Getty Image / Kevin Abele
Over the past couple of years, NIL has become a major factor in the college sports world.
This year, Kenny Dillingham got his first taste on the impact NIL has on recruiting as a head coach.
Dillingham is in his first year as the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils and ended up recruiting a QB who decomitted from Florida because of unfulfilled NIL promises.
It turns out that is far from the full impact he has noticed it having on recruiting.
While speaking at Pac-12 media day, Dillingham told the media that he believes NIL has become 75-80% of recruiting.
Kenny Dillingham with a fascinating perspective on NIL and its importance in recruiting.
“I hope I do such a good job that people, that businesses flock to pay our players.” pic.twitter.com/8prgMrRM4u
— PHNX Sun Devils (@PHNX_SunDevils) July 17, 2023
“NIL is 80% of recruiting. 75% of recruiting… so to think that it’s not is naive but the way you do it is different. I hope the players that choose to come here get paid the maximum amount of money they could ever get paid. More than anybody in the country. … I hope I do such a good job that businesses flock to pay our players. … NIL is essential but I want to reward our guys who are here. I want people to get NIL who wanted to be here. Not getting a kid here, illegally by the way, to entice them with NIL.”
Luckily for Dillingham, he has some things working in his favor as he takes over at ASU.
He grew up in Phoenix and is an Arizona State alum who began his college coaching career with the Sun Devils. That will make it much easier for him to get the support of the local fans if he has success early on.
Things can also pretty much only get better for ASU with Dillingham in charge. The program became a mess at the end of Herm Edwards’ tenure, losing embarrassingly at home against Eastern Michigan last season.
Dillingham has already had success getting local kids to come back to Arizona to play for him since taking over the program.
Kenny Dillingham was a huge success at Oregon last season, bringing the best out of Bo Nix after he had struggled at Auburn.
If he can recreate that success with a revamped Arizona State Sun Devils squad, it should only be a matter of time until NIL money comes along.