COLUMBIA, Mo. — Within a few days of announcing his commitment to Missouri’s football team, former Miami Hurricanes quarterback Jake Garcia looked into his smartphone and recorded the same message many of his new teammates had posted on social media that week, pledging their loyalty to another team.
“I’m proud to be an Every True Tiger Foundation athlete,” Garcia told his Instagram followers, echoed online by dozens more Mizzou football and basketball players in recent weeks.
Garcia has yet to take a snap for the Tigers or even give an interview to local media. But as college sports maneuvers through the second full year of the name, image, likeness (NIL) movement, Garcia’s commitment to Mizzou’s newly branded preferred NIL collective coincides with his commitment to coach Eli Drinkwitz’s MU’s football program — and not by coincidence.