Over the past several years, NIL payments have become vital to college football recruiting efforts as teams are increasingly using large amounts of money legally to lure recruits to their program. And it seems like one Colorado Buffaloes coach tried a very unique approach to securing NIL money – asking Saudi Arabia for help.
Former Colorado Buffaloes special teams coordinator Trevor Reilly resigned from his position earlier this month, and he recently shared a portion of his resignation letter with Sports Illustrated in which he reveals that he tried to seek the help of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to help fund the team’s NIL efforts.
“The arrangement was that, because I did all the NIL work at Jackson and got us through, you guys would pay me a modest salary and make me the Special Teams Coordinator, which should have freed up time for me to handle NIL activities,” Reilly wrote according to SI.
“You paid me $90,000 a year and let me handle special teams. I did all this work in your name and was told to pursue it. I burned through all my contacts in my Mormon community, which is worth about $3 trillion. Now, I can’t get these people to answer my calls because I just found out today that none of my endeavors will happen.
“I even went to Saudi Arabia and got a meeting with the Saudis, who were interested in pursuing business. I have email receipts to prove it, and you guys let it fall flat on its face.”
Saudi Arabia’s PIF does have a history of involvement in sports, funding soccer star Ronaldo’s move to the Saudi Arabian soccer league as well as funding LIV Golf as it competes with the PGA Tour. But it seems like they were not interested in funding Colorado.
[SI.com]
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