Shot ($$).
On Friday, a five-star recruit in the Class of 2023 signed an agreement with a school’s NIL collective that could pay him more than $8 million by the end of his junior year of college, The Athletic has learned. He’ll be paid $350,000 almost immediately, followed by monthly payouts escalating to more than $2 million per year once he begins his college career, in exchange for making public appearances and taking part in social media promotions and other NIL activities “on behalf of (the collective) or a third party.”
“The NCAA is toothless because the NIL is different in every state and there’s no oversight,” an ACC recruiting coordinator told On3. “The Power 5 conferences wanted autonomy, and they got it. They need to put rules in place. We were waiting for somebody to test the waters and do something big like this with NIL and collectives. We knew it was coming. But I never expected somebody to dive head-first in like this.
“I’m already longing for the days when you had to beat schools that were handing out cars to kids.”
In other words, we know what they are; we’re just haggling over the fee. And just when I think we’ve about reached the limit on stupid money in college sports, too.
I’m really looking forward to the day when Jimmy Sexton takes on his first recruit as a client.