How NIL shaped National Signing Day

On3 imageby:Pete Nakos12/22/22

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Coincidentally, Nike’s stock surged Wednesday.

Hours later, Oregon pulled off recruiting win after recruiting win. While the night ended with Ducks head coach Dan Lanning smoking a cigar with Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” playing behind him, make no mistake of Phil Knight‘s impact on this signing class.

Division Street is one of the most established NIL collectives in the country. Knight is a co-founder of the collective, along with multiple former Nike executives.

Division Street has been at the forefront of collectives using NFTs to its advantage. The collective has its own apparel line, Ducks of a Feather, too. All merchandise is created by Nike, with profits going back to Oregon athletes. They also have a partnership with Opendorse to create a marketplace catered for the collective.

The Ducks dominated the day on the recruiting trail. They have NIL to thank for that. As multiple sources indicated to On3, having five-star quarterback Dante Moore flip to UCLA opened up some NIL opportunities for the Ducks to play with.

All in a matter of one day, the Ducks landed five-star EDGE Matayo Uiagalelei and offensive tackle Ajani Cornelius, one of the most highly-touted athletes in the Transfer Portal. Oh yeah, Oregon started the day with Baylor commit Austin Novosad flipping to the Ducks.

Knight’s name was trending on Twitter by noon ET.

And as one agent pointed out, “No head coach in the country is more aggressive about NIL than Dan Lanning.”

Lanning knows how to sell Nike and Division Street. And he has Phil Knight to thank for providing those two valuable resources.

Miami’s NIL program can not be overshadowed

While Oregon and Phil Knight may have dominated the headlines Wednesday, make no mistake about what Miami has done over the past year.

In just a year since the Hurricanes hired Mario Cristobal, they currently sit at No. 3 in On3’s Consensus Team Rankings. And much of that is thanks to the impact of John Ruiz.

Using his two companies — LifeWallet and Cigarette Racing — he has distributed more than $10 million in NIL deals over the last year. The billionaire plans to continue to invest in NIL over the next year.

“At this point, a lot of kids are gravitating towards Miami,” Ruiz told On3 on Wednesday night.

It’s just a fact at this point, and recruits and Transfer Portal entrants are taking notice. The Hurricanes have one of the top NIL programs in the country at their disposal thanks to the work of Ruiz. And it’s why they were one of the winners on signing day.

Priority list looks different for each recruit

Speaking in front of media members on signing day, a number of head coaches spoke about how NIL had impacted their class. USC head coach Lincoln Riley was honest, admitting that the Trojans lost out on a handful of athletes because of where NIL ranked on the priority list.

That is the same reality multiple programs across the country dealt with.

“I think there was a massive impact on a handful of key players,” an agent with a roster of multiple blue-chip recruits said. “For the majority of recruits, I stand with what I’ve always said: It’s not a huge difference maker. However, there were some key five-star players that would not be committed to certain schools if NIL was not around. Many at Miami, I can think of five off the top of my head that are there and Miami isn’t the only school. There were many NIL-related flips at the eleventh hour with Oregon and Texas A&M as well.

“There are some schools that sit between 10-15 right now that would be top five if other schools did not get involved with NIL offers. The sad part in all of this is, most kids will transfer because it’s not where they want to be, but it’s already derailing their life and development as a player.”

For a handful of recruits, NIL outweighed everything else on the checklist. If it was not the best long-term fit, they took the financial package now. And in the future, they can hit Transfer Portal. Cheating is not new in college football. But college athletics’ new era has poured more money into the recruiting realm.

The Coach Prime effect

Colorado does not have the wealthiest alumni base in FBS. The Buffaloes also do not have the most established NIL collective.

But they do have Deion Sanders. The impact of being with Coach Prime is real, and it does equate to NIL dollars in the long run.

Case in point, Travis Hunter announced Wednesday he would make his transfer commitment after reaching 100,000 YouTube subscribers. His YouTube channel hit the quota in less than eight hours, ultimately following Sanders to Colorado. The former five-star plus recruit would never even know the value of YouTube if not for Sanders, who operates his own page which has more than 180,000 followers.

There has been communication between Cormani McClain‘s camp and Colorado in the last day, per On3’s Chad Simmons. Don’t think for a minute McClain won’t have similar NIL opportunities in Boulder that he was presented at Miami.

Flips were kept at minimum because of NIL

Oregon was able to flip Novosad and LSU cornerback commit Daylen Austin on signing day, the number of flips were not as high as some expected. That was because of NIL.

Most recruits who work with agents and lawyers were advised to sign deals ahead of the Transfer Portal opening. The amount of accessible NIL funds were going to be shortchanged.

“Any 2023 recruits I’ve worked with, I’ve gotten their money figured out eight months ago because I knew the Transfer Portal was coming,” an agent who requested anonymity told On3. “Recruits can’t wait to make a decision. And if they back out, they need to know the money isn’t going to be the same.”

There is also a trickle-down effect. With the Transfer Portal open for business during signing day, collectives opted to pursue proven talent and then pay for a flip at the last minute.

“2023 recruits who aren’t committed and waited are screwed,” NIL lawyer Mike Caspino said. “2024s are all on hold until the portal ends, that’s what we’re seeing for NIL deals.”