The Ohio State Buckeyes just finished the college football season on top of the world as national champions, but in the age of NIL, it can’t be a 24/7 party in Columbus. Instead, head coach Ryan Day and Ohio State have to defend their roster from being poached by teams looking to pay big money for their star players.
Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate Offered Big Money To Transfer
According to a report from On3’s Pete Nakos, star Ohio State Buckeyes WR Jeremiah Smith has been offered $4.5 million to leave Columbus and transfer elsewhere. Nakos also reported that Carnell Tate, another OSU wideout, was offered $1 million to leave Columbus as well.
This report comes after the “$4 million Carson Beck contract” and the alleged “Quinn Ewers $8 million offer,” only solidifying the fact that the college football landscape has changed forever.
Ohio State almost missed out entirely on the transfer portal due to its attention being focused on the CFP.
In past years, the Buckeyes would’ve hit the ground running in recruiting for both the transfer portal and high school, but instead, its main focus is now retaining the talent it had.
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While Smith and Tate most likely received some sort of compensation for signing with the Buckeyes out of high school, they have increased their value this year, and OSU is going to have to pay them again to keep them.
Earlier this offseason, we saw many schools “re-sign” their current players. South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers reportedly got the largest NIL deal in program history to stay with the Gamecocks after his stellar redshirt freshman season.
Now, Ohio State is facing a similar predicament and will most certainly offer a NIL deal to Smith that competes with the alleged $4.5 million offer he currently has on the table from another school.
As for Tate, it will be interesting to see if Ohio State decides to match the million-dollar offer he has or if he’ll leave.
While both players are probably loyal to Day and Ohio State, at a certain point, some offers are big enough to change a player’s life forever, making it hard to refuse.
In the age of NIL, recruiting never ends, and you have to seemingly work tirelessly to even just keep the players you already have.
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