2 weeks Ago By Doric Sam
The NIL rules have changed the way college football recruiting is handled, and a former Colorado assistant coach attempted a controversial method to help the Buffaloes on that front. Trevor Reilly, who resigned from his position under Colorado head coach Deion Sanders on Aug. 1, explained to Jill Painter Lopez and A.
J. Perez of Front Office Sports that he took a trip to Jordan, Dubai and Saudi Arabia seeking NIL money for Colorado players. "I'm betting on myself," Reilly said, adding his aim was to "get more money so we can get better players.
That's it. More money, better players. What else is there? We had no NIL money when we came there [before the 2022 season].
" A Colorado athletics department spokesperson told Painter and Lopez that Reilly "acted on his own accord," and he admitted that he funded the trip to the Middle East around Christmas last year himself. He said that part of the reason he left the Buffaloes staff was because of the university's unwillingness fo commit more money to NIL, which would help improve the quality of recruits the football program would be able to pursue. "I think Deion's getting f--ked," Reilly said.
"We're asking him to do all this stuff and make all these miracles, and he only has $6 million [for NIL]. He brought it to the table, not them. There was no donor, there was donor fatigue.
He shows up, they get this money. They haven't capitalized on it. All that emotion that that guy brings, all the celebrities, all the CEOs, and they don't get a single dollar.
" The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has provided millions of dollars to players, teams and leagues across many different sports like the LIV Golf Tour. The government has been accused of "sportswashing," which is when sports are used to distract from human rights violations and other unethical practices. After an unsuccessful pitch in Jordan, Reilly eventually landed a meeting with PIF officials.
He sent a pitch deck to a PIF executive that highlighted Sanders and his children Deion Jr., Shedeur, Shilo and Shelomi, as well as Buffaloes two-way star Travis Hunter. His pitch included a proposal for an investment of $10 million in the university's NIL collective.
"I said, 'Let's get together a formal proposal.' This is totally rough. Here is me showing up here and trying to make some s--t happen.
And they understood it. They were like, 'Yeah, let's go,'" Reilly said. Reilly ultimately never closed any deals for Colorado from his efforts in the Middle East.
He said "things got weird" after he spoke to athletic department officials and some coaches, not including Sanders, about his trip. "I didn't say Deion was going to do this, but I did say that he might be open to a conversation," Reilly said. "So that's something that I told them.
I said, before we even go down any road with the collective, you guys need to decide if you want [the] Deion Sanders brand to be involved with that." Reilly said another reason for his resignation from Colorado was when he was informed that his three children couldn't access the facility without being supervised the entire time. After his resignation, he was caught on camera getting into a physical altercation with a Buffaloes graduate assistant.
He has since moved to Hawai'i and said he still roots for Sanders and Colorado. "I will always defend him and always help him. I don't care what he says about me," Reilly said.
"If he says he doesn't claim me or I'm this and that or I'm crazy, I don't care. Deion gets a pass. He gave me my first job.
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