{"id":196884,"date":"2025-09-03T13:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/196884\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T13:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:09:13","slug":"how-18-year-old-qb-bryce-underwood-has-already-revolutionized-michigan-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/196884\/","title":{"rendered":"How 18-year-old QB Bryce Underwood has already revolutionized Michigan football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you want to share your predictions, analysis or thoughts on Saturday\u2019s Michigan-Oklahoma game? Get involved with our coverage at live@theathletic.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Jim Harbaugh returned to the NFL in 2024, he left a void at the center of the Michigan football universe. Harbaugh, who once said playing for Michigan should be \u201ctransformational, not transactional,\u201d was the center of attention and the driving force behind Michigan\u2019s old-school identity.<\/p>\n

Sherrone Moore, Harbaugh\u2019s replacement, is a players\u2019 coach who tries to stay out of the spotlight. One game into his second season, it\u2019s clear that his program now revolves around Bryce Underwood, an 18-year-old freshman with a rocket arm and virtually unlimited marketing potential.<\/p>\n

Underwood is not just any quarterback prospect<\/a>. The Michigan freshman is a star with his own gravitational pull, capable of drawing everything around him into his orbit. Negotiating a multimillion-dollar name, image and likeness deal<\/a> with the No. 1 player in the Class of 2025 signaled the Wolverines\u2019 willingness to change their way of doing things.<\/p>\n

At Belleville High School, Michigan fans showed up at Underwood\u2019s games to tailgate in maize and blue. The names attached to his recruitment \u2014 billionaire Larry Ellison, Tom Brady, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy<\/a> \u2014 created a media spectacle around Underwood\u2019s decision. Ellison is the co-founder of Oracle and the world\u2019s second-richest man. On the night Underwood committed to Michigan, the world learned via a statement<\/a> from the Champions Circle collective that Ellison has a wife named Jolin who is passionate about Michigan sports and was \u201cinstrumental\u201d in landing Underwood.<\/p>\n

The drama of his flipped verbal commitment from LSU to Michigan escaped contain from the world of college message boards, showing up everywhere from the Daily Mail in London<\/a> to Chinese-language social media sites. Most tellingly, Underwood got Michigan, a school that seemed stuck in a different era of college football, to align its various voices and factions behind the goal of making him the program\u2019s first eight-figure quarterback.<\/p>\n

In the nine months since Underwood arrived on campus, every part of the program has gravitated around him. That includes not only the players and coaches, but also the entities that work together to handle player compensation in an era of $25 million payrolls and quarterbacks like Underwood who command upward of $10 million across their college careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been at a point for the last year or so where everybody\u2019s rolling in the same direction,\u201d said a person involved with NIL at Michigan, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. \u201cIt really isn\u2019t one thing. Bryce is a great example of things firing on all cylinders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underwood looked more than ready in his first game against New Mexico<\/a>, throwing for 251 yards with an array of pinpoint throws that left Michigan Stadium buzzing. But No. 15 Michigan\u2019s prime-time showdown Saturday at No. 18 Oklahoma will serve as Underwood\u2019s introduction on the national stage and the first chance for most college football fans to see the 6-foot-4 quarterback prodigy who brought the Wolverines into the modern era.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave I seen a freshman like him (at) quarterback?\u201d Moore said. \u201cNot that I could imagine. Not that I can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the advent of NIL, there was an old cliche that captured the way many fans think about recruiting.<\/p>\n

When a player signs with your school, it\u2019s because he\u2019s a gentleman and a scholar who appreciates the value of a first-class education, your school\u2019s rich tradition and the family atmosphere in the program. When a player signs with your rival, it\u2019s because he\u2019s getting paid under the table.<\/p>\n

The cliche has to be updated now that schools can distribute up to $20.5 million per year to their athletes under the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement<\/a>. Sure, everybody\u2019s getting paid, but for the players who signed with your school, it was never really about the money. Those players who signed with your rival? They were going to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

