Troy Aikman’s bad NIL experience convinced Joe Buck not to fund Indiana football

After witnessing Troy Aikman’s tribulations with NIL at UCLA, Joe Buck has no interest in funding Indiana football.

Last month, Aikman told Richard Deitsch he was a one and done with NIL, claiming he wrote UCLA a sizable check to secure a star recruit who ultimately left for another school after just one season. Aikman was further miffed by the fact that he didn’t even get a thank you note for his donation.

It has been widely assumed that current Oregon quarterback Dante Moore is the player Aikman was referring to. And according to UCLA, school protocol prohibits players from knowing which donors contributed NIL funds, thus making thank you notes difficult. Considering NIL has turned college sports into the Wild West, it is odd that a line is drawn at players learning where the money comes from. Protocol or not, Aikman didn’t like his foray into funding college players, and it seems to have rubbed off on Buck.

The Monday Night Football play-by-play voice joined The Morning After on 101 ESPN this week where they discussed his alma mater playing in the College Football Playoff semifinals this week. As a former Indiana University student, Joe Buck is now in the unprecedented position of seeing his favorite college football team morph into a football powerhouse. Unfortunately for Indiana, Aikman’s experience with NIL has already soured Buck on the idea of donating to their football program.

“Troy has talked to me about what went on at UCLA and kind of what he got for the money that he donated and that will not be something that I will be partaking in,” Buck said.

“He left!” Buck added of the UCLA player that supposedly received a sizable check from Aikman. “You don’t get the money back from what I understand…it doesn’t seem like a great program for the donor.”

The good news for Indiana University, who boasts Mark Cuban’s pockets as an alumnus, is that Buck also claims the local wealthy farmers are heavily involved in supporting NIL.

“I’m not being a smart aleck about it, I think there are a lot of farmers around Indiana that are making money,” Buck said. “It’s almost like everybody has come out of the woodwork and it’s like, ‘Let me have my little piece of this’ because it’s been so long and they’re willing to send money in, from what I hear.”

It’s hard to argue with Buck and Aikman. Where’s the incentive to spend big dollars on a recruit who can leave after one season? And we’re not even going to get into the fact those players are prohibited from offering a thank you note in return. But hopefully for Indiana, those hardworking farmers don’t start taking NIL advice from Buck the way he did from Aikman.