It’s no secret that UK is fighting an uphill battle with the rest of the SEC when it comes to their NIL budget. Stoops has complained about it repeatedly. But one overlooked aspect of that challenge this year hasn’t been the size of the overall NIL budget, but instead the misallocation of resources to bring in comparatively expensive players that haven’t contributed much to winning.
UK likely spent a significant portion of their available NIL dollars on offseason additions like Chip Trayanum, Brock Vandagriff, and Gerald Mincey. Nothing against these players personally, but they have been a significant NIL investment for limited to no on-field benefit. Not to mention guys like Barion Brown, who take up a large NIL sum to hold onto each season but are inconsistent on-field contributors at best.
For UK to truly be competitive in this new SEC, the coaching staff (or a potential future football general manager position) have to be more efficient with their personnel scouting going forward to maximize value when comparing player production to NIL cost. UK just straight up doesn't have the available NIL budget to have multiple high dollar underperforming players each year.
