As the 2025 recruiting class took shape last summer, some of the most jaw-dropping recruiting requests ever heard of circulated the college football ranks. Top-flight recruits were asking Big Ten and SEC programs to provide full-blown travel for families, and even in one instance, asking for private security.
“Red carpet treatment, people wanting their families on chartered flights to home and away games, car service for the entire family to and from games and around town,” an SEC NIL collective operator previously told On3. “Stuff that nobody is doing.”
Official visit season has returned in college football. Among the highlights of this weekend, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Ohio State and South Carolina will all be hosting five-star recruits. June is a sprint to get top recruits on campus and land commitments.
Money has increasingly become a critical factor in the last few years, too. In recent months, top programs have begun paying recruits an annual salary before ever enrolling on campus. What started as lucrative NIL packages to land commitments evolved to thousand-dollar monthly payments to lock in commits and avoid taking other visits.
The requests do not stop at cash payments, though. NIL collectives and general managers across the country are bracing for asks that will include cars and private travel to games.
“We’re involved with multiple quarterbacks,” an NIL collective told On3. “And I’m not a talent evaluator, but the one who I think is the least talented just sent over a demand list. It’s not even worth entertaining. It’s $1.5 million in Year One. And this kid needs two years before he can even play. It’s travel to games, it’s travel back home and then back to campus. The asks are crazier than ever, and I don’t know how to make good on them.”
Another NIL collective that is going after multiple high four-star recruits in June told On3 that among the asks they are expecting are monthly stipends upon commitments baked into multi-year deals, money for a car lease and housing stipends on top of what the school is paying.
“They need to do a mid-summer National Signing Day,” the source told On3. “Get a commitment and expedite the process. There is too much waiting and seeing. If I am going to spend $20,000 on a kid, what if he flips in October? It’s a clown show.”
Other programs are taking a different tactic, rethinking how they approach June altogether. Instead of trying to outbid schools for a commitment, they are making an effort to spend a minimal amount of money on high school recruiting.
Saving dollars for the transfer portal makes more financial sense, an SEC source told On3.
“We will not be paying recruits crazy numbers until they start playing,” the source said. “We would personally rather go to the portal and get someone who has a season under their belt and pay them. Developing guys is gonna be hard to do if they want big money.”
One Big Ten source stressed to On3 that their school is done trying to provide amenities, such as private travel to games or keys to a luxury vehicle. They are expecting some tough conversations in the month of June.
“We are paying you hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the source said. “Do what you want with it, we’re not adding in more.”
June has just about arrived on the college football calendar. Official visits are underway, and camps are around the corner. With the House v. NCAA settlement expected to include an NIL clearinghouse that will require college athletes to have their deals vetted, high school recruiting has become the latest frontier to dump dollars into.
Since July 2021, the dollars spent have taken off in the high school space. But now the paydays are not limited to high-end five-star recruits.
“It feels like it’s moving day at Augusta,” a Power Four NIL collective said. “There’s an awful lot of significant action that takes place in an exceptionally condensed period of time. I wish they’d put a signing day in July or August. It would just make me feel a lot more comfortable about what we have to do in June to be competitive.
“What is all this going to matter in five months in these kids’ recruitment? I’ve had June’s where we’ve gone all out entertaining kids, hotel rooms and it didn’t mean shit by the time October or November came.”
“Red carpet treatment, people wanting their families on chartered flights to home and away games, car service for the entire family to and from games and around town,” an SEC NIL collective operator previously told On3. “Stuff that nobody is doing.”
Official visit season has returned in college football. Among the highlights of this weekend, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Ohio State and South Carolina will all be hosting five-star recruits. June is a sprint to get top recruits on campus and land commitments.
Money has increasingly become a critical factor in the last few years, too. In recent months, top programs have begun paying recruits an annual salary before ever enrolling on campus. What started as lucrative NIL packages to land commitments evolved to thousand-dollar monthly payments to lock in commits and avoid taking other visits.
The requests do not stop at cash payments, though. NIL collectives and general managers across the country are bracing for asks that will include cars and private travel to games.
“We’re involved with multiple quarterbacks,” an NIL collective told On3. “And I’m not a talent evaluator, but the one who I think is the least talented just sent over a demand list. It’s not even worth entertaining. It’s $1.5 million in Year One. And this kid needs two years before he can even play. It’s travel to games, it’s travel back home and then back to campus. The asks are crazier than ever, and I don’t know how to make good on them.”
Another NIL collective that is going after multiple high four-star recruits in June told On3 that among the asks they are expecting are monthly stipends upon commitments baked into multi-year deals, money for a car lease and housing stipends on top of what the school is paying.
“They need to do a mid-summer National Signing Day,” the source told On3. “Get a commitment and expedite the process. There is too much waiting and seeing. If I am going to spend $20,000 on a kid, what if he flips in October? It’s a clown show.”
Other programs are taking a different tactic, rethinking how they approach June altogether. Instead of trying to outbid schools for a commitment, they are making an effort to spend a minimal amount of money on high school recruiting.
Saving dollars for the transfer portal makes more financial sense, an SEC source told On3.
“We will not be paying recruits crazy numbers until they start playing,” the source said. “We would personally rather go to the portal and get someone who has a season under their belt and pay them. Developing guys is gonna be hard to do if they want big money.”
One Big Ten source stressed to On3 that their school is done trying to provide amenities, such as private travel to games or keys to a luxury vehicle. They are expecting some tough conversations in the month of June.
“We are paying you hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the source said. “Do what you want with it, we’re not adding in more.”
June has just about arrived on the college football calendar. Official visits are underway, and camps are around the corner. With the House v. NCAA settlement expected to include an NIL clearinghouse that will require college athletes to have their deals vetted, high school recruiting has become the latest frontier to dump dollars into.
Since July 2021, the dollars spent have taken off in the high school space. But now the paydays are not limited to high-end five-star recruits.
“It feels like it’s moving day at Augusta,” a Power Four NIL collective said. “There’s an awful lot of significant action that takes place in an exceptionally condensed period of time. I wish they’d put a signing day in July or August. It would just make me feel a lot more comfortable about what we have to do in June to be competitive.
“What is all this going to matter in five months in these kids’ recruitment? I’ve had June’s where we’ve gone all out entertaining kids, hotel rooms and it didn’t mean shit by the time October or November came.”
