The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Athletics Department has received a $300,000 gift from the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawaiʻi (DACH) to support the Rainbow Warrior football program through the team’s Boost the ’Bows Fund, which is set up to support UH Mānoa Athletics’ ability to recruit and retain elite student-athletes.

The contribution is a major philanthropic commitment to the football NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) fund and marks a significant milestone for UH Mānoa Athletics as it adapts to the rapidly changing landscape of college sports.

College athletics has undergone a significant transformation in recent years with the emergence of NIL programs, which allow student-athletes to receive compensation for endorsements, appearances and other partnerships.

“University of Hawaiʻi NIL support is essential to retaining and recruiting top student-athletes who choose to represent the State of Hawaiʻi,” said UH head coach Timmy Chang. “In today’s collegiate landscape, NIL opportunities directly impact the current and future success of our programs.

“Donations from partners like DACH play a vital role in providing our student-athletes with the resources they need to compete at the highest level,” Chang added. “With continued support from the community and donors, University of Hawaiʻi NIL can reach its full potential. Please support the University of Hawaiʻi NIL as we continue to build excellence and proudly represent the Pacific as the region’s No. 1 university.”

Over the past few years, DACH has been involved in supporting UH student-athletes with various NIL opportunities. As the landscape has continued to evolve, and with new guidelines now allowing the university to directly manage institutional NIL agreements with student-athletes, DACH has chosen to contribute the remaining funds directly to the Boost the ’Bows Fund. This approach allows UH Mānoa Athletics to administer NIL support in a centralized and coordinated way.

“This was a collaborative effort from several leading Hawaiʻi organizations, including aio, American Savings Bank, Central Pacific Bank, First Hawaiian Bank, Queen’s Health Systems, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, HMSA, Island Insurance, and the Waterhouse Foundation, all of whom share a commitment to strengthening the future of UH Athletics,” said Brandon Kurisu, vice president for DACH, which was formed in 2012 by the owners and top executives of trusted downtown Hawaiʻi businesses. “Boost the ’Bows is a vital tool for building a strong, competitive program, and we’re proud to support the student-athletes who inspire our community.”

The framework for college athletics recently changed once again following the House v. NCAA settlement, which allows universities, for the first time, to enter into direct, institutional NIL agreements with student-athletes across all sports. This change gives athletics departments a crucial new tool to remain competitive in recruiting and retaining top talent, especially for programs like UH football that rely on homegrown athletes and statewide support.

“The Downtown Athletic Club’s gift is an investment in the future of our football program,” said UH Mānoa Athletics Director Matt Elliott. “It helps us remain competitive and is the first of what we hope will be many commitments in this new era of NIL. A big mahalo to DACH for their generosity and support of our program.”

Businesses, organizations and individuals interested in supporting UH student-athletes can learn more about the Boost the ’Bows Fund and how they can get involved by visiting Support Our Team — Hawaiʻi’s Team.

The arms race to sign Dylan Raiola is on, as the former Nebraska quarterback is reportedly poised to enter the college football transfer portal for the 2026 season.

A former five-star prospect, Raiola is expected to be one of the most prominent names in this year’s portal cycle, and one college football program is already interested.

Who is interested in Dylan Raiola?

Dylan Raiola has received interest from ACC hopeful Louisville, which has been in communication with the quarterback’s representatives, according to On3 Sports.

Other schools are believed to be in the mix for Raiola, but the Cardinals are actively scouting a potential replacement for Miller Moss as his college football career is coming to its conclusion after this season.

DJ Lagway, the former Florida starting quarterback who is also set to transfer in this cycle, was named a candidate for Louisville to sign in the same reporting.

A known QB developer

Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm is considered one of the best quarterback coaches in the country, helping groom Tyler Shough into a draft selection, and Moss is coming off a 2,500-plus yard campaign in 2025.

And the Cardinals were said to be in the mix for Cam Ward two offseasons ago before he ultimately landed at Miami.

The program is willing to spend money at the position, handing over more than $1.5 million this season to Moss, who transferred from USC to Louisville.

What Raiola has done on the field

Raiola was in the midst of an improved second outing with Nebraska under the direction of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen before a broken fibula limited him to just nine starts this season.