Underwood\u2019s recruitment might be the best example of this kind of thinking. Michigan fans will insist that Underwood wanted to be a Wolverine all along. Ask an LSU fan why Underwood didn\u2019t sign with their school, and they\u2019ll say it\u2019s because the wife of one of the world\u2019s richest men went to Michigan.<\/p>\n

The public narrative was that a bunch of rich donors threw a last-minute Hail Mary to land Underwood. According to the Michigan NIL source, that was \u201cnot at all what happened.\u201d Beneath the headlines was a long, patient effort to bring the No. 1 player in the Class of 2025 to Michigan, driven by a belief that, deep down, he really did want to be a Wolverine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bryce Underwood was ranked No. 1 in the 247Sports Composite recruiting rankings. (Junfu Han \/ USA Today Network via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Belleville is just a few miles down the road from Ann Arbor, and Underwood started attending games at Michigan Stadium when he was 8 or 9 years old. His commitment announcement<\/a> included a home video of a young Bryce saying he\u2019s going to \u201cbring my talent to the Michigan Wolverines.\u201d Initially, though, Michigan appeared to be spinning its wheels.<\/p>\n

Michigan fans, preoccupied with winning a national championship, barely bothered to tune in when Underwood committed to LSU in January 2024. Michigan was one of Underwood\u2019s finalists, but the Wolverines already had a quarterback committed for 2025, and Michigan\u2019s approach to NIL seemed to put the Wolverines out of the running for a player of Underwood\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n

In the early days of NIL, Michigan devoted most of its resources to retaining players already on the roster. Other schools were quicker to embrace booster-led collectives that could direct NIL money to top recruits, and the results showed in Harbaugh\u2019s final recruiting classes.<\/p>\n

The first few years of NIL were chaotic at Michigan, with numerous entities competing for oxygen and prominent voices pulling in different directions. Some wanted to move faster, while others urged caution. Landing a player of Underwood\u2019s caliber required getting everyone around the program on the same page.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh\u2019s departure for the NFL provided a reset for Underwood\u2019s recruitment. The program had a new power structure with Moore and general manager Sean Magee, who came from the Chicago Bears after a previous stint with the program. Michigan consolidated its NIL efforts behind Champions Circle, a collective co-founded by former Michigan fullback Jared Wangler. For the first time, Michigan had the money, the will and the alignment to make a run at a player like Underwood.<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s quarterback situation devolved into a nightmare in 2024, as the Wolverines cycled through three starters before landing on their original choice, Davis Warren. Those struggles increased the urgency to land Underwood, but talks between the two sides began months earlier, long before the first rumors of Michigan\u2019s push began to surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had to keep it incredibly quiet because we didn\u2019t want LSU to know we had a shot,\u201d the Michigan NIL source said.<\/p>\n

Underwood made his official visit to LSU on Nov. 9 of last year, with rumors swirling that Michigan was pursuing him with a big NIL offer. On a rainy night in Death Valley, Alabama jumped out to a 21-6 lead on LSU at halftime, prompting fans to boo the home team on its way to the locker room.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the ideal way to solidify the commitment of a quarterback who was wavering. Nonetheless, Underwood posted a photo of himself in LSU gear on Instagram, seemingly reaffirming his commitment. The Michigan rumors began to die down, and it looked for a moment as if the whole thing might blow over.<\/p>\n

In reality, Michigan was wrapping up the deal in silence. The story that emerged is that Jolin Ellison, a Michigan grad with a degree in international studies, was the main financial backer. Little is publicly known about her, other than the fact that she\u2019s originally from China, went by the name Keren Zhu during her time at Michigan and is nearly 50 years younger than the 81-year-old Larry Ellison.<\/p>\n

The real story is more complicated than a donor writing a big check to Underwood. Champions Circle raises money that it uses to negotiate contracts with players for their NIL rights. The players agree to perform deliverables, such as autograph signings, donor events and social media posts. The collective, which is paying for use of the player\u2019s NIL rights, can then strike deals with other companies that want to use those rights, which is a way of recouping the initial investment.<\/p>\n

