The NCAA changed college football recruiting forever when it began allowing athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). However, there are already some signs that the early NIL market was a bubble that’s already beginning to burst.
When the NCAA changed its rules in 2021 to allow athletes to profit from the NIL and receive compensation for the first time, many saw a future where prominent fans and alumni would be using their money and resources to shape college recruitments and bring talent to their alma maters or favorite teams. While that has certainly been the case, and will continue to be the case in at least some regard, there have also been some clear signs that the early NIL spending is not sustainable.
Two recent examples of prominent alumni using their deep pockets to secure talent came from NFL legend Troy Aikman and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, each of whom had a role in securing a commitment of a high-profile college quarterback to their respective alma maters. In both cases, things did not exactly work out as planned.
Aikman’s involvement in the NIL space came in 2023 when he, in his own words, “wrote a sizable check” to help secure the commitment of a high school quarterback. While Aikman did not mention the player by name when discussing the situation earlier this month, it was not difficult to piece together that he was talking about five-star quarterback Dante Moore.
Moore signed with UCLA out of high school and played nine games with the Bruins his freshman season. However, things did not go well. Moore completed just 53.3 percent of his passes and threw nine interceptions compared to just 11 touchdowns. Following the season, head coach Chip Kelly left the team to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, and Moore left too, transferring to Oregon.
Portnoy’s involvement in the NIL space came last year when he helped convince five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood to flip his commitment from LSU to Michigan, Portnoy’s alma mater.
While it’s unclear how much money – if any – that Portnoy ultimatley put on the table as part of Underwood’s massive NIL package with billionaire Larry Ellison seemingly doing the heavy lifting, Portnoy had previously committed to spend $1 million to $3 million per year in NIL money for Michigan’s quarterback position.
Underwood ultimately signed with Michigan, accepting what was reportedly a four-year contract worth around $12 million, and emerged as the team’s starting quarterback in his first season. However, things did not exactly go well as the five-star freshman finished the season near the bottom of the Big Ten in almost every statistical category. With head coach Sherrone Moore’s abrupt termination, Underwood’s future at Michigan is now in question with On3’s Pete Nakos reporting that the young quarterback is “paying close attention” to Michigan’s next hire.
It’s safe to say that things have not worked out the way Portnoy and Aikman planned or expected when they agreed to put up NIL money, and it sounds like they have both become a bit sour to the whole process and system.
Aikman said plainly that he is “done with NIL” after what happened with Moore.
“There’s gotta be some leadership at the very top that kind of cleans all of this up,” Aikman said on Sports Media Watch with Richard Deitsch. “Starting with players that accept money. There’s gotta be some accountability and responsibility on their behalf, to have to stick to a program.
“I gave money to a kid, I won’t mention who. I’ve done it one time at UCLA, never met the young man. He was there a year, he left after the year. I wrote a sizable check, and he went to another school. I didn’t even get so much as a thank you note. So, it’s one of those deals, to where I’m done with NIL. I want to see UCLA be successful, but I’m done with it.”
Portnoy, meanwhile, gave a far less declarative statement on future involvement in NIL, but he did make it clear that he is “out” on putting forward any future money to keep Underwood at Michigan.
“I’m out of it. He’d have to have some big balls to say he wants to renegotiate now,” Portnoy said this week on The Triple Option podcast. “I don’t think that’s coming down the ‘pike. That would be surreal. I’m out of it.”
Portnoy went on to point out that he believes Underwood could leave if he wanted to – highlighting a bit of the frustration that Aikman spoke about.
“It really seems like if somebody came along and said, ‘Hey Bryce, here’s $20 mill,’” Portnoy said. “I think he could bounce if he wanted to. I don’t think there’s any rules going on with that, as far as I could tell.”
While Moore and Underwood are two high-profile examples of how NIL promises can go wrong, they certainly are not the only examples. Former five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava was a similar story, accepting a lucrative NIL offer to sign with Tennessee out of high school, only to leave the team over the offseason and sign with UCLA.
The situation has gone so mainstream that even United States President Donald Trump addressed it on Saturday.
“You can’t pay $14 million to a quarterback to come out of high school and they don’t know if he’s gonna be a very good player,“ Trump said.
There have always been donors and boosters in college football, and that will never change. But the high-profile NIL deals given to unproven high school players funded by prominent alumni are a trend that appears to be fading already.
About Kevin Harrish