Michigan’s football program flipping five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood from LSU in November represented a shift in the Wolverines’ name, image, likeness (NIL) philosophy.
After landing the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class, Champions Circle, the official NIL collective for Michigan, commended its donors and personally thanked billionaire Larry Ellison and his wife, Jolin, a Michigan graduate, for their financial support.
However, even before securing arguably its biggest recruiting win in program history, Michigan had already made progress in the NIL sphere for the team’s current players.
“It was like one year we weren’t getting paid and one year we were all getting paid a good amount,” former Michigan tight end Colson Loveland, a projected first-round pick, said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “I think it’s just a blessing how NIL works. Obviously, getting paid at a young age and being able to just take care of whatever you need, take care of your family. But it doesn’t take away from the love that I have for the game. Football’s always the main thing.”
Following Michigan’s national championship in 2023, Champions Circle launched its “Those Who Stay” campaign, aimed to keep its star players in Ann Arbor.
Last spring, key contributors such as Loveland, Will Johnson, Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant noted that other schools were trying to get them to transfer with more fruitful NIL offers, but they all decided to remain at Michigan for their junior years.
Throughout Jim Harbaugh’s tenure as Michigan’s head coach, he emphasized a “transformational over transactional” approach to NIL. Sherrone Moore has said those principles remain a priority since taking over as head coach in January 2024 but has been more willing to adapt to the changing landscape of college football.
The athletic department, headed by Warde Manuel, also has made strides in embracing the NIL age. Michigan has announced several new partnerships in the past year to streamline NIL operations and maximize opportunities for student-athletes.
“I feel like they really stepped it up,” Graham said of Michigan’s NIL approach at the combine. “They saw the other schools really excelling more than they would like to, but I feel like they kind of stepped it up in these recent years. Obviously, a lot of us took a lot less money and we had a lot more offers, but it was really about Michigan for us.”
The hiring of general manager Sean Magee also has been instrumental. His duties are expansive, overseeing all aspects of the recruiting and player personnel departments along with coordinating the program’s NIL initiatives. He was hired last March after spending the previous two years as the Chicago Bears’ chief of staff.
“He was great, especially on the NIL perspective and coach and player development,” edge Josaiah Stewart, who had a team-high 8 ½ sacks in 2024, said at the combine.
The most important aspect of Michigan’s NIL structure, according to former running back Donovan Edwards, is dollar figures never became a distraction in the locker room. During Edwards’ career, the Wolverines won three Big Ten titles.
“When I was there for the four years, no player hated on anybody or nobody else is watching each other’s pockets,” Edwards said at the combine. “I feel like that’s a big cause of destruction once somebody starts hating on somebody else or thinking that somebody else is not as good as they are to get the money that they rightfully deserve.”