The better Champions Circle is at raising money and procuring deals for players, the more it can offer up front. In some cases, Champions Circle will ask for exclusivity \u2014 particularly for memorabilia signings, as the collective can justify paying more for exclusive rights. Players also have freedom to sign endorsement deals outside of their contract with the collective, which allows them to multiply their earnings. For a marketable player like Underwood, that creates myriad ways to capitalize on college stardom.<\/p>\n

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Underwood threw for 251 yards and a TD in his Michigan debut. (Rick Osentoski \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Underwood\u2019s marketing potential at one of the most popular programs in college football<\/a> has been compared to that of Cooper Flagg, the Duke star and No. 1 NBA draft pick. Underwood will receive money from his contract with Champions Circle, his revenue share from Michigan and any other endorsement deals he and his agent negotiate. It\u2019s entirely possible that Underwood could earn more than $15 million, the number quoted by his father to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, over the course of three years at Michigan.<\/p>\n

At his signing ceremony in December, Underwood acknowledged the life-changing impact of his decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to figure out what my perspective was and everything that would help my family out the most,\u201d Underwood said.<\/p>\n

In picking Michigan, Underwood covered both sides of the old cliche. He signed with his hometown school, the one with a stellar academic reputation, great tradition and world-class player development. He also signed with the highest bidder. In the new world of college football, that\u2019s a scary combination.<\/p>\n

While many of the collectives that sprung up in the early days of NIL have closed their doors, Champions Circle is still going strong, even if it\u2019s undergoing a rebrand.<\/p>\n

Instead of calling itself a collective, Champions Circle now refers to itself as a fan engagement platform that provides ways for fans and players to interact via autograph signings, donor events and a new digital media network that puts athletes in the role of content creators.<\/p>\n

The biggest schools are spending more than $25 million on their football rosters. Not all of that can come from revenue sharing funds, which are capped at $20.5 million and typically distributed among a handful of sports, with football getting 70 to 75 percent. Entities like Champions Circle have a role in helping programs spend above the cap by facilitating deals that can be approved by the newly formed College Sports Commission<\/a>, which recently softened its stance barring deals with collectives.<\/p>\n

So far, Michigan is looking like one of the early winners of the revenue-sharing era. After signing Underwood and a top-10 recruiting class for 2025, the Wolverines are working on another top-10 class for 2026, highlighted by five-star running back Savion Hiter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Underwood plays his cards right, he\u2019ll be extremely wealthy before he takes a snap in the NFL. Yes, Michigan is paying him a lot of money. Rich schools will always have donors eager to help with the payroll. But when the offers are relatively even, it\u2019s the total experience that makes the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stadiums all look the same, give or take ten or fifteen thousand of capacity,\u201d said John Rotche, the director of Michigan\u2019s M Power program. \u201cAll the swag, the uniforms, it\u2019s pretty similar \u2014 it just changes by color or brand. The numbers tend to not have that many zeros of differentiation. It\u2019s got to be, \u2018What are the other intangibles?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

M Power started as a way to raise NIL money for the Michigan football program. Now that schools can share money directly with players, M Power has evolved to focus on what Rotche calls intellectual capital: internships, educational seminars and financial literacy.<\/p>\n

In the early days of NIL, Rotche heard the criticism that Michigan was slow to embrace the new realities of player compensation. Underwood\u2019s arrival is proof that times have changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the dust settled and we understood what we\u2019re allowed to do, Michigan did what Michigan does: We led,\u201d Rotche said. \u201cWe set the stage for what (player compensation) could and should be. No one\u2019s more deserving than Bryce.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb \/ The Athletic; photos: Raj Mehta, Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you want to share your predictions, analysis or thoughts on Saturday\u2019s Michigan-Oklahoma game? Get involved with our…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":196885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,1318,7800,1317,1315,1316,62,222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-196884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-michigan-wolverines","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115140530262052593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}