NIL

How college basketball’s wave of European imports rose from a recruiting sea change

Published

8 months ago

May 15, 2025

Miško Ražnatović went to his first Final Four in April. A few years ago, the trip to college basketball’s ultimate networking event would have been a waste of time for the agent of Nikola Jokić; most of the young players Ražnatović represents would never have considered coming from overseas to play for a university in the United States. But over four days in San Antonio, he had 70 meetings. Next season Ražnatović will likely represent between 35 and 50 college players.

“(Ražnatović) used to not even pick up the phone for the NCAA before,” said Dražen Zlovarić, a former college player and coach who is the director of North American basketball for BeoBasket, the Serbia-based agency Ražnatović runs. “It’s basically fair game for everybody now. Like the guys that you never think would come to college are actually coming to college.”

The reason is obvious: Money. College basketball’s top talents will earn seven-figure salaries next season, and most of the European players who are rushing over the Atlantic to cash in will be leaving behind five-figure salaries.

“They can make in one season what they can make in half of their career by going to college,” said Avi Even, the former sports director for Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. who recently became the director of basketball operations for the overseas basketball agency Octagon Europe. “So there’s no reason for them to stay here.”

Programs like Gonzaga, Davidson and Saint Mary’s recruit internationally on an annual basis and have carved out a niche in college basketball’s talent market over the past few decades. In recent years, more schools have explored their options overseas, but it was still difficult to convince the best prospects — particularly those connected to teams in the EuroLeague, the continent’s highest level of competition — to leave.

The traditional route for these players has been to start with a professional franchise’s youth program at an early age. The franchises employ coaches to work with those players, often house and feed them in their teenage years and see the payoff when they eventually play for the top team. But in the past 18 months, permissive NCAA eligibility rulings, opportunistic agents and rising pools of name, image and likeness money have combined to open the floodgates.

International prospects from some of the top professional leagues in the world are about to become household names at preseason Top 25 programs like Louisville, Kentucky and Purdue. Ražnatović will represent four players on Illinois’ roster alone, including 22-year-old Serbian point guard Mihailo Petrović, who was an MVP candidate in the Adriatic League playing for KK Mega Basket, the professional club owned by Raznatović’s agency.

The result is an increasingly global flavor to college basketball that figures to be even more noticeable in 2025-26.

“Name the five best players in the NBA, and look where they’re from,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “I just think that we continue to follow that path, the NBA path, and then it trickles down.”

“What would Luka (Dončić) have done as an 18-year-old given the opportunities that would be presented to him now?” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “Would he be coming and playing a year of college? Who knows?”

After contributing at Kentucky and Arkansas, Zvonimir Ivišić will be one of multiple European players on Illinois’ roster next season. (Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)

As an assistant at Gonzaga in the summer of 2014, Tommy Lloyd got a message from the brother of Lithuanian freshman Domantas Sabonis, asking for wire information so that the family could send money to pay for Sabonis’ rent.

“No, no guys,” Lloyd remembered saying. “He’s on scholarship. He’s on a full ride.” Housing would be covered.

The players who came to play college basketball in the United States then had different priorities. Sabonis was an outlier. Because of his family’s wealth — his father, Arvydas, is one of the greatest international players ever and played seven seasons in the NBA — Sabonis had the luxury of taking a path where money wasn’t a determining factor.

Even when the NCAA loosened its restrictions on NIL rights in 2021, there was some uncertainty on how international prospects would benefit from the opportunity to make money. The F-1 student visa used by many college athletes coming from abroad allows international students to study in the U.S., but they cannot work off campus. Schools like Kentucky found workarounds: 2022 national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe fulfilled NIL deals his visa wouldn’t allow while off of American soil. International players can also make money by licensing their NIL rights to their schools.

Another uncertainty concerned whether players had lost their amateur status under the terms of their relationship with professional clubs in European leagues. To maintain NCAA eligibility, players can only have received “actual and necessary expenses” — lodging, travel, meals, etc. — and nothing further from teams they played for prior to college. Most coaches would have been hesitant to recruit a player like Croatian center Zvonimir Ivišić, who started playing professionally at 16 and enrolled two years ago at Kentucky.

