All of us are still adjusting to this ever-changing landscape of college athletics which we live in.
That does not exclude Heather Lyke.
Pitt's athletic director shared her thoughts on the largest topics surrounding college athletics on Wednesday inside of the Petersen Events Center in a roundtable discussion with media members. In this hourlong talk, she touched on the developments around name, image, and likeness fronts, the ever-growing wildfire that is the transfer portal, the football team's season, and about the new Victory Heights project that is set to break ground in January.
Among the first topics addressed by reporters in the session was the NIL front. Two of the most prominent of these NIL collectives benefitting the Panthers, among the few others, are the Alliance 412 initiative and the Steel City NIL Club, the latter of which was organized and launched by members of the Pitt football team.
Regarding the NIL front, Lyke acknowledged the university's active promotion within it, where possible, and that some Pennsylvania laws could be loosening up which could allow for student-athletes to benefit even more from NIL.
"It's an evolving space, right?" Lyke said. "How it is being utilized, the patchwork of state laws that govern it; Pennsylvania law will be changing now in January slightly to make a few modifications to allow us to be a little bit more involved in arranging NIL, changes to the disclosure requirement. We're actively involved and promoting it as we're allowed to. The athletic department doesn't invest in it. We have donors and philanthropic people that support it, and student-athletes have been involved in not just finances from the collective, but whether it's the Oaklander or car dealerships or Dunkin' Donuts or many, a variety of ways student-athletes have received compensation this past year.
"It's not a taboo topic. It's reality. It's what we're living with. We're continuing to manage it at a high level, and we're really grateful for the people that do support it and want to be a part of it. There is no question it's a part of college athletics today."
While Lyke was genuinely optimistic about the school's work within the NIL world, she also took time to acknowledge its pitfalls.
"I think the biggest thing that I struggle with it is the tampering aspect," Lyke said. "It doesn't reflect incredibly well on our profession, but there's no question when student-athletes have gained a certain stature or companies want to invest in them or people want to invest in them, then it is permissible. We don't discourage it."
As we all are aware, that tampering aspect is why many believed Jordan Addison swung into the transfer portal over the offseason and transferred to USC. Per On3's database, Addison's current NIL valuation is at $1.2 million, or the 11th-highest amount among currently enrolled college athletes.
This brings the concept of relationships within the coaching staffs with the student-athletes to the forefront. While there might be personal motive involved in a transfer, that can still work out for better or worse. She added in the conversation that she felt the current NIL model is "not sustainable."
"The best thing that we have going for us is our coaches and the relationship that our coaches have with our student-athletes," Lyke said. "What I mean by that is when student-athletes have real, genuine relationships with our coaches -- as I think a great majority of our kids do -- they'll go to a coach and say, 'I'm being offered something by another school, what can we do at Pitt?' And fortunately we've got someone like coach (Pat) Narduzzi and his whole staff who have those types of relationships with our student-athletes where we can have those conversations.
"Ideally you don't have 50 different laws across the country, and ideally there's probably some more structure designed around it. It's literally free agency and there's no limits and there's no documentation that's shared across, among everybody. We document it internally in our office. I think it's important to have disclosure, it's important to understand and help guide our student-athletes when they get approached on certain situations, so that's how we manage it, but that's not necessarily consistent across the country.
"It is a bit of the Wild West in that sense. We're doing the best we can, I think, to manage it, and obviously we're grateful for the support that we have through our collective to manage it, and it's a definite balance within our coaching staff."
There is always going to be a con for every pro when it comes to these sorts of topics. Such is the case for the transfer portal, which not only has to deal with tampering, but it also likely has fewer guard rails than the NIL topic does.
For example, West Virginia quarterback J.T. Daniels is about to enter the portal again. He would be looking for his fourth school to spend his final season of eligibility (USC, Georgia, and West Virginia), and he is reportedly searching for a medical redshirt retroactive to the 2019 season, which would afford him two seasons of eligibility. Pitt quarterback Kedon Slovis is entering the portal to try and find his third school to play for, and recent Panthers commit Phil Jurkovec will be at his third school when he arrives at Pitt.
"I think the transfer opportunities are here to stay for a while," Lyke said. "The NCAA created the windows, which, obviously, does limit the distractions during the season. It doesn't mean that kids don't declare they're going in the portal earlier, but they technically can't go in the portal until it technically opens. I think if student-athletes choose to leave or transfer, then that's their decision to make. I think the biggest lesson that I'm concerned that young people -- is what is the lesson that we always teach student-athletes? I mean, that's why we got into this industry. We care about young people. We want them to excel at the highest level academically, athletically, and personally and socially.
"What is the lesson that you learn by -- you can say it a lot of different ways, but -- jumping into the portal, or transferring. Sometimes there's very good reasons to do that, and sometimes it might be just not a good reason. I'm not sure how well thought out it is. So much depends on the guidance they're receiving, whose influencing these decisions, and the real reason as to why. Life is tough, and so the sticktuitiveness, I just, I think that's an important lesson in life, is to kind of stick through things that are not always easy."
One of the first topics Lyke addressed was the success of the Panthers' fall sports programs, and particularly the men's and women's soccer and volleyball programs, which went on or are on substantial runs within the NCAA Tournament. She said attendance records were broken for volleyball games, and they needed to turn people away for the men's soccer team's Elite 8 match on Saturday at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
She also discussed the football team's performance this season.
"We're headed to the Sun Bowl; it's not a New Year's Six bowl, it's not the College Football Playoff, and so, you know, a little disappointing overall," Lyke said. "But I would tell you that this is a team that has a great opportunity. We're going to play UCLA, a top-20 team. Get a chance to get our fifth consecutive win here. They had a really strong finish. I would say they had a strong start, too, winning the Backyard Brawl in front of the largest crowd in Pittsburgh history for a sporting event was just awesome. ... I've got a lot of confidence in coach Narduzzi. Excited about where this program continues to head. We know the College Football Playoff is expanding in '24. That's where we want to be, we expect to be, and I know coach does as well. That's something where we're excited to finish the season strong on a strong note out at the Sun Bowl."
Lyke later added that the "disappointing" comment was based on the expectations of repeating the ACC championship, as a goal set by Narduzzi and his staff.
She also then went on to discuss the Victory Heights project, which will officially break ground in January.
"That project, just to reiterate, is a new arena, it's sports performance complex, it's a 3,000-seat arena for volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics, and then multi-use," Lyke said. "We'll use it for a lot of other events, as well. And then a sports performance complex which will be all of strength and conditioning, all of sports nutrition, all of sports medicine, mental health, practice gyms for volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics, and our spirit squad. ... I don't know how to describe it other than, it will transform our campus."
It is set to benefit 16 of Pitt's 19 athletics programs. The new rec center opens in 2024, and Victory Hearts is scheduled to open in 2025.
"Our facilities will finally meet our expectations," Lyke added. "And that is needed to build and sustain success a the level that we're going after -- ACC championships and national championships."
