Inside Missouri's five-star coup
How Missouri was able to lure the 2024 class's number 1 defensive tackle and why it's not sustainable
This year’s recruiting cycle is still very much in full swing, but perhaps the biggest surprise dropped just before I went on wedding break a few weeks ago: 2024’s Number 1 defensive tackle recruit, Williams Nwaneri, signed with Missouri over powers Tennessee, Georgia, Oregon and Oklahoma. The Missouri native and number three overall prospect in this year’s class, is the second highest recruit to ever sign with the Tigers, per 247Sports’s recruiting rankings.
Missouri isn’t generally the place where big-time talent goes to play college football. In fact, the Tigers have only signed five five-star prospects ever, per 247Sports. Interestingly enough, two of those five have come through the recruiting classes of Eliah Drinkwitz, the coach many people are assuming is on the hot seat. One of those five-stars, Luther Burden III, is erupting for the Tigers with 793 yards and five scores. The other is Nwaneri.
So how are the recruiting tides changing for Drinkwitz and the Missouri program? And why do I think it’s not sustainable?
Missouri NIL Laws
It’s no secret that NIL (name, image, likeness) is a major recruiting drive. We saw that this past offseason during the Jaden Rashada saga. The NCAA is refusing to rule on NIL, even though many coaches and personnel staffers perceive it as the “wild west.” Instead, the governing body put out a vague list of “guidelines” last year that don’t really clear anything up. That means state laws are what dictate the legality of NIL and what schools can or cannot provide to their players.
NIL is pretty much legal for college athletes across America. Players can now profit off their name, image and likeness, as they should. Whether or not you believe the way NIL is currently being used is right doesn’t matter to this issue, though. Instead, we need to take a look at the main driver for Mizzou’s recruiting success: the state’s NIL laws.
On July 18, Missouri passed legislation amending the state’s pre-existing NIL rulings. The new law was revolutionary, especially in a red state like Missouri. It allows high school athletes within the state to earn NIL money while in high school. There’s only one caveat: they need to have a signed letter of intent for an in-state school.
Now, you might be asking what a letter of intent is. A National Letter of Intent, or NLI, is what a prospective student-athlete signs when they are officially selecting their school. Essentially, signing an NLI is accepting the financial aid the school is offering and starting the enrollment process. Sure, a student-athlete can opt out of an NLI, but they would lose a year of eligibility and be forced to have an academic year of residency at their new school before competing. Student-athletes don’t want to risk losing their eligibility, nor does a school want to deal with an eligibility issue, so NLIs are often the last step of the recruiting process.
This new law went into effect on August 28, right before the season kicked off. Coincidentally, Nwaneri, coming out of Lee’s Summit North High School in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, committed to Drinkwitz’s program on August 14.
Missouri’s college football landscape
Missouri also has a unique college football landscape that gives Mizzou a leg up: they’re the only show in town.
The state of Missouri has 15 NCAA football programs. Of those 15, two (Washington University in St. Louis and Westminster College) are Division-III schools that don’t give out scholarships. That rules them out of contention for many of the athletes who would be able to command an NIL deal in their high school years.
If we take it a step further, there are only four Division I programs: Mizzou, Lindenwood, Missouri State, and Southeast Missouri State or SEMO. If you’ve only heard the last three in the context of college basketball, that’s because they play in the FCS, or a subdivision down from the FBS.
That’s right. Mizzou is the only FBS program in the state of Missouri. If you’re a top-level prospect and want to stay in-state, the Tigers are your only option. If you’re talented enough to get NIL deals in high school, though, only the Tigers are appealing. Mizzou can run unchallenged with the state’s new NIL rules and sweep up all the top talent in the state. While other SEC and Big 12 programs often jump into Missouri for recruiting, they’re now at a disadvantage: Mizzou has more cash to pony up, and earlier in the process. All they need is a NLI, and you’re set. Watch the profits roll in.
How does this affect recruiting?
NIL is not the main selling point for a school, as many want you to believe. It’s a major part of the puzzle, yes, but NIL can often pale in comparison to program tradition, pro potential, or the coach. Deion Sanders isn’t using NIL to lure all those players to Colorado in the portal, for example.
However, NIL is a key component in what I call re-recruiting, which is keeping a player committed to a school and at the school after their enrollment. A 2023 study by the Sport Business Journal involved interviewing Power Five athletes about their recruiting priorities. Of those in college, 67 percent said that NIL played a major role in deciding whether or not to transfer, and where to transfer, while 59 percent said “a lucrative NIL deal would keep them out of the transfer portal.”
