NIL

Is Texas college football’s new Alabama?

Published

5 months ago

August 12, 2025

Editor’s note: This article is part of the Program Builders series, focusing on the behind-the-scenes executives and people fueling the future growth of their sports.

AUSTIN, Texas — The offseason remodeling of Texas football has mostly focused on the installation of a famous new starting quarterback for the Longhorns, but it also included a stylish makeover of their headquarters at the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Center.

Open-concept, modern and sleek, the updated lobby doubles as a trophy room. An assortment of impressive awards welcomes visitors: the Golden Hat that goes to the winner of the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma; just about every bronze statue a college football player can win from Heisman to Thorpe to Ray Guy (shout out, Michael Dickson); and, of course, a couple of national championship trophies.

Notably, there is plenty of space to add more hardware. Smart planning. After two consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff semifinals and a program-record 23 players selected over the last two NFL Drafts, head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns seem to be just getting started.

For the first time, Texas will enter a college football season as the No. 1 team in the country, as the Associated Press on Monday proclaimed the Longhorns the preseason frontrunners. The Coaches Poll did the same last week. It’s yet another milestone for a program that is well past the point of being merely “back.” Now, the Longhorns are trying to solidify the elite status that comes from churning out national title contenders on a yearly basis.

“If you talk to any of our players, or you just listen to their discussions … our players are talking about national championship,” Sarkisian told The Athletic this spring, when the lobby project was still exposed drywall and wires hanging from the ceiling. “They’re not talking about a rebuild. They’re not talking about, ‘Well, we’ll see how this goes.’ There’s a standard here. There’s an expectation, and they understand that they’re held to the standard.”

In short, Texas is becoming the new Alabama. No, that doesn’t mean the Longhorns are going to rattle off a half-dozen titles in the next decade. But this is the season Texas puts its staying power on display. There is always another draft pick. There is always another All-American. The talent conveyor belt is fully operational — and well-funded. The days of stumbling as a 12-point favorite at home appear to be over.

Texas stepped into its new conference last year SEC-ready. Only Georgia kept the Longhorns from immediately running the league.

The Longhorns maneuvered past Alabama and created a new pecking order in the SEC. This year will determine whether it sticks, but everything appears to be in place for Texas to take the Crimson Tide’s spot alongside Georgia as the conference’s biggest bullies.

There is only room for so many superpowers in one conference.

Coach Kalen DeBoer enters Year 2 in Tuscaloosa with a roster talented enough to return the Crimson Tide to the ranks of the national championship contenders, but Alabama still faces questions about what its post-Nick Saban reality will be. Especially after DeBoer’s debut produced a 9-4 season, highlighted (or maybe lowlighted) by some losses that had previously been unthinkable.

Meanwhile, Texas has moved into a new phase of its development under Sarkisian. With Arch Manning ready to step in at quarterback, the Longhorns believe the arrow is still pointing up.

“I think Texas is in a phenomenal place,” said ESPN analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, who went to high school just outside of Austin. “There’s no denying, Sark’s got access to everything he wants.”

With Arch Manning stepping in as starting QB, Texas opens at No. 1 in both major polls. (Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)

Much like Kirby Smart did when he left Saban and Alabama to take over at Georgia, Sarkisian implemented the Bama blueprint at a school with more resources and easier access to talent than Saban’s old school, building a program to rival the Tide.

At a time when how much a school can spend has never been more directly tied to how good the team can be, no school is better positioned to fund a championship roster than Texas. Reports that the Longhorns built a $40 million-plus roster this year are difficult to confirm but not hard to believe.

“They can outspend anybody if they wanted to,” McElroy said.

As college football tries to move away from unregulated name, image and likeness spending and into a capped revenue-sharing system, the market advantage should shift to schools — and their collectives — that can align with companies big and small to provide athletes deals on top of rev-share payments. Business is booming in Austin, which has become a hub for tech companies. The Texas One Fund has at least 20 sponsorship partners, including Texas-based Benchmark Bank.

“The area to differentiate any university is, how many outside — call it true NIL or whatever you want to call it — how many of those opportunities are out there for student-athletes?” said Patrick “Wheels” Smith, president of Texas One Fund. “And having the best model not only is good for your university and you can recruit better and win, but it’s also good for kids to get opportunities. So our plan is to continue on that whole for-profit space, to get as many opportunities as we can for our student-athletes in the for-profit brand space.”

But the Saban way is not so much about a place or a plan as it is a culture that stifles complacency and prepares the next wave of blue-chippers to step up when it’s their time.

Saban’s message to players: This will be hard, but the payoff is plentiful — championships, individual accolades and the NFL Draft. Fun? The fun is in winning.

