UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

Example, #1 QB recruit in the land...Johnnie, takes all his visits, he's never offered a dollar amount during visits but is maybe introduced to the NIL team who helps the kid understand how NIL works and teaches them how to explore their options, maybe presents information on the avg NIL income for players on the team, etc...but he's never offered anything to go there by the school, their representatives or a business by request of the school.

Then he decides to commit to Alabama and it's all over the news. The owner of Birmingham Buick sees the news and loves it and thinks this could really help him sell cars if he signs the kid to a NIL deal. Buick contacts the kid or their representatives and sets up a meeting to discuss terms to make Johnnie the face of Birmingham Buick. If the school was involved in no way with initiating/requesting the deal, and they did all the legal hoops if kid is still a minor, then he could totally sign a deal with them.

The difference is he is now being paid for his popularity by someone in the area who can make money from their face and in theory is paying a portion of what they make off their face to them...but the kid was not offered money to sign with Alabama. That is the fork in the road.