What if some of the have-nots in college sports rose up and really did some blood-letting with crazy NIL deals surfacing across the land, using all resources, connections, alumni, businesses and supporters?
Could they possibly rise to rival the elite, the dozen blue bloods that dominate college football?
One pundit, Chad Withrow of Outkick.com, recently postulated that yes, there could be a reckoning, a rising if you will, and the Tennessee-based writer put soon-to-be Big 12 member BYU right at the top of his list.
Withrow made a list of the college programs that, if they really, really wanted to tap into resources and connections, could bark at the tail of Big Dogs like Alabama and Ohio State.
I’m not sure if that’s reality, but it’s interesting to read his speculations.
Withrow makes an incorrect assumption that a reported a $100 billion portfolio of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could benefit BYU sports.
Those investments are earmarked for a different church purpose around the world that involve missions, temples, education and humanitarian work, according to recent remarks by Elder David A. Bednarto a group of media in Washington, D.C.
Also, Withrow asserts JetBlue and Marriott Corp., could elevate BYU athletes, which is out of the mainstream of current active booster funding like Qualtrics, NuSkin, doTerra, IHC, and Built Bar.
JetBlue’s founder David Neeleman has more reported ties to the University of Utah, although his nephew Zach Wilson is a former BYU quarterback currently with the New York Jets.
Here is the list of the programs Withrow believes could use NIL in a way few others could, and literally leap up as dominating programs on this new horizon:
- Vanderbilt, an athletic program that has won a national title in baseball but has struggled otherwise in the SEC. Vandy does have the biggest endowment in the SEC. If the powers that be tap into the resources for NIL, it would be a home…