That culture has been difficult to build at Texas. Coaches who have been at Texas talk about an “I have made it” attitude that often arrives in Austin with highly touted recruits.

Sarkisian and his staff have tried to change that.

“Doing games with Sark in his first year, he was like, ‘We have got to get kids that hate to lose. They cannot after a loss be OK with playing well.’ And I think that took a year or two,” McElroy said.

“Ultimately the goal is to win the last game of the season,” Longhorns guard Cole Hutson said. “Still working on that, but they’re looking for people that have the want-to and the drive to kind of make sure that when things get rough that they’re going to push through, and they’re going to persevere.”

Third-year receiver DeAndre Moore talked about watching Sarkisian dial up plays for DeVonta Smith during Alabama’s last national title run in 2020, wanting a piece of that action. That’s what led the top-150 recruit from California to Texas.

Moore also noted that at one point the Tide had four future first-round draft pick receivers on their depth chart, and it was Smith who went on to win the Heisman after being fourth in line behind Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs and Jaylen Waddle.

Moore enters his third year with Texas looking to take a leap from complementary player to one of Manning’s top targets after the Longhorns had three receivers drafted within the first two rounds over the last two years.

“Not gonna sit here and tell you that everything was just fine, you know, all rainbows and sunshine,” Moore said. “And there were definitely some days where I was just like, man, this is tough, but I knew there was a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.”

Texas high schools consistently pump out more blue-chip recruits than any other state in the country. That’s a good thing, of course, for the Longhorns, who don’t have to go far to lay the foundation of a championship team. The downside, McElroy said, is the well-oiled machine that is youth football in the Lone Star State also produces a preponderance of players who are near maxed out as teenagers.

“Oftentimes they might be a five-star and they get on campus and they’re the same guy for four years,” McElroy said. “While they want to take kids from Texas, you gotta take the right kids.”

Sarkisian, who broke into big-time college coaching at USC under Pete Carroll, tries to blend Saban’s process-driven discipline with Carroll’s cool competitiveness.

“Those guys were both uber successful, crazy successful coaches that instilled their personality into their building, into their culture, into their teams, and rebuilt those teams year after year,” Sarkisian said. “I think at the end of the day, anybody who’s been around those two guys would probably tell you I’m probably a little bit of both of them. And so I would say our culture, our team, is probably a little bit of both of those two.”

When Texas players are at practice or in workouts: no jewelry, matching socks, shirts tucked in. Hats off during team meetings. That’s Saban coming out of Sark.

“But also I think my ability to engage with people, and not that Coach Saban didn’t, but, man, it was definitely like a fear factor with him,” Sarkisian said. “And with Coach Carroll, it was more like, hug you. And I’m probably somewhere in the middle there. I try to engage with people. I try to relate to everybody in our building. My door is always open for our players and in recruiting, and I think that’s allowed some of that connectivity.”

Sarkisian can incorporate Saban’s process while not facing the pressure that comes with following the seven-time national championship coach.

As DeBoer tries to chart his own course at Alabama, the specter of Saban and the unprecedented standard he set looms over the Tide.

“In the end, we know we gotta win more games and we want those expectations, absolutely,” DeBoer told The Athletic this summer. “That’s what matters. You can come up with every excuse. It doesn’t matter. No one cares, and we understand that. But as a coach myself, having been at different places, there is a process that you have to go through. And every place, it’s been different challenges.”

While the first season fell short of the standard at Alabama, a top-five recruiting class coming in this year and another in the making for 2026 are a good sign.

Revenue sharing and NIL should continue to spread talent around college football more than when Saban was at his peak and it seemed only two or three teams in any given season could hope to compete against Alabama.

Just because the Longhorns are thriving doesn’t mean the Tide can’t keep rolling. But right now, the program in Austin is closer to the one Saban left behind than the one in Tuscaloosa.

“Excellence is exhausting, but it’s worth it,” Sarkisian said. “(The players) see the success of their peers, and they’re like, I want that, you know? The Outland trophies, the Thorpe awards, the All-Americans, the first-round picks, the draft picks, the College Football Playoffs. The on-the-cusp-of-a-national-championship. I want that. So how do I get there? It’s pretty simple. The only thing I just keep looking for is, is there a complacency? Because complacency is, that’ll get you. And we’re fortunate. We’ve got no room to be complacent, because we haven’t won the thing yet, you know?”

Program Builders is part of a partnership with Range Rover Sport. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Top photo: Butch Dill / Getty Images)

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NIL

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

Published

40 minutes 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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NIL

Troy Aikman convinced Joe Buck not to fund Indiana football

Published

2 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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NIL

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

Published

2 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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Bo Jackson could leave Ohio State, seeking major NIL deal

Published

3 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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College football program loses 34 players to transfer portal

Published

4 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Just one year ago, Colorado was one of college football’s most talked-about success stories.

