As the Ohio State football team enjoys the bye week, the coaches are hard at work on the recruiting trail. They are trying to increase the ranking of their 2026 recruiting class, which has not had a strong start. If Signing Day were to be right now, it would be the worst class in the Ryan Day era.
The Ohio State Buckeyes lost out on a lot of recruits early in the cycle because of their poor NIL offers. Recruits were getting offers that were significantly higher from other schools than what the Buckeyes were offering, so they lost out on commitments.
One such recruit was Luke Wafle. Wafle, a four-star defensive end, had the Buckeyes as one of his favorite schools for quite a while. Stunningly, he chose USC on his commitment day, and it was reportedly due to a massive NIL offer that USC came in with at the last minute. Now, the checks might not clear.
Rumors swirl that the Ohio State football team could flip Luke Wafle's commitment
There are rumors swirling that USC might have some issues financing all of the NIL deals that they have promised to their incoming recruiting class. Right now, they have the top class in the country, adding 32 recruits in this class. It sounds like the money might not be there to pay all of them.
On the flip side, rumors are picking up that Ross Bjork is finally going to let outside NIL collectives help the program again. The Buckeyes need him to do what everyone else is doing on that front. If that happens, Wafle might decide to flip his commitment to Ohio State.
The problem with the House settlement and the NIL rules at large is that these things are very vague. No one knows exactly how much each NIL deal is worth. That means that no one knows exactly how much money USC promised Wafle to choose them.
This is something that the Buckeyes should monitor over the next few weeks. He could be the highest-profile recruit that Ohio State has flipped in quite a while.