Mel Tucker keeping Michigan State current in new NIL recruiting world

East Lansing, Mich. – Since its inception in 2017, early signing day has been one of the most anticipated days on the college football calendar, as players across the country put pen to paper and make their commitments official. For coaches like Michigan State’s Mel Tucker, the day marks a satisfying checkpoint in a recruiting process that’s only become more hectic over the past few years. 

Major rule changes – like the introduction of the transfer portal and NIL (name, image and likeness) compensation – have altered the way Tucker recruits. More factors have been added to a player’s decision to commit to a school. It’s a new operation for everyone, but one that Tucker welcomes. 

“I think the biggest thing is to not really spend too much time complaining about it or talking about how it should be, or the way it used to be, and just get with the program and figure it out quickly, like as fast as you can,” Tucker said. “At the end of the day, I’m not sure if I can do much about it, like how the calendar is set up and the transfer portal rules. I’m just waiting to see, ‘What are the rules? What is it now and then what do we need to do?’ And then let’s get at it. I think that’s the biggest thing. It’s going to change. It’s going to change all the time. You can’t fight it. You have to get with it, embrace it.”

This 2023 class is Tucker’s third as Michigan State head coach. The class ranks 21st nationally and fourth in the Big Ten, per On3. The class contains 15 high school players, nine of which are four stars and six of which are three stars, according to the On3 consensus rankings. 

Michigan State also welcomed 11 players from the transfer portal. 

From recruiting the 2021 class over Zoom to tying a program record with nine four-star recruits, Tucker has worked to make a name for Michigan State on the recruiting trail, staying current with the new rules, rather than sticking to what he was once familiar with. 

“It’s a rat race,” Tucker said. “I think we’re going to continue to learn how to recruit to Michigan State, with the calendar, the portal, in-state recruiting and out-of-state recruiting. We have a process and we continue to improve it and kind of change with the times and make sure that we can do what we have to do based on the way the rules are. And it’s changing every single day. It was a lot different this contact period than it was a year ago. A lot of different conversations out there.”

NIL has been a paritcularly hot topic in such conversations, with more schools becoming nationally competitive in that realm. Tucker has noticed first-hand how NIL opportunities impact the recruiting process.

“I see this ‘23 class as being the first full national class across the board where there’s so many schools involved and participating (in NIL) in some way, shape or form,” Tucker said, referring to NIL. “We have seen some guys that have been affected by NIL. Maybe promises kept or promises not kept. The first day the portal opened, there were, like, 4,000 kids in the portal. We do see the effect of people being very leery of being promised things. With the portal being what it is now, if things aren’t what they think they are going to be, or they’re not what they were promised when you get to a place, people are getting in the portal and they’re getting out of there.”

Michigan State has been active in its promotion of NIL opportunities for its players since the rules were changed last July. It’s a valuable commodity in today’s age, and Tucker realizes that. 

“I think the players and the parents and the coaches and whoever else is involved, they just want to know, ‘Do you support NIL? Do you believe in helping players build their brand?’” Tucker said. “And absolutely we do. We can show them that we do with the players that we have.”

As more schools acknowledge the influence of NIL on recruiting, Tucker thinks the national NIL landscape will become clearer and more navigable. 

“We’ll see how it is a year from now because there’s more schools involved now, I think,” Tucker said. “There’s going to be more black and white. There’s going to be a lot less questions about things. It’s going to be more clear and I think things will start to settle. Everyone will pretty much know where everyone stands on NIL. I think it’ll make it easier for the prospects and their families to try and figure out what they want to do.”

What continues to be most important for Tucker and his staff, though, is whether or not a player is the right fit for Michigan State, and vice-versa. For as innovative as Tucker has been since he’s arrived at Michigan State, no rule changes are going to prevent him from going after the players he feels are best for the program. 

“It’s important for us, with all of the portal, the NIL and everything that’s going on in college football, it’s important for us to sign players who want to be Spartan Dawgs,” Tucker said. “[Players] who are coming here because they want to be here and not for any other reasons. We have to make sure the guys are tough, they’re disciplined and they’re selfless. If they’re not, they can’t be here. So we have to make sure that we’re very thorough in our evaluation, not just in what you can see on the football field like on tape, but the intangibles as well.”