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As National Signing Day arrives, NIL remains factor in recruiting decisions

Nakos updated headshotby: Pete Nakos12/20/23PeteNakos_
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As the agent recently described it, the school sent tickets for a private jet even after the elite recruit had turned them down.

Despite the prospect standing pat on his commitment, the school was insisting on pulling out all the stops just to get them on campus. No promise of a possible commitment flip or in-home visit, just a chance to pitch the 2024 prospect one final time.

“Crazy times,” the source told On3.

National Signing Day has arrived, starting with a flurry of National Letter of Intent documents being sent to college football programs across the country. In an era where college football is hurling itself toward a professionalized model, NIL serves as the stopgap between amateurism and revenue sharing.

The market has matured, too, with smarter spending. Yet, make no mistake, irregularity exists. False numbers and bad contracts are prevalent.

National Signing Day: Live updates on commitment decisions

NIL could provide Signing Day fireworks

As National Signing Day develops on Wednesday, some major fireworks will likely occur. 

Some will be a last-minute change of heart. Others will be money-driven decisions. And let’s be clear, NIL continues to be a factor in where top recruits choose to start their college career.

Booster-backed NIL collectives have littered the landscape. In the top half of the Power 5, most of these organizations are operating on multimillion-dollar budgets and have brought in a swath of former agents and marketing representatives to run operations.

Others are late to the NIL game, unable to produce dollars overnight.

“Some out here are real, some out here are fake,” the father of a top-100 2024 recruit recently told On3. “You know how that goes, some people say it’s this and some people say it’s that. It’s the other people’s experiences and what they’ve been going through, so I can’t speak for them.

“The numbers they’ve been saying are real. They’re saying when he signs they’re going to honor whatever number they throw out there.”