Over the past several seasons, college football players have been able to cash in and profit from their name, image, and likeness with lucrative endorsement deals, setting up what has effectively become a pay-for-play system that used to be impermissible under NCAA rules.
Under the previous rules, college athletes were not permitted to profit from their NIL in any way or receive any money for their performance or to play for a particular team. However, just because it was against the rules doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening, as former national champion head coach Ed Orgeron recently admitted.
NIL Changes in College Football
Before 2021, the NCAA rules did not allow collegiate athletes to profit from their NIL in any way, shape, or form. In fact, if a player were found to have received impermissible benefits or profited from their NIL in any way, they would be deemed ineligible, often resulting in vacated wins for teams.
There were several high-profile instances where players were found to have received impermissible benefits. Former USC Trojans star running back Reggie Bush lost his Heisman Trophy after he was found to have received impermissible benefits, including cash, a car, and a rent-free house, from aspiring sports agents. The Ohio State Buckeyes had 10 wins vacated from the 2010 season when five players were found to have traded memorabilia, gear, and autographs in exchange for tattoos.
Beginning in 2021, however, those rules changed, allowing players to profit from their NIL through endorsement deals. However, schools were not allowed to directly pay players until the 2025 season, when the NCAA began allowing direct payments to student-athletes for the first time.
Ed Orgeron Admits Cheating
While it was clearly against the rules for a team to pay players, and anyone violating that rule regularly faced serious consequences, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. In fact, during a recent interview, one national champion head coach openly admitted to paying players.
During a recent interview on the Bussin’ With the Boyspodcast with Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, national champion LSU Tigers coach Ed Orgeron was asked to “admit” that he was paying players under the table during his time coaching in the SEC.
“We’re way past it,” Lewan told Orgeron. “Can we all just admit it?”
Orgeron did just that, pointing out that they had to make “back door” deals for players while teams are now allowed to “walk through the front door with the cash.”
Everyone knows the SEC was paying players before paying players was legal
Coach O with an incredible response on @BussinWTB 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/PvHvQK3Bdp
— Will Compton (@_willcompton) December 9, 2025
“You know what?” Orgeron said on the podcast. “They say, ‘Hey, coach. You know, you’ve been out of coaching for a while. How are you going to adjust to NIL?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s a minor adjustment.’ They said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Back then, we used to walk through the back door with the cash. Now, we just got to walk through the front door with the cash.’”
Obviously, paying players was a clear violation of NCAA rules and, by definition, cheating. In fact, a coach is still technically not permitted to broker the sort of pay-for-play deals that Orgeron seems to be describing, though those rules are much more difficult to enforce these days.
Who Did Orgeron Recruit?
Orgeron spent much of his collegiate coaching career coaching in the SEC in some capacity, where he recruited several high-profile players.
Orgeron got his first head coaching job in 2005 when he took over as the coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, where he stayed until he was fired following the 2007 season. During his time at Ole Miss, Orgeron recruited several star players, including offensive tackle Michael Oher, who was the subject of the hit movie The Blind Side.
It was at LSU, however, that Orgeron had his most talented rosters, highlighted by current NFL stars like Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, and Ja’Marr Chase.
It’s worth noting, however, that while Orgeron did openly admit to cheating by paying players under the table, he was not specific about which players or which schools, only revealing that it happened in the SEC.
Orgeron spent time at four SEC programs throughout his career, serving as an assistant strength coach at Arkansas early in his career in a role that almost certainly involved no recruiting. He then served as the head coach at Ole Miss from 2005 to 2007, the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Tennessee in 2009, and then the head coach at LSU from 2016 to 2021.
It’s not clear which of these programs Orgeron was referring to in his comments on the podcast, as his words were vague, perhaps intentionally.
