Jimbo Fisher scoffs at NIL impacting Texas A&M's top-ranked class

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher appeared on 247Sports’ National Signing Day live stream, and the longtime head coach took exception to the idea that Name, Image and Likeness had an effect on the Aggies’ recruiting class, which ranks No. 1 overall in the On3 Consensus Team Rankings.

“It didn’t affect recruiting at all,” Fisher said. “This $30 million thing is a joke. This idea there’s some fund out there and it was written on BroBible by a guy named SlicedBread, and now all of a sudden the country believes it? It’s a joke and it didn’t affect recruiting at all. … We were one of the low ones. If I remember right, it was Nick (Saban) who brought up his quarterback getting a million-dollar deal. That was great. Ohio State put out an article that they had the highest NIL deals of anybody in the country. Which is legal. But that has nothing to do with this class or anything that went on. It was hard work by our staff. It’s insulting to the kids who come here that you insinuate that and people insinuate that off of things taken off a message board.”

“… Those reports and the things that people say are very irresponsible,” Fisher continued. “And they need to figure out the truth before they do it.”

December internet rumor, recent coaches’ comments sparked Fisher’s rage

The rumor he is referring to is one that surfaced around the first National Signing Day in December. A message board poster with the pseudonym “SlicedBread” suggested that the Aggies had organized $30 million in Name, Image and Likeness deals for their incoming 2022 recruits.

According to the poster, Texas A&M allegedly organizes and coordinates the efforts between coaches and athletic boosters, which is impermissible under the NCAA’s NIL policy. The alleged process goes like this:

• A recruit is targeted for a specific recruiting class.
• A “point donor” then heads the recruiting effort.
• The “point donor” gathers other donors around him.
• Those donors create an LLC.
• The LLC sponsors the targeted recruit and pays out deals for NIL if/when he enrolls.
• That recruit, upon arrival on campus, receives money from the LLC.
• In turn, the recruit promotes the LLC and its “cause,” whether that be a charity or a business.

Jimbo Fisher talked about NIL last month

Fisher previously appeared on the Paul Finebaum Show in December, where he remarked that players getting paid has been going on long before name, image and likeness.

“There were a lot of NIL deals going on before all this was going on, they just weren’t legal,” Fisher told Finebaum. “Nobody told nobody.”

On Tuesday, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin lamented how NIL and the transfer portal have exposed major flaws within college football.

“We don’t have the funding resources as some schools with the NIL deals. It’s like dealing with salary caps,” Kiffin said. “I joked I didn’t know if Texas A&M incurred a luxury tax with how much they paid for their signing class. Somehow, they’re going to have to control NIL. You’ve got these salary caps. (Schools) giving players millions to sign before they play and other places not able to do that. What would the NFL look like if two or three teams could pay 10 times more in salary cap?”

The Aggies have signed seven five-star prospects in the 2022 recruiting cycle, including Five-Star Plus+ defensive lineman Walter Nolen and Shemar Stewart, as well as Five-Star+ Plus wide receiver Evan Stewart.

As it stands currently, Texas A&M’s class ranks just behind Alabama’s 2021 signing class, which was the highest-ranked class in the internet recruiting era.