A $13-million NIL deal gone wrong, a top QB recruit and what happens next
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ESPN staff
Quarterback Jaden Rashada has been the talk of the recruiting world because of the scenario that has played out between him and Florida.
Rashada, the No. 27 recruit in the 2023 class, signed with Florida in December but asked for a release from his national letter of intent Tuesday. Florida granted the request Friday. It has been a wild few weeks with reports of multimillion-dollar NIL deals and promises that have ultimately fallen through.
Rashada’s situation is a product of the new college football landscape with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness opportunities for players.
What’s next for Rashada and Florida? And even more importantly, what does this high-profile case say about the state of NIL and where it’s going? Our reporters break it down.
How did we get here?
Rashada started picking up bigger offers in 2020, when he was a sophomore at IMG Academy. He received offers from Cal, Penn State, Arizona State and Auburn, among a few others.
He started his high school career at Brentwood (California) Liberty High School for his freshman season, then transferred to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and finished his high school career at Pittsburg High School in California. He racked up more offers his junior season and became one of the more sought-after quarterbacks in the 2023 class.
He took visits to schools around the country but committed to Miami in June 2022, choosing the Hurricanes over Florida, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M at the time.
Florida had finished a close second the first time around, and Gators coaches continued recruiting Rashada, eventually getting him to flip in November, only a few months after he chose Miami.
A person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press that Florida’s Gator Collective had offered Rashada a $13 million NIL deal to sign with the Gators. Rashada signed with Florida during the early signing period in December and looked as though he was set to enroll in Gainesville.
However, he requested a release from his national letter of intent Tuesday after it was reported the NIL deal had fallen through, and he was granted the release Friday. Rashada is prepared to sign with and play for another team in 2023 after signing with the Gators mere weeks ago. — Tom VanHaaren
What does this deal say about NIL, collectives, the NCAA and what comes next?
Collectives are officially unaffiliated with the schools they support. Florida, by rule, has no control over which athletes the Gator Collective signs to endorsement deals or how much money the group offers in those deals. In theory, collectives are booster groups that collect funds to pay athletes who are already attending the school they support. In practice, many of the more aggressive collectives have become outsourced payroll outfits that are used to unofficially entice players to attend their school.
Rashada’s situation at Florida is the first public, high-profile case of a collective reportedly failing to keep its promise to a player. It serves as an example of why the current business model for major college sports is less than ideal for all involved. If schools want to regain some control over the process, however, they either will need help from Congress or will need to get more directly involved in the now-established marketplace for acquiring the services of college athletes.
Schools have drawn a hard line in saying athletes will not be considered employees of their institutions. But several legal battles that could force the NCAA to change its rules have already begun. If any of the several attempts to shatter the NCAA’s current amateurism rules is successful — and the odds of that happening are steadily increasing — the top tier of college sports would be headed down a path where within the next few years the relationship between athletes and their schools will be more professional in nature. — Dan Murphy
How good is Rashada as a player?
From a skill set and measurables standpoint, Rashada is very similar to LSU’s Jayden Daniels when he first signed out of high school with Arizona State. Rashada has a high ceiling for physical development as he continues to grow and add strength, which will enhance his already impressive abilities as a passer. He can change arm angles, throw off platform and is very good on the move. However, he also has the ability to push the ball downfield from the pocket. Rashada is capable physically of contributing early, but that would depend on where he signs and the help and talent around him. Playing as a true freshman, particularly at quarterback, is a challenging learning curve. If it were easy, many more guys would be successful doing it. — Tom Luginbill
What’s next for Rashada?
This is an interesting situation now for Rashada, because the early signing period is over and the initial transfer portal window is closed. Most coaches have filled the majority of their roster spots.
The quarterback position is so unusual that coaches are essentially constructing a puzzle each season to try to keep depth at an optimal position. If they have already brought in quarterbacks this offseason, they could disrupt that quarterback room by bringing in another player so late.
