Last week, Michigan flipped five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood from LSU, with the help of millions of dollars in NIL money from the boosters at Champions Circle. The switch had been rumored for weeks, but was still shocking when it actually arrived. That’s because the Wolverines have almost always lagged behind the SEC powers in recruiting, with a persistent perception that their wealthy alumni were not nearly as motivated as boosters of schools like Alabama and LSU.
One woman may be single-handedly changing that: Jolin, the woman thanked by Michigan’s NIL collective for being “instrumental” in the Underwood process.
Jolin is a 33-year-old named Keren Zhu who shares Florida and California addresses with Oracle software billionaire Larry Ellison. She also registered to vote in Florida on the same date as Ellison in 2023, using the same address as him.
She graduated from Michigan in 2012, the school’s alumni office confirmed to Front Office Sports.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Jolin’s identity on Tuesday morning.
It remains uncertain whether Ellison and Jolin are married, and neither responded to messages requesting comment. California public records show that Larry Ellison filed for divorce from Nikita K. Ellison in 2019, and the case was resolved in 2020.
When Champions Circle—the NIL collective that secured the funding to pay Underwood—announced the move last week, the official statement thanked two people in particular.
“I want to personally thank Jolin and Larry Ellison who were instrumental in making this happen by providing Champions Circle with invaluable guidance and financial resources,” wrote Champions Circle founder Nate Forbes.
Champions Circle later deleted that statement and posted a new one with the name “Ellison” removed. The new statement merely referred to “Larry and his wife Jolin.” Several funders of the collective confirmed to Front Office Sports that the “Larry Ellison” mentioned in the initial statement was indeed Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison.
Ellison is worth more than $200 billion, mostly through his ownership of Oracle stock, making him one of the richest men alive. His involvement in Michigan football recruiting would have the potential to turn the Wolverines into a perennial title contender, a level of success they have struggled to reach before and after Jim Harbaugh. And it appears it’s all being sparked by one person.
Who Is Jolin?
Before the Underwood flip, Ellison was not known to be involved with a person named Jolin, nor known to have any ties to the University of Michigan. The 80-year-old Ellison has been married at least four times, and representatives for several of Ellison’s companies did not comment on whether he has quietly gotten married again.
Ellison has been photographed with a woman at several tennis matches—he owns the Indian Wells tournament—who was wearing a Michigan hat, though it is unclear if that woman is Jolin.
Many in the media have been searching for more information about Jolin, to little avail. In a discussion of the Ellison-Jolin-Michigan saga on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this week, the veteran financial journalist David Faber said “we’re trying to confirm what the relationship is.”
A source close to the collective said that Jolin and Larry made a “significant donation” to Michigan’s NIL efforts that predates the Underwood flip—a gift that has not previously been reported—and it was indeed Jolin, not Larry, who made the push that sealed Underwood.
The Champions Circle statement about Underwood called Jolin “a proud Michigan alum,” and quoted her directly.
“I am a big fan of the University of Michigan and Michigan Athletics,” the statement quoted Jolin. “We are excited to support our student-athletes, so they can go compete at the highest level in college sports.”
In an email to FOS, Michigan backer and prolific sports investor Roger Ehrenberg said that “Jolin is a Michigan alumna who is super passionate about the University of Michigan Athletics and was critical support for the recruitment effort.”
At least one person claims publicly to have met Jolin, and his recounting of the meeting gives several small clues to Jolin’s identity. That person is Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has been involved in Michigan’s recruiting efforts in recent years, and claimed he would contribute up to $3 million in order for his alma mater to land a blue-chip quarterback.
On Tuesday, Portnoy gave his account of how Underwood’s recruitment played out. Though Portnoy has a track record of exaggerating, he is unquestionably a key player in Michigan’s NIL efforts. Much of his wealth stems from selling Barstool to a gambling company for $500 million in 2020; he bought the media company back last year after Barstool’s history caused licensing and legal issues for Penn, the gaming company.
According to Portnoy, someone connected to the Michigan football team called him and said a woman was “a big fan” of his and wanted to discuss Michigan’s recruiting efforts, and that “her husband is a guy by the name of Larry Ellison.” Portnoy, Larry, and Jolin got on a Zoom call, and Jolin said she went to Michigan when Brady Hoke was the football coach, which matches the alumni office saying she graduated in 2012. Hoke coached the team from 2011 to 2014.
After an 11–2 first season, the Hoke teams struggled, going 20–18 over his final three years. Hoke was fired after a losing season in 2014 and replaced by Jim Harbaugh, who eventually won Michigan a national title last year before leaving for the NFL.
“I never want to live that era again,” Portnoy said Jolin told him. “I have two kids, I can’t stomach waking up on a Saturday knowing that we’re not the best team on the field.”
If Portnoy’s recounting is accurate, that may provide a timeline of Jolin’s relationship with Ellison. His 2019 divorce filing with Nikita Kahn said there were no minor children, but a 2019 profile of Ellison says that “he is the father of two toddlers” and quotes him saying he “is the happiest I have ever been,” suggesting the possibility that Ellison and Kahn were separated well before 2019 and that he was with Jolin by then.
From there, according to Portnoy, he and the Ellison family connected with Underwood and sold him on the marketing and financial benefits of committing to Michigan. Portnoy, who admitted that “I love credit,” claimed that Jolin’s involvement was spurred by his pledge to pay for an elite quarterback, and from there, the successful recruitment of Underwood snowballed. “I don’t need the credit,” Portnoy quoted Jolin saying. “I need national championships—I need to stack ‘em.”
Portnoy did not mention Michigan alum Tom Brady, who reportedly called Underwood several times as the Wolverines tried to flip the 17-year-old QB.
The Barstool founder did not respond to several emails from FOS requesting comment.
— Alex Schiffer contributed reporting.
