Michigan & NIL, Part I: What U-M is doing compared to other schools

Schools are interpreting the new name, image, and likeness (N.I.L.) rules differently when it comes to recruiting, a changing landscape in college athletics for Michigan and others. As former U-M tight end Jake Butt said on the recent TNT Wolverine podcast, “you don’t want to be the old man sitting on the porch saying, “get off my lawn, man. I don’t want the college football landscape to change.

RELATED: Michigan football, the 3-2-1: N.I.L, recruiting slow start and more

“You adapt or die,” he said.

For some schools — let’s be honest, many, perhaps on the way to ‘most’ — that means opening the checkbook and getting into bidding wars. However it’s spun, the deals now being brokered are about cash first. If you’re not willing to bring a certain amount to the table, your school won’t be a factor for many kids. 

But that hasn’t stopped Michigan from taking its own approach. The Champions Circle collective isn’t about “dropping bags,” and Regent Jordan Acker and Champions Circle leader and former U-M linebacker Jared Wangler noted they won’t be in the running for some of the kids like California quarterback Jaden Rashada. He reportedly secured $9.5 million before committing to Miami. 

It’s unique, and only time will tell if it works. 

Michigan ‘Champions Circle’ has been watching others

For several months, Wangler said, those involved in the Michigan collective have been keeping a close eye on what’s been going on. Since March 2021, in fact, they started formulating what a “best in class” NIL at Michigan would look like.

“Every school is trying to come up with their own solution. Nobody really knows what that best-in-class concept is,” he said. “On our end, we built out a sports agency to help service this at the University of Michigan. State law prohibits the University of Michigan, Michigan State and other universities in the state from facilitating N.I.L. activity. In order to get this done right, the school legally cannot be involved to facilitate, to organize this collective or this sports marketing agency we put together. 

“[In June] we made an announcement, and the Champions Circle was formed. It’s a collective of some of our top supporters at the University of Michigan — boosters, donors, whatever you call them. A group committed to making our NIL the premier program in the country. What we’ve done is pulled together a fund, and we’re going to be working with Michigan student athletes to organize and set up compliant NIL deals and make sure their assessed N.I.L. value is being met with our collective and with our sports marketing agency.”

The Regents and the university have kept a watchful eye to make sure it’s done right. Acker insisted he wasn’t telling Wangler what to do with the money, but it’s clear they don’t want them wandering into gray areas. 

“Most importantly is that all of this is evening the playing field between schools like Michigan that are not willing to bend the rules and schools that are,” Acker said. “Michigan is an incredibly well-resourced school. Our brand is incredibly powerful. Four of the top five college football games this year involved us.”

A mutual benefit for the school, athlete

That brand needs to be harnessed, not just for the school — which the school does incredibly well – but also the student athletes that pour their blood, sweat and tears for the block ‘M,’ Acker added.

They want the students to be able to use the brand, be creative and build their own brands around it. To be “entrepreneurial” off the field or the court “without sacrificing the identity that makes Michigan, Michigan.”

“There are other things to do … we want to do things a different way,” he said. “If you’re a kind of kid out there looking for bids and saying, ‘I’m going to take the biggest amount of money some NIL collective can give me in recruiting,’ then this isn’t the right place for you. 

“But if you’re the kind of kid who has an entrepreneurial spirit — who wants to build their brand, learn about business, start a foundation, take the power of the block ‘M’ and all the resources of this campus and university com as a whole — and you’re willing to put in the work to do it, then this is the place for you. That’s a big part of what Michigan’s NIL should clarify.”

Transformational, not transactional, as head coach Jim Harbaugh would say. 

But money talks. And other schools subject to the same rules are reeling in kids at an unprecedented pace despite the state laws, etc. That’s left Michigan playing catch-up on the recruiting trail in the early part of the 2023 cycle. 

Next … part two. The Michigan vision, long-term goal and more …