“He was really the guy that opened up the floodgates because nobody thought it was really possible,” Zlovarić said of Ivišić, who didn’t get cleared to play until the 17th game of the 2023-24 season. “After that, man, it was like everybody wanted to come over.”

And then there was the belief that college basketball wasn’t the best pathway for top international players’ development. Phillip Parun, an agent for Octagon, has often posed the question to college coaches: Which European players went to college and then made the NBA? He can list most of the recent examples off the top of his head — Sabonis, Lauri Markkanen, Svi Mykhailiuk, the Wagner brothers, Jeremy Sochan, Killian Tillie.

Now compare that to the number of international players selected in the last 10 NBA Drafts who did not go the college route: 92. (Thirty-four of those players have yet to play a minute in the NBA.)

Valentin Le Clezio, an agent with Wasserman, says it’s still best for players who are a year or two away from getting drafted to stay abroad. “College coaches are the best liars on the planet, so you always want to minimize the risk,” Le Clezio said.

But that line of thinking could change if imports enjoy the kind of success that Kasparas Jakučionis and Egor Demin just experienced in their one-and-done college seasons.

Jakučionis played with FC Barcelona’s second team last year, appearing in just one EuroLeague game for the club’s top team. After earning second-team All-Big Ten honors at Illinois, he’s projected to be a lottery pick this June. Demin starred for Real Madrid’s Under-18 team in 2023-24. After one year at BYU, he’s also projected to go in the first round.

Le Clezio estimates that between 60 to 80 college programs were represented at the Under-18 European Championships last summer.

“When you watch a game before (at those events), there was only one or two guys on each team that were high-major players that were going to go to college,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “Now the entire team is open to college if the situation’s right.”

Underwood said Illinois keeps a scouting database with just about every player in every age group overseas.

“Now with the money, everybody has interest,” Le Clezio said. “Everybody feels like we can get the best kids here.”

Relationships still matter, but NIL offers can close the gap, and international players do not care as much about a school’s name recognition.

“A lot of times over here, some guys are a little scatterbrained on what’s important to them, whether it’s style of play, location, whatever,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, who just won the national championship with a starting power forward from Australia, a Nigerian center and a Slovenian guard coming off the bench. “Whereas (international) guys are coming over strictly to focus on basketball and being part of a program where they feel like they can grow and get better. There’s a little less of bells and whistles in their recruiting process.”

Petrović and David Mirkovic didn’t even visit Illinois before committing. Underwood was in Serbia last week watching Petrović play live for the first time.

As the college option becomes more enticing, pro teams abroad feel mostly helpless in the fight to retain talent. EuroLeague sports directors — the analog to general managers in American sports — are frustrated to be losing rotation players to the college ranks.

Some of these breakups have been very public. Dame Sarr, who was in the rotation for FC Barcelona, one of the top clubs in Europe, traveled to the Nike Hoops Summit in Portland last month without his club’s approval. Sarr and FC Barcelona eventually agreed to part ways, and he’s expected to eventually sign with a college team. (He has long been linked with Duke and recently visited Kansas.)

Other recruitments are happening in the shadows. Take Elias Rapieque, a 21-year-old forward for Alba Berlin who grew up playing for its junior team, averaged 15 minutes per game during EuroLeague play this year and is currently helping Alba Berlin try to qualify for the Basketball Bundesliga playoffs. Alba Berlin sports director Himar Ojeda says he found out during the middle of this season that Rapieque was being recruited by colleges.

“No matter how much I like the youngest guy and how much I’m willing to play him, it’s unrealistic that I can pay this guy nothing close by far. By far!” Ojeda said. “So there’s no way we can compete. No one can do it.”