The good thing for Rashada is that he is a top-50 prospect, and quarterbacks are difficult to come by, so there will be options.
If Rashada is looking for a large NIL deal, it could shrink the number of schools involved. But Arizona State would make sense. Rashada’s father, Harlen, played for the Sun Devils in the 1990s.
New coach Kenny Dillingham doesn’t have a quarterback signed in the 2023 class, and it would be close to home for Rashada. Washington is another West Coast school that could get involved, as could Cal, which offered him initially in his recruitment.
Now that he is released from his letter of intent, he will be free to enroll without penalty. — VanHaaren
What does this mean for Florida and Billy Napier?
Without question, this stings for both Florida and Napier — perhaps more so because he was hired, in part, for his recruiting prowess and absolutely had to have a quarterback in his first full class. When he got Rashada to flip from Miami in November, it was considered a huge win and helped ease some concerns about how well Napier and Florida were doing on the recruiting trail. But now, those concerns have returned. While it is true Napier is not involved with the Gator Collective, it is also true that both Napier and Florida have had to deal with the negative headlines and all the fallout. This will be easy fodder for any opposing coach to use against the Gators.
Given the broader context around Florida, this is especially problematic. With SEC rival Georgia winning a second consecutive national championship and continuing to recruit at a top-three level, the pressure is only mounting on Napier and the Florida program to show they are taking the necessary steps to be competitive with the Bulldogs again. Since Kirby Smart took over in 2016, Georgia has won five of their seven rivalry games. All but one was a double-digit victory.
Meanwhile, the questions at quarterback have grown. With Anthony Richardson gone to the NFL draft, the Gators are now left with Jack Miller — who did not play well in the 30-3 loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl — Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz and Max Brown, who just finished his freshman season. At this point, all the elite high school talent is spoken for, so perhaps Napier will have to dip again into the transfer portal to fill out the quarterback room. But no matter what he does, questions about what could have been with Rashada will continue to linger. — Andrea Adelson
The American Athletic Conference will require each member except Army and Navy to provide athletes with at least $10 million in additional benefits over the next three years, making it the only league so far to set a minimum standard with revenue sharing expected to begin in Division I sports in July.
AAC presidents approved the plan last week after they reviewed a college sports consulting firm’s study of the conference’s financial wherewithal. The three-year plan will go into effect once a federal judge approves the $2.8 billion House vs. NCAA antitrust settlement, which is expected next month.
Commissioner Tim Pernetti said Wednesday that 13 of the 15 AAC schools would opt in to the House settlement, which, among other things, provides for payments to athletes of up to $20.5 million per school the first year. Army and Navy are excluded because they do not offer athletic scholarships and their athletes cannot accept name, image and likeness money.
“For the conference, stepping forward and saying we’re not only opting in but here’s what we’re going to do at a minimum signifies the serious nature and our commitment to not only delivering a great experience for student-athletes but to success,” Pernetti said.
Officials from the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference told The Associated Press that each of their schools will be free to decide their level of revenue sharing. Power-conference schools generate the most television revenue and most are expected to fund the full $20.5 million or close to it.
The AAC plan, first reported by Yahoo Sports, would allow each school to set its own pace to hit the $10 million total by 2027-28. For example, a school could share $2 million the first year, $3 million the second and $5 million the third.
The AAC considers new scholarships, payments for academic-related expenses and direct payments as added benefits. Each school, with some limits, generally can apportion those as it sees fit.
“We wanted to provide flexibility for everyone to get to the number however it makes the most sense to them,” Pernetti said. “What I expect is it’ll be a variety of different approaches. I’m pretty certain many of the institutions are going to exceed [$10 million] in year one.”
Failure to reach $10 million over three years could jeopardize a school’s membership, but Pernetti said there will be annual reviews of the policy.
“All our universities made the decision a long time ago to deliver athletics and this experience at the highest level,” Pernetti said. “To me, this isn’t about revisiting that. This is about making sure we’re setting ourselves up for success in the future.”
