Paul Finebaum reacts to Jaden Rashada commitment, how NIL has impacted recruiting

On3 Consensus four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada committed to the Miami Hurricanes on Sunday. The news didn’t stop there, though. Following his commitment, multiple sources said Rashada agreed to a $9.5 million NIL deal through Miami’s Collective. Information from those same sources followed that said Rashada turned down an $11 million offer from Florida’s Gator Collective.

In an appearance on Monday’s episode of ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum broke down what the story means for NIL moving forward. The unpredictability of NIL means deals like these could demolish the framework the NCAA has in place.

“The problem here is you don’t really know where it’s going to be in three hours. I think that shows you (that) some of what is going on has been predicted,” said Finebaum. “Others have said this whole thing is simply going to blow up and that’s what we’re watching right now. We’re watching it literally blow up in real time.”

The belief is that this is the largest NIL deal thus far for a recruit. Although he finished 60th in On3’s NIL 100, he’s just the seventh quarterback in the 2023 class per On3’s Consensus Rankings. A deal like the one Rashada allegedly accepted is just the latest groundbreaking figure in the NIL space. Finebaum says contracts like these are only on the table because no one within the NCAA is truly regulating it.

“How to sort it out is open for interpretation,” he said. “There’s no one really legislating, there’s no one really administrating, and there’s certainly no one enforcing.”

Two collectives reportedly open bidding for a top recruit can’t be what the NCAA had in mind with NIL. With no consistent governance over it, though, it continues to make college athletics, specifically recruiting, the wild west. As we approach the one year mark, they’ll have to find a way to make Rashada’s situation an outlier rather than precedent.