Russian-born point guard Egor Demin, who spent last season at BYU, is a likely first-round pick. (Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)

Bringing some of the best young international talent to college basketball is great for college basketball, but is it good for the overall health of the game worldwide? Similar to NIL and the transfer portal, this is a development the NCAA wasn’t exactly ready for.

As far back as February 2024, NCAA officials, conference commissioners, USA Basketball and representatives from FIBA have discussed how to create a clearer transaction process for players who are leaving teams in Europe to come play college basketball. In the current framework, most players are able to get out of their contract because they can say they’re leaving for academic reasons.

“The reality is they’re not going there for academic reasons; they’re going because they will get a nice chunk of money on top of a good basketball development,” says Thorsten Leibenath, the sports director for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany.

It’s been a disruption to the system for these professional franchises, which use their youth programs to develop their own talent. Omer Mayer, an 18-year-old guard from Tel Aviv, Israel, was one of those players. Mayer was the best young prospect in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s system, who started in the youth program when he was 12 and played in EuroLeague games each of the last three seasons. Even, the club’s former sports director, says Mayer was the “next face of the club” — but last month he committed to Purdue.

Had Mayer left for another club in Europe or stayed with Maccabi Tel Aviv and eventually been drafted, his next club would have been required to pay Maccabi Tel Aviv for his transfer. The current rate for an NBA franchise is $875,000. Some franchises will choose to wait out a player’s contract overseas so that it’s not required to pay the buyout, a “draft and stash” tactic especially popular for second-round picks. Mayer was able to get out of his contract to go to Purdue by paying a small buyout, the amount of which was added to his agreed-upon amount with Purdue’s collective. If he does one day get drafted, Maccabi Tel Aviv will not receive a dime.

“This is where European teams struggle,” Leibenath said. “And this is where you would have to ask the question, why do we do this if we continue to not get any kind of revenue out of that or at least compensation? There’s nothing in it for us.”

Parun has proposed what he thinks could be the solution: The international club loans their players out, retains their rights and gets a small percentage of a player’s earnings while on loan, a system similar to the one soccer has internationally. Leibenath believes FIBA needs to be involved.

“In my eyes colleges nowadays are run like pro teams,” Leibenath said. “They pay their players like pro teams. They make revenue like pro teams. If you consider them pro teams, it would make life a lot easier.”

It would also benefit everyone involved if the NCAA would adjust the wording of its requirement that only amateurs are eligible. As it stands, the organization has found policing the gray area difficult.

“People know now I think even more so than they did obviously two or three or five years ago, if you can produce documentation that only shows that an athlete only received actual necessary expenses, that’s basically all you need,” said a former NCAA employee, given anonymity so he could speak with candor on how the process really works. “If there’s no other conflicting materials or anyone that can go on the record that has any type of real evidence to show that the club did anything improper, then it’s just a matter of time getting through the system that that kid is eligible.”

Without subpoena power, the NCAA is rendered helpless in these cases. And why even try when college basketball players are now making money like professionals?

“Five years ago, none of these guys were getting eligible,” McDermott said. “There was no chance, but because of everything that’s happened in our sport and in college athletics, it’s really hard to stand firm I think on some of those reasons why guys wouldn’t be eligible that have signed pro contracts.”

The new challenge: How to determine how much college eligibility these players have. The current guide is that a player’s year in school is determined by his graduation date. Once a prospect overseas graduates high school, he has a gap year and then he must start studying as his eligibility clock begins. Creighton’s Fedor Zugic, for instance, joined the Jays last year as a 21-year-old and was ruled a college senior because he had more than one gap year due to some commitments with his national team; he has filed for another year of eligibility.

Purdue coach Matt Painter, who has served on the NCAA’s oversight committee and the National Association of Basketball Coaches board, sees an easy solution to the eligibility side. He has recommended to the NCAA that anyone college-aged should be eligible.

“Even if they’ve been a pro and they’ve signed, who cares now?” Painter said. “They’re all pros. Everybody’s getting paid in name, image and likeness. So what’s the difference in having a contract overseas?”

