Minnesota high school recruits weigh NIL opportunities in college decisions

ALL-MINNESOTA RECRUITING

Senior Jordan Ode's massive talent in basketball attracted college coaches from across the country to her high school games at Maple Grove last year.

Only one head coach showed up to join a small crowd and watch her play saxophone for the school band.

"It was crazy," Ode said about Michigan State's Robyn Fralick. "That was when I knew they were really serious and wanted me that badly."

That connection was the determining factor for Ode to announce her college commitment a year ago. Other pieces of her decision-making process included the Spartans' playing style and her potential playing time. And one more: her endorsement potential with name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities.

"NIL is definitely a part of it," said the 5-11 guard, a top-40 national recruit. "It wasn't as much of a factor for me, but I know for some people that can be life-changing for them, their family and everyone around them."

Three years into the NIL era, with dollar figures climbing and more and more athletes cashing in, the state's best prep athletes are factoring NIL more — some a little, some a lot — into their final decision on where to attend college.

While rare, student-athletes can sign NIL endorsement deals while still in high school. It's on college campuses where NIL takes off. The right combination of playing potential and earning power can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars — or more — and kick in even before games are played.

Several Minnesota high school seniors set to sign Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA's early signing period, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that NIL opportunities are considered but that they are focusing on factors that matter more in their final choice.

The junior class will be right behind them, with ever-changing NIL and NCAA regulations on their minds.

"I wouldn't say we talk about it a lot, but it comes up about how much money could we get," Totino-Grace junior basketball standout Dothan Ijadimbola said. "When I get to that point, it would be a big deal for sure. But I'm not thinking about NIL right now. I'm just looking at schools recruiting me and how I would fit into their system."

Since July 2021, NCAA athletes have been allowed to profit off their personal brand, and this change made NIL opportunities heavily influential in recruiting, especially in basketball and football. School-affiliated NIL groups called collectives and player agents are all now involved. Eye-popping deals are being inked. And all of this has cranked up the exposure for these young athletes.

On a recent Sunday during fall basketball league play, the Hopkins High gym was packed with future star power in playing ability and NIL potential. After playing for Maple Grove in the early morning, Ode returned to check out the boys games featuring Ijadimbola, Cretin-Derham Hall's Tommy Ahneman and Hopkins' Jayden Moore. She could soon coach those players on how to navigate the evolving NIL landscape.

In her recruiting process at Michigan State, Ode was introduced to a company called NIL U, which is helping her with ideas on how to expand her profile on social platforms.

"What school was offering me more money didn't matter as much to me," Ode said. "A cross-country runner [at Michigan State] is doing super well with NIL deals. She's writing blogs and things to get her Instagram followers up. So that's kind of what I'm looking to do when I go to college."

Ahneman, the only in-state player offered by Gophers basketball coach Ben Johnson in the 2025 class, will sign with Notre Dame on Wednesday, and he ranked other priorities ahead of earning potential.

"I'd love to sit here and say NIL wouldn't be a part of it," the 6-10 post said. "At the end of the day, NIL is just part of going to college. I want to go to college for the right reasons, not because they're going to pay me a certain amount of money."

Social media, personal brands and NIL

Building a social media presence didn't really become a priority for Chad Greenway until his Vikings career was nearly over. Not the same for his kids.

The oldest of the four Greenway girls, Maddyn, is a junior multisport star at Providence Academy, and she's also the most-followed prep athlete in Minnesota on social media. Companies often seek the most-followed athletes to sign endorsement deals that feature posts about their businesses and products on popular social accounts such as Instagram, TikTok and X.

"I was still going through my career when you had to start to figure out how to let social media create your own brand and image," Chad Greenway said. "It certainly serves a massive factor now."

Several young women with Minnesota connections are now, in the wake of Caitlin Clark Mania, in the NIL spotlight in women's college sports. Hopkins grad Paige Bueckers is one of the faces of college basketball, with NIL earning power north of $5 million, according to the sports website On3, a tracker of NIL data and potential. That site had current freshmen Liv McGill, also of Hopkins and now at Florida, and Benilde-St. Margaret's grad Olivia Olson, now at Michigan, in its top 25 ranking of NIL earning potential last year for girls high school basketball.

On3 also estimates Greenway's endorsement potential ranked No. 7 of all girls basketball players nationally. Five-star senior Aaliyah Crump, who transferred this summer from Minnetonka to Montverde Academy in Florida, is No. 11. Crump became the first high school athlete to ink an NIL with New Balance's Klutch Athletics last year and is expected to sign with Texas on Wednesday.

