NIL has changed the way college football is being played. The Ohio State football program has tried to navigate the changes the best that it can, but they are still going through some growing pains as well. That has only intensified after the House Settlement.
Now that there is an actual budget set for athletic departments, the Buckeyes have to be very selective on who they use their NIL money on. So far, a lot of their money has been used to retain players who have been on the roster already. They decided to use the money to keep Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, and others.
The Ohio State Buckeyes might be going a little cheap when it comes to using NIL on recruits, but this is something that Ohio State football fans are going to have to get used to, bexcause this is clearly a philsophy that Ryan Day is going to keep moving forward.
The Ohio State football team will keep using NIL on players who are already on the roster
There are very few recruits that come out of the high school ranks every year that the Buckeyes will look to use large sums of NIL money on. Smith was one of them a couple of years ago. Felix Ojo might be one this season. Those kinds of recruits are far and few to be found.
Ohio State believes that the best approach to NIL is to keep the guys they have on the roster happy and playing well. The top priority for a recruit can't be the amount of NIL money they are going to get. If that is their top priority, Day won't pursue them any further.
This is something fans are going to have to get used to moving forward. Once a couple of years of the new rules have passed, fans will be used to it.