Lloyd is one of the experts in this field, because he’s been recruiting overseas for multiple decades, first as an assistant at Gonzaga and now as the head coach at Arizona. At both places, he’s had players who are immediately successful and some who need a year or two to adjust.

Rui Hachimura, for instance, arrived from Japan and played only 4.6 minutes per game as a freshman at Gonzaga. As a junior, he was a second-team All-American and went ninth in the 2019 NBA Draft.

“I think the key to making it work, like anything, is being 100 percent committed,” Lloyd said. “Understanding that it’s not always going to work. You can’t take one shot, because there’s lots of reasons kids don’t work out.”

The 2025-26 season could be an inflection point for a lot of college coaches, who will either try to get in on the trend if it works out for the schools at its forefront or tread carefully because of high-profile misses.

Zlovarić is betting on the former. Last month, he was on the stage with Florida after the Gators won the national championship with one of their clients, Urban Klavzar, on the roster. Klavzar was just a backup, averaging 3.2 points per game, but Alex Condon, from Australia, was a key starter. He trained at the NBA Global Academy, which has long been sending some of its best players to American college.

But most of the top Europeans have been off-limits, and the real eye-opener will be when a team wins a national title with an NBA-bound European prospect as one of its stars.

“That’s going to happen next year, or if not next year, it is gonna happen after that,” Zlovarić says. “(Recruiting) Europeans is becoming mainstream. And the whole mindset is shifting where now, like, ‘Hey, why would I just only look at a St. John’s transfer if there is a guy out there that used to not be available but is available to me now and he’s just as good, if not better? Why would I not go get it?’

“Up until this point, the most talented went to the draft in the NBA, and the second tier, they went to EuroLeague and somewhere in Europe. But now it’s completely changed, obviously, in the approach. Because now, like everybody, we are 100 percent open.”

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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Demond Williams Will Return to Washington Despite Contract Dispute

Published

51 minutes ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Washington quarterback Demond Williams shook the college football world on Tuesday night, as ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the dynamic dual-threat quarterback was set to enter the transfer portal just a week after signing a lucrative NIL agreement to remain at Washington. Now, after days of controversy surrounding his next career move, Williams will remain with the Huskies after all.

Williams announced his return via social media, just minutes after a report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel that he was leaning towards remaining at the school.

“After thoughtful reflection with my family, I am excited to announce that I will continue my football journey at the University of Washington,” Williams wrote. “I am deeply grateful to my coaches, teammates, and everyone in the program for fostering an environment where I can thrive both as an athlete and as an individual.

“I am full committed and focused on contributing to what we are building.”

In his statement, Williams also apologized for the timing of Tuesday’s decision to enter the transfer portal, which took place while much of the football team was attending a celebration of life for Huskies soccer player Mia Hamant, who died from a rare form of kidney cancer in November.

Forde: Lane Kiffin Once Again Pushes Boundaries in Demond Williams Jr. Saga

“Over the last few days, Demond and I have engaged in very honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and future,” Washington coach Jedd Fisch said in a statement. “We both agree that the University of Washington is the best place for him to continue his academic, athletic and social development.”

Williams’s agreement with the Huskies is reportedly worth around $4.5 million, and Washington was reportedly prepared to pursue legal recourse if he did not honor the deal. Lane Kiffin’s LSU program was the program most frequently attached to Williams, but now will look elsewhere to fill its quarterback position for 2026.

The decision comes hours after Williams was dropped by his agent, Doug Hendrickson of Wasserman Football. He also retained lawyer Darren Heitner, who has become a regular figure in college athletics eligibility cases during the NIL and transfer portal era.

GameDay host Rece Davis mentioned that there will have to be some fences mended between Williams and Washington. Before Williams’s ultimate decision to return, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reported that the program “would still welcome Demond Williams back to the team and is still hoping for him to remain with the program.”

