You ever hear a number so wild it makes you question reality? Imagine checking your phone, scrolling past another transfer portal bombshell, and—boom—Quinn Ewers reportedly turned down $8 million to NOT enter the portal? Yeah, that’s what had folks tripping in January. The word on the street: Texas Tech allegedly had the bag ready, only for Ewers to curve ‘em and head straight to the NFL Draft after Texas got bounced in the Cotton Bowl. It sounded crazy then, and it sounds even crazy now. And on January 28th, Bruce Feldman hopped on The Solid Verbal Podcast to hit us with some much-needed reality.

Okay, let’s be real—Quinn Ewers is a certified baller, but eight M’s for a signal-caller who ain’t even played a full college season without injuries? That’s low-key tough to believe. Bruce Feldman wasn’t buying it either. When Dan Rubenstein asked him about the biggest shocker from the transfer portal, Feldman went straight to the $8M rumor and said, “That number is staggering from this standpoint—it’s a year of eight million!”

Look, Feldman wasn’t questioning Quinn Ewers’ talent—a Texas native can sling it. Quinn Ewers might not have exceeded the mountains of expectation set on him, but Ewers literally brought the Longhorns back into relevancy. But was Texas Tech really the school out here throwing NBA-level money around? That’s where things got sketchy. “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet,” Feldman added, making it clear that some of these NIL numbers are straight-up fairytales. And he wasn’t the only one calling cap.

Let’s talk about how the middleman aka agents are out here tossing wild figures to the media just to boost their player’s stock. Feldman hinted at this when he said, “What I’ve learned over the last few years is you gotta take these numbers with a grain of salt.” Translation? These numbers are funny money. If you’ve ever seen a tweet about a $5M NIL deal and thought, “Ain’t no way,” you’re probably right.

Transfer portal and agent schemes: the Wild, Wild West

College football has been feeling more like Hollywood lately—big money deals, power moves, and behind-the-scenes scheming. NIL was supposed to help players get paid fairly, but instead, it’s turned the sport into Wolf of Wall Street: CFB Edition. One of the biggest plays in the game? Over-inflating NIL deals.

You see players like Carson Beck getting $4 million to chill in Miami, and Jeremiah Smith getting offered $4.5 mil to hit the portal after torching every CB and DB in FBS as ta rue freshman. CBS Sports’ Danny Kanell had something to say about that too. In a video posted on X, Kanell let it fly: “I’ve got to get something off my chest. Because I’m starting to get really irritated by some of these numbers that are out there on the NIL market, that are being ‘reported’.” He even threw in air quotes to let you know he wasn’t buying it. “It’s just agents floating these numbers to try to drive the market up.”

Kanell listed other names caught in the hype machine: “The latest number, Jeremiah Smith. Offered $4.5 million to leave Ohio State. We saw Quinn [Ewers]. He was supposedly offered $4 million in the regular season. Then it was $6 million after the bowl game. Those are ridiculous. They’re not true. Carson Beck’s reported numbers that he got to go to Miami? Not true. I can confirm those.”

CFB is a full-blown marketplace now. The problem is, a lot of these young players don’t even realize they’re just walking billboards. The agents push inflated numbers to make their client seem like the hottest commodity, then take their 10-20% cut while leaving the player to deal with the expectations and backlash. It’s all one big hustle. The crazy part? There ain’t even rules against it.

In the NFL, agents need certifications and gotta follow regulations. In CFB? Nah. Anybody can slap on the ‘agent’ title, promise the world, and start moving pieces around like it’s Moneyball. This ain’t a sport anymore—it has turned into HBO’s Industry.

Look, Quinn Ewers is a top-tier talent, no doubt. But was Texas Tech really about to drop $8 million on him? Highly unlikely and somewhat far-fetched. Feldman, Kanell, and others are just putting us on the game—these NIL numbers ain’t always what they seem. If anything, this whole saga just proves one thing: college football isn’t just about the game anymore. It’s about the money, the branding, and who can sell the best story. And in this case? Somebody was selling dreams, not reality.