BYU, as we know, is historically slow to adapting to change. We have our own way of how we want to do things, mainly due to our relationship to the Church. So NIL when it first started and how it was being used by others around the country was seen as this “dirty” way of doing things. That’s not what BYU wanted to be associated with. Instead we focused on true NIL with marketing deals based on brands and marketability, and aiming as much as possible on the team side of things.

So the first couple of years, we essentially had no NIL budget to be able to pull from to be able to compete for high profile transfers, even when we fought hard enough to get to their top 2 or 3 (Mac McClung, Steven Ashworth, Keion Brooks, etc.) We were scrapping for diamonds in the rough and we saw how that turned out since the 20-21 team.

Then the perfect storm hit for BYU that woke up the donors and admin. First, we completely outperformed expectations in the Big 12 our first year, showing there is a path to being competitive in this league. Next, the reality that current players from that team were going to leave because of NIL, players that were the prototypical BYU players that we need.

Next, Pope left for Kentucky. That within itself was a perfect storm just to get him there, but once he left, the candidate pool for us was very shallow. And coming off a season like we did and not hitting a HR with this hire would be a little demoralizing. And lastly, Kevin Young willing to come to BYU, and I’m sure he had to have assurances on NIL resources before he decided to come. Add onto the fact NIL has become more normalized in the college landscape and the ever evolving court cases, and it woke up the Admin and Donors that it was time to get serious with NIL if they truly wanted to compete for championships.

Now the only real variable in all of this is the BOT’s attitude and mindset with all of this as it continues to evolve and evolve. Will it ever get to a point where it’s just too much for them to stomach from a PR perspective that they decide to start curbing and getting involved in pulling back on NIL/whatever this turns into.