FREE. SI College Football Newsletter. Get SI’s College Football Newsletter. dark

Williams committed to play for Fisch at his home-state program Arizona, transferring to Washington when Fisch took the job following the departure of Kalen DeBoer. He played in 13 games as a freshman, accounting for 1,226 total yards and 11 touchdowns before taking over as full-time starter in 2025.

Williams totaled over 3,600 yards and 31 touchdowns as a sophomore under Fisch.

Season	Comp %	Pass Yards	YPA	TD	Int	Rush Yards	TD
2024	78.1	944	9.0	8	1	282	2
2025	69.5	3,065	8.7	25	8	611	6

Williams was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and USC’s Jayden Maiava in a conference stocked with passing talent.

Now, he will be back for a third Big Ten season rather than make a controversial jump to LSU or another program.

More College Football on Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.

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Transfer portal drama is overshadowing the actual College Football Playoff

Published

2 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

If you’re a sports fan, you may be unaware of a very important fact: the College Football Playoff semifinals start tonight.

There are several reasons for why the actual CFP has fallen off the radar for sports fans. Week 18 of the NFL season and the first week of the NFL playoffs always present huge storylines, let alone the coaching carousel that is already underway. Then there’s the fact that the College Football Playoff had the spotlight to itself around the New Year’s Day holiday, which has historically been dedicated to the sport. Even the NBA has snuck into the headlines with the first blockbuster trade of the season, with Trae Young being dealt from the Hawks to the Wizards.

Miami and Ole Miss square off on Thursday night at the Fiesta Bowl while Indiana will play Oregon in an all-Big Ten affair at the Peach Bowl. But unless you’ve been following each program closely, you likely haven’t heard too much in the way of actual previews or analysis about the games.

Perhaps the biggest reason as to why the College Football Playoff semifinals have gone missing from our collective consciousness? Transfer portal and NIL drama are sucking up all the oxygen in and around college football.

Much of the consternation in college football over the current calendar is related to the timing of the transfer portal opening in early January. It’s why Lane Kiffin felt the need to controversially bail on Ole Miss and move to LSU with his team still very much alive in the national championship hunt. It’s why players on playoff teams are entering the portal before their season is done. And it’s why so many headlines and social media chatter is being dedicated to what will happen next season before this season is done.

The top ranked Indiana Hoosiers are a perfect example. Perhaps after their Rose Bowl thumping of Alabama, everyone has assumed that their job is done even though they have two more games to win before they can claim a national championship. But the focus right now is at least being shared between what Indiana is doing in the transfer portal for next season and Mark Cuban stepping up to fund NIL efforts and finishing the job for this season.

“Indiana is cleaning up in the transfer portal right now, even while they’re preparing for a National Semifinal.”

More from @joelklatt on how Curt Cignetti is reloading with @IndianaFootball. pic.twitter.com/CjFz9PnSaG

— The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football on FOX Pod (@JoelKlattShow) January 6, 2026

NEW: Billionaire Indiana alumnus Mark Cuban is donating to the Hoosiers 2026 transfer portal class, @FOS reports💰

“Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year.”https://t.co/mXEX3QniMt pic.twitter.com/u5QgP3DQkC

— On3 (@On3sports) January 7, 2026

Of course, that’s nothing compared to the drama at Ole Miss, where the transfer portal isn’t just about Rebels players but coaches. The shadowy figure of Lane Kiffin is still looming large over the Ole Miss playoff run. And as Jimbo Fisher pointed out in a scathing condemnation of Kiffin’s behavior, the drama around which assistants will and won’t coach Ole Miss in the semifinals is likely because Kiffin thought his former team would lose to Georgia and be done with their season. On top of that, the future of star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was a huge question mark before he finally “agreed a new deal” with Ole Miss if he is granted eligibility to play next season.

Look around college football and so many headlines and social media conversations are geared towards what is happening in the transfer portal and not whether Oregon can avenge their loss to Indiana or whether Miami can physically dominate Ole Miss the way they did Ohio State.

Washington quarterback Demond Williams has caused a firestorm for breaking an agreement with his current school to potentially take more money from elsewhere.

