Charlie James reviews upcoming college football games and the NIL landscape.

What this episode covers

Clear Transcript: The Charlie James Show (Friday, Sept 4, 2026) – Hour 2, Segment 2 Charlie James: All right, you know what tomorrow is! Oh, yeah! We got some football going on tomorrow. Uh, we got Eastern Carolina at Alabama, Kent State is, uh, down there at, um, Willy B, uh, in Columbia playing the Gamecocks, Tennessee State is in Athens facing the Georgia Bulldogs, and then we've got probably what is going to be the most anticipated, the most watched game of the week, and that is going to be Clemson at LSU. And the reason that this game is going to be garnering so much attention is because of the tension that is going on right now between Dabo Swinney and, uh, Lane Kiffin down at LSU. Lane Kiffin, being a great proponent of the... the... the true, uh, "amateur nature," quote-unquote, of college football, he wants to bring in former NFL players to play for LSU. He wants to bring 'em in! Here's... I... I find this hilarious. I find it horrible. I find... well, maybe hilarious is not... I find it laughable. De'Quan Wright and Javian Harris were cleared to return to college football after brief stints in the NFL, that's according to a judge's order issued last night, setting up a dramatic showdown between the SEC and LSU leading into its season-opening game this weekend. Wright and Harris, both former Ole Miss players—oh, where did Lane Kiffin come from? Oh, that's right, Ole Miss—said in a lengthy court hearing Thursday that they intend to join their former coach Lane Kiffin during his debut season at LSU, which opens, uh, tomorrow night at Clemson... well, against Clemson, it's actually down in Louisiana. Um, there are... they are among 42 athletes from various sports including former Notre Dame pass rusher, uh, Junior... cannot pronounce his name, who also plans to play for LSU, who have sued the NCAA in Louisiana to play a fifth and final season of college sports. After the ruling, Wright said he plans to be ready to play against Clemson, adding that he has two days of practice with LSU this week. That's unbelievable. We've already screwed up college sports so bad with these NIL deals. I mean, really bad. Did you know this? Let's say you are with the SEC. All right, let me ask you a question. Who gets more money? A football player in the SEC, a college football player in the SEC, or an undrafted free agent in the NFL? Well, take a listen to this. Audio Clip: Right now, uh, some of these NIL, um, signatures: 34,000 total deals worth $355 million plus. So, you know, the line between college and pro is getting blurred. Um, but again, these two players in particular wanted to go back to college because they washed out of the NFL, uh, and the SEC tried to block them. Second Audio Clip: Yeah. No, yeah, it's crazy. It's a lot of money. Audio Clip: So, let's take a look at the biggest deal. The Miami Hurricanes' quarterback signed a deal, or has signed deals, I guess you could say, worth $6.5 million before he's even out of college. Um, highest-paid college football player right there. I mean, that's... Charlie James: Six and a half million dollars! Guy's barely out of high school. Goes into a six-and-a-half-million-dollar deal. You don't... you don't get that kind of money in the NFL! If you... I mean, that's... that's... that's crazy. It is. They are ruining college sports. So here's... here's kind of what people are saying, they're like, "Okay, Lane Kiffin, we're not going to allow you to do that, and if you keep doing it, we're going to kick you out of the SEC." To which Lane Kiffin says, "Okay. Go right ahead." Because if you kick us out... somebody said the other day that if the SEC kicked LSU out of the conference, the payout that the SEC would have to make to Louisiana State University would be enough to send every child in Louisiana to college for free! That's... that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. And then, what's Lane Kiffin going to do? They're just going to go independent like Not ...

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