NIL is a factor for Wolverines recruiting, but so are relationships and desire to 'grow' at Michigan

Michigan Wolverines football has had some highs and lows on the recruiting trail during the NIL era. The Maize and Blue had an outstanding finish to the 2022 class, ranking ninth in the country after making some late additions before the December signing day. In 2023, though, Michigan is off to a slow start. The Wolverines currently rank 24th in the land on the On3 Consensus, with 14 pledges and a 50-percent blue-chip rate.

Other schools around the country have operated so that NIL is synonymous with pay for play. According to a survey of 85 of the top 200 2023 recruits in the country conducted by On3, 31.8 percent of those prospects have been contacted by a school’s NIL collective. Even 30 percent of the respondents actually admitted that they’d take the best NIL deal over a ‘perfect fit’ from a football or academic standpoint.

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One Pac-12 coordinator said he feels that number is closer to 50-50, and we’d bet other coaches, many of whom have publicly voiced their displeasure with how NIL is being handled, would agree it’s higher than 30 percent.

“It’s no longer about culture,” the coordinator told On3. “We have kids come to our school on a visit and say, ‘We love you. Love you, coach. Love your scheme. It’s a great fit. But what can you offer?’”

“Money is trumping just about everything right now,” a recruiting coordinator in Michigan’s conference, the Big Ten, told On3. “Pretty incredible that schools are now buying teams. But, unfortunately, it is the world we are living in.”

That’s not how name, image and likeness was supposed to go, of course, but the NCAA doesn’t appear to have any desire to police its member institutions, and laws vary from state to state.

Michigan is one of nearly 30 schools that have multiple NIL collectives. The Wolverines, and their most prominent group, Champions Circle, have vowed not to use NIL as a recruiting inducement, however, essentially meaning they’ll follow the rules that some others aren’t.

Current Michigan players are profiting once they’re on campus, but coaches around the country have admitted it’s hard — impossible, in some cases — to compete with representatives from other programs offering money up front.

Michigan co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Steve Clinkscale was asked how he feels the dynamics of NIL will play into the Wolverines’ recruiting efforts. He said it remains to be seen, but that the Maize and Blue are comfortable with their approach.

“I think we’ll find out during the signing period, of course,” the Michigan assistant admitted. “I think the first year, you still had relationships with everyone, because of COVID, you still weren’t able to do all the trips as much. This summer, everybody was able to get out, and those relationships actually are helping — for us, especially.”

Michigan is still prioritizing making its program a “transformational” experience that can become transactional, at the same time, via NIL.

“We’re not making NIL like, hey, that’s the only factor, so I think it’s way more than that,” Clinkscale explained. “With anybody, it’s about the development for your son when he comes and plays for us — how is he going to leave here? With NIL, he may leave with a couple more commas in his bank account, a couple more zeroes. However, he will definitely leave here a better man, an educated man and a better football player.

“So I think those relationships continue to help. Those relationships have always helped.”

There’s certainly frustration around college football with how NIL is playing out on the recruiting trail. But there’s a flip side to the argument, one that Michigan wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy laid out. The Wolverines are looking for prospects who will break the door down to come to Michigan, as former U-M basketball coach John Beilein would put it. The desire to make money — in Ann Arbor or elsewhere — has to be secondary, Bellamy said.

“The thing is, you want to recruit kids that want to come to Michigan, and that has to be the No. 1 option, the No. 1 thing — and if it’s not, we’re probably recruiting the wrong kid,” Bellamy said. “NIL is real, it’s something that we know about, but you have to want to come to Michigan.

“Really, that’s what we focus on, guys that talk about growing at Michigan, how can they grow as a student-athlete. How can they grow as a person on and off the field? And if those things aren’t the top criteria for a kid, then this probably isn’t the place for them.”

Michigan is still trying to find a balance, but as long as they don’t fall far enough behind right away, it’s who wins in the end that really matters. There are prominent individuals at the university level and in the athletics sphere that are working hard on a daily basis to make sure U-M competes at the highest level, including with NIL, and there’s belief they can do so within the rules.