We are in the middle of the pay-for-play era of college football, and the Michigan Wolverines are taking full advantage. It had been rumored for weeks that the Wolverines had made a Godfather offer of around $10 million in NIL funds to LSU commit Bryce Underwood, widely considered the No. 1 QB in the 2025 class.
At the end of the day, that kind of money was impossible for him to turn down and on Thursday evening, Underwood made his flip to Michigan official.
Michigan is enduring a difficult season coming off of last year's national title. The Wolverines are just 5-5 and a big part of the reason is they were unable to adequately replace JJ McCarthy at QB. Michigan also saw how much money rival Ohio State spent to assemble its 2024 roster to chase a championship and knew it needed to pony up to stay competitive with the Buckeyes.
Now, with Underwood in tow, Michigan is far from done emptying its pockets to land top prospects. They've turned their attention to five-star Alabama OT commit Ty Haywood. Reports are out that the Wolverines are pitching a big NIL offer for the Denon, Texas native. It sounds likely that Haywood is going to make an official visit soon.
Alabama can be competitive in the NIL marketplace, but it will rarely be able to be anyone's biggest offer. I believe that's why Greg Byrne targeted an X's and O's savant like Kalen DeBoer as head coach. He knew Alabama wouldn't be able to maintain its talent advantage over everyone else in this new landscape, so he wanted to ensure he got a coach who was able to outscheme the opposition.
Haywood's decision remains to be seen as we approach the early signing period. With or without him, Alabama still has a great offensive line class coming in highlighted by 5-star Michael Carroll and 4-star Jackson Lloyd. Though Carroll has flirted with Colorado a bit, he still seems solid for the time being.
It's a new world in college football and commitments mean less than they ever did. Desperate programs are going to be willing to back up the Brinks trucks late in the process to bring in high-end talent.
The days of stockpiling 5-stars is over.