Is Missouri proof of college football parity in NIL Era?

Plenty of skeptics circled around Missouri football this summer.

Eliah Drinkwitz, justifiably, showed up on plenty of hot seat lists. The head coach was 17-19 overall in three years at the helm of the SEC program entering the season, losers of back-to-back bowl games and 3-5 SEC records.

A month into the season, the narrative has made a 180-degree turn. On Saturday, Missouri hosts LSU. The Tigers are 5-0 for the first time since 2013 when they won the SEC East title. LSU meanwhile is reeling, already with two losses and out of the College Football Playoff discussion.

If there’s any secret weapon Missouri has deployed in this historic start of the season, it’s name, image and likeness – NIL for short.

“I’d have to look back, but it might be the biggest game in the past, probably eight to 10 years,” said Nick Garner, the CEO of the Missouri-driven NIL collective Every True Tiger Foundation.

Advantageous state law boosting Missouri football recruiting

The Show-Me State passed an advantageous state law this summer, allowing high school athletes to begin profiting from their publicity rights the minute they sign a written agreement to enroll at a Missouri university.

For most athletes, that means signing a financial aid agreement with the school as early as Aug. 1. This year was pushed to Sept. 1, which was when the amended state law went into effect.

The first sign the new law was working came in mid-August when Five-Star Plus+ EDGE Williams Nwaneri committed to the Tigers. The opportunity to stay home and begin capitalizing on NIL surely factored in.

On Saturday, five-star wide receiver Ryan Wingo will be in Columbia for the SEC clash. Viewed as one of the top wideouts in the 2024 class, the Saint Louis product continues to keep Mizzou in his top schools.

“In everything that we do, I think the athletic department has the mindset of let’s be uniquely Mizzou,” Garner. “We don’t need to be Alabama or Georgia or whatever. We’re gonna be uniquely Mizzou, right? So the same is really said in the NIL world.”

“NIL’s been great – it kind of levels the playing field somewhat. And I know that’s said a lot. But I do think that it just opens conversations with potential student-athletes that maybe wasn’t there before.”

Missouri’s state law helping retain talent

While the new state law has Missouri competing to keep its top high school prospects at home, the same has worked with retaining top talent on the current roster.

The Every True Tiger Foundation launched in December 2022 as a non-profit NIL collective. Since then, it’s gone under some restructuring. Garner said the entity is now operating more like an NIL marketing and branding agency. He said the collective signed deals with 181 athletes in September across nine different sports.

On top of facilitating simple endorsement deals, such as a frozen pizza collaboration, Every True Tiger Foundation is assisting in a new branch of NIL that the state law allows. The state law allows athletes to promote their own events and institutions. Multiple Missouri athletes have recently promoted the Tiger Scholarship Fund, including star wide receiver Luther Burden. It’s one of the closest signs of pay-to-play in the NIL Era.

The Tigers had 23 players enter the transfer portal this past offseason but Garner said Missouri was able to keep its core together, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Mizzou ranks 29th in the nation in total defense.

“There are guys who were highly-graded by NFL scouts and had a chance to go to the next level,” he said. “And we were able to keep those guys, get them to stay and form the nucleus of what’s there now. And I think that’s what kind of helps to start that process. At a place like Missouri, Alabama is going to get what they get. Georgia is going to get what they did. So I think from Mizzou’s standpoint, NIL has been helpful. Even optically, it’s helpful.

“Missouri’s got a very progressive state law in place. And frankly, progressive as it just pertains to NIL in general. And I think there’s a lot of support.”

Rest of SEC keeping tabs on NIL at Missouri

The NIL Era has been defined by a series of waves. At first, Texas A&M appeared to be running the best program before everyone else got with the times. Then Miami booster John Ruiz opened up his wallet at LifeWallet, attracting attention and talent to South Beach.

Now advantageous state laws are in style. But the only difference, however, is state laws can’t appear overnight. On3 spoke with multiple NIL collective operators in the SEC who believe Missouri is at an advantage. They were granted anonymity.

“I think you’d have to be stupid in our position not to want any additional advantage you could get,” said one leader.

Another collective operator outlined to On3 how it’s giving Missouri an advantage until the rest of the states in the SEC footprint pass new legislation.

“I’d love it [the state law],” said another leader. “It’s a fantastic law for all parties involved. It’s pro-athlete, pro-institutions, pro-coaches, and pro-Missouri. Eliah did a great job of seeing a problem with the existing model and finding a solution the NCAA couldn’t find.

“Damn right, it is [an advantage]. Both from a revenue generation and recruiting standpoint. They’ve done a good job recruiting and the new in-state inclusion is going to really help these next two classes.”

Not everyone was jealous of Missouri, despite that being the consensus. Another executive director emphasized how so many athletes commit early to sign a contract. They believe the Tigers could run into that in the forseeable future.

“It’s a slippery slope,” they said. “Unless you have endless amounts of money, you’re bound to be throwing a lot of that away. We are already seeing athletes who are committing early to schools to get a little bit of love, and ultimately are planning to decommit before signing with a school they really want to go to.”

Every True Tiger Foundation can continue to operate at an advantage for at least one to two more recruiting cycles. As Garner pointed it, the nation is about to jump into an election year. That could also provide an assist to the Tigers.

“We do feel like it gave us a good jump to our state,” he said. “Results still remain to be seen, but we feel like it gave us an opportunity to do something and to potentially get ahead for a bit.”