Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman went from UCLA to the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, and after all the success he’s had, he wanted to give back to the UCLA football program by contributing to a player getting money from the name, image and likeness fund. He now thinks that was a mistake.
Aikman told Richard Deitsch of TheAthletic.com that he donated once to get one player at UCLA, and that one player proceeded to transfer to another program. That led Aikman to decide he’s done with such donations.
“I gave money to a kid. I won’t mention who,” Aikman said. “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. It’s one of those deals to where I’m done with NIL. I mean, I wanna see UCLA be successful, but I’m done with it.”
We don’t know the unnamed player’s side of that story, but the player would presumably describe it differently: The player would say he spent a year at UCLA, earned the money he received for his contributions to the UCLA program, and then left for another program that was offering him a better deal. No different than when Aikman left Fox for ESPN.
That’s the nature of the transactions in college football. Coaches have always been free to leave for better jobs. Now players are too.