Ohio State has lost several former four and five star recruits to the portal after their surprising quarterfinal exit to the Hurricanes.

Texas Tech landed top portal quarterback Brendan Sorsby with a $5 million offer.

New Penn State coach Matt Campbell has taken a huge chunk of his former Iowa State team with him to Happy Valley.

All of this transfer portal news is a boom for recruiting sites and others that make player movement part of the core of their coverage. But mainstream outlets are also forced to balance out their CFP output with daily updates, portal trackers, and headlines.

With the transfer portal only open from January 2-16, the college football world has no choice but to try to spin all the plates at once and keep track of all the news. Not only is it insane for the schools and programs to try to balance, especially those still competing for a title, but it’s insane for the health of the overall sport and keeping the focus where it should be.

The transfer portal will open and shut entirely within the College Football Playoff. Could you imagine a universe where NFL free agency kicks off the day after the Divisional Round and shuts down a few days before the Super Bowl? Could you imagine the NBA holding its draft during the middle of the NBA Finals? It would be ludicrous decision making that no sane person would ever sign off on — not just because it’s a nonsensical way to run a sport, but because it would take the attention off of its actual championship.

We are human beings. We are naturally inclined to be sucked in by drama. And the transfer portal fulfills all of our primal needs. The flips, the mysteries, the betrayals, the shocks, the surprises. It fulfills our natural thirst for intrigue and excitement in a way that breaking down Miami’s pass rush against the Ole Miss OL simply can’t. And the fact that it’s a true wild west experience with no rules, guardrails, or boundaries makes it all the more tantalizing.

College football has never been more popular as a sport across the nation in spite of so many unforced errors and own goals. Nobody in their right mind would want to divert attention away from crowning a champion during what should be the pinnacle of the sport and the entire reason for its existence. And yet, that’s exactly how college football is currently operating.

The simple fix, as suggested by Oregon coach Dan Lanning, is to move the College Football Playoff earlier so that it ends on New Year’s Day and the portal can be a true offseason activity. That way, the hearts and minds of the college football universe don’t have to be so divided and we can actually celebrate a national champion for one season before actually moving on to the next. Of course, since that seems like the right and easy thing to do, don’t hold your breath waiting on it to actually happen.

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Miami vs. Ole Miss score, live updates: Trinidad Chambliss puts Rebels ahead with TD pass

Published

3 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Q4 3:13 – Ole Miss 27, Miami 24

Huge mistake by Miami again. Trinidad Chambliss fires incomplete toward Harrison Wallace III but Ja’Boree Antoine had a hand full of jersey, drawing a pass interference penalty.

Three plays later, after a 19-yard scramble by Chambliss, Ole Miss finds the end zone. Chambliss calmly connects with Dae’Quan Wright for a 24-yard touchdown to put the Rebels up by a point.

The two-point conversion is good too as Chambliss finds Caleb Odom wide open.

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Troy Aikman convinced Joe Buck not to fund Indiana football

Published

4 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

After witnessing Troy Aikman’s tribulations with NIL at UCLA, Joe Buck has no interest in funding Indiana football.

Last month, Aikman told Richard Deitsch he was a one and done with NIL, claiming he wrote UCLA a sizable check to secure a star recruit who ultimately left for another school after just one season. Aikman was further miffed by the fact that he didn’t even get a thank you note for his donation.

It has been widely assumed that current Oregon quarterback Dante Moore is the player Aikman was referring to. And according to UCLA, school protocol prohibits players from knowing which donors contributed NIL funds, thus making thank you notes difficult. Considering NIL has turned college sports into the Wild West, it is odd that a line is drawn at players learning where the money comes from. Protocol or not, Aikman didn’t like his foray into funding college players, and it seems to have rubbed off on Buck.

The Monday Night Football play-by-play voice joined The Morning After on 101 ESPN this week where they discussed his alma mater playing in the College Football Playoff semifinals this week. As a former Indiana University student, Joe Buck is now in the unprecedented position of seeing his favorite college football team morph into a football powerhouse. Unfortunately for Indiana, Aikman’s experience with NIL has already soured Buck on the idea of donating to their football program.

