set to explode this year whether or not Pope had stayed or left and/or with whoever was BYU's coach was this season. There have been efforts over the last couple years to increase the NIL funding (I'm thinking specifically about things for basketball though I'm sure there are similar efforts for football) that seem to have finally hit this season. I'm sure that last season's success, Mark Pope's pleading for NIL money, Shane Reese's investment into the program, boosters realizing how much the program needs NIL to stay afloat, etc. all played a role in convincing boosters to pony up the NIL money, though. At the end of the day, BYU isn't competitive in the NIL market unless fans and/or local businesses don't open their pocketbooks and donate large sums of money to the NIL collectives. And it seems like efforts by BYU and the Royal Blue Collective are finally starting to yield some good results.