Pat Narduzzi keeps pointing to NIL as college football's boogeyman, even when there's no sign it's true

College football — or at least its reputation — is under assault right now. The main culprit, however, is not name, image and likeness deals, the transfer portal or supposed tampering of players on other rosters.

The biggest damage is being done by the sport’s coaches who, like a pack of rumor-mongering junior high kids, spread wild stories about its demise, most of which prove overinflated, if not patently false.

If it's not the fake news that’s hurting college football, it’s the fake outrage inspired by it.

The latest came last week when Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi went on Pittsburgh’s 93.7 The Fan and lamented the changing times, such as players sitting out bowl games to focus on their professional futures.

(No mention was made of the long-standing tradition of coaches bailing on bowl teams to take new jobs or some bowl directors making nearly $1 million a year to stage a single game or anything else like that, of course.)

Narduzzi then went on to discuss North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, who decided to remain in Chapel Hill rather than enter the transfer portal and explore interest from other schools.

Previously, Carolina head coach Mack Brown said schools he refused to name had offered Maye “a whole lot of money” to transfer. Later, he acknowledged the “tampering” was done via agents and not any actual coaches and, as such, there was no way to prove or know the actual details.

Soon, social media was full of speculation of a $4 million offer, then a $5 million offer. Other coaches privately mocked such numbers as wildly out of line with market rates. Major athletic directors have noted there are only a handful, at most, of school collectives with $5 million total for the entire athletic department.

Still, it was like a game of telephone.

“I heard two schools [for] $5 million [each],” Narduzzi said.

Wait, now it was two schools?

He offered no other details and decried that schools were “tampering.”

It made, of course, little sense that a coach would have the intricate knowledge of private conversasions/negotiations involving other schools and another school’s player. This was triple hearsay, at best.

Regardless, the story spread, as did the panic among some media and fans who worry about the “wild, wild west” nature of the sport.

Maye soon dismissed the story to ESPN and acted bewildered why Narduzzi would weigh in at all.

"Those rumors weren't really reality," Maye told ESPN, adding, "Pitt's coach ended up putting that out there. I don't know what that was about."

So what happened?

“Some people were texting my high school coach about it,” Maye said. “That's mainly what happened, people reached out to some of my representatives and NIL media people … There was nothing to me or my family directly offered from any of these other schools. Nothing was said or offered to the Mayes."

"... Really, not that much went down," Maye continued. "There was speculation [that Maye might transfer] and an Instagram post [by Maye declaring he was staying at UNC] and a head coach [at another school] said [I] turned down this amount of money that I'd never heard of.

“That's basically the gist."

So, basically nothing. No significant “tampering” — which as a concept isn’t even a bad thing. No massive offer. In fact, Maye instead agreed to a deal with North Carolina’s NIL collective for what its executive director told ESPN was a “a very, very fair amount.” In other words, the system worked.

Before the truth got out, though, another bit of damage to the sport was done. There is a sizable enough number of fans who think the game is in trouble because some coaches claim it is. The idea persists that there are unnamed and unknown programs out there, offering mass amounts of money to steal players from self-respecting institutions.

As a result, the entire sport is a disaster and there is no reason to even be a fan.

(Conversely, if the Narduzzi story was true, you could look at it as unbelievably great news that someone learned of multiple offers of $5 million to do the same job they just did, but that would require an entire rewiring of the sport’s mindset.)

Look, these coaches have lost a measure of control in the job. Players have more power and freedom. Building and maintaining a roster is no doubt more labor intensive.

There has been a disruption to business and, like it is in many industries, the old guard isn’t comfortable. So despite their ever-increasing salaries, they are up in their feelings and acting out.

Are there some players who transfer or pick a program due to an offer of more money (usually a moderate amount)? Sure. There has to be. After all, coaches switch jobs for that reason all the time. Is it an epidemic? Hardly. There are many reasons to change schools. Money is but one of them. And the transfer portal works both ways, after all. Even Pitt is adding a transfer quarterback for the second consecutive year.

If coaches have reasonable suggestions to improve an ever-changing world, amplifying these fabulous stories certainly doesn't help accomplish them. The wailing kills their credibility.

Where are these big offers, anyway? Last year, the big scandal was when star receiver Jordan Addison left Pitt for USC. The rumor mill claimed Addison was lured by a $3 million deal, discounting any interest in playing with a star quarterback (Caleb Williams) in an electric offense (Lincoln Riley’s) in a great city (Los Angeles).

Addison caught just 59 passes, so if the dollar figure had been true, it was a horrendous investment.

But was it true? If USC is so wealthy it paid $3 million for a single season from a single wide receiver then it should have at least that much to spread around for next year, too. Yet the Trojans signed just four top-100 recruits and have landed just one top 20 transfer, weak by their traditional standards.

NIL being out of control is a good narrative because it casts sympathy on supposedly upstanding, old-school coaches while cutting at the credibility and ethics of others.

Meanwhile, Mack Brown is aided by the story of his star quarterback so valuing his opportunity to play at UNC that he wouldn’t ever entertain these “whole lot of money” offers … and then got paid anyway.

Win. Win.

Has NIL changed college football? Sure. Is this a real problem? We’ll see, but nothing major has materialized yet, certainly not these overblown stories coaches are telling that do little but cut into the popularity of their own sport.