Well, if I'm gonna bring the On3 story here about the NIL collectives, let's go ahead and follow up with what Brent Venables said about it last week. There are still parts from last week that I plan to write stories about, but not this NIL topic.
So word-for-word one last time, here ya go.
Has your stance on NIL changed after the transfer portal and 2022 recruiting chaos of the last month?
My original insight is ... I mean, I feel like it's been the same. I think that we want to be in a aggressive position. You can't just sit on your hands. I think the NIL is a lot of different things. It's not just one thing. I think there's an education piece that we've got to be really good at. We've got to be educated at all levels, whether that's myself, it's our staff, it's their administration, your compliance, understand what we can and can't do. And then certainly setting yourself up to be in an aggressive position that align with your values of your program. And there's opportunity for young people to build their brand. I think that we have as good a brand as there is in college football. We have a platform that's second to none in regards to all the different social media outlets that are out there. I think we have the second most followers in all of college football.
So, we need to take advantage of that. You know, we have to help educate them on how to build their brand the right way, standing for the right things, helping them sort through what are the things that are important to them that they want to ... So, Nick Evers, for example, was just awesome. As we know, he did one of his first NIL deal was ... And he associated himself with the charity. And I just thought that was, man, he gets it. You know? That's utilizing your platform and the brand the right way and having something that people can endear themselves to. So, I think part of our responsibility is to do exactly that, is to educate, have some symposiums on helping them do so. We'll have an internal and external component that are going to help our players. Hopefully we have something that's equitable for all of our athletes at the University of Oklahoma. I believe in cohesion and stability from a university standpoint, and everybody being able to benefit if there's a space there.
I recognize that Oklahoma football brings in a lot of revenue, but at the same time, the journey for our student athletes are no different than the journey for other student athletes that are out there. It's tough. It's demanding. It's challenging, whether it's the physical work that you have to put in and your training, or balancing academics and competition, being away from home. All of those things are very real for all the athletes on the campus. So if there's an opportunity for us to make things equitable for everybody, man, that's a great thing. To make some short-term cash and take advantage of the name, image and likeness, if that's the marks through the university, that's fantastic. I mean, why would that be a bad thing? There's many guys that come and they don't have a way to get from A to B to C, you know? They don't have a car.
You know, I got a loan. I walked on, I got a loan. Even once I earned my scholarship, I was a Pell Grant recipient, so I was fully maxed out and I took advantage of every loan there was, because my family couldn't give me any money. So, I had to pay insurance. I had to buy a car. I wanted to have like a normal life as a young person trying to grow up. I wanted to go on a date, wanted to buy some clothes, you know? So I took out the loan thinking, "Man, I'm going to get me a good job somewhere down the road and I can pay it back." And I did that till I was 37, 38 years old paying back student loans. So, I get it. Like, totally get it that ... And we've made things better. You know, the cost of attendance. There's a little more money in their pockets, and we've finally smartened up with nutrition and made no limits on nutrition. And so that's a good thing. And you know, we're going to put every player on our team in a brand new suit every year. We're going to bring a tailor in and measure them up. Man, they deserve that when we make them put a coat and tie on and represent this university and themselves the right way, and we're going to pay for it.
We're going to give them the best resources in the classroom and the things to go along with that, whether that's the computers or iPads and all those types of things. They deserve the best resources, the best nutrition, best facilities, the best sports science, because we're expecting them to meet our expectations. And I know, and everybody here on this call knows what the expectations are at the University of Oklahoma. I know what those look like very clearly. And so our commitment to them needs to exceed those expectations, period. Our players deserve the absolute best, and my assumption is they show up here and they, and they're committed to being excellent as well, because we deserve their best too. And that's where best as the standard comes from; being completely, totally committed on and off the field to doing their best in everything. Not to be the best, but to do their best, and not to get that mixed up. Okay?
We're never going to be about being the best. I think being the best is a byproduct of getting everybody involved doing their best. And it's not just the players, not just the coaches. It's everybody. Okay? And that's my job is to make sure that we have that level of commitment from everybody, being very clear on those standards and making sure that everybody shows up with the right mindset to doing their best. But we've got to give them the best resources to do it. There's an NIL space that they can maximize an opportunity to make some short-term money. We're going to help them, educate them. We're going to promote that and nurture that and educate them. But at the same time, the real return on investment is going to be on their development, their education, their degree, hopefully multiple degrees, life skills development, career development opportunities, service trips abroad opportunities, the mentorship. Again, the paid micro internships, going across the country, trying to give them a real worldly type of experience. And then again, that holistic development piece. Football is a very important part of that. A very important piece of that. We want to try to help facilitate their dreams to go play at the very highest level and play the game as long as you can. So, there's a lot of work that goes into that.
