A former NFL quarterback has offered a one-year, $1 million name, image, and likeness deal to Caleb Williams if the Oklahoma star considers a transfer.
Charlie Batch, who played for the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers during a 15-year career, currently is an entrepreneur and senior vice president of strategic investments for a holding company. He made his offer to Williams via Twitter Wednesday.
"Hey @CALEBcsw, have you considered Eastern Michigan, @EMUFB? If not, you SHOULD. GameAbove Capital is prepared to pay you ONE MILLION DOLLARS for one year! Are you ready be an EAGLE?" Batch tweeted Wednesday.
Williams announced Monday that he had entered the NCAA transfer portal, Sports Illustrated reported.
Saying that remaining at Oklahoma "definitely" was an option, Williams has been mentioned for Georgia, UCLA, and Southern California — where former Sooners Lincoln Riley recently took over.
CapStone Holdings, where Batch works, is the parent company of GameAbove Capital.
The Supreme Court in June ruled against the NCAA in the organization's bid to maintain limits on education-related compensation for athletes that critics have said help maintain the fiction of amateurism in college sports.
The court ruled 9-0 that the NCAA's curbs on noncash payments to college athletes related to education — including benefits such as computers, science equipment, and musical instruments — are anticompetitive under a federal law called the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Although the case did not involve direct payments to athletes, the wider issue of player compensation increasingly became a point of contention. College sports brings in billions of dollars in revenue.
The NCAA in July began allowing college athletes to profit off of the rights to their name, image, and likeness (NIL).
By the third week in July, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young had earned almost $1 million in sponsorship and endorsement money, according to Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, Yahoo! Sports has reported.
With few rules governing how it all works, the push to dangle cash in front of players already in uniform and lure future stars to campus has created a new, rapidly expanding frontier in college sports with so-called "collectives" and even nonprofits popping up to play ball.
"It is the wild, wild West," said Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "Did anyone expect anything different?"
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.