Sports
‘I wasn’t trying to build anything in a lab’: How Jacob deGrom is learning to throw smarter, not harder
SURPRISE, Ariz. — When Jacob deGrom stepped on the mound for his first live batting practice this spring, a voice in his head told him: “All right, I want to strike everybody out.” That instinct had guided deGrom to unimaginable heights, with awards and money and acclaim. It is also who he can no longer be. So deGrom took a breath and reminded himself: “Let’s not do that.”
Nobody in the world has ever thrown a baseball like deGrom at his apex. His combination of fastball velocity, swing-and-miss stuff and pinpoint command led to one of the greatest 90-start stretches in baseball. From the beginning of 2018 to the middle of 2021, he was peak Pedro Martinez with a couple of extra mph — Nolan Ryan’s fastball, Steve Carlton’s slider, Greg Maddux’s precision.
Then his arm could not hold up anymore, and for more than three years, deGrom healed and got hurt, healed and needed Tommy John surgery in June 2023 to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, then healed once more. That delivers him to this moment, in camp with the Texas Rangers, ready to conquer a 162-game season for the first time since 2019 — and reminding himself when to hold back.
The instinct to be all he can be never will go away. But instead, as his efforts at learning to throttle down manifest themselves daily and were particularly evident in those early live ABs, deGrom induced ground balls on early contact and ended his day with a flyout on the second pitch of the at-bat.
DeGrom had blown out his elbow once before, as a minor leaguer in October 2010, and this time he understands his mandate. He is now 36, and nobody has returned to have any sort of substantive career after a third Tommy John, so keeping his arm healthy as he comes back from his second is imperative. This is the last phase of deGrom’s career, and to maximize it, he must change. It does not need to be a wholesale reinvention. For deGrom, it is more an evolution, one to which he accustomed himself by watching video of his past self.
DeGrom at his best simply overwhelmed hitters. At-bats turned into lost causes. He was the best pitcher in the world in 2018, when he threw 217 innings of 1.70 ERA ball and struck out 269 with just 46 walks and 10 home runs allowed. The following year, he dedicated himself to being even more, winning his second Cy Young and proving he was no one-season fluke. DeGrom routinely blew away one hitter, then made the next look like he’d never seen a slider. He painted the plate with the meticulousness of a ceramic artist.
“I look at the best — ’18,” deGrom said of his first Cy Young season. “There were times where I hit 100 or close to it, but I think I sat around 96.”
He did. Ninety-six mph on the dot for his high-spin four-seam fastball. It jumped to 96.9 in 2019, 98.6 in 2020 and 99.2 in 2021. In the 11 games deGrom pitched toward the end of 2022, it was still 98.9 — and then 98.7 before he blew out again.
“I have to look at it like, hey, I can pitch at that velocity [from 2018],” deGrom said. “It is less stress on your body. You get out there and you’re throwing pitches at 100 miles an hour for however many pitches it is — it’s a lot of stress. It’s something that I’m going to look into — using it when I need it, backing off and just trusting that I can locate the ball.”
He had not yet adopted that attitude in 2022, when those 11 starts convinced deGrom to opt out of his contract with the New York Mets, who had drafted him in the ninth round in 2010. Immediately, the Texas Rangers began their pursuit. General manager Chris Young pitched for 13 years in the major leagues and knows how hard it is to be truly great. He grunted to hit 90 with his fastball. Someone who could sit 99 with 248 strikeouts against 19 walks in 156⅓ innings (as deGrom did in the combined pieces of his 2021 and 2022 seasons) and make it look easy is one of a kind. Injury risk be damned, Texas gave deGrom $185 million over five years.
He played the part in his first five starts for Texas. Then he left the sixth with elbow pain. Done for the year. Surgery on June 12 — 11 days after the birth of his third child, Nolan. He carried Nolan around with his left arm while his right was in a brace that would click a degree or two more every day to eventually reteach deGrom to straighten his arm.
