Boise State OC takes aim at Dan Lanning, Oregon with pointed tampering allegation

Oregon hadn’t even played their first College Football Playoff game and they were already trying to poach Boise State’s players after their Fiesta Bowl loss to Penn State. 

According to former Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, Oregon offered one of Boise State’s top defensive players $700,000 in NIL money to bolt for the Ducks. The sad thing is this isn’t the first time this has happened. 

This is the result of a free-for-all when the NCAA first approved that players were able to benefit off their name, image and likeness. They didn’t put any rules in place, they didn’t put a ceiling on how much teams can shell out and the result is unpunished tampering. 

That’s the state of college football and college athletics as a whole now. And after Oregon’s loss to the most expensive roster in college football, they realized they needed to catch up. 

You wanted a seat at the big kids' table, Boise State. That means you take the good (the College Football Playoff) with the bad (possible tampering in a battle for the best rosters money can buy). 

Oregon’s alleged tampering before their season was even over is everything wrong with the current state of NIL

Koetter continued making his point on the KTIK Idaho Sports Radio Talk, comparing Boise State’s “salary cap” to that of a school like Oregon. He stated the Broncos have a budget around $2 million for NIL money to players. That’s considerably less than every other Power 4 school that made the CFP this year.

And it’s true, the smaller schools don’t have nearly the budget to play the top players. Which is what made Boise State’s College Football Playoff run special. They did it the right way. 

They worked their way from unranked to a top four seed the traditional way. But that also means the players you thought you could retain become a whole lot harder to convince to come back. 

It means your players are no longer diamonds in the rough, they’re in the bright spotlight. And now every team can see how good they are and pluck them from you, one by one. 

Like it or not, this is the state of college football. And while yes, it’s tampering and shouldn’t be allowed, this is what happens when the NCAA doesn’t put any stipulations on how to proceed with NIL and paying players. 

It’s why Ohio State can shell out upwards of $20 million for the best players. And why Oregon can offer a player a $700,000 NIL package before the college football season is officially over.