"Until there's clarity, you're living in limbo": Kenny Dillingham minces no words while sharing update from CFB's desperate recruiting attempts

Arizona State Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham admits he isn't sure what the rules are with recruiting now.

The NCAA has been making sweeping changes to recruiting, in large part due to NIL and paying players. A salary cap is supposedly coming in, but some deals have already been agreed to and wouldn't fit in under the cap, which makes recruiting tough, Dillingham said.

"We don’t know the rules,” Dillingham said at the Big 12 media day on Tuesday. “The settlement passed, but who knows what Deloitte is going to clear. Until there is clarity, you’re living in limbo. You are seeing a lot of people lie and promise fake things."

Some schools have been offering players third-party NIL deals as part of the total compensation package, while others are handing out cash from their collectives to high school players, which is against the rules.

Cincinnati Bearcats coach Scott Satterfield, meanwhile, says he doesn't really understand the rules or what the schools are supposed to be doing.

“I don’t understand what rules everybody is playing by,” Satterfield said via Yahoo. “The whole point of this was for us all to be playing by the same rules, but we are not. We are not playing by the same rules, particularly this past spring when everybody is apparently front-loading where others are having to now spend their [revenue-share] cap.”

Ultimately, the common perception around coaches is that schools that are rich enough to front-load NIL deals will have a massive advantage in building next year's roster.

Kenny Dillingham believes retaining players is key

With the new rules and a potential salary cap coming into college football, Kenny Dillingham believes that it could hurt the transfer portal.

The coach also said the key part for coaches and schools will be retaining players, as they won't be able to pay new players every year to come in and start.

"I think it’s all about retention rankings now," Dillingham said Tuesday. "I think, at the end of the day, you can recruit whoever you want, but then they can leave in six months, they can leave in a year, they may not be good, their hit rate on a lot of top guys isn’t very high. So, you know, you can’t say recruiting is like drafting because it’s not.

"You know, draft picks, a lot of the first and second-rounders have to play as true freshmen. They have to play as rookies, right? Less than 5% to 3% of division one power five freshmen start as a freshman. 5%. You’re not talking first or second-rounders anymore.

"So, in this new era where you have 105 kids potentially on scholarship or 85, it’s all about retaining the guys in your team. It’s all about treating the guys on your team great. And if you treat the guys on your team great when you get a good player, he’s going to stay there.”

Dillingham believes coaches need to treat players fairly and explain to them how they see their playing time happening to retain them. But, they are also doing this while coaching and trying to win football games, which makes it challenging.

Dillingham and Arizona State will open their 2025 college football season on Aug. 30 against Northern Arizona.