Far be it from me to defend BYU on this issue, but I am happy to defend the Church as an Institution. The claim here is that there is hypocrisy in saying they don’t want BYU to be in a Pay for Play situation. I would actually argue, the current AJ signing and NIL is actually one of the few current exceptions where we have an honest-to-goodness NIL (Name Image Likness) situation and NOT what most moves are these days in NCAA sports, which are essentially pay-for-play.
Most student athletes honestly have very little NIL value they offer to sponsors. Only the elite players (or popular players in more local markets) are actually generating real income based on their marketing value. But with this kid, that seems to be the case. If he isn’t already a household name (he just had his commitment announcement live on ESPN First Take), he is purportedly about to become one. He’s projected as the #1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft. That makes him a big NIL value.
So he’s getting paid millions of dollars during his one year in college. And it happens that he is going to play at BYU for a short stop on his way to making millions more in the NBA. He’s one of the few student athletes that aren’t really being paid to play. He’s being paid for his actual NIL, as evidenced by the fact that his sponsors are not Built Bar, or NuSkin, or even Ken Garff.
The Church isn’t paying him. BYU isn’t paying him. Even Ryan Smith isn’t paying him (relatively speaking). His sponsors are Nike and Red Bull. THAT, is NIL in the true sense, and not pay-for-play.
Colorado @ 
Utah 
