Bryce Underwood’s deal with the Michigan Wolverines was one of the biggest topics of discussion last year. It started a conversation about college athletes being paid large sums even before they prove anything.
A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump criticized the NIL structure and talked about how this model will become unsustainable for colleges. Without taking any names, he seemingly hinted at Underwood’s Michigan deal.
Trump talked about how even the most successful college programs don’t make enough money to pay their star players $14 million. An 18-year-old coming straight out of high school and inking such deals sets a bad precedent.
“Even the most successful universities don’t make that much money, and you can’t pay a quarterback $14 million to come out of high school. They don’t even know if he’s gonna be a very good player,” Trump SAID.
He stated that it’s a “very bad thing” that’s happening with the kind of deals players are being offered, and in the long run, colleges will struggle financially if they don’t manage the NIL deals better.
Players getting paid based on their potential instead of what they’ve done has been an ongoing topic of discussion in sports. We have seen countless examples across sports of players making millions of dollars without a single great season.
What ends up happening in most cases is that the player fails to live up to the expectation, and the program or franchise that once invested money in them suffers because of the bad decision-making.
Kyle Whittingham’s First Meeting with Bryce Underwood
The Michigan Wolverines recently went through a rough patch. Their program struggled on and off the field, with the off-field drama making national headlines. Once the dust settled, they brought in Kyle Whittingham to lead the program.
One of the biggest challenges that Whittingham had from the beginning was stabilizing the program. Keeping Underwood in Michigan was on top of his priority list. During an appearance on The Triple Option podcast, Whittingham detailed his first meeting with the quarterback.
“It was pretty much, ‘Let’s go’,” Whittingham said. “There was maybe a little hesitation until he got to know me and the rest of the staff. Once he got to know us, it was on a good trajectory from that point. He announced several days ago, and really helped our recruiting when he announced and was a stabilizing factor for us.”
Whittingham previously coached the Utah Utes for over two decades and had a very successful run with them. He’s expected to implement a new culture in Michigan and help bring the program back on track.
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