Social media is a weird enough place to start but when you add in passionate college football fans and 17-18 year olds getting ready to sign their national letters of intent, it gets even more bizarre. That was the story Wednesday night with current Notre Dame commitment [autotag]Peyton Bowen[/autotag].
Bowen is Notre Dame’s highest rated recruit as the safety has a five-star evaluation at the major outlets. It’s understandable that plenty of teams seek his talents and what happened Wednesday is symbolic of what college football has become.
Rumors started online that Bowen was offered an incredible NIL deal from Oregon that would earn him seven figures. It was then said that Oklahoma was willing to match it. None of it was confirmed, in fact Bowen himself came out and spoke against the rumor.
miss information has been leaked about me and my recruitment. Completely untrue i’m picking a school based on program and best fit for me and where I wanna go to school, That simple.
— Peyton Bowen (@PeytonBowen10) December 15, 2022
I’ve never met Miss Information but I’m sure she’s a wonderful gal.
Kidding aside, I have trouble believing Bowen was offered over a million dollars to sign a letter of intent. I know it’s college football and money has spoken for a long time in the sport but my guess is that kind of deal would be reserved for elite quarterbacks and perhaps a few edge rushers or playmaking receivers. But then again, who really knows.
What I do know is that in terms of Notre Dame ultimately landing Bowen, I have no expectation. He’s been committed technically since January 1 but even his most recent social media post does anything but reinforce his commitment.
If Bowen is getting life-changing money like that to play college football then good for him. That’s his right and quite frankly, I’d have a real hard time taking my dream school over a million-dollar pay day too.
The only thing I do know is that the word “commitment” in college football recruiting has a significantly different meaning for different players.
As for Notre Dame’s chances here, like I said above, I’m not ultimately expecting good news but would be thrilled to be wrong.
Related: Meet all of Notre Dame’s 2023 recruiting class commitments