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BYU football raises the bar for how to treat walk-ons (Video)

By Connor Muldowney

Oct 16, 2020; Houston, Texas, USA; Brigham Young Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake walks onto the field before a game against the Houston Cougars at TDECU Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 16, 2020; Houston, Texas, USA; Brigham Young Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake walks onto the field before a game against the Houston Cougars at TDECU Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
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If you’re thinking about playing college football at the next level but may not be good enough to quite earn a scholarship, there may be a new popular walk-on destination for you.

Provo might be the new hot spot for walk-ons as BYU football signed a team-wide NIL deal with Built Bar recently and surprised the non-scholarship players on the team.

As we know, the NIL allows players to sign deals to make money off their name, image, and likeness and it’s already paid huge dividends for guys like Miami’s D’Eriq King and Alabama’s Bryce Young but some behind-the-scenes players at BYU are now reaping the benefits.

In fact, the team announced its deal with Built Bar on Thursday, presenting scholarships to a couple of walk-ons in front of the team. It’s something we’ve seen every offseason: walk-ons earning full scholarships, bringing tears to their eyes. But never before have we seen what BYU did on Thursday.

The Cougars’ coaching staff called two players up to tell them they were going to have their schooling paid for. And everyone assumed that was all it would be.

But then the assistant coach told every walk-on to stand up (36 in total) and he told them they would each have full-rides for school thanks to the deal with Built Bar.

What a cool moment.

BYU just set the bar incredibly high for the rest of the country in terms of how to treat their walk-ons.

BYU football may have just set a wild precedent

With other programs seeing what BYU was able to do with Built Bar, I wouldn’t be shocked to see more signing team-wide NIL endorsement deals to pay for the walk-ons’ academics.

No, these scholarships don’t count toward the football team’s total, but they will be full-rides for academics and that’s a pretty awesome move for BYU to pull off. Sure, the school could have used the deal to pay for facility upgrades or equipment or even the staff, but this is much more wholesome and improves team morale.

We’re about to see more of these awesome team-wide full-ride videos in the near future, I’d bet.

Next. Way-too-early preseason Top 25 projections for 2021. dark

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