Bobby
The old saying, “Recruiting can change in the blink of an eye” certainly remains appropriate.
But in a sign of the times, I think the statement deserves to be updated.
Recruiting can change in the blink of a new NIL offer.
That’s reality.
I’m not bemoaning the existence of NIL by the way. Texas has been the benefactor of NIL as much or more than any team.
After all, NIL finally equalized a long thought to be advantage of other less scrupulous teams who historically have been willing to circumvent NCAA rules by paying players under the table. NIL allowed Texas supporters to change the paradigm. And they did, successfully.
In fact, I was told yesterday, as the 2024-2025 academic calendar came to a close and every penny had to be paid to athletes, that Texas athletes received more NIL this past year than in any previous year. I am also told that there was a year over year NIL increase in every single sport on campus.
The end result? Well, Texas won the Director’s Cup as the nation’s best athletic department. The football team is as talented as it has been in decades, etc.
Without question, NIL has been good to Texas athletics.
But other teams, like Florida, have strong NIL programs, too.
That’s apparently where the rub is today.
Yesterday afternoon it became apparent that longtime Texas target and lean Kendall Guervil, a defensive tackle from Fort Myers, Fla., would likely sign with the Gators rather than the Longhorns. An increased NIL offer was cited as the reason.
Texas is currently sitting in a unique situation. The Longhorns have an immensely talented and relatively young roster.
That roster and the corresponding salary cap is already accounted for in 2025. But GM Brandon Harris and coach Steve Sarkisian must be looking ahead to 2026 and wanting to keep the vast majority of its roster intact.
That desire and need to reserve capital for the existing roster can and will limit what the Horns have to spend for class of 2026 recruits.
In other words, some schools may just have more gun powder left for recruiting. We’ll see how Texas navigates this in the coming days, weeks and months ahead.
my guess is we’re sticking to the “strict salary cap” of revenue sharing and using TOF as “legitmate” NIL only. While teams like Ohio State, Georgia, USC are continuing as normal in addition to the revenue share cap.