BREAKING: UNC Football secures commitment from true freshman with crazy recruiting path

What’s been striking about the media’s defense of Ben Johnson is how the narrative around NIL expectations seemed to shift. From the moment Name, Image and Likeness entered the college sports landscape, it’s been widely understood that the head coach is the primary driver of NIL fundraising for their program.

That reality hasn’t changed. PJ Fleck made that clear with his vocal push in 2023, and he’s continued to lead the charge for Minnesota football. Like most major programs, it’s the head coach who partners with collectives like Dinkytown Athletes to not only attract top-tier talent but—perhaps even more crucially—retain the players they’ve already developed. Fleck and his staff have built a sustainable NIL model that protects their roster from being raided by wealthier schools.

The hope now is that this recent momentum carries over to basketball. Because if Minnesota doesn’t catch up quickly in the NIL arms race, it’s hard to see the Gophers becoming a consistent top-25 program again.

To be clear, not all of Johnson’s struggles were entirely his fault. His strengths—recruiting, building relationships, and his basketball IQ—were never in question. But in this new era, those things aren’t enough without the financial engine of NIL behind them. He wasn’t set up for success from the start, but in the end, his unwillingness or inability to adapt to the NIL reality sealed his fate. And that part falls squarely on him.