Cam Ward explains why NIL is 'not real money' to college players

Miami quarterback Cam Ward is appreciative of the NIL deals he has ahead of the 2024 college football season. However, making money through NIL deals isn’t Ward’s ultimate goal.

Instead, his focus is on eventually signing a huge contract in the NFL down the line. There are currently 15-plus quarterbacks making at least $40 million per year in the NFL.

“At the end of the day, I think people get mistaken with the NIL stuff,” Cam Ward said at the ACC Kickoff event. “They think a player’s set off NIL stuff. This NIL stuff’s not real money. It’s just starting money, I would say. A lot of players, especially here, we like to save our stuff, because at the end of the day, life-changing money’s that NFL money.”

Ward considered entering the NFL Draft following a strong 2023 season at Washington State. However, he ended up opting to transfer to Miami instead.

The dual-threat QB is hoping to have a strong 2024 season, before being a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

“At the end of the day, money comes and goes. If you’re really worried about money you won’t get to where you want to be,” Ward said. “At the end of the day you have to be a good person and take care of the little things.”

Ward added that there’s a misconception out there about how much college players make off of NIL. It can certainly factor into a player’s decision, but fit and being set up to have success is also huge, per Ward.

“I think the media pushes NIL as people getting this and this, when in reality that’s not true,” Ward said. “[If] you have a social media following, a lot of people can get their deals like that. But a lot of NIL stuff isn’t true. But I feel like just the media pushes it that way. Especially in our building, we’re all blessed to have that. But at the end of the day it doesn’t make us who we are.”

Ward started his college career at Incarnate Word, before transferring to Washington State. He had impressive individual stats in 2022 and 2023, but the Cougars won only 12 games total.

He is hopeful that individual success and team success will go hand in hand during his time at Miami.

“If we win an ACC Championship, I think that would take care of a lot of the individual awards that we want,” Cam Ward said. “The more we win games the more everybody will get blessed.”