Stop me if you’ve come across this before: The third-wealthiest individual globally has just secured the University of Michigan’s next standout quarterback. If you missed this entire news cycle, here’s the summary: Michigan made a significant gain last month when elite high school QB Bryce Underwood changed his commitment from LSU. The deal was reportedly […]
Stop me if you’ve come across this before: The third-wealthiest individual globally has just secured the University of Michigan’s next standout quarterback.
If you missed this entire news cycle, here’s the summary: Michigan made a significant gain last month when elite high school QB Bryce Underwood changed his commitment from LSU. The deal was reportedly sweetened with a promise of $10 million to $12 million (the exact amount remains undisclosed) from supporters at Champions Circle, the Michigan NIL (name, image, and likeness) collective.
NIL collectives emerged from the new Wild West of college sports that was initiated in July 2021 when the NCAA began permitting college athletes to profit from endorsement contracts; institutions cannot directly compensate athletes for playing a sport (though this might change soon with the House settlement), so the collective provides the athlete with an endorsement agreement. This arrangement allows the institution to claim it isn’t engaging in “pay-for-play” since the university isn’t paying the students directly, the alumni are—though to me, the distinction is minimal.
In its official announcement regarding the flip, Champions Circle expressed gratitude to “Larry and Jolin Ellison.” This revelation came as a surprise—the Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle founder? Indeed, the Larry Ellison, FOS verified with two cofounders of the collective.
Further oddities emerged: Champions Circle retracted its original statement (too late, everyone had seen it) and issued a revised version omitting the name “Ellison.” This time, it simply acknowledged “Larry and his wife Jolin.”
But who is Jolin? She’s a 2012 Michigan graduate named Keren Zhu who lives with Ellison, FOS discovered over the Thanksgiving holiday. (WSJ was the first to identify Jolin on Tuesday morning.) She seems to be his sixth wife (it’s not entirely confirmed they’re married apart from the collective referring to her as his wife) and appears to have been a key factor in persuading Ellison, who has no previous connections to Michigan, to part with millions. (Michigan alumni Tom Brady and Dave Portnoy were also integral in the recruitment.)
Setting aside the Jolin aspect, the greater implication here is that college football is embarking on its billionaire boys club phase.
Sure, one might argue that wealthy individuals donating to their alma maters is nothing novel. Consider the multitude of campus buildings named after Koch, Schwarzman, Griffin, Bloomberg, Munger, and others.
Mark Zaleski/Imagn Images
However, the funds are now pouring into football arenas, and the whole process seems more overt than ever. A wealthy individual can now secure a quarterback simply at the behest of his wife—just facilitate it through the collective and label it an NIL arrangement.
Moreover, having a competitive football program benefits the Ellison family venture: Ellison’s son David leads Skydance and will assume the CEO position at Paramount following the merger of the two companies; Paramount owns CBS, which broadcasts Big Ten football games.
Ellison isn’t the sole example, but he is the most notable and affluent one thus far. Nike billionaire Phil Knight has contributed over $1 billion to his alma mater Oregon and appeared in a recent video announcing Na’eem Offord, the nation’s second-ranked cornerback recruit, had switched his commitment from Ohio State to Oregon. Offord told CBS Sports that Knight “had a significant influence, like a massive role.” In July, former UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel stated Oregon enjoys “unlimited” NIL resources thanks to Knight. Similarly to Ellison with Michigan, Knight has a vested business interest in the success of the school’s football program: Oregon is a Nike institution.
SMU’s football team reached the ACC championship game this year, its first in the new conference, largely due to NIL contributions from alumni like Bill Armstrong and other wealthy benefactors. Armstrong himself remarked to ESPN in September, “I bet many of these schools look at SMU and think, ‘Oh, no, here come the billionaires.’”
Indeed, they are coming. $10 million (or whatever the actual figure was) is a mere trifle for Ellison, who Forbes estimates is worth $236.4 billion as of Dec. 6. How much more will he contribute? There’s currently no limit (yet) on how much an alumnus can provide to an NIL collective. Jolin might persuade Larry to purchase an entire new football squad.
What prevents Sergey Brin and Larry Page from procuring a great team for Stanford? The same goes for the Walton family (Arkansas alumni), Michael Dell (Texas), and any other affluent alumni (they need not be billionaires!) eager for their alma mater to triumph.
To those who wholeheartedly endorse this new capitalist approach to college athletics (players should maximize their earning potential), I’d pose the question: Is this the landscape you desire? If you attended an institution benefiting from this scenario, you may affirmatively respond. My Michigan alumni acquaintances express their enthusiasm about the Ellison news. Why wouldn’t they? LSU supporters, not so much.
That’s the current state of college football recruitment: The highest offer prevails.
