Missouri City native Ainias Smith talks NIL with In The Loop

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Eagles wide receiver and former Aggies wide receiver Ainias Smith joins In The Loop to discuss his NIL experience.

Transcript

00:00what was your experience with nil and like what did you know going in what did you learn in the

00:05process of it because it's one of those spaces that there's a lot of talk about it i know me

00:08and lopez have had conversations where i don't even know what to make of the numbers that are

00:12thrown out there because there's no reporting body there's nobody that's kind of corralling

00:15these things and really officiating making sure that this is what is actually the number

00:19or this is just something that someone is saying like what was your experience personally with uh

00:23nil deals um in your a and m uh time period yeah so um like you said i was part of the first class

00:32i think i was the first class that actually um was able to receive nil so that was definitely a

00:37blessing but it was it was different it started off slow for sure the game was new so people were

00:44kind of nervous on truly committing to a player and whatnot so um things kind of started off slow

00:51more so was just trading cards and stuff like that at the beginning um and then it progressed to

00:59doing like in-person autographs and whatnot appearances and um for some people commercials

01:06and things of that of that nature however nil started to blow up once for me i noticed once we

01:16received the number one recruiting class or whatever that year i believe that was the year of 22

01:21and man and i believe that was the year 21 i forget whatever year that was nil skyrocketed because

01:32now it wasn't just so much about the type of player you were it was how much money this school was

01:40paying me versus how much money this school was paying me so um the stars and all of that went out

01:47the water i felt like 2020 um after covid and guys when it or teams started to go ahead and go into

01:56the transfer portal and that took a toll on the players that were already at the universities at

02:04their established universities that they committed to because now they're having to compete with

02:10players that are coming in from transfer portals and they're getting paid x amount of money while

02:16this kid over here that they just signed or that's been here for the past four years and has been a

02:22starter for the past three or whatever yeah and possibly was a walk-on that ended up earning a

02:28scholarship and now he's looking for nil money and they you feel me it it took it took off into uh

02:35i call it a shit show excuse my language but this is it it's totally turned into something that i feel

02:44like it wasn't supposed to be you know what i'm saying it originally was supposed to be for name

02:48image and likeness and now is about your image and how many followers you have on instagram and stuff

02:55like that what was the effect in the in the locker room oh man it it was bad that's what i'm saying

03:02with that class that like didn't really care about anything other than the money you know i'm saying

03:10and that's how it was for their parents too like their parents were sending their kids to the

03:15to the coach that talked the best to them you know what i'm saying and honestly when those kids came

03:21in they thought that they didn't have to go to school no more because it was printed in their

03:25contract or whatever or they didn't have to go to study hall because it wasn't in their contract or

03:30because of something that uh an assistant that's not even a coach for the university came and promised

03:36them on their official visit or just all types of craziness you know what i'm saying and it's it's

03:42it's fraud honestly to me just real quick reggie it sounds to me and correct me if i'm wrong you you

03:49like it and you also don't like it for sure why there's no there's no boundaries there's no rules

03:55and regulations for real on what nil truly is like a freshman coming in getting paid two million dollars

04:05and then the next year didn't take the team to the national championship or nothing but he's

04:10expecting to go ahead and get four or five million dollars and then it's gonna he has the ability

04:14to go ahead and transfer because his feelings hurt because he didn't get paid money or whatever

04:18it's lame to me you know what i'm saying it's real lame like there's no true integrity like when you

04:23commit to a school you're supposed to be committed to the university not uh for a short time for a short

04:30term period and granted i get it like kids want to go ahead and go three um three in college and go

04:36ahead and leave like that's the dream but that's not how it is for everybody and if you look in the

04:40past most kids that um ended up going here because of somebody that was like that in front of them you

04:49know i'm saying they had true talent if you look at alabama and my brother dudes that mink uh mink of

04:55fitzpatrick is a rare one of those guys but if you look at eddie jackson eddie jackson had to sit for

05:00like two years before he can actually do something on the field for real and then ended up coming in

05:05went and played for like another two years before that's what i'm saying like it's it's it's not the

05:11same no more kids is just expecting to get handouts and expect that things just come easy because of

05:18their stars or whatever because of what they did in seven on seven like what family you you haven't proved

05:24nothing you haven't proved nothing to nobody and it's great that you have great confidence but

