Former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson is expected to be a late first-round draft pick on Thursday night, which will bring him a guaranteed four-year contract worth around $20 million. But he considered turning that down for a big-money offer to stay in college.
Simpson, who has previously said that Miami offered him $6.5 million to transfer and play for the Hurricanes in 2026, said on David Pollack’s podcast that the money was too good not to at least think about.
“I think the last offer was definitely one that I just had to sit down and consider, because it would have been life-changing money,” Simpson said. “It would have made me the highest-paid player in college, and it was something to where I was like, I can’t just ignore this. I have to sit down and think about it. That’s how I am, I don’t want to do anything sporadic. I want to sit down and think it all out, and it really just came down to how I wanted to be remembered and what do I want to do.”
Simpson, who spent three years as a backup at Alabama before becoming the starter last year, went to his former coach, Nick Saban, for advice.
“I actually talked to Coach Saban about this,” Simpson said. “The things he was talking about were, do you want to play football in college, or do you want to play football professionally? And he was like, ‘Take the money out of it, take the rounds out of it, what do you want to do next year?’ And without a doubt, without hesitation, I said, ‘I want to play professional football.’ And he was like, ‘Well, there’s your answer.’ It was something that I’ve always dreamed of, and I felt that I was ready to take that next step and be the face of a franchise and lead a locker room.”
It’s a different world in football now that players might make more money with another year in college than their annual average salary will be in the NFL. Now, players have to think about whether the NCAA or the NFL will be more lucrative. NIL deals have changed both college football and pro football.
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