Archie Manning on NIL's impact on college football: 'It’s like the wild, wild west'

With just a year before another Manning hits the college football scene, the patriarch of his families’ quarterback line, Archie Manning, discussed the shifting landscape of NIL in college football. The last thing the father of Peyton and Eli Manning wants is to have his grandson’s collegiate career ruined because of business ventures off the field.

“I can’t say I’m crazy about it,” Archie Manning said Monday. “I understand it’s there. I wish they were a little more uniform in nature throughout the school. It’s like the wild, wild west. I do know I love the game of college football and I don’t want it ruined.”

With an On3 NIL Valuation of $3.1 million, Manning’s grandson, Isidore Newman five-star-plus quarterback Arch Manning has had no issues garnering interest with companies for deals to promise his personal brand.

Manning is the NIL Valuation leader among high school football prospects, and is second only to Bronny James‘ $6.3 million Valuation throughout prep prospects as a whole. In On3’s NIL 100, Manning is also tied for second with Heisman Trophy-winning Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.

The blue-chip prospect has significantly less of a social media following than most other top recruits with just 14.1 followers throughout all social media platforms. Manning’s NIL Valuation skyrocketed after recently joining Twitter, jumping from $2.1 million to where it sits now at $3.1 million.

To put his lack of social media presence into perspective, James has 11.6 million followers across TikTok and Instagram alone while Young has 255,000 across his social media platforms. If Manning put some effort into it, he could make some major cash in his first few years playing college football.

With seven months remaining until Manning needs to make a decision come National Signing Day, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Manning has kept an incredibly low profile in his recruitment, with neither he nor anyone from his inner circle have been giving away clues publicly about where he is leaning.

After starting with five schools in mind for his services in Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas — the race has been whittled down to just three. The Crimson Tide, Bulldogs and Longhorns each received visits from him this spring and are thought to be the strongest contenders for the prodigy.

But according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM), the race for his commitment is shaping up to be a two-team battle between Georgia and Texas, with Alabama fading. The On3 RPM gives Texas a 44.4% chance of landing Manning, with Georgia (39.7%) and Alabama (15.4%) behind.