Florida Gators lead nation in number of NIL deals brokered

NIL has been an interesting point of discussion with the Florida Gators since it became the way of the land in 2021. The public perception is that Florida is lagging behind other institutions and has been at a competitive disadvantage these past couple of seasons.

A new report indicates that Florida has actually been doing quite well with getting athletes paid. Whether or not it's the athletes fans would prefer to get paid is a different discussion.

Florida Gators: Show Me The Money

This week, the TV news channel KFOR in Oklahoma City highlighted the ten colleges with the most NIL deals since March 2021. Using data from On3's NIL Deal Tracker, the group JustGamblers compiled the list, and Florida has led the way with 498 NIL deals since March 2021. Texas is the next closest school with 367 deals.

In one breath, this pushes back against the narrative that Florida doesn't have the money to be competitive. Florida's first NIL group, Gator Collective, was a mess and shut down in the wake of the Jaden Rashada saga. Still, their efforts with Florida Victorious appear more organized and genuine.

The other breath becomes complicated depending on what fans want from Florida as an athletic department. 498 NIL deals help Florida maintain its status as an "everything school," and this past year was no exception. Baseball and softball made deep post-season runs to their respective College World Series, gymnastics made the final four, lacrosse also made the final four, men's swimming finished third, women's track finished second, and men's track won the national title.

While it's unclear how much money is being spent on each deal, a segment of the Gator fanbase will look at the university's overall success and say, "I don't care about any of that. I only want football to be good. Stop wasting money on sports I don't care about."

This creates the gambit for Florida of whether they should spread their money around or funnel the bulk of it through football. However, depending on who donates the money, there might be a specific team they want the money to go to. In truth, given Florida's success in a large number of sports, it wouldn't be shocking to see alums in those sports giving back to their own program, allowing for these deals across the board to be made.

Florida's NIL efforts are going to continue to be a topic of conversation as schools try to figure out how to best pay their athletes and stay competitive in the modern landscape.

And like a lot of things in Gainesville, whether or not the Gators are staying competitive is a complicated answer.