A major story is developing Friday night as Pitt appears to be losing their best player to USC and many in Oakland are questioning USC’s tactics.
Jordan Addison, the 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner as college football’s top wide receiver and one of Pitt’s top players, is expected to exit the program and accept a massive NIL deal at USC, Pittsburgh Sport Now can confirm. Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan first reported the news.
The story doesn’t end there as the Pitt football program believes that the USC coaches illegally