And so you want to make sure that as the adults, as the parents, we want to do a great job of keeping our players focused on what's most important. And again, supporting them in their opportunities to make some money, creating them some opportunity to make some money as well, and we're as aggressive and as competitive as anybody in the country. Again, and it needs to align with our values of our program too. And I think that's what allows us to have sustainability, longevity and something that just makes sense for the long term. You know, again, these dropping bags of money out of the sky, people on whether or not that's happening or not. That's not ... I don't think ... I wouldn't do that with my own kids. It's a train wreck waiting to happen. Just going to give them just money. "Hey, just good luck," and just let them have at it. That's not how ... That's why if you have ... My brother passed away at a young age and he left money for my boys. Well, guess what? I was a steward of that money. Okay? I was the steward to that money until they're quote unquote of age, because you know why? Because I have judgment. And that's why laws are set up in such a way. So anyway, that's neither here nor there, but we're going to be in a good competitive-
That's neither here nor there, but we're going to be in a good, competitive, aggressive place. We want our guys to focus on again, ROI, real return on investment, getting your degree. Your degree is going to create more opportunities than anything that football will provide. There's 2% or less of all division one football players have a chance to make an opening day roster. That's 98% of your locker room is not going to make an opening day roster.
Then we need to, again, still promote and nurture and facilitate their dreams to become professional football players, to be the best of the best in college. That's a very real thing. But we also got to equip them for the what's next. The first day they step on campus is when that process takes place. We don't wait until the end. We don't wait until they go fail in their journey trying to make an NFL roster and then be like, okay, then we're reactory. We got to be very proactive in all of it, in encompassing their manhood, just their growth and development as people, as husbands, as fathers, again, as businessmen. Our job is to equip them in every way. Education's part of that. The degree is a huge part of it. But the football piece and the development is also another real part of it.
That's the way I've always thought about it. Haven't changed at all. Just maybe being able to be able to more adequately describe what our game plan is without just going to all the intimate detail. That's kind of what it is.
So word-for-word one last time, here ya go.
Has your stance on NIL changed after the transfer portal and 2022 recruiting chaos of the last month?
My original insight is ... I mean, I feel like it's been the same. I think that we want to be in a aggressive position. You can't just sit on your hands. I think the NIL is a lot of different things. It's not just one thing. I think there's an education piece that we've got to be really good at. We've got to be educated at all levels, whether that's myself, it's our staff, it's their administration, your compliance, understand what we can and can't do. And then certainly setting yourself up to be in an aggressive position that align with your values of your program. And there's opportunity for young people to build their brand. I think that we have as good a brand as there is in college football. We have a platform that's second to none in regards to all the different social media outlets that are out there. I think we have the second most followers in all of college football.
So, we need to take advantage of that. You know, we have to help educate them on how to build their brand the right way, standing for the right things, helping them sort through what are the things that are important to them that they want to ... So, Nick Evers, for example, was just awesome. As we know, he did one of his first NIL deal was ... And he associated himself with the charity. And I just thought that was, man, he gets it. You know? That's utilizing your platform and the brand the right way and having something that people can endear themselves to. So, I think part of our responsibility is to do exactly that, is to educate, have some symposiums on helping them do so. We'll have an internal and external component that are going to help our players. Hopefully we have something that's equitable for all of our athletes at the University of Oklahoma. I believe in cohesion and stability from a university standpoint, and everybody being able to benefit if there's a space there.
I recognize that Oklahoma football brings in a lot of revenue, but at the same time, the journey for our student athletes are no different than the journey for other student athletes that are out there. It's tough. It's demanding. It's challenging, whether it's the physical work that you have to put in and your training, or balancing academics and competition, being away from home. All of those things are very real for all the athletes on the campus. So if there's an opportunity for us to make things equitable for everybody, man, that's a great thing. To make some short-term cash and take advantage of the name, image and likeness, if that's the marks through the university, that's fantastic. I mean, why would that be a bad thing? There's many guys that come and they don't have a way to get from A to B to C, you know? They don't have a car.
