Arch Manning’s brash no from sharing his NIL rights with the EA Sports College Football 25 is the talk of the town. While it might have soured the anticipation a bit for the Texas enthusiasts, analysts believe Manning might have dug his NIL’s grave. Arch Manning has opted out of the game CFB game of the season that more than 10,000 athletes have registered in.

Manning wanted to be ‘the guy’ at Texas since he was in the shadows as the backup of Ewers in 2023 before he took on any of the NIL deals. Despite being a sophomore and throwing only five passes as Quinn Ewers, Manning boasts a hefty $2.8 million from his single deal with Panini India. In a way, the EA Sports deal was a behind-the-cloud-sun for Manning as it recognized him as Texas QB and not Arch Manning, an opportunity for him to kick-start his NIL deals as a Texas Longhorns player. This might be exactly why, Josh Pate believed, “No one cares. No one’s going to care that Quinn Ewers is playing that game or not.” 

The reason is that in the short span of three to four years, the CFB players get to build their reputation and popularity, adding to their Name, Image, and Likeness. “Players come and go in three and four-year cycles. The star players are in and out for three years. So there is no time for them to build up disproportionate value and equity compared to the logo and the brand they play for. That’s the way College athletics has always been. So that’s the way that video games will,” Pate said on his podcast. So was it Manning scrunching up his nose because of his family name, or was there a whole other facade to it?

Steve Sarkisian’s take on Arch Manning’s NIL deals

It is no secret that his family members deliberately handled every intricacy of Arch Manning’s recruiting process: the Mannings, per Athletic. Copper Manning, Arch’s dad, wanted an old-school recruitment process for his son. So there was no flying possibility of the NIL deal being involved in Arch Manning’s choice.

Steve Sarkisian, Texas’s head coach, has been quite vocal about his despise of the players who join through NIL. And he was grateful that Manning was not one. ” He loves the coaches and he loves the program. This is not about NIL. He’s taken zero money from an NIL perspective.” Sarkisian said.

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Along with this, Sarkisian also mentioned that Arch Manning’s grandfather, Archie Manning, won’t let him take any NIL money. “He said, ‘You can take money when you become a player and you start.'” Sarkisian, on the other hand, is a bit lenient compared to Manning’s grandfather, despite sharing a similar old-school viewpoint on the NIL saying Manning would only accept NIL money once he becomes a starting QB. What do you think about Sarkisian and Archie Manning’s thoughts?