05:29it's like when when are we going to understand that like the nfl is not i mean nil is not the nfl

05:40like when it comes to contracts and stuff like that like if if they're going to give these kids

05:47these contracts then they need to go ahead and get fined if they're not going to go to study hall if

05:50they're going to get a c on their report card you know i'm saying like things like that like

05:53having a low gpa and expecting to go ahead and still get paid millions of dollars and do like

06:00no no they're taking away the human aspect of who we are as humans like we have to work yeah and i

06:07think that that's where i think we all agree on the idea of you need to have more parameters around

06:12this because with it with not being regulated you end up with this kind of nebulous wild west where

06:18you know as you mentioned people don't know what the right expectations are there's all those things

06:21are in this weird space but i think that that's okay the guys have like it's not just you know

06:28training on the field for these eight nine ten all the way to 18 year olds you guys are going to give

06:33them some insight into that that college experience right sure for sure so man with that we actually

06:37have um a guest coach uh coach darryl dickey that is coming on he used to be the former head coach for

06:43the university of memphis and also former offensive coordinator for texas a&m while i was there um so he's

06:49coming to do a segment for players parents anybody to go ahead and come and get this knowledge on not

06:58just the way college football is going right now with the transfer portal and all of that but with

07:03with the nil how kids need to go ahead and get themselves exposed or the things that they need

07:08to do to get their basically for the parents to go ahead and get their kids in front of these college

07:15coaches and get the knowledge that they need to be able to move about nil and um the new i guess you

07:23can call it greatest system i forget what it's called but clear house and all of that yeah so

07:28you'll get that covered for anybody elite players uh that that are going to be getting nil and you're

07:34going to sort of give them the parameters and such for sure for sure and it's going to be a very

07:38detailed segment you know i'm saying so i wouldn't miss this opportunity i wouldn't miss that opportunity

07:43the showcase itself is great because you know you're getting hands-on work from nfl pro guys and

07:51college guys all of that is great you know i'm saying but the knowledge that you're be that you

07:57would be able to take away from the end of the experience like it granted number one it is a show

08:03okay so i wouldn't necessarily call them scouts but we'll have reporters and people that will do

08:10stories on the talent that they see so if you got some talent go ahead and come out and show it you

08:16know what i'm saying don't learn a few things man exactly exactly and we're giving away prizes and all

08:21types of stuff i don't know what it is that i need to say to go ahead and get people to come or

08:26whatever but at the end of the day man this is a great opportunity um it's a spiritual opportunity

08:33to go ahead and come get saved also because we're not just doing football like i don't know if you

08:38can hear it in my voice but i'm real passionate you are yeah by my faith for sure you can tell make

08:43sure that everybody has an opportunity to go ahead and get saved you know i'm saying this world is

08:48coming is this crazy man is turning into something that we were all i don't know if we were all aware

08:55i was but it's it's here yeah and clearly you you know it gets you back to the nil thing we do have

09:01kind of up against it here but you are an aggie and you committed to the aggies and you were not

09:05going to go anywhere and that is rare based on what you spoke about earlier a lot of guys just in it

09:10for the money uh but but i am curious just my own curiosity did you have opportunities that you did

09:17that you could have like you know forget the aggies i'm gonna take the money i for sure had

09:22opportunities i'm not gonna lie um i'm not gonna say who all right man just know that

09:30it's a dirty game that these coaches be trying to play for sure for sure and and jesse watson one

09:37of the directors for the football camp want to get your voice on real quick because you as we

09:41mentioned uh 25 years years the craziness of starting something out of a passion and it becoming

09:49so much bigger because of the nfl people in in your life collectively i mean this is a huge opportunity

09:55you know and again hcl is about equipping young folks to be better in life all the way around we

10:02do in the ncaa focus football camps and uh combine prep we're doing academic tutoring and we're doing

10:10character development so we're working on a holistic approach to all of these young folks we have an

10:15impact well we appreciate you guys yeah thanks for coming in ania smith jesse watson appreciate you guys

10:21and again hcl silverlegacy.info is the website to go and you know get more information sign up

10:28july 4th is when uh when the showcase is but it's more than just a showcase there's game giving being

10:33given while your game is being worked on with uh nfl pros appreciate you fine fellas thank you for

10:38giving us a little bit of your time yes sir appreciate y'all man and god bless all right

10:41and god bless all right

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