DESTIN, Fla. — Nine years ago, Aaron Murray tore his ACL in the final home game of his senior season and essentially opted out so he could cash in on his considerable fame as Georgia football’s star quarterback.
Murray, still the SEC’s career leader in touchdown passes and passing yards, signed autographs for $35 a pop at an event at the Georgia Square Mall in Athens and at another in Atlanta before the Bulldogs played in their bowl game and held a camp for $100 a participant working with Everett Sports Marketing (ESM).
“I was able to go out there and make some money, which was awesome,” he said.
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Now players considering coming to Georgia are talking to coach Kirby Smart about money they can make for their name, image and likeness on the front end before they even decide to play for the Bulldogs.
“I make a conscious effort to ask kids when they come in to meet, what’s the most important thing to you,” Smart said last week at the SEC spring meetings. “That’s certainly transitioned in recent years from kids would say playing time, kids would say the ability to win a championship, kids would say proximity to home, relationship with my coach. Now, a lot of times that revolves around what can I make in NIL?”
Murray is helping Georgia players now make money which is now permitted under NCAA interim guidelines put in place last summer after state legislatures passed NIL laws. The new era in college sports has created acrimony that spilled out in recent weeks with a war of words between national championship winning football coaches Nick Saban of Alabama and Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M fueled by Saban saying the Aggies bought players in their No. 1 ranked recruiting class.
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“The reality of the NIL space is there’s a lot of rumors and not a lot of disclosure,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said.
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