Colorado Denies Involvement in Ex-Coach’s Saudi PIF Outreach

The University of Colorado athletic department distanced itself from a former assistant football coach’s claim that he sought NIL money from Saudi Arabia. 

Trevor Reilly, who resigned as a special teams coordinator on Deion Sanders’ staff on Aug. 1, told Sports Illustrated he took a trip to the Middle East earlier this year in an attempt to secure funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. 

Hours after the SI story was published Thursday morning, the CU athletic department responded to Front Office Sports.  

“According to Trevor Reilly himself, he acted on his own accord and is no longer an employee of the university,” a CU athletic department spokesperson said in an email. 

Reilly, indeed, told SI he pursued donor money on his own and “did nothing illegal.” Messages left with Reilly were not immediately returned.  

Reilly detailed how he sought donations while at CU as he did when he was on Sanders’ staff at Jackson State. 

“I even went to Saudi Arabia and got a meeting with the Saudis, who were interested in pursuing business,” Reilly wrote in a resignation letter to CU AD Rick George and Sanders, per SI. “I have email receipts to prove it, and you guys let it fall flat on its face.”

The Buffaloes’ NIL collective, 5430 Alliance, is run by Blueprint Sports. Beyond Colorado, Blueprint Sports operates the NIL collectives of 27 schools, including Penn State, UCLA and Arkansas. 

In a statement to FOS, Blueprint Sports said it was not involved in the outreach to PIF for Colorado funds, it has not sought any sovereign fund money for any of its clients and none of its clients have obtained NIL from a sovereign fund. 

“We want to clarify that Trevor Reilly has never been authorized or directed to speak or advocate on behalf of 5430 Alliance in Saudi Arabia,” the statement said. “Since our launch in March 2024, all funding and initiatives have been managed solely within domestic channels and are entirely unrelated to Mr. Reilly’s work. Any claims suggesting otherwise are unfounded and patently false.”

PIF—which has an estimated $925 billion in assets—has spent heavily on sports around the globe in recent years, something critics have blasted as a “sportswashing” effort to obscure its human rights abuses. 

As LIV Golf’s major financial backer, PIF has spent billions on the rival league to the PGA Tour. Other investments have been in F1, tennis, cricket and Concacaf, the soccer federation for North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. 

PIF has also been instrumental in luring events to Saudi Arabia—including WWE and UFC—and spending heavily on the Saudi Pro League. Cristiano Ronaldo signed a $200 million contract to play in the Saudi Pro League in 2022.