After winning the 2023 national championship, it didn’t take long for the Michigan football program and its deep-pocket supporters to get tired of losing. Under first-year head coach Sherrone Moore, the Wolverines are 5-5 with a 3-4 record in Big Ten play and have started three different quarterbacks in a desperate attempt to replace first-round NFL draft pick JJ McCarthy.
Now, the program has its answer at QB, and it only took a rumored $12 million NIL package to get him. On Thursday, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 recruiting class and Belleville, Michigan native, Bryce Underwood, announced that he was flipping his commitment from LSU to Michigan. It was previously reported that the five-star was offered a $10.5 million NIL package from Michigan, which he initially turned down to stay at LSU.
Michigan is prepared to offer LSU 5-star QB commit Bryce Underwood $10.5M over four years, according to @TheWolverineOn3👀
— On3 NIL (@On3NIL) November 14, 2024
Intel: https://t.co/sK99XJNx37 pic.twitter.com/1ScTodhqid
Now, some reports say his initial refusal only drove the price up from the desperate Michigan program.
I’m told Michigan got to $12 Million for Underwood.
— Matt Moscona (@MattMoscona) November 22, 2024
A Godfather offer, indeed.
Penn State is only a few years removed from landing the No. 1 quarterback in the 2022 recruiting class, Drew Allar, and it certainly didn’t take $12 million to convince him to come to Happy Valley. Underwood is a more highly-touted prospect than Allar was, but the price, a few years into the NIL era, has obviously gone up, and the question going forward in the Big Ten and across the rest of the country is, who will be willing to pay it.
Underwood has drawn comparisons to Vince Young and Cam Newton from astute prospect evaluators, and is the consensus No. 1 player in the 2025 class, ahead of Alabama QB commit Keelon Russell, and Ohio State QB commit Tavien St. Clair.
Sherrone Moore’s 2025 recruiting class has still not reached elite levels, currently ranking No. 9 in the country, but Underwood is the type of centerpiece that could elevate a program for multiple seasons to come.
Without divisions, Penn State’s path to the Big Ten title has gotten a bit easier, no longer needing to beat both Ohio State and Michigan every season, but there is an arms race between Oregon and Ohio State at the top of the conference that Michigan just joined. It’s not clear if Penn State has the type of NIL war chest to put up much of a fight.