was an assistant coach for two seasons at Tennessee (including one season, in 2017, as UT's offensive line coach), said on Monday that some agents are earning 15 to 20 percent on deals that are negotiated for college athletes.
"An NFL agent takes three percent," said Wells. "On average, and I'm not saying every agent, but most agents take 15 or 20 percent of these kids' money. That's a lot of money to broker a deal for a guy to leave a school to go to another school [and] that's all you've really done [as an agent]."
Most of the information surrounding NIL deals is nothing more than rumor because very few folks, if any, are willing to go on the record about the details of specific contracts. So while it's likely that Well's claim is true, it's unclear how many agents are actually earning that high of a commission on these deals.
15 to 20 percent, however, is absolutely insane. That means if a kid signs a deal for $1 million, he could be giving an "agent" $200,000 off the top. And then there's taxes that have to be paid on the deal. So all of a sudden a $1 million promise turns into a $400,000 pay day instead. That's still a good chunk of cash, but it's easy to see how more than just the athletes that are playing on Saturdays are benefiting from the current state of college football.
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