Ohio State football expects to sign strong 2023 recruiting class, but NIL looms as issue

The early national signing day is Wednesday, and it’s one that feels different for Ohio State.

As usual, the Buckeyes are on track to land an excellent class of recruits. Ohio State has the seventh-rated class in the 247Sports composite rankings. That’s the lowest for the Buckeyes since 2019, but it’s largely a reflection of having only 20 commitments, the fewest among the top 12 schools in the rankings. Ohio State ranks third behind Alabama and Georgia in average player rank.

Yet there’s been considerable angst surrounding Ohio State recruiting lately. That’s partly because of the decommitment last week of quarterback Dylan Raiola, the top-ranked player nationally in the 2024 class.

But there’s also a sense that the name, image and likeness rights established in 2021 have not worked to Ohio State’s advantage on the recruiting trail. Momentum has not been on OSU’s side during the closing stretch of this recruiting cycle, and NIL is cited as a major reason.

Pinning down specifics on NIL offers is difficult. NIL deals are private, and recruits generally don’t share what guarantees they’ve been offered.

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Schools are not permitted to offer NIL deals directly with players. Those must be done through a third party, often collectives or booster-run businesses, but schools can encourage donations to those entities.

However those organizations are funded, NIL is increasingly an issue.

“It was never part of the conversation (before 2021),” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “Then it became part of the conversation, and it's trending towards being the conversation for a lot of folks. As time has gone on, it's become more and more of a priority for folks, and so navigating those times and adapting is important.”

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Two weeks ago, OSU athletic director Gene Smith issued a statement asking fans to donate to the collectives associated with the Buckeyes.

“It's certainly a priority for us to make sure we have everything we need to support our players, and that's kind of where I’ll leave it,” Day said. “We have some folks that are really helping and doing everything they can, and that's great.

“We're going to need as much help as we can moving forward. But the great news is we have great fans who want to support it, and we're going to make sure we do everything we can to make sure our guys get what's fair.”

But it’s clear that OSU is not on the cutting edge of providing NIL benefits to recruits.

“My answer would be that Ohio State believes that they want to compensate their (current) players through NIL first,” said Steve Wiltfong, director of recruiting for 247Sports. “If you come to Ohio State and become one of the best players in college football, there’s no bigger stage to rake in NIL dollars, as evidenced by some of the money some of the guys like C.J. Stroud are making.”

Offering lucrative NIL deals to recruits can be a double-edged sword. It would obviously help in recruiting, but if there is a finite pool of available dollars, it could come at the expense of players already on the roster.

“It could cause some issues as far as true freshmen being the highest-paid player on your team when they haven't done anything yet,” Wiltfong said. “But maybe it won't. We're just speculating right now.”

Wiltfong said NIL is a factor in the decisions of almost all recruits, but he believes only a small percentage are choosing programs primarily because of it.

When it comes to the players Ohio State doesn't sign, Wiltfong isn't sure "if those are guys (OSU) would truly want anyway.”

“They have a culture that they want to keep sacred,” he said, “and so the guys that are interested in Ohio State are going to understand how Ohio State is handling NIL compared to some other programs.

“There are guys in Ohio State's class that probably could have got a lot of front-end NIL money somewhere that chose to go to Ohio State to be developed by (wide receivers coach) Brian Hartline or (defensive line coach) Larry Johnson or whoever. They see how well players on Ohio State's roster are doing from an NIL standpoint, and they envision themselves being in those shoes down the road.”

It’s a bit ironic that Ohio State is viewed as being on the wrong side of the NIL picture only a year after it added the nation’s top-ranked player, Quinn Ewers, because of NIL. The quarterback enrolled a year early to take advantage of NIL, which he couldn’t as a Texas high school player.

But Ewers transferred after taking only one snap as a Buckeye in 2021. He now plays for Texas.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football: NIL looms as issue as signing day arrives