Texas NIL Narrative

There is this dismissive narrative that is going around that the athletic success Texas has experienced the past few years is mainly due to NIL. While I can understand why that may be a universal assumption, it is a lazy portrayal of what actually contributes to sustainable athletic success. I also think there is some intentional deflection from those who wanted to see Texas struggle in the SEC, also understandable.

There are quite a few holes in this theory. NIL is a huge part of talent acquisition in 2025, though Texas has never lacked in the ability to attract top talent. From 2009 to 2022, Texas Football recruited a Top3 class 6 times, a Top5 class 8 times, and a Top10 class 10 times. Other major men’s sports also follow this trend of elite recruiting prowess. Another point of contrast is Texas was not an early adopter of NIL collectives. It really took time to develop the infrastructure. Texas took a back seat in the state of Texas the first 15 months or so to programs like Texas A&M, Oregon, Miami, etc. Sark’s program changing offensive line class was largely due to Cristobal leaving Oregon and dropping two NFL tackles into our lap. Another divergent data point is Texas has not historically been aggressive in the transfer portal. Many of the transfers to date have had an existing connection to the staff, and only a handful have been starter caliber players.

Texas has always had elite talent on campus. One thing they haven’t had until recently is stability at AD. Texas was cesspool of turnover in administration and coaching staffs for a decade. There was just no way they were ever going to be able to sustain success. You can say Texas squandered a ton of talent, for sure. To say they’re only relevant because they’re wealthy, that’s just lazy. The Aggies and Ducks would play in an annual national title if that were the case. Texas has solid coaches in nearly every facility on campus and their AD is probably the best in the business. They are very competitive in NIL today, but the roster composition dynamic is essentially the same as it was 10 years ago.