ATHENS, Ga. – NIL money has added a new variable to the long-held practice of college coaches trying to flip recruits who have given verbal commitments to other schools.
The NCAA rules providing college athletes the ability to earn revenue from their name, image and likeness provide new artillery for recruiting wars. When the recruiting spotlight is on a top recruit, millions of dollars are on the line.
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Some coaches worry about the potential abuse of NIL when recruiting high school athletes and also when trying to lure players from other schools through the transfer portal.
“I mean, that’s just part of, again, a truly flawed system,” Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin said Wednesday. “They’re not just tampering but they go and offer money and numbers. So you got young kids go, ‘Wait. I can go make that much money somewhere else if I go in the portal and leave?’”
Florida coach Billy Napier said NIL is “a part of an evolution of our game.”
“We continue to generate a lot of revenue," Napier said Wednesday. "So it is becoming business-like. This is the first job for a lot of these players in terms of their career. So I think for me, it’s just, you know, we have to adapt and evolve.”
One of the most closely watched recruits is quarterback Bryce Underwood. He is rated by 247Sports Composite as the nation's No. 1 recruit. Underwood, from Belleville (Michigan) High School, committed to Louisiana State early this year and returned to Baton Rouge on Saturday night to watch Alabama beat LSU 42-13.
Underwood and his family wore LSU jewelry and gear as they attended the game. The quarterback has given no indication he will change his plans to sign with LSU, but there is much speculation Michigan could use NIL money in its attempts to keep Underwood in state. With a player as highly regarded as Underwood the focus of recruiting efforts, the NIL offers could reach $5 million to $10 million.
That is the current price for top-rated quarterbacks. Tennessee freshman Nico Iamaleava landed an $8 million NIL deal from Spyre Sports before the quarterback signed with the Vols.
LSU coach Brian Kelly said “without question” NIL has increased the intensity of high school recruiting.
“I think that NIL at its core is certainly a positive thing relative to the student-athlete and deservedly so,” Kelly said Wednesday. “They own their name, their image and likeness. It’s when a third party begins to be involved in the process and, you know, wants to make it pay for play. And that’s why coming up with a plan that is a lot more centered around sharing and revenue and the universities being much more active in it is a better place to be.”
Kelly said laws are needed to implement “some form of guidelines or regulations” to govern the NIL process.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart said NIL shouldn't be blamed for the efforts to lure verbal commitments away from schools.
“I’ve been worried about people committed to us before NIL,” Smart said Monday.
“There’s no commitment that is done until it’s signed.”
Iamaleava and No. 6 Tennessee visit No. 11 Georgia on Saturday night.
National signing day is Feb. 5, leaving ample time for schools to use their connections to NIL collectives to tempt recruits to renege on their commitments.
Smart said it wouldn't be fair to suggest NIL is to blame for the efforts to sway recruits who have announced decisions to sign with another school.
"I can’t say that because it was that way before NIL,” Smart said.
The transfer portal provides college players the freedom to switch schools, so the recruiting process never ends.
“Now, even when they’re signed, they’re not done,” Smart said.
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AP Sports Writers Brett Martel, Larry Lage and Teresa Walker contributed to this report.
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