He taught himself how to throw again, too, under the watchful eyes of Texas’ training staff and Keith Meister, the noted Tommy John surgeon who is also the Rangers’ team doctor. They wanted to build back the deGrom who scythed lineups — but this time, with decision-making processes guided by proper arm care.
Part of that showed in deGrom’s September cameo last year. His fastball averaged 97.3 mph, and he still managed to look like himself: 1.69 ERA, 14 strikeouts against one walk with one home run allowed in 10⅔ innings. Rather than rush back, deGrom put himself in a position to tackle the offseason. Those innings were enough to psychologically move past the rehabilitative stage and reenter achievement mode. He trained with the same intensity he did in past seasons. The stuff would still be there. While peers were spending the winter immersed in pitch design, deGrom was seeking the version of himself that could marry his inherent deGromness with the sturdiness he embodied the first six years of his career.
“I wasn’t trying to build anything in a lab,” deGrom said. “My arm got a little long a few years ago, so trying to shorten up the arm path a little bit and sync up my mechanics really well is what I’ve been trying to do.”
Rather than jump out in the first start of the spring to prove that heartiness, deGrom took his time. It is a long season. He wants to be there in the end. His goal for this year is straightforward: “Make as many starts as I can.” If that means throwing live at-bats a little longer than his teammates, that’s what he’ll do. Ultimately, deGrom is the one who defines his comfort, and he went so long without it that its priority is notable.
So if that means shorter starts early in the season, it won’t surprise anyone. There is no official innings limit on deGrom. The Rangers, though, are going to monitor his usage, and he doesn’t plan to use those limited outings to amp up his velocity. This is about being smart and considering more than raw pitch counts or innings totals.
“I think it’s going to be a monitor of stressful innings versus not,” deGrom said. “You have those games where you go five innings, you have 75 pitches, but you’ve got runners all over the place, so those are stressful. Whereas you cruise and you end up throwing 100 pitches and you had one or two runners. It’s like, OK, those don’t seem to be as stressful. So I think it’s monitoring all of that and just playing it by ear how the season goes.”
That approach carried into deGrom’s spring debut Saturday against the Kansas City Royals. He averaged 97 mph on his fastball, topping out at 98. His slider remained near its previous levels at 90. He flipped in a pair of curveballs for strikes, too, just as a reminder that he’s liable to buckle your knees at any given moment. On 31 pitches, deGrom threw 21 strikes, didn’t allow a baserunner and punched out three, including reigning MVP runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. on a vicious 91.5-mph slider.
On his last batter of the day, deGrom started with a slider well off the plate inducing a swing-and-miss from Tyler Gentry, then followed with a low-and-not-quite-as-outside slider Gentry spit on. When a curveball that was well off the plate was called a strike, deGrom saw an opportunity. This is the art of pitching — of weighing the count, what a hitter has seen, how to take advantage of an umpire’s zone. He dotted a 97.3-mph fastball on the exact horizontal plane as the curveball and elevated it to the top of the strike zone, a nasty bit of sorcery that only a handful of pitchers on the planet can execute at deGrom’s level. Gentry stared at it, plate umpire Pete Talkington punched him out and deGrom strode off the mound, beta test complete.
“It’s always a thing of trusting your stuff,” deGrom said. “It’s one of the hardest things to do in this game, and part of it’s the fear of failure. You throw a pitch at 93 when you could have thrown it at 98 and it’s a homer, you’re like, ‘Why did I do that?’ So that’s the part that gets tough. You still have to go out there and trust your stuff, know that you can locate and change speeds, and still get outs not full tilt the whole time.”
Day by day, deGrom inches closer to that. He’ll get a little extra time, with the likelihood the Rangers will hold him back until the season’s fifth game, just to build in rest before the grind of a new season. He’s ready. It has been too long since he has been on the field regularly, contributing, searching for the best version of himself. It might look a little different. And if it does, that’s a good thing.
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