The Buffaloes finished 9–4 in 2024, riding national attention, high-profile transfers, and head coach Deion Sanders’ star power into bowl relevance and Big 12 respectability.

As a result, expectations entering 2025 were significantly higher, with the belief that continuity and experience would push the program forward.

Instead, the season collapsed: Colorado stumbled to a 3–9 record, managing just one conference win and struggling on both sides of the ball.

The Buffaloes routinely found themselves outmatched, and the optimism that defined the previous year slowly gave way to frustration as the team lost its final five games, including back-to-back conference losses to Utah and Arizona, both of which saw Colorado allow 50-plus points.

Adding insult to injury, former blue-chip recruit Kam Mikell announced his decision to enter the transfer portal on Wednesday, becoming the 34th Colorado player to leave the program since the end of the season.

A highly regarded, four-star recruit (No. 2 ATH in the 2024 class by 247Sports) when he arrived, Mikell was initially viewed as an offensive chess piece capable of contributing at wide receiver or in the backfield.

In 2025, Mikell’s role shifted primarily to the run game as Colorado searched for offensive answers, appearing in 10 games and totaling 75 rushing yards on 19 carries (3.9 yards per carry), along with two receptions for 5 yards.

Despite his athletic upside, a defined role never materialized, ultimately leading him to pursue another opportunity elsewhere.

More concerning, however, is that his exit reflects a broader exodus that has rapidly reshaped the roster.

Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Kam Mikell. — Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Kam Mikell (18) runs the ball during the second quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

More than 30 scholarship players have entered the portal, highlighted by leading receiver Omarion Miller (808 yards, eight touchdowns on 45 receptions) and leading tackler Tawfiq Byard (79 total tackles), along with several linemen and depth contributors.

The volume of departures is among the highest in the country this cycle.

This level of churn is not entirely new under Sanders, who, since arriving at Colorado in 2023, has aggressively leveraged the transfer portal to rapidly overhaul the roster with experienced college players and high-profile recruits.

To his credit, those exits have been paired with incoming talent, as Colorado has already added 22 transfers, including Texas linebacker Liona Lefau, Missouri offensive tackle Jayven Richardson, and Notre Dame cornerback Cree Thomas.

Still, the scale of departures following a losing season is far from ideal.

NIL

UCLA lands a top transfer in James Madison running back Wayne Knight

Published

5 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Your Sports Nation

UCLA has landed a transfer who could hasten Bob Chesney’s rebuilding efforts.

Wayne Knight verbally committed to following Chesney from James Madison to Westwood on Wednesday, giving the new Bruins coach a high-quality running back to pair with quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Showing what he could do on a national stage last month, Knight ran for 110 yards in 17 carries against Oregon in the College Football Playoff. It was the fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season for Knight on the way to being selected a first team All-Sun Belt Conference player.

Combining excellent speed with the toughness needed to break tackles, the 5-foot-6, 189-pound Knight led the conference with 1,357 rushing yards. He also made 40 catches for 397 yards and averaged 22.3 yards on kickoff returns and 9.5 yards on punt returns. His 2,039 all-purpose yards were a school record, helping him become an Associated Press second team All-American all-purpose player after ranking third nationally with 145.6 all-purpose yards per game.

Knight, who will be a redshirt senior next season in his final year of college eligibility, becomes the seventh player from James Madison to accompany Chesney to UCLA, joining wide receiver Landon Ellis, defensive back DJ Barksdale, tight end Josh Phifer, edge rusher Aiden Gobaira, right guard Riley Robell and offensive lineman JD Rayner.

UCLA also has received verbal commitments from Michigan wide receiver Semaj Morgan, Florida wide receiver Aidan Mizell, San Jose State wide receiver Leland Smith, Iowa State running back Dylan Lee, Boise State offensive tackle Hall Schmidt, Virginia Tech defensive back Dante Lovett, Iowa State defensive back Ta’Shawn James and California edge rusher Ryan McCulloch.

But no incoming player can match the production of Knight, whose highlights included a career-high 211 rushing yards — including a 73-yard touchdown — against Troy in the Sun Belt championship game, earning him most valuable player honors for the Dukes’ 31-14 victory.

Knight will join a group of running backs that includes senior Jaivian Thomas (294 yards rushing and one touchdown in 2025), redshirt senior Anthony Woods (294 yards rushing in 2025) and redshirt freshman Karson Cox (nine yards in two carries during his only appearance as a true freshman).

With Knight on board, the Bruins presumably have their starting running back in Year 1 under their new coach.

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