🏅Portnoy's NIL money helped flip the #1 recruit in the nation

Teaming up with

Hey there,

There’s only one antidote to a crazy weekend of football – a crazy week of NIL news. Let’s catch you up right now. Today we’re covering how Michigan flipped the #1 recruit’s commitment from LSU, how a U.S. Senator wants to penalize players for breaking NIL contracts early, and a new piece of software that could completely change how schools distribute their NIL funds. It’s all coming up right now – let’s get into it!

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— Cole, Justin and Collin

The Big 3

Portnoy Helps Bryce Underwood Flip to Michigan

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy was candid earlier this month about his efforts to flip five-star QB Bryce Underwood’s commitment from LSU to his alma mater, Michigan. Well… those efforts turned out to be successful. 

Portnoy took to social media to celebrate his school’s victory, admitting that he was involved with a plan to call Underwood’s family and pitch them an NIL package.

The details of that deal aren’t public yet, but as recently as late September, Portnoy pledged up to $3 million in NIL funds to help his school land a QB. Bryce Underwood already held an NIL valuation north of $2 million before this deal, so conservative estimates put his compensation into the $5 million range. (More)

Sen. Tuberville Wants Penalties for Breaking NIL Deals

In an announcement last week, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville expressed his intention to institute federal penalties for players not seeing their NIL contracts all the way through. That remark drew the ire of many college sports fans who remembered Tuberville’s own college football career as a coach. 

Tuberville left his coaching contracts early multiple times – including, famously, when he left a recruiting dinner mid-way through after learning he was to become Cincinnati’s next head coach. When asked about a perceived double-standard with his recent idea, Tuberville responded.

“I think coaches should be held accountable. … But, you know, if you can get an AD or a president or a school to give you just a one-way contract – where, if they fire you, you get paid, but if you leave, you don’t have to pay anything – I mean, you’ve, you’ve hit the jackpot.” (More)

A New NIL Valuation Modeler just Dropped

Pro Football Focus – one of the leaders in advanced analytics for both NFL and college football – just partnered with Dropback to help college GMs make personnel decisions. The software they’re collaborating on will provide “defensible athlete valuation formulas via program-specific data, metrics, baselines, and weights.” 

Here’s what that means in plain English: PFF’s advanced performance data will allow for GMs to see past the counting stats and into the true performance of a player. From there, they can more accurately evaluate that player’s monetary worth to the team with the new Valuation Modeler.

There’s a burgeoning market for tools to help college GMs make decisions in the NIL and Rev-Share era. This partnership looks to shake that market up even further. (More)

Teaming up with

Rhoback has quickly established themselves as the go-to activewear brand for college athletes. Having exclusive partnerships with some of the faces of college football in Quinn Ewers, Jalen Milroe, and Caleb Downs, it’s easy to see why college athletes across the country can’t take their Rhoback hoodies, tees, and shorts off.

With the largest NIL apparel program in the country, college athletes across all divisions have access to become a Rhoback U athlete. If you are a college athlete or know a college athlete, check out this link to apply.

Finally, Rhoback just released their licensed game-day collection with schools such as Texas, Notre Dame, Ohio State, among others. They are custom designing Polos, Hoodies, and Q-Zips specific to each school in an attempt to bring a new level of creativity to the market.

Check out Rhoback’s custom designed game-day collection and use code “NILWIRE” at checkout for 20% off your first purchase.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Aneesah Morrow

• School: LSU

• Position: Guard

• Sport: Basketball

• Class: Senior

• Accolades: 

• 2024 All-America Honorable Mention (AP, USBWA, WBCA)

• 2024 First Team All-SEC

• 2023-24 one-time SEC Player of the Week

• 2023-24 one-time National Player of the Week

• 2024 Cheryl Miller Award Finalist

• NIL: Aneesah has become a major player in the NIL space, landing deals with brands like Panini and Outback Steakhouse.

NIL BLITZ

♦️ Ohio’s governor just signed an executive order that allows schools to directly pay student-athletes

♦️ Teamworks and Texas team up for a Publicity Rights Management Tool 

♦️ Utah’s Kyle Whittingham: “It’s going to be a heavy shopping season for us in the portal.”

♦️ Indiana may be the blueprint for underdog success in the NIL era

♦️ Here’s how Vanderbilt plans to reload after a surprisingly successful season 

♦️ Boise State’s head coach doesn’t promise rev-sharing money to recruits 

♦️ Ted Cruz is pushing heavily for NCAA reform in new Congress

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

Would you be in favor of a college football "finder's fee" for players?

• Yes - 53%

• No - 47%