Portnoy Details How He Was Involved In Michigan's Recruitment of Star QB

The Barstool Sports founder and media mogul was committed to helping land the Michigan Wolverines a star quarterback.

Eric Rueb/Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Michigan Wolverines made the recruiting splash of the year last week when they landed the commitment of Belleville, MI's No. 1 overall player in the country in quarterback Bryce Underwood.

Underwood had previously been committed to play for the LSU Tigers since last January, but Michigan never stopped recruiting the in-state superstar. The NIL offer that the Wolverines came in with that finally forced the flip was reported to be as high as $12 million with heavy involvement from both Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports and Michigan alumnus as well as tech billionaire Larry Ellison, who is married to a Wolverines graduate.

The wheels were set in motion for this plan months ago when Portnoy made headlines for saying he would be willing to put up as much as $3 million of his own money annually towards Michigan's Champions Circle collective in order to help his team land an elite quarterback every year. But things remained quiet on the Underwood front for months leading up to the huge flip seemingly financially spearheaded by the Ellison's. Portnoy detailed how everything went down during a recent podcast appearance.

The story of how I met the Ellisons, Bryce Underwood flipped to Michigan, and the future of Michigan NIL changed forever pic.twitter.com/g7chi35bs9

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) November 26, 2024

Portnoy revealed he was originally hesitant to meet with other donors and wanted to land Underwood himself, but upon finding out the Ellison was involved, he took the meeting without hesitation. Ellison, Portnoy, and Ellison's wife Jolin - a fellow Michigan superfan - collaborated on how they could land Underwood's signature. Michigan alumnus and arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history Tom Brady got involved in the final weeks as well with numerous FaceTime calls with Underwood.

No matter how you feel about the way Underwood was landed - even Michigan fans were shaky on it - this recruitment is a perfect microcosm of the realities of college sports in 2024. A top prospect committed for a significant amount of time to one school and openly swayed to another via a massive amount of money is not only encouraged, but openly bragged about.

Portnoy is giddy as he describes how a massive offer and celebrity influence convinved a kid who ultimately is just that - a kid - to switch from his initial instinct and choose to stay home and play for Michigan. It's a far cry from the way recruiting was done even just five years ago.

It's certainly a new era in college football and the most open pay-for-play that the recruiting system has ever looked like. If you don't like it, chances are it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.