You know, I got a loan. I walked on, I got a loan. Even once I earned my scholarship, I was a Pell Grant recipient, so I was fully maxed out and I took advantage of every loan there was, because my family couldn't give me any money. So, I had to pay insurance. I had to buy a car. I wanted to have like a normal life as a young person trying to grow up. I wanted to go on a date, wanted to buy some clothes, you know? So I took out the loan thinking, "Man, I'm going to get me a good job somewhere down the road and I can pay it back." And I did that till I was 37, 38 years old paying back student loans. So, I get it. Like, totally get it that ... And we've made things better. You know, the cost of attendance. There's a little more money in their pockets, and we've finally smartened up with nutrition and made no limits on nutrition. And so that's a good thing. And you know, we're going to put every player on our team in a brand new suit every year. We're going to bring a tailor in and measure them up. Man, they deserve that when we make them put a coat and tie on and represent this university and themselves the right way, and we're going to pay for it.
We're going to give them the best resources in the classroom and the things to go along with that, whether that's the computers or iPads and all those types of things. They deserve the best resources, the best nutrition, best facilities, the best sports science, because we're expecting them to meet our expectations. And I know, and everybody here on this call knows what the expectations are at the University of Oklahoma. I know what those look like very clearly. And so our commitment to them needs to exceed those expectations, period. Our players deserve the absolute best, and my assumption is they show up here and they, and they're committed to being excellent as well, because we deserve their best too. And that's where best as the standard comes from; being completely, totally committed on and off the field to doing their best in everything. Not to be the best, but to do their best, and not to get that mixed up. Okay?
We're never going to be about being the best. I think being the best is a byproduct of getting everybody involved doing their best. And it's not just the players, not just the coaches. It's everybody. Okay? And that's my job is to make sure that we have that level of commitment from everybody, being very clear on those standards and making sure that everybody shows up with the right mindset to doing their best. But we've got to give them the best resources to do it. There's an NIL space that they can maximize an opportunity to make some short-term money. We're going to help them, educate them. We're going to promote that and nurture that and educate them. But at the same time, the real return on investment is going to be on their development, their education, their degree, hopefully multiple degrees, life skills development, career development opportunities, service trips abroad opportunities, the mentorship. Again, the paid micro internships, going across the country, trying to give them a real worldly type of experience. And then again, that holistic development piece. Football is a very important part of that. A very important piece of that. We want to try to help facilitate their dreams to go play at the very highest level and play the game as long as you can. So, there's a lot of work that goes into that.
And so you want to make sure that as the adults, as the parents, we want to do a great job of keeping our players focused on what's most important. And again, supporting them in their opportunities to make some money, creating them some opportunity to make some money as well, and we're as aggressive and as competitive as anybody in the country. Again, and it needs to align with our values of our program too. And I think that's what allows us to have sustainability, longevity and something that just makes sense for the long term. You know, again, these dropping bags of money out of the sky, people on whether or not that's happening or not. That's not ... I don't think ... I wouldn't do that with my own kids. It's a train wreck waiting to happen. Just going to give them just money. "Hey, just good luck," and just let them have at it. That's not how ... That's why if you have ... My brother passed away at a young age and he left money for my boys. Well, guess what? I was a steward of that money. Okay? I was the steward to that money until they're quote unquote of age, because you know why? Because I have judgment. And that's why laws are set up in such a way. So anyway, that's neither here nor there, but we're going to be in a good competitive-
That's neither here nor there, but we're going to be in a good, competitive, aggressive place. We want our guys to focus on again, ROI, real return on investment, getting your degree. Your degree is going to create more opportunities than anything that football will provide. There's 2% or less of all division one football players have a chance to make an opening day roster. That's 98% of your locker room is not going to make an opening day roster.
Then we need to, again, still promote and nurture and facilitate their dreams to become professional football players, to be the best of the best in college. That's a very real thing. But we also got to equip them for the what's next. The first day they step on campus is when that process takes place. We don't wait until the end. We don't wait until they go fail in their journey trying to make an NFL roster and then be like, okay, then we're reactory. We got to be very proactive in all of it, in encompassing their manhood, just their growth and development as people, as husbands, as fathers, again, as businessmen. Our job is to equip them in every way. Education's part of that. The degree is a huge part of it. But the football piece and the development is also another real part of it.
That's the way I've always thought about it. Haven't changed at all. Just maybe being able to be able to more adequately describe what our game plan is without just going to all the intimate detail. That's kind of what it is.
