Miami coach Mario Cristobal analyzes NIL market for Hurricanes

The Name, Image, and Likeness era in college sports – especially college football – is in full swing and continues to evolve. While many big-name athletes have already signed highly profitable NIL deals with many different companies and brands, there are many, many more still come over time.

As for the Miami Hurricanes, new head coach Mario Cristobal said that his team is still learning about NIL, but made it clear that being located in Miami, Florida gives his players a ton of opportunities to land NIL deals – probably more than schools located in smaller markets.

“You know, still trying to figure it out,” Cristobal said Friday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “We’re lucky enough where we’re in an area where the opportunities are very abundant and growing quickly. We’re in the learning process, but there’s been a huge uptick in the last month or so and it’s accelerating quickly, so we feel for us it ends up becoming a competitive advantage.

“At the same time, I think there’s a lot of unknown. There’s no three, four-year cohort you can study and say, OK, it’s going this way or that way. There’s a lot of unknowns still. I don’t know how it’s going at other places. I don’t study it as much as I probably need to, but I know that here it’s on the upswing.”

Miami currently has one player ranked in the On3 College Football NIL Rankings: freshman quarterback Jake Garcia, who comes in at No. 100. Garcia, who has 75,000 followers over his Instagram and Twitter accounts, has a NIL valuation of $111,000.

Cristobal shares feedback, excitement he has received from Miami fanbase

Mario Cristobal joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Friday and discussed the feedback and excitement he has received so far from the Miami fanbase after being hired as the Hurricanes’ head coach back on Dec. 6.

“They’re fired up,” Cristobal said. “They’ve been really hoping for a change like this, so a groundswell of support, a direction where they can see clearly what is going to be in-store type of offseason regiment, the type of system we’ll be running.

“I think when they see that this blueprint is producing championships and getting guys drafted, not only drafted but as top-10 picks, and they’re having fun and graduating with a high clip – when they see this blueprint, the blueprint works. It’s going to be implemented here at the highest level because there’s a full commitment from a resource and facility standpoint to do it as good – or better – than anyone else in the country, and that was a missing component for Miami.”