Luke Altmyer encourages athletes to 'eliminate ego' while navigating NIL

When Luke Altmyer returned for another year at Illinois, he had opportunities to leave. But as he told On3, he made an “unselfish decision” to stay with the Fighting Illini, which resulted in a career year.

That was also Altmyer’s message for athletes while navigating NIL. He cited the need to avoid “ego” and stay humble as they go through the space.

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Altmyer reiterated the team aspect of football as he encouraged athletes not to get too caught up in the social media age or focus too much on themselves. With that mindset, he said there’s a better chance everything off the field will work out.

“It’s so easy to be selfish, I think, and play around with a big ego, to self-promote,” Altmyer said on behalf of U.S. Cellular. “We forget that football’s the greatest team sport in the land. Without the team, without the people around you, you’re pretty broken. It’s easy with the media to be able to flaunt and self-promote and put yourself out there and have a big ego. I think eliminating that, eliminating the ego, is the No. 1 priority in this land, in this realm of college football today. So eliminating the ego.

“Humility is such a big key of that. Learning the big habits of humility. Waking up always doing the right thing, no matter how difficult, how easy it is. Always doing the right thing and always being your best. Wanting to achieve as high as you can using the gifts that God’s given you to be your best. Eliminating the ego, humility, doing the right thing always and being your best. I think those things, knock them out, you’ll be in a good spot.”

Altmyer put up the best numbers of his career in 2025 as he completed 67.4% of his passes for 3,007 yards and 22 touchdowns. As he previously told On3 before the year, he had the chance to leave and go somewhere else to end his college career after opting not to declare for the NFL Draft.

But Luke Altmyer said it’s part of the current landscape in the era of player movement. As a result, he chose to focus on the program rather than what was best for him.

“With the dollars that are in place now and all the cultures and traditions that are trying to get you to come play for them,” Altmyer said. “It was crazy. I was blessed to be in a position to be able to live in that, but man, I wanted to be a part of a program that was bigger than myself.”