Four of Florida football's top players sign new NIL deals with Gator Collective

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•04/26/22•

ZachAbolverdi

Late last Friday, Florida linebacker Ventrell Miller posted from his Twitter account for the first time in more than 10 months.

The Gator Collective made a bold statement on social media earlier that night — a day after officially partnering with the Gator Guard and its $5 million war chest for name, image and likeness.

“Gator Collective will not write an NIL deal unless it already has the money to pay that deal in its account. Can other schools say the same? #guaranteed,” the account tweeted.

Gator Collective’s CEO and Founder, former Florida pitcher Eddie Rojas, also tweeted that attorney Jen Grosso “might have carpel tunnel from writing contracts” on Friday.

Miller took to Twitter to confirm.

Miller is one of four top Florida players who signed with the Gator Collective last Friday and Saturday. GC also struck new NIL deals with outside linebacker Brenton Cox Jr., defensive tackle Gervon Dexter and, most importantly, quarterback Anthony Richardson.

Richardson is the latest to sign with the Gator Collective, which currently has 16 football players and UF hoops star Colin Castleton under contract.

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In a new era of college sports where some of the top football and basketball players are leaving their current programs for NIL deals (or better ones) from another school’s collective, that’s not a problem Florida is facing with the establishment of the Gator Collective and Gator Guard.

“The way that things are going in the NIL space, especially in this conference, you can now make a lucrative salary with NIL,” said Marcus Castro-Walker, UF’s director of NIL and player engagement. “As long as the players are doing the work for collectives, like the Gator Collective here, they’re getting paid salaries monthly, right? And that’s completely changed the landscape. Because now, I hate to say this, but whoever has the biggest pockets can now play the game. And you can do it legally. For example, right now we’re coming up in May. Transfer portal, free agency, right?

“If I’m a really good player, and you know, I know that school would want me to start for them, I’m entering the portal as a free agent and going to that place and getting paid more money in NIL. Right? And that can legally be done. We have certain players who are doing extremely well in the NIL space here. They still talk to all their high school buddies, their seven-on-seven buddies. So, they’re like, ‘Man, I want to come to the University of Florida because I know that my friend who’s there is getting this and has this opportunity.’ So, what do you think that does to recruiting? The top recruits want to go to places where there is strong NIL backing.”

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