While program fit and coaching are still major points of recruiting, NIL is the main key of re-recruiting. When we factor in the idea that re-recruiting happens before a player even steps foot on campus, you can see how Missouri’s NIL laws give them a leg up. For example, Mizzou and Drinkwitz are already re-recruiting Nwaneri, who took a visit to Oregon on September 23 after his commitment to the Tigers.
Hidden away in the law, though, is an interesting provision that not a lot of other states have: universities can fundraise for NIL directly through their athletics scholarship fund. That’s right, Mizzou doesn’t have to bother with a third party collective. Instead, the Tiger Scholarship Fund, which is managed by the university’s athletic department and their development department, is able to directly handle NIL payments.
That’s a huge change. One that benefits Mizzou’s boosters immensely. NIL collectives have largely struggled to gain 501(c)(3) status as a tax deductible non-profit, so donations to a large majority of NIL collectives are not tax deductible. Donations to a university, on the other hand, are tax deductible.
If we assume that NIL deals are instrumental to re-recruiting, Mizzou can flex their fundraising muscles like few others. Sure, other SEC rivals like Texas A&M or Alabama, or the incoming Texas, can raise more capital with their massive donor bases, but those donors go without tax deductions that allow them to donate more. Mizzou doesn’t have that problem. They can fundraise like any other university capital project and provide the same tax breaks for donations as a gift to the fund for a new university library.
So why isn’t it sustainable?
That’s the million dollar question.
We’re already seeing that Mizzou, even in the midst of their best season since Gary Pinkel’s magical two-year run in Columbia in 2013-14, are seeing re-recruiting issues popping up. Nwaneri is taking outside visits after his recruitment. And, there’s not much firepower in the class behind him.
There’s also the fact that college athletics, and by extension NIL, is a copycat industry. Missouri is actually the third state to allow high schoolers to profit off of NIL after signing with an in-state college behind California and Arkansas. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more states follow that model in the coming years.
I think the biggest threat, though, is future regulation. The NCAA has made it clear that they are not going to regulate NIL on their own, and are waiting for Congress to instead make the ruling. Congress is doing their part with three bills currently circulating.
Former Auburn coach and current Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) signaled an intent to form a bipartisan bill to regulate NIL in October 2022, but their efforts have not materialized in the Senate a year later.
Congress saw a flurry of NIL-related bills introduced in May, led off by the Athlete Opportunity and Taxpayer Intergrity Act, introduced May 4 by Sens. Bill Cardin (D-MD) and John Thune (R-SD). This bill seeks to “prohibit individuals and organizations from using the charitable tax deduction” for NIL purposes. The co-signers of the bill believe that it will help maintain integrity across the board for NIL and recruitment.
Later that month, Reps. Mike Carey (R-OH) and Greg Landsman (D-OH) introduced the Student Athlete Level Playing Field Act to create a federal standard for NIL and create, as state in the bill’s name, a level playing field. This bill, if enacted, assures student-athletes the right to enter into NIL deals while providing federal oversight of NIL outside of the NCAA. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates which deals student-athletes can enter, such as not allowing deals with tobacco companies, while a Congressional Commission would oversee the growth and change of NIL after the bill is enacted. It also ensures that student-athletes are not employees of the university, a provision every college is hoping for. Finally, it amends the Sport Agent Responsibility and Trust Act, which governs all sports agents in the United States, to expand its oversight to also cover boosters.
Finally, the Fairness Accountability and Integrity in Representation of College Sports Act, or FAIR College Sports Act, has had a discussion draft released by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL). While not yet formally introduced, this bill seeks to do similar things as the Student Athlete Level Playing Field Act in providing a new oversight committee, the United State Intercollegiate Athletics Committee, to govern NIL. It includes may of the same provisions discussed earlier, and extends more rights to student-athletes, such as signing with agents, banning pay-for-play, and allowing student-athletes to sign deals with any entity, including companies promoting tobacco, alcohol, gambling and more.
While we don’t yet know how or when Congress will rule on NIL, it’s clear that it’s coming. With many other states jumping on the train of allowing high schoolers to enter into NIL deals, Mizzou’s edge may be dwindling in the coming years. But right now is a program-changing time for the Tigers where they can take advantage of the uneven playing field and set their program up for the future as an SEC competitor.