College Football GM Exposes the Ugly Reality of Unofficial Recruiting Visits

Anonymous Power Four executive details how programs bankroll trips that recruits and families are supposed to fund themselves

A Power Four GM reveals the shadow economy behind unofficial recruiting visits, in which schools find creative ways to pay for prospect trips despite NCAA rules prohibiting such payments. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

A frustrated Power Four general manager has pulled the curtain back on one of college football's worst-kept secrets.

In a wide-ranging CBS Sports report from Chris Hummer, the anonymous executive vented about recruits asking a question that should not exist. "Kids are like, 'Well, are you paying for me to come? … No. It's an unofficial visit,'" he said.

Unofficial visits are supposed to be financed entirely by the recruit's family. According to more than two dozen sources Hummer interviewed, that rule has become a suggestion, with programs covering travel through cash, boosters and creative NIL contracts.

How schools pay for unofficial visits

The methods range from crude to clever. Sources described birthday cards stuffed with cash, and a top recruit sent on a cruise after a visit so he could not see other campuses. Collectives have rented hotel blocks under staff members' names and routed money through high school coaches who then "brought" the player themselves.

There is a legal lane too. One 2026 commit signed a $10,000 NIL deal requiring a tailgate appearance, three Instagram posts and 10 autographs, which conveniently covered a long flight for a game weekend.

The NCAA isn't able to properly track or enforce rules regarding payments made to recruits to make unofficial visits. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

The demand side explains why the market exists. ESPN reported that hosting a string of unofficial visits has effectively become a requisite for programs chasing top prospects, with one SEC GM saying a recruit whose first trip is his official visit is "a stranger at that point."

Agents have noticed the leverage. Another SEC general manager told On3 that representatives now want to broker junior day visits, demanding flights, hotel rooms and even $1,000 for an official visit.

Why NCAA enforcement cannot keep up

Jeremy Pruitt's Tennessee staff drew show-cause penalties for a paid unofficial-visit scheme in 2023, yet deterrence has gone backward. The College Sports Commission does not review high school NIL deals until enrollment, and attorney Mit Winter admitted nobody knows how a fair-market standard would apply.

"Everybody bitches about, 'Let there be enforcement, let there be rules.' Then the first thing we do when rules come out is how can we skirt by them," the GM said.

College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seeley leads the organization responsible for overseeing and enforcing the rule changes made from the House vs. NCAA settlement. | Phil Didion

The money involved dwarfs the penalties. Texas A&M spent $924,481 on official visit weekends in the summer of 2025, and ESPN noted top-end payrolls now approach $40 million. Against budgets that size, a few thousand dollars in laundered airfare is a rounding error. Until a regulator audits the money before it moves, the shadow economy is the economy.

The cycle accelerates regardless. In the 2027 class, 58 of the nation's top 100 recruits have already committed, and official visit season peaks across the country this month.