UVA Football jumps in ‘with two feet’ on NIL: Competitive, yes, but is it sustainable?

The money folks gave UVA Football coach Tony Elliott $30 million to build a roster for the 2025 season, which is great; but is it sustainable?

“What we’re looking for is sustained success, not just one roster or one season, it’s several seasons, several rosters. So, you’re looking for, how do you build an infrastructure and a front office that can sustain the success that you’re having in one season?” said Tyler Jones, who was named to the newly created position of general manager of the UVA Football program last month, in an interview for the “Inside Virginia Athletics” podcast.

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ICYMI

• The focus for UVA Football GM Tyler Jones: ‘Making data-informed decisions’

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Jones’s new position is one indicator that UVA Athletics is thinking big picture.

The focus of the new football front office – staffed by Jones and Justin Speros, the former director of recruiting and scouting, who was elevated to the title assistant general manager, under Jones – is on identifying prospective football student-athletes, using analytics to decide what their value is on the open market, and assist the coaching staff in recruiting, acquiring and retaining talent.

It is, in essence, an NFL front office – probably needs more staffing, but that’s another issue for another day – tasked with getting the best use of the resources that the money people in the athletics department can put at their disposal.

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ICYMI

• Carla Williams maps out her strategy for returning UVA Football to prominence

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That’s where the athletics director, Carla Williams, comes in.

“This year in December was the first time that our football program fully participated in NIL, you know, and that that speaks volumes, because it’s been happening for three years. This past December was our first opportunity to be in with two feet,” Williams said on the podcast, offering the observation that the NIL commitment has become “the lifeblood of the program.”

“If you’re trying to have championship programs, you’ve got to acquire talent, and you have to retain that talent. And so, the gift that we got, and we’ve gotten several gifts that have made a huge impact on our ability to acquire and retain talent, makes a huge difference,” Williams said.

To be clear, Williams isn’t confirming a specific amount of money here. I’ve been reporting the $30 million figure consistently since June, with no pushback, so I’m sticking to that, but there’s no data clearinghouse that will tell you what UVA is spending on NIL for its football program, or what anybody anywhere in the country is spending.

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ICYMI

• Did the UVA Football money people really give Tony Elliott $30M to build a roster?

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We do know that what UVA Athletics is doing is, to borrow from the TV commercial for Indeed, competitive.

“We talked to a lot of people to try to gauge, and I would say that it’s really good, you know, I would say that we’re very competitive,” Williams said. “Also, I’d say that we’re very, very competitive, and you can see that in the recruiting classes. That’s really the way that you could tell if you’re going to be competitive with your roster construction, is where the rankings have you, you know, who are you acquiring, who are you retaining? I think we’re in a really, really good place.”

So, UVA is competitive in NIL, and it’s building an infrastructure to be able to best use the money.

That amount of money is, obviously, a lot.

We’re going to be able to do that every year?

Williams seems to think so.

“Several of those gifts come from new donors, and I think that’s a really neat aspect,” Williams said. “We’ve got a blend of our existing donors that really care about the program that have given, and then we’ve got new donors where we’ve expanded the donor pool because they appreciate, and I’ve said this before, the way that we do athletics, and the values that we try to uphold, and all of those things, and so, they want to be a part of that success.”