Greenway, 17, moves from a soccer season that ended with a Providence Academy state championship to the gym. The dynamic 5-8 guard will pursue another state basketball title, and her 40,000-plus social media followers will journey alongside her. The social-media side and brand-building work can easily eat up more time and energy than it should for these talented teenagers.

"As a parent going through it, there's a lot of challenges and a lot of conversations," Chad said. "This doesn't consume everything they're doing. That's one way we try to keep things in perspective. To have some semblance of a normal high school experience."

Maddyn, who recently cut the list of finalists for her college decisions to Clemson, Duke, Iowa, Kentucky, Stanford and UCLA and could announce a commitment soon, has NIL opportunities in her sights, but it's not her family's primary focus.

"You see a lot of athletes doing their own NIL deals and marketing deals," Chad said. "I don't think that's going away anytime soon. You can just see it accelerating with some of these really good players. But I don't think you ever make decisions on going to a school based off that. … You really want to make the decisions off relationships and people."

Champlin Park senior Carly Gilk, the Minnesota Star Tribune's Volleyball Player of the Year and a top recruit, will be a Gopher next year. Rising stars like her will arrive on campuses near and far with several new NIL opportunities in front of them. Gilk hopes her identity away from sports can be about other passions, including the outdoors.

"There are a lot of different pathways you can take with NIL," she said. "It's really up to you to determine it. Personally, for me, I want to grow my own brand and make it personal. Not just with Minnesota volleyball."

NIL change nears

Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck sat in his office this fall talking to recruiting targets about the change on the horizon with college athletics.

Moore, who plays wide receiver in football and point guard in hoops, was listening intently.

"He was breaking down how, for football, the new NIL is going to change big," said Moore, who has Gophers offers in two sports. "There are going to be salary caps. Then they'll have the NIL money on top of the [revenue sharing] from the schools."

Starting in the 2025-26 school year, the Gophers are expected to be among D-I teams sharing up to $22 million a year in revenue with athletes, most of it likely in football, basketball, hockey and volleyball. This structure is a result of the House vs. NCAA case settlement, a $2.8 billion deal agreed to in May.

"It's going to be kind of like the pros," the 5-10 junior added. "I think guys are going to make more money now and it's going to be better for them."

New to navigating the ever-evolving recruiting space is the Institute For Athletes (Team IFA), a Minneapolis-based agency that mostly represents NFL players and a growing list of college clients, including Gophers tailback Darius Taylor. Team IFA also jumped into the NIL high school space this year, and they are finding a crowded recruiting landscape.

"College programs still want to run their programs and do things their way," Team IFA President Blake Baratz said. "These young men and women have professional representation now. We have to look at the entire scope of this. What's in their best interest and the school's best interest?"

Moore is already weighing these questions. Playing football this fall for the first time since eighth grade, he was one of the state's leading receivers. Anybody watching Moore dazzle defenders during fall league hoops, though, can recognize why he has even more offers on the hard court.

During a stretch in fall play last Sunday against Lakeville North, Moore drilled a couple of step-back threes, made a no-look dish to a teammate for a dunk and later slammed one down. These highlights were gold on social media the next day.

"The money will come," Moore said. "My family and I don't really look at NIL first because we know that will be there. We're really looking for the best fit, and then how different deals work."

State of Hockey

Mason West's successful run this fall of tossing touchdown passes for Edina recently came to an end, with the Hornets' loss Thursday night to Maple Grove, and he will be back on the ice soon anchoring the top line for the defending Class 2A hockey champions.

The 6-6, 205-pound junior quarterback has seen his recruitment pick up in football. His offers from Kent State, Marshall and Miami (Ohio) now include interest from Maryland.

"It's harder to get noticed in Minnesota because hockey kind of takes over a little bit," West said. "I've gotten more looks, which has persuaded me into maybe wanting to play football."

A skilled forward who joined Gophers hockey commits Mason Moe and Carter Casey on the Team USA U18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster, West has some idea when he will pick the sport he plays in college.

"I'm just focusing on my junior year and will probably make a decision after that," he said. "Right now, I'm trying to get the best development I can in both sports."

College football is in another stratosphere with NIL compared to most sports, but hockey is gaining momentum. Dinkytown Athletes, the Gophers' NIL collective, worked during last year's Frozen Four to help lure players back to the Gophers, including star forward Jimmy Snuggerud.

As life-changing as big NIL deals can be for some recruits, several Minnesotans agreed that it'd be a mistake to prioritize endorsement potential.

"I think hockey has been growing a lot as far as certain NIL deals," West said. "But I'm more worried about trying to find the right school for me to become the best player I can become. I don't really worry about NIL too much right now. That's just an addition to hard work and sacrifice."