Brady Hodges blasts Louisville NIL collective while addressing bowl opt-out

Early in the first half of Tuesday’s Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, the CBS broadcast noted Louisville punter Brady Hodges wasn’t on the field. Instead, when the Cardinals first punted against Washington, Carter Schwartz kicked it away.

Brad Nessler said the broadcast’s spotter called down to see where Hodges was, and the SID expressed surprise. The senior punter then addressed his decision to opt out via social media Tuesday afternoon – and he said NIL played a role.

Hodges said the Louisville-focused NIL collective, the 502 Circle, promised to pay his deal in September. However, it didn’t come to fruition, and he confirmed he has been away from the program for three weeks. If the collective followed through, he said, he would have played in Tuesday’s Sun Bowl.

I have not been with the team since December 10th. @502_Circle told me September 6th, they would be paying and are still yet to hold up their end of the deal. I graduated on December 13th and had every intention on being with the team had they held up their end of the deal.

— bradyhodges (@bradyhodges2) December 31, 2024

“I have not been with the team since December 10th,” Hodges wrote on X. “@502_Circle told me September 6th, they would be paying and are still yet to hold up their end of the deal. I graduated on December 13th and had every intention on being with the team had they held up their end of the deal.”

Hodges is in his fourth year at Louisville and second as the Cardinals’ starting punter. He kicked 23 punts for 906 yards during the regular season, one year after reaching 1,197 punt yards as a junior in 2023.

Brady Hodges the latest public NIL dispute

Brady Hodges’ post came an hour after the Sun Bowl kicked off. It also marks the latest public accusation of promised NIL dollars allegedly not coming to fruition.

UNLV found itself at the center of the college football world early in the year when Matthew Sluka announced his plans to preserve a redshirt under similar circumstances. He and his representation said they were promised $100,000 in NIL dollars, but never received the funds. As a result, he chose to preserve a redshirt.

One of the latest NIL disputes came in Tallahassee this week. Multiple former Florida State men’s basketball players sued head coach Leonard Hamilton over $1.5 million in promised funds, which they never received. Those dollars led to a boycott of practice last season, and FSU released a statement saying it hasn’t yet found evidence of such promises being broken.

“Since the beginning of the name, image and likeness era of collegiate athletics, FSU has maintained a comprehensive compliance education program for coaches and other athletics staff, and a clear expectation of ethical conduct by all in dealing with student-athletes,” the statement read.

“Upon learning recently of the allegations made by former men’s basketball athletes, the University has worked diligently to determine what transpired last season. Though our inquiry is not yet complete, at this point we know of no unfulfilled commitments by FSU in terms of scholarships or other appropriate benefits or the Rising Spear Collective relative to NIL payments owed to the athletes.”