How state governments are using NIL to juice recruiting: 'Why wouldn’t we try to help?'

If you are a state legislator and there is a piece of legislation you could pass or a regulation you could repeal that would improve the competitiveness of a local business, then, for the most part, you do it.

Maybe it’s a tax break for expansion. Maybe it’s by building infrastructure. Maybe it’s trying to create an appealing environment to attract or retain talent.

If you are, for example, a Missouri state representative, then you are on the side of Missouri businesses.

The University of Missouri athletic department is a business, with fiscal year 2022 revenue coming in at $141.1 million, with a $15.5 million profit. That doesn’t even count the economic boost of fans flocking to Columbia for a game weekend.

Taken under those considerations, it makes sense why Missouri House Bill 417 passed last spring. And it not only codified name, image and likeness compensation for college athletes in the state and protected them against NCAA enforcement. It also contained a newly popular wrinkle.

Once a Missouri high school athlete signs a written agreement (such as a letter of intent or a financial aid agreement) with an in-state school, he or she is eligible to begin receiving NIL money up to, in some cases, six to 10 months before they could if they signed with an out-of-state school.

In major college football terms: Sign with Mizzou, and you can get paid early.

This is the Missouri state government giving a boost to Missouri coaches to sign Missouri athletes. It's the Missouri state government helping a Missouri business.

“How is this different from anything else we do?” asked Missouri representative Kurtis Gregory, one of a handful of lawmakers who wrote and sponsored the bill.

It isn’t. Except this is college football (or college athletics in general), and when it comes to college football, everything is treated differently.

“[Missouri] Coach [Eli] Drinkwitz has said repeatedly one of the keys for the program is that we have to recruit the best players in Missouri,” Gregory said.

Gregory would know about the concept. He grew up on a corn, soybean and hog farm near Blackburn, Missouri, and played offensive line for Mizzou. In 2007, he was one of 10 in-state starters on the Tigers' offense (the outlier was quarterback Chase Daniel, a Texan). Armed with all that local talent, Missouri went 12-2, one of the best season’s in school history.

Gregory’s goal when he began working on NIL legislation was to help the athletes make some money while playing in college anywhere at any level. During the research process, the idea of giving an in-state recruiting boost arose because Arkansas, among other states, had considered a similar concept if athletes signed in-state. Other states have allowed high schoolers to receive NIL even before signing with any school.

It’s all part of a patchwork of laws that infuriate college sports leaders. They want the federal government to come in and standardize the rules.

Getting Washington, D.C., to act, however, is not a guarantee. Meanwhile, you have states trying to juice in-state recruiting a little bit, the same way they would for any local industry.

Enter Williams Nwaneri, a consensus top-five national recruit who hails from outside Kansas City, Missouri, who committed to the Tigers earlier this week. As such, he will be able to receive NIL compensation under the new law if he officially signs with Mizzou in December. That’s eight months before the law would've allowed had he signed with Oklahoma or Tennessee. How much that is worth is unknown.

Nwaneri told reporters that NIL opportunities played a role in his decision but were “not the main thing.” He also cited academic offerings, his relationship with Drinkwitz and other coaches, and the chance to represent his home state.

“There is a lot that goes into the decision,” he said.

That's generally the case, even if rival fans and coaches who lose out on a recruit tend to focus solely on the money. Nwaneri has NFL potential, so whatever extra he might make as a high school senior is nothing compared to what might come later.

“[The law] passed, so that is an advantage for them,” his high school coach, Jamar Mozee, told 247Sports. “But it wasn’t like [Nwaneri] couldn’t get a good NIL deal at other places either.”

Gregory notes that business incentives generally tip the scales only a little, and NIL is no different. Besides, he figures other states will quickly follow, the same way they do when one state offers help to build a factory.

Everything in America is competitive. While NIL has been negatively decried as an “inducement” by those who oppose it, Gregory noted that everything in recruiting is an “inducement.”

“When I was being recruited, Kansas sat down and showed me what their new practice facility was going to look like my sophomore year,” Gregory said. “That’s an inducement. At Kansas State, they knew I wanted to be a farmer, so they were telling me they have one of the top agricultural programs in the country. That’s an inducement.

“How is NIL any different than all of that? I’d argue it isn’t.”

It isn’t. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses. Every school has its pluses and minuses. Every area, too. If you coach at USC, you sell recruits on the life, the weather and the business opportunities in L.A. There aren’t as many movie stars in, say, Iowa City, but coaches there can sell a classic college town and a slower pace of life.

Even when it comes to general enrollment, public universities offer deep tuition discounts for in-state students in an effort to keep them home.

“How is NIL any different than anything every college does during the recruiting process?” Gregory asked. “Why wouldn’t we try to help win over in-state talent?”

The difference is that money seems direct, not tangential. And direct money tends to make people nervous, especially in college sports.

“It’s new,” Gregory said. “It’s just new. They’ll get used to it.”