Pitt Basketball Coach Jeff Capel is happy that his players are now to potentially capitalize on their name, image and likeness – and can only imagine who that may have worked for him and his decorated Duke teammates back in the day – but he admits that he has no idea how smoothly this will go until he experiences it.
In fact, when Capel meets with his team late Thursday afternoon, it will be the first time he has actually discussed the NIL initiative with his players.
"For there was no need to talk about something that I didn't understand," Capel said in a lengthy Zoom call with local media. "No one knew what the rules were. Anyone who said that they understood what was going to happen July 1 was lying to you."
"I don't talk about things that I'm not educated on, I try not to," Capel continued. "I want to speak with my team in an educated manner.
I have a little bit better understanding (but) I still don't completely understand it all yet. I think it's really, really important to become educated on what exactly it means."
I think that's on us as a program, as an athletic department and people that we have here at Pitt that we put together a (program) to help educate these guys on the possibilities that could come about."
Which is exactly what Director of Athletics Heather Lyke and her staff are doing through Pitt's "Forged Here" initiative.
"I think a lot of young people think it's totally free will and it's not," Capel cautioned. "There are laws that are intact in some states. Our state has a state law. Some states don't (and) then it becomes what each university wants to do."
That is just one reason that some are fearful that NIL will create an even more uneven playing field than already exists, particularly within Power Five Football and also in Division One Basketball.
But Capel pointed out here is one aspect of this that will affect every athlete that is able to cash in. They'll have to deal with the Tax Man.
"These young people – at least my guys I don't think have ever paid taxes - and don't understand necessarily what that means," Capel said. "If they are fortunate enough to get an opportunity, which I hope they are, to profit there are tax implications. That's not an NCAA violation; that's real stuff. That's what I mean about being educated, about what exactly is there and how to manage it all."
In one form or another, Capel's answers were "I don't know" as he was asked what he expects, what are the dangers, might this pit teammates against one another and other hypotheticals but he said one thing still holds true. In order to establish a brand, players must produce.
"It is different now because of social media; you can have a brand with that," Capel began, "but one of the things I say to the guys is 'look, your brand is still made between the lines, you've got to be good, so stay in the gym and keep working. Don't let the pursuit of just money and capitalizing on that get in the way of education and becoming really good at what you do.'"
