Troy Aikman not thanked by UCLA QB for NIL donation due to school protocol

ESPN’s lead NFL analyst Troy Aikman made headlines earlier this week when he took direct aim at what he sees as a flawed NIL system.

Aikman shared a story on a recent episode of the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast about how he made a significant donation to UCLA, his alma mater, to secure a star quarterback recruit. It turns out that recruit played just one year for the Bruins, and didn’t even give Aikman so much as a “thank you” for his hefty NIL payday.

“I gave money to a kid, I won’t mention who. I’ve done it one time at UCLA, never met the young man. He was there a year, he left after the year. I wrote a sizable check, and he went to another school. I didn’t even get so much as a thank-you note. So, it’s one of those deals, to where I’m done with NIL. I want to see UCLA be successful, but I’m done with it,” Aikman explained.

It turns out there was a good reason why Aikman didn’t get a “thank you” from the UCLA quarterback. According to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times, it was a matter of policy.

Per Bolch, “The player in question didn’t know who funded his NIL deal, only that it was coming from the team’s collective, Men of Westwood. It was standard practice for players not to know which donors or alumni contributed NIL funds that were distributed to the team.”

Instead of receiving thanks directly from the player, Aikman was thanked by the Men of Westwood leadership, head coach Chip Kelly, and athletic director Martin Jarmond, according to the Times.

Troy Aikman is far from the only one calling for stricter regulation of NIL. As it stands, the system essentially allows players to be free agents every year, which isn’t ideal for college football as an entertainment product. But Aikman was clearly a bit misguided about what exactly he was getting from his NIL donation. Sure, the money he gave to the collective almost certainly went towards the quarterback he speaks of. But the player won’t know that; he only knows the money is there, not where it came from.

So does Aikman’s broader point about NIL in college football stand? Yes. But if he had a do-over, he might take back his statement that he didn’t receive any gratitude from the player he helped.