Five-star offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell officially committed to Miami (FL) on Tuesday. This news was very surprising because the No. 1 player in the country had been trending to Georgia for a few days after his weekend visit to Athens, but something changed at the last second that gave Miami an edge.
Cantwell explained that his decision had to do with Miami's coaching staff and his comfortability with Miami, but college football fans were not buying that explanation. Fans across the country unanimously agreed that Cantwell chose Miami because of a large NIL deal.
And there may be some truth to that because a few weeks ago Cantwell was reportedly offered $2 million from Miami for his freshman season alone, but that number increased to $5 million ($2.5 million per yer) the night before his commitment. So even though Cantwell doesn't want to admit it, this had to have impacted his decision a little bit.
But in reality, there really is nothing wrong with that being his biggest reason for choosing the Hurricanes.
Jackson Cantwell shouldn't be blamed for choosing Miami because of the money
One could make the argument that almost every person in the country would make the same decision Cantwell made if this amount of money was being thrown at them. Imagine if a different job offered a $500 thousand raise for you to leave and come work for them, no one would be able to say no to that.
But for some reason fans get upset when a player chooses a school for the money when they likely would do the same thing if they were in their position.
So if people want to blame someone because NIL money is a driving factor in recruit's decisions then the NCAA should be blamed. The NCAA are the ones who did not create any guidelines or rules to follow when NIL became legal, so they are at fault for this.
So don't blame the kid for making life changing money, fault the NCAA that is allowing money to lead recruits to one school over another.