In those games, Raiola surpassed 2,000 yards passing with 18 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, and his completion mark improved from 67.1 percent as a freshman to a better 72.4 percent rate in his second year with the Cornhuskers.

How the college football transfer portal works

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school’s compliance office.

Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player’s name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player’s name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player’s name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him.

And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn’t have to give him another scholarship.

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College Football Enquirer co-hosts Andy Staples, Ross Dellenger and Steven Godfrey discuss the decisions by Dylan Raiola and DJ Lagway to enter the transfer portal and why the moves are a sign of more to come when quarterbacks are paid highly but don’t meet expectations on the field. Check out the full conversation on the “College Football Enquirer” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

I do think we’re seeing something a bit different now.

And we started to see it last year, but Ross brought it up with the Royala situation.

I talked about it with the Lagway situation.

These guys are established starters.

Who, if one had a coaching change, that adds something to it, But the other didn’t have a coaching change.

But neither of them lived up to their lofty expectations or lofty paycheck, And I do the latter, right.

And I do wonder until there’s a CBA and you have binding contracts both ways.

I don’t know that we’re gonna see, like, you gonna have to really earn and kind of sing for Your supper as a QB.

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You’re gonna have to earn it, or you’re gonna have to be drastically underpaid.

Threatened to leave, then got overpaid.

So basically, if you’re a successful quarterback in a three-year span, you’re constantly Renegotiating: correct if you’re at one institution, yes.

You’d better be good enough to justify your price point or willing to take a cut.

That is the that’s the conundrum there and you can price yourself out of market Well.

And that’s, that’s the other thing people Need to be careful.

That’s what they, you know, We talk about a truly free market, and thats kind of what This is.

This is a truly free market, but there’s always An upper boundary.

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It’s interesting how these things are going now to be handled financially in the offseason.

If there can be any stability, um, as you are performing at or above Expectation as a quarterback, because otherwise wethis is probably going to be the norm.

We’re probably gonna have a Black Monday type situation.

Every December, in the quarterback free agency market, if we don’t get a little more guard, A little more guardrails around that, yeah, until some kind of, you know, Bargaining agreement in more binding contracts are, uh, Uh, come to college football, which doesn’t sound like it’s anytime soon, Although, because of failures in Congress, the CSC participation agreement, I think there’s more, more than not, and this is something that was a topic in Las Vegas last Week, uh, um, is, yeah, more, more talk about, Well, what other options do we have?

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Which is really just one other option.

Remember, coaches have always cut loose QBs.

They didn’t want it.

That’s always happened.

Yeah, runoff was like a common verb when coaches talked off the record about How they were gonna handle their roster.

We’re running that guy off.

So this is, if anything, a new market that gives at least these guys a little bit of cash first They get it before they go out the door.

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Julian Sayin is steering Ohio State toward a national championship run with one of the most loaded rosters in college football. The Buckeyes secured the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff despite stumbling against Indiana in the Big Ten title game.

That loss stung, but it did not derail their season. Ohio State still earned a first-round bye alongside Indiana, Texas Tech, and Georgia.

MORE: Florida quarterback DJ Lagway announces transfer portal decision

While the team enjoyed some extra rest before the postseason grind begins, Sayin grabbed attention off the field. He announced a new NIL partnership with Wingstop and Dr Pepper, posting the news himself.

“Postseason calls for big plays with @drpepper and @wingstop, had to get the play card out,” Sayin wrote.

The deal adds to an already impressive NIL portfolio. Sayin previously signed with The Foundation, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and JLab Audio. His current NIL valuation sits at $2.5 million, according to On3.

Sayin’s path to Columbus took a detour through Tuscaloosa first. After a brief stint with Alabama, he flipped his commitment to Ohio State and headed to the Big Ten. That decision paid off immediately.

In his first season as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback, Sayin led the team to a 12-1 record and a Heisman Trophy finalist nod. The former five-star recruit has lived up to the hype.

His numbers back it up. Sayin has thrown for 3,323 yards and 31 touchdowns this season, showing both control and efficiency under center.

He is playing alongside elite talent like wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, Caleb Downs, and Arvell Reese. With that kind of firepower around him, Ohio State looks built for a deep playoff run.