“Troy has talked to me about what went on at UCLA and kind of what he got for the money that he donated and that will not be something that I will be partaking in,” Buck said.

“He left!” Buck added of the UCLA player that supposedly received a sizable check from Aikman. “You don’t get the money back from what I understand…it doesn’t seem like a great program for the donor.”

The good news for Indiana University, who boasts Mark Cuban’s pockets as an alumnus, is that Buck also claims the local wealthy farmers are heavily involved in supporting NIL.

“I’m not being a smart aleck about it, I think there are a lot of farmers around Indiana that are making money,” Buck said. “It’s almost like everybody has come out of the woodwork and it’s like, ‘Let me have my little piece of this’ because it’s been so long and they’re willing to send money in, from what I hear.”

It’s hard to argue with Buck and Aikman. Where’s the incentive to spend big dollars on a recruit who can leave after one season? And we’re not even going to get into the fact those players are prohibited from offering a thank you note in return. But hopefully for Indiana, those hardworking farmers don’t start taking NIL advice from Buck the way he did from Aikman.

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Demond Williams announces he’ll return to Washington for junior season

Published

4 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Demond Williams Jr.’s dalliance with the transfer portal has come to an end.

The Washington quarterback, who announced Tuesday that he planned to enter the portal despite signing a contract with Washington four days prior, wrote in an Instagram post Thursday that he is “excited to announce that I will continue my football journey at the University of Washington.”

Williams wrote that the decision came “after thoughtful reflection with my family.”

Williams’ return ends a two-day saga over the quarterback’s status.

Williams signed a contract agreeing to return to the Huskies in early January, a Washington source close to the negotiations told The Athletic on Tuesday night. Yet, Williams said in an Instagram post Tuesday that transferring was “best for me and my future.” Williams had not filed any paperwork with Washington compliance officers to have his name entered into the portal before making his announcement on social media.

Washington sources told The Athletic after Williams’ announcement that the program had “no intention” of releasing the quarterback from the contract he signed Jan. 2 and was prepared to pursue legal action to enforce the terms of the contract, according to a person briefed on the situation.

On Thursday night, ESPN reported that Williams was “leaning toward returning,” and a Washington source told The Athletic that the program was willing to “take back” its star.

Shortly after Williams posted that he was returning, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch and athletic director Patrick Chun also released statements on social media confirming Williams’ return.

Statements from Head Coach Jedd Fisch and UW Director of Athletics Pat Chun. pic.twitter.com/gq7wDL0cn5

— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) January 9, 2026

“Over the last few days, Demond and I have engaged in very honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and future,” Fisch wrote. “We both agree that the University of Washington is the best place for him to continue his academic, athletic, and social development.

“I appreciate Demond’s statement. I support him, and we will work together to begin the process of repairing relationships and regaining the trust of the Husky community.”

Chun wrote that the situation was “emblematic of the many current issues in college sports,” adding, “It is critical in this post-House, revenue-sharing environment that contracts with student-athletes are not only enforced but respected by everyone within the college sports ecosystem.”

Leaving Washington after signing a contract could have potentially been costly for Williams.

The Big Ten has a revenue-share contract template that its schools use, varying slightly based on different state laws or individual negotiations. Those contracts state that if a player intends to transfer before the end of a payment period, he owes the remaining amount on his contract, unless the school agrees to accept a buyout from the player or the player’s next school, according to multiple copies obtained by The Athletic. The contracts also state that the school is “not obligated” to enter a player into the portal.

In this case, Williams would likely have owed Washington $4 million for the one-year deal if his deal was based on those templates. The buyout also could have counted toward his next school’s revenue-sharing cap, according to Collegiate Sports Commission rules.

