It’s a name, image, and likeness (NIL) world and transfer portal world, and we’re just living in it. But that doesn’t mean you have to like it, and Northern Illinois University (NIU) head football coach Thomas Hammock doesn’t.
Hammock, a two-time All-American running back at NIU, made a quick transition from the playing field to the coaching sidelines after a heart condition derailed his athletic career.
However, in his time at NIU and as a grad assistant at Wisconsin, Hammock gained an appreciation for the educational and life-lesson side of college that stretches well beyond football. Against this backdrop and the now annual occurrence of losing multiple quality players to larger, more elite programs in the transfer portal, Hammock used his weekly presser on Wednesday evening to give a passionate voice to his concerns about the rampant use and abuse of the transfer portal after his team lost a whopping 19 players to the portal this year.
Specifically, the reporter asked for the coach’s thoughts on how the portal could be made “more fair.” Hammock’s answer did not disappoint.
“To be honest with you, I love the challenge,” Hammock explained. “It don’t bother me one bit, because in life you are going to make decisions – sometimes it is going to work in your favor and sometimes it is not.
“I told our guys earlier today, yeah, we lost all these guys, but let’s see who plays. It’s all good when people put on Twitter, ‘All glory to God, I’m going in the transfer portal,’ but let’s see if they play. How many of those guys are going to play? Or travel? Or get snaps?
“I was going to tweet something the other day…a picture of me, and say I enjoyed my college experience and I didn’t get one dime, but the lessons I learned was more valuable than any money you could ever pay me. And I appreciate that, because that is long-term. People are losing sight of the fact that this is short-term.
“Don’t lose focus of the long term. Get your degree. Learn valuable lessons that are going to help you in the long term of your life. That is the whole purpose. This is a transition from being a kid to being a grown up, and I hope people don’t lose focus of that. Everyone is talking about everything else other than what is the most important thing about going to college, because if you’re going to college to go get a couple dollars, you might as well go get a job. [College football] is too hard than to do it to get a couple dollars.
“Learn the lessons that you need to learn to be successful in life for the next 40 to 50 years of your life. That’s it. I would do it again for free. FOR FREE, because of the things I learned. That is why I am standing here today, because of what I learned in college. Not because of what someone gave me.”
“That is what I would tell people, and parents need to learn that lesson too. Stop trying to live through your kids. Teach them what they need to learn to be successful. That’s what I’m teaching my kids. Not about NIL or revenue sharing…I couldn’t care less. You need to learn things in college that prepare you in life to be a father, a husband, to work, and everything else.
“Those are the most important things.”
Hammock took over head coaching duties at NIU in 2021; his teams have qualified for bowl games in three of four seasons. In 2024, NIU shocked the college football world by defeating the then-5th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 16-14.
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