Some interesting stuff here. I think it would be valuable for them to revisit these anonymous recruits in a couple of years to see what they think after time.
"There’s also an assumption out there that players always take the most money. But that isn’t always the case, recruits insisted. A pair of five-star recruits told 247Sports that they took less money to attend the school they signed with, which meant losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars.
NIL is just one part of the equation as players make their decisions. Some will prioritize money. But others will go where they’ll be developed or simply want to be.
“My school wasn’t the school that offered me the most money,” Recruit 3 said. “A lot of schools just threw out money and stuff. But I’m not chasing money. I want to play and perform.”
For as many good things that come from NIL, there are horror stories out there about bad contracts from collectives or marketing agents.
Look no further than former Florida DT Gervon Dexter, who signed a $436,485 NIL deal with a speculative investment capital company in 2022 with the caveat that the company, Big League Advanced Fund, would get 15% of his NFL earning for the next 25 years.
That type of predatory deal, along with collectives not coming through on payments, is something that athletes are leery of.
One top-100 recruit told 247Sports the schools that made him the wariest were those who offered an open checkbook from the start."