Michigan head coach Juwan Howard has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to his thoughts on the current state of Name, Image and Likeness at the University of Michigan.

Meeting with reporters on Thursday, Howard was asked about NIL in relation to the university and gave an honest assessment of where things currently stand.

That stance? There's plenty of room for improvement.

"NIL, it's one of these things where it has helped some programs and what they've done in the transfer portal," Howard told reporters. "For us, NIL hasn't hurt or helped me or the team when it comes to recruiting from the transfer portal.

"Have the conversations about NIL been brought up in recruiting? Yes, it has. Would I like to see more done for the program, in the sense of some of the things happening in other basketball programs? Yes."

Universities and those in relation to it have utilized NIL in various ways, including booster-funded collectives that collaborate with athletic departments.

Howard has made his thoughts clear to the athletic department as a whole. However, the major point he would like driven home is that Michigan could certainly be more proactive in what its currently doing to advance NIL forward in Ann Arbor.

"I know this is going to be a storyline, and that's OK," Howard said. "Do we have a collective here? No. Do other programs have collectives? Yes. Could we be more proactive with the NIL and use more forward-thinking? Yes. And I say 'we.' I'm including myself. But our athletic department, as well as Michigan as a whole, we can do better."

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