On Monday, the University of Michigan announced true freshman Bryce Underwood, the consensus No. 1 overall ranked high-school football player in the nation in the 2025 recruiting class, would be the Wolverines’ starting quarterback for Saturday’s season opener against New Mexico. Underwood, who had previously committed to Louisiana State University before flipping to Michigan, becomes only the fourth true freshman in program history to start a season opener and the first since Tate Forcier in 2009, capping off what stands as the most expensive recruiting flip in college football history.

The 18-year-old quarterback’s arrival represents the culmination of a $12 million NIL deal that involved an unlikely alliance between Oracle’s billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy to sway the teenager to move to Ann Arbor instead of Baton Rouge, La., and join the Wolverines.

Michigan’s power play

Underwood’s recruitment started getting interesting when Portnoy publicly pledged to spend $3 million annually to help Michigan land a top quarterback. Portnoy revealed on his podcast last November he soon got a call from the Michigan football team.

“They said, ‘Hey, there’s this donor who wants to talk to you.’ I said I’m doing this by myself, and I don’t need to talk to anybody. And they said, ‘Please, this woman is a big fan of Barstool and you; she’d love to talk to you. Her name is Jolin,’” Portnoy recalled.

Portnoy is referring to Larry Ellison’s wife, Jolin, a 33-year-old woman from China whose real name is Keren Zhu. Jolin Ellison is a Michigan alum, having graduated from the university in 2012 with a degree in international studies, and has been married to the 80-year-old tech mogul since at least 2018.

“They said, ‘Oh, her husband is a guy by the name of Larry Ellison. Have you ever heard of him?’ Oh, Larry Ellison? The No. 2 richest guy on the planet? Yeah, I’ll take that phone call,” Portnoy said.

That night, Portnoy, the Ellisons, and Underwood’s family connected on a Zoom call. Jolin Ellison, driven by her passion for Michigan athletics and memories of the program’s struggles during the Brady Hoke era, made it clear she was willing to do whatever it took to restore the Wolverines to championship contention.

The $12 million question

Michigan’s Champions Circle NIL collective ultimately offered Underwood between $10 million to $12 million over four years, dwarfing LSU’s reported $1.5 million annual offer. But what drove the deal home wasn’t just money—it was how Michigan was able to assemble a dream team of mentors and supporters that no other program could match.

Brady, Michigan’s legendary former quarterback, played a crucial role by establishing a personal relationship with Underwood through regular FaceTime calls. The recruitment also featured an unexpected cameo from Connor Stalions, the former Michigan staffer who resigned amid the 2023 sign-stealing scandal. Stalions had joined Underwood’s high school coaching staff as a volunteer assistant, adding another layer of Michigan influence to the quarterback’s daily life.

Of course, Michigan had a bit of a hometown advantage: Underwood is from Belleville, Mich., just 15 miles from Ann Arbor. The quarterback’s father, Jay Underwood, said his son could potentially earn upwards of $15 million through NIL opportunities at Michigan, but stressed “being able to play at home,” particularly for a program that just won the national championship in 2023, was also a major factor.

A new reality for college sports

Underwood’s flip represents more than just one recruit changing his mind—it signals a fundamental shift in how college athletics operates in the NIL era. Champions Circle chairman Nate Forbes explicitly thanked the Ellisons in the official announcement, stating they “were instrumental in making this happen by providing Champions Circle with invaluable guidance and financial resources.”

The involvement of someone like Ellison—who has no direct ties to Michigan beyond his wife’s alumni status—illustrates how college sports has become a playground for the ultra-wealthy. His previous sports investments include purchasing the Indian Wells tennis tournament and owning the SailGP professional sailing league, but college football had been uncharted territory until this point.

For Michigan, landing Underwood was also about proving they could compete with the financial firepower of SEC programs in the new NIL landscape. As Portnoy said on his podcast, “When Larry Ellison targets someone, it’s essentially a foregone conclusion.”

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

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