However, it’s unclear if such contracts would hold up in court. Williams obtained the services of noted NIL lawyer Darren Heitner earlier Thursday, but it doesn’t appear this will be challenged. Former Georgia defensive end Damon Wilson II last month sued Georgia’s athletic association over its attempt to get $390,000 from his decision to transfer last year. The case is ongoing.

Big Ten officials held a call with the conference’s athletic directors earlier Thursday to assure them that the league office would support Washington in its enforcement of the contract, according to a person involved in the meeting.

Williams followed Fisch to Seattle two years ago after committing to Arizona out of high school. However, before signing with Fisch at Arizona, Williams initially committed to Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin in late 2022. He de-committed the following summer. Williams started the 2025 season, with Fisch not holding back the hype for his quarterback entering the season.

“I would probably say, at this age, not even 19, he’s the best player I’ve ever been around,” Fisch said on the “Until Saturday” podcast last spring. “… My goal from when I started recruiting him in high school, and I told him this, we’re going to partner up and find a way to be in New York City when it’s time for the Heisman.”

Williams has thrown for 4,009 yards and 33 touchdowns against nine interceptions, adding 893 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns in 26 career games at Washington. In his first season as the starter, he passed for 3,065 yards and 25 touchdowns, earning All-Big Ten honorable mention honors.

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NIL

Bo Jackson could leave Ohio State, seeking major NIL deal

Published

5 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

After Ohio State’s College Football Playoff exit at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes, the Buckeyes have been bleeding players to the transfer portal.

22 Buckeyes have entered the portal as of Wednesday afternoon, including two running backs, James Peoples and Sam Williams-Dixon.

Now, Ohio State may be at risk of losing a third, the program’s star freshman.

Ohio State portal entries so far, with 9 Days left in the portal:
– QB Lincoln Keinholz
– RB James Peoples
– RB Sam Williams Dixon
– WR Quincy Porter
– WR Mylan Graham
– WR Bryson Rodgers
– WR Damarion Witten
– TE Jaleni Thurman
– IOL Tegra Tshabola
– IOL Jayvon McFadden…

— Swish (@swishxvibes) January 7, 2026

Ohio State running back Bo Jackson may be entering the transfer portal if the Buckeyes cannot meet the desired amount he and his camp are seeking. According to WBNS-TV, Jackson is seeking an NIL deal that would surpass what Ohio State’s running backs earned last season and rival some NFL rookie contracts.

“From what I understand, the request from [Bo Jackson] is more than what TreVeyon [Henderson]’s salary was for the New England Patriots this year,” Jeremy Birmingham said on The Beat with Austin & Birm Thursday morning. “And, more than both TreVeyon and Quinshon [Judkins] made in their final year at Ohio State, and maybe combined.”

Per reports from On3, Judkins’ NIL valuation at the end of his Ohio State career was $1.1 million. For Henderson, while less than his counterpart, reportedly made over $700,000 at the end of the 2023 season.

Additionally, Henderson’s contract with the New England Patriots is a four-year rookie deal valued at just over $11 million, with a $4.7 million signing bonus. Henderson’s rookie year base pay with New England is $840,000, with a $1.1 million signing bonus.

Based on those figures, it appears that Jackson and his camp may be requesting the Buckeyes to pay somewhere in the realm of $1.8 million to retain the freshman.

If all the rumors are true, Ohio State will have to decide whether spending a huge chunk of its NIL money to pay just one starter is worth not letting him slip into the transfer portal. A nearly $2 million NIL deal for Ohio State would cost around 10 percent of the program’s total NIL budget of last season, which Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said cost around $20 million.

Ohio State will have to decide if Jackson’s freshman performance is worth the high pay. During his first year as a Buckeye, Jackson rushed for 1,090 yards (No. 24 nationally) and six touchdowns (No. 120 nationally) over the span of 13 games. Jackson averaged 6.1 yards per carry.

In Judkins and Henderson’s final seasons with Ohio State, the running back duo both rushed for more than 1,000 yards each and combined for 24 rushing touchdowns in 16 games.

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