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It has been less than half a decade since Ed Orgeron was last on a football sideline, but the sport has had a generational shakeup in the NIL era.

Coach O won a national championship at LSU with, in his words, “the best transfer ever” in Joe Burrow on a team he said is “up there” among the greatest college football teams ever. But the landscape has changed so much that even President Donald Trump signed a “Saving College Sports” executive order.

What remains of Trump’s executive order is a bit of a mystery, but Orgeron wants Trump to be “more involved.”

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Ed Orgeron wants President Trump “more involved” in NIL regulation after the president called college sports a “disaster.” (Rebecca Warren/Imagn Images, Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“I think he should be more involved. Something has to happen. Our sport is getting killed, man,” Orgeron said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

“I love players getting paid. I think it’s fair. But I think there ought to be a cap, and the transfer portal, there’s got to be rules on it. It’s kind of like the Wild Wild West. I’m talking to coaches, it’s like, ‘Hey man, we’re working 24/7, 12 months a year. It’s crazy when guys are coming, when they’re going.’ But you know what? It’s got to be give and take. Players have got to get a lot, but the schools have got to get some guarantee in return…

“I think the president, he loves football, he’s a friend of mine, the more he can step in and stop what’s going on in college football, the better off it’s going to be.”

Trump recently ripped the supposed “disaster” that is NIL.

“I think that it’s a disaster for college sports. I think it’s a disaster for the Olympics, because, you know, we’re losing a lot of teams. The colleges are cutting a lot of their — they would call them sort of the ‘lesser’ sports, and they’re losing them like at numbers nobody can believe. They were really training grounds, beautiful training grounds, hard-working, wonderful young people. They were training grounds for the Olympics,” Trump said in the Oval Office last Thursday.

President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd before the start of the NFL Super Bowl LIX football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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“And a lot of these sports that were training so well would win gold medals because of it. Those sports don’t exist, because they’re putting all their money into football. And by the way, they’re putting too much money into it, into football.”

Orgeron has teamed up with player agent Tzvi Grossman to tap into the new NIL era and has learned a great deal as he tries to find his next stop in college football. But despite all the money being passed around, Orgeron still believes that one aspect of recruiting trumps all.

LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron during a game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the LSU Tigers, in Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Nov. 27, 2021. (John Korduner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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“You still have to recruit, you still have to evaluate, you still have to get the mamas, the champions, all that to have a championship football team, and then the (key) word develop,” Orgeron said. “Just because you’re paying the guys — I believe all our players should be paid, I’m with that — but the money that they get right now is not the money that Joe Burrow’s making. It’s not the money that Ja’Marr Chase is making, Derek Stingley’s making. So in other words, to develop at the school you’re going to go to is still important.”

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Julian Sayin is looking to lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to the national title alongside several other stars like wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

Ohio State heads into the College Football Playoff with one of the best rosters in the country, starring Sayin and Smith along with Carnell Tate, Caleb Downs and Arvell Reese.

They’re heading into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed after losing to Indiana in the Big Ten title game. The Buckeyes will have a bye week to begin the CFP.

Other teams that will benefit from the bye week include Indiana, Texas Tech and Georgia.

During his time off, Sayin shared some exciting news off the field. The Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback has partnered with Wingstop and Dr Pepper in his latest NIL deal.

“Postseason calls for big plays with @drpepper and @wingstop, had to get the play card out,” Sayin posted.

Julian Sayin committed to Ohio State after spending some time with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

While he was planning his college football career at Alabama, he made the move to the Big Ten and finished his first season as the starting quarterback as a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Sayin was ranked as the No. 1 quarterback and the No. 6 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class, per 247Sports.

Before signing his latest NIL deal and sharing the news with fans online, Julian Sayin had inked deals with The Foundation, Dick’s Sporting Goods and JLab Audio.

About the author

Trending News Writer, Athlon Sports

Max Escarpio is one of Athlon Sports’ most prolific writers, having written over 5,000 posts across NBA, NFL, WNBA, college football, and college basketball. A 2023 Florida State University graduate with a BA in Sports Communication, he delivers fast-paced, wide-ranging coverage as part of the site’s breaking and trending news team.