Stewart Mandel of The Athletic shook the college sports world last Friday when he published an article about an unnamed football recruit’s deal with an NIL collective. The 2023 recruit, who by rule and definition hasn’t signed with a school, gets $350,000 up front. That’s a lot of money, but it wasn’t the thing that made everyone take notice.
The player will get monthly payments that escalate over time, leading to a hedged but still eye-popping statement that the contract “could pay him more than $8 million by the end of his junior year in college”.