With Big 12 move done, UCF looks toward future scheduling, next NIL phase and tourism tax funding
As college athletic leaders continue to grapple with the impact of name, image and likeness laws, the focus has turned to Congress, where the hope is federal lawmakers can bring some sense to the chaotic landscape.
UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir was among a group of ADs in Washington D.C. last week, meeting with legislators on Capitol Hill before a hearing on NIL in front of the House Small Business Committee.
The push is for the federal government to get involved in regulating the NIL market.
“It was informative,” Mohajir told the Sentinel. “You have different views on how we should go forward and how we should protect college athletes.”
While the discussions were encouraging, Mohajir wishes more legislators would speak with the athletes to get their opinions about NIL.
One thing that stood out to Mohajir, especially speaking with many legislators, is how little they understand about the business of college athletics.
“I don’t think everybody understands what we do and how our athletes are treated,” he said. “It’s not the ones I talked to in Florida, but outside the state, how far removed they are from understanding the enterprise and what we do daily.”
One concern raised was regulating the role of collectives, which, in some cases, have been used as a recruiting tool for high school players.
“I don’t think people understand the difference between NIL and collectives,” said Mohajir. “Collectives are recruiting and there are NIL opportunities, but collectives are not traditional NILs. Some so many athletes have traditional NILs, but most don’t.”
According to Mohajir, the challenge is weeding out the “bad actors” who take advantage of athletes through bad NIL deals. To prevent that, it starts with educating the athletes on what is legal and what is not.
Here is an edited and abbreviated version of Mohajir’s comments with the Sentinel:
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Since we last spoke, the Big 12 has added four new schools from the Pac-12. Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State are set to join in 2024. What do you make of the league with those new members?
Mohajir: “It’s going to be a fantastic league and very strong. You see the numbers and the viewership of Colorado. I don’t think that will change if Coach Prime [Deion Sanders] stays there. It’s a good league with great metropolitan schools like Utah in Salt Lake City, Arizona State in [Phoenix area], TCU [Dallas], Houston and Cincinnati. I’m sure I’m missing some, but then you have the traditional schools like Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State. It’s going to be very competitive for a long time.”
You’re on the Big 12 football scheduling committee. What does scheduling look like for a 16-team league in 2024-25?
Mohajir: “There are all kinds of scenarios out there right now that we’re looking at, some different things. We’re looking at some of the practices they had in the past and adjusting some of those based on the new teams. The league has natural rivalries that you must protect BYU-Utah, Kansas-Kansas State, and Arizona-Arizona State. We’ve got to protect some of those teams, so we’re looking at those factors.”
UCF doesn’t have a natural rival in the league. How do you go about creating one? Is it through scheduling?
Mohajir: “Rivalries are grown and they’ve become more organic. It’s based on competition. If you don’t have somebody that’s a geographic rivalry like BYU-Utah or Arizona-Arizona State, it comes about organically and has grown. In the American [Athletic Conference], we started evolving a strong rivalry with Cincinnati. That became a cool rivalry, but we’ll see what happens in the Big 12.”
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You had to wait until a move to the Big 12 before ramping up future football scheduling. How has that process gone now that UCF is in the league?
Mohajir: “It’s getting easier because I’m scheduling them further out, so there are more opportunities. Our philosophy has changed. In the American, we had a different philosophy. Now, we’ve had to pivot 180 degrees. Right now, we have to play a Power 5 non-conference opponent. We played Boise State this year and [the game] was counted as a Power Five [opponent]. The Big 12 voted to give us a waiver to count it, but going forward, we have to have Power 5 opponents in nonconference, which is required. That could change, but we’re still evaluating.”
UCF is one of five finalists vying for a slice of the Orange County Tourism Development Tax. What’s the status?
Mohajir: “We had to submit a presentation [Sept. 15], which we did and then we’re doing another presentation on [Monday]. As I’ve maintained, we bring a lot to this community, not only as a university but as an athletics program that brings tourism. We fill hotel rooms, and because of that the tax is earmarked for sports and arts. We believe we are a big part of tourism for sports in this region, so we applied.”
Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on X at @osmattmurschel.