Ohio State’s $20M NIL Roster Just Won the National Championship

ATLANTA — A common colloquialism states that money doesn’t buy happiness. Ohio State fans might beg to differ.

The Buckeyes, who won the College Football Playoff national title against Notre Dame on Monday night by a score of 34–23, used about $20 million in NIL (name, image, and likeness) funds to build their championship-caliber roster. 

Ohio State is believed to have one of the highest NIL “payrolls” in all of college sports this year, offering more money to their football players than most other schools allotted in NIL earnings to their entire athletic departments combined. 

Among their big guns: “THE Foundation,” a collective of boosters and donors that has both a nonprofit and for-profit arm, as well as the 1870 Society. An athletic department representative previously declined a Front Office Sports request for comment on the collective strategy surrounding the school, but head coach Ryan Day was reportedly deeply involved in fundraising.

The combination of an unregulated transfer portal and NIL earnings have created a new era of “unrestricted free agency” in college football this year, which many teams use to completely rebuild their rosters. Ohio State certainly did that: quarterback Will Howard transferred from Kansas State, and star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith arrived fresh out of high school. But the Buckeyes also have plenty of returning players, some of whom opted to stay in Columbus instead of transferring or declaring for the NFL Draft. 

Take defensive end Jack Sawyer, for example. Sawyer was Ryan Day’s first commit in 2019, and has stayed with the team his entire career. As one of the team’s captains, he was reported to be on a mission this past offseason to convince as many of his teammates as possible to return for one more year.

Sawyer, a lifelong Ohio State fan, may not have needed NIL to cement his returnk. But it’s a nice added perk: Sawyer told Front Office Sports over the weekend that the program has provided “great opportunities” all season in terms of NIL.

In addition to what he may be receiving from collective opportunities or other brand deals, he has been earning some passive NIL income this week with a merchandise drop commemorating his “scoop n’ score” play during the Cotton Bowl that helped punch the Buckeyes’ ticket to the national championship. “It’s definitely opened a lot of doors for a lot of us,” Sawyer said Saturday. 

Perhaps a national championship was one of them.