Mike Elko leaves no doubt about how Texas A&M football would treat NIL holdouts

Mike Elko confidently slaps down possibility of NIL holdouts with Texas A&M football

Texas A&M football’s culture change has been evident over the past year or so. Near the end of Jimbo’s tenure, as things began to unravel, the locker room was not exactly a positive place to be. But now, with the advent of the Elko era, there’s been a decided vibe shift on that front.

That’s a welcome development, too, as things had apparently deteriorated in several ways before that point. There were plenty of reports that A&M players had been attempting to game the NIL system after false rumors ran rampant about the Aggies’ spending in the 2022 class.

With NIL demands prominently in the news recently, following the disaster that has been Tennessee’s situation with Nico Iamaleava, one reporter brought it up to Mike Elko, who couldn’t help but chuckle when the question was posed.

Elko did a great job of walking a thin line here. He shows that he’s not against player empowerment in a positive sense, but that the current way things work is simply not going to be functional going forward.

The advent of the revenue share era will change a lot of things in college football— some for the worse and some for the better. Hopefully, such changes can avoid a situation like the Iamaleava debacle happening again: it’s just been ugly for everyone to see.

But Elko made himself very clear in this answer in a way that should encourage Texas A&M football fans: things like that will simply not be tolerated in the culture that the Aggies are building and maintaining. The level of buy-in that the Ags have right now is a huge plus on that front, and I’m glad Elko’s hand is on the wheel at this juncture.