Ohio State is buying the best team NIL can get. It better pay off
When Bobby Axelrod said, “Hate is nature’s most perfect energy source. It’s endlessly renewable,” the Buckeyes took that to heart as they’ve collected players and coaches in the offseason like Thanos did with the Infinity Stones in 2018/2019. Given that the Buckeyes haven’t won a game since before Thanksgiving (37-3 over Minnesota), and have a cakewalk of a schedule next season with Oregon, Penn State, and Michigan as their only tough games in the first season of the expanded Big Ten, the program has used NIL to attract and retain the best talent money can buy.
This is what happens when your rival has owned you and just won a national championship, while you’re on a two-game losing streak because you couldn’t score more than three points in the Cotton Bowl against Missouri.
Whether it be their disgust with Michigan or their national title drought, Ohio State has used NIL and the transfer portal to its benefit in efforts to take back the Big Ten. A lot of it is because of “THE Foundation” — a Non-Profit NIL collective for Ohio State football and basketball that’s a registered 501(c)(3) which makes donations tax-deductible by law. Reportedly, Houston Texans star rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud — who starred for the Buckeyes — dropped somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 in his school’s account.
“We welcome your help in keeping Ohio State at the top of the college athletics landscape,” OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith said when he pleaded with fans to donate to the collective in 2022.
