Mizzou's NIL Spending has Been 'Wise', But Still Behind Big Spenders, Per Drinkwitz

As the Name, Image and Likeness space in college sports continues to be a driving force for player acquisition and roster building, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz continues to adapt to the changes it constantly provides to college football.

With that, Drinkwitz has become more up-front about what goes into Missouri's NIL spending and the limitations that come along with attempting to use it to build the best roster possible, including competing against other programs with bigger spending budgets.

"There's teams that we're playing with larger NIL budgets than we have," Drinkwitz told the media Tuesday. "Doesn't mean we're not doing the absolute best we can. Doesn't mean that we haven't put together a really, really good football team, and there's a lot of people helping us, but more is still more, and until there's a cap on it, we want every advantage that we can possibly get."

During the broadcast of Missouri's matchup with Mississippi State on Saturday, commentator Tom Hart said that Drinkwitz wanted more from the eight Fortune 500 companies in the state of Missouri in terms of resources. This is something that's being asked of multiple teams across the country.

The NIL space seems to be one where everyone is either playing catch-up or making their own rules. Even with recent limitations set, teams are still finding ways to spend big money. Drinkwitz and the Tigers are simply following suit.

"If we want to get more and more opportunities for our student athletes, then that's something that we need to lean into," Drinkwitz said. "I'm always going to be pushing and trying to create whatever advantages we can for the University of Missouri in the NIL space."

Bringing in new players is only one part of the challenge. Player retention is now more important than ever and for any given head coach, keeping their best players year-to-year has become significantly more challenging.

The Tigers obviously don't know what next season looks like for them and anything could happen, but retaining their best players could be a challenge and will be a priority. That doesn't mean anyone specifically is going to stay or leave, it just means it will flat-out be harder to gauge.

"I saw on Twitter, somebody said we got to keep Donovan (Olugbode) and Matt (Zollers) — well, that's wishful thinking," Drinkwitz said. "You got to offer them the same amount of money that other people are, and that's the reality."

It can be very easy to misinterpret how a team is using NIL to build its roster. To many, it seemed as if Drinkwitz and the Tigers were forking out money to bring in players. While Missouri has been competitive in that area, other teams are still doing so at a higher level, per Drinkwitz.

That also doesn't mean Drinkwitz isn't utilizing NIL funds well. He is, and has been able to bring in big-name players, but other programs are getting more money to do the same thing at an even higher level.

"I think there's a misconception that we're one of the biggest spenders in NIL — I don't think that's true," Drinkwitz said. "I think we're very good at what we do. I think we've been very wise in our investments, but we're not frivolous, and there's certainly not unlimited funds."

In June of 2025, information from an On3 poll that was released to college football stakeholders was released. It listed what others viewed as the top 10 spenders in college football, a list the Tigers did not find themselves on.

"We weren't in the top 10 of spenders last year when they put that out the list," Drinkwitz said. "So I just think there's a misconception that there's more than there probably is."

Another part of the NIL equation and recruiting is landing the top-end in-state talent. Drinkwitz, for the most part, has done a solid job of doing so since arriving in Columbia. The stories of guys like Luther Burden III, Brady Cook and Connor Tollison will be good examples of that.

At the same time, there have been ones who've slipped away. Ryan Wingo, who's now a Texas Longhorn, was a frustrating recruiting miss for Drinkwitz and the Tigers. A St. Louis native, Wingo could've completely changed the future of Missouri's wide receiver room alongside Burden and others.

Also in that 2024 class was five-star EDGE Williams Nwaneri, who transferred out of the program after only one season, along with wide receiver Jeremiah McClellan and offensive tackle Andrew Sprague. Neither landed with the Tigers and both were heavily recruited by Drinkwitz.

All of that and other in-state recruiting misses mark the frustration of Drinkwitz when it comes to top talents in Missouri leaving the state. That being said, he believes that it's on him to do better.

"There's a lot of really, really good players from Missouri that are playing at other places, and I would love for them to play here, but that's not free," Drinkwitz said. "So how do we get them here? I got to do a better job of recruiting them, but also do a better job of raising money so that I can offer them a competitive package that the other schools are offering."

Outside of the NIL space, the Tigers still have three games left to play this season. The next of those is at 11 a.m. on Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma, against the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners.

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