Boise State aims to pay incoming freshmen through revenue sharing, NIL funds

‘At this point, it’s all focused on talent retention,’ Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said

Spencer Danielson | Boise State Athletics

In the lead-up to the 2024 college football season, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson made national news by stating that the Broncos were not offering NIL deals to incoming recruits.

After losing a third class of 2026 quarterback commit last weekend, Danielson spoke about Boise State’s NIL strategy on Thursday. 

“We like to keep that stuff in-house,” Danielson said when asked if freshmen are receiving NIL money from BroncoPRO, Boise State’s NIL and revenue-sharing service for athletes. “At this point, it’s all focused on talent retention. To date, freshmen come in here, are taken care of with their scholarship. We are able to give them a little bit extra, but it’s all about talent retention.

“It’s something that we haven’t been able to put a lot of resources into in regards to our freshmen just because of the reality of what we have. Now as we raise what we have, that opens doors for us to be able to pay our freshmen. But to date, that really hasn’t been a part of what we’ve been able to do because we’ve focused all our money on talent retention.” 

Danielson said the Broncos had enough money to field a quality roster in 2025, but more funds will be needed in the future as the program moves to the Pac-12 next year. 

Boise State Broncos player Sire Gaines. | Boise State Athletics

“We have enough in 2025, but do we need to grow our funding, grow BroncoPRO to new heights? We absolutely have to,” Danielson said. “It’s a non-negotiable, and I believe we will. 

“For me, I do always want to make sure that I don’t use money as a means to recruit. And I think that’s where everybody looks at things as if you lose a recruit, that means ‘Well, Spencer isn’t paying him.’ There’s so much that goes into this with these young men, and everyone can have their opinion on how we recruit. … Is money a part of recruiting now? Absolutely it is. Is it the end-all, be-all for every kid? I don’t think so. And especially not the kids we are recruiting.”

Danielson reiterated that Boise State will always focus on talent retention over acquisition. 

“For me, that’s where everything is for us,” Danielson said. “We’ve got really good football players on this team and when they do what they’re supposed to here, I want to take care of them and pay them everything we’ve got, because they’ve earned it here. Now as we grow our funds and continue to raise — which I believe we are going to — then I think it completely opens the door to be able to pay freshmen or pay players coming into the program that have not been here. But everything for us will always start with talent retention. That will not change, regardless of the money we get. I want to double down to take care of our players. 

“But do we need to grow to be able to pay freshmen? Absolutely we do. And I’m excited for us to do that. In this space, we don’t need to find 500 guys who fit Boise State; we need to find 20. We need to find the right 20, we need to find the right guys who want to be here.”