Mike Locksley implies 5-star Maryland commit Zion Elee was paid to visit South Carolina

Maryland landed a huge commitment from Baltimore St. Frances Academy Five-Star Plus+ EDGE Zion Elee nearly 11 months ago last December. Since then, the Terrapins have been fending off others to keep the nation’s No. 2 overall prospect in the 2026 cycle in the fold.

Elee has previously announced his recruitment as “closed” while canceling visits elsewhere. The rumor mill has continued to churn this fall, however, and over the weekend South Carolina got him to visit for its game against Alabama.

The trip, which actually turned out to be an official visit, was notable, as Elee told Rivals’ Marcus Benjamin this summer that the Gamecocks were one of the programs in contact with him the most entering his senior season. Maryland head coach Mike Locksley isn’t sweating seeing Elee on another campus, though.

Speaking with ‘The Sports Junkies’ on Wednesday, Locksley implied that Elee was paid by South Carolina to come down to Columbia for a visit:

“In my opinion, those guys, you know they get paid to go take those trips now,” Locksley said. “Why would I be mad for Zion to make five to ten grand to go down to South Carolina? He’s been one of those guys that’s been really loyal to this area, he’s been loyal to me and the program that we’ve created.”

Locksley then walked back the accusation a bit, but stamped his point about not battling other programs for recruits when it comes to the evolving and uncertain NIL landscape:

“We have constant dialogue, some of these schools have the ability where they pay kids to come take visits, they hide it behind the NIL stuff and if the kid has an opportunity — I’m not saying that that’s what happened, but you know, over the years for me, if I have great communication with a kid, I can’t operate out of fear,” he said. “I think we’ve got a great product and at the end if he doesn’t think it’s the best situation for him, we’ll go find somebody else, we’ve done that.”

The seventh-year Terps head coach remains confident in his approach. Maryland currently has just 11 commits in its 2026 class, but Elee is the jewel. With the December signing period just over a month away, the Big Ten program is nearing the finish line to ink a potentially program-altering prospect.

“I’m staying locked in with Maryland,” Elee told Rivals in August. “The relationship I have with the coaches is pretty tight. Obviously, we are still building because I still talk to them on a constant basis.”

GamecockCentral provided an update on Elee’s recruitment after the visit on Monday. South Carolina currently has 15 commits this cycle and a class that ranks No. 17 nationally, according to the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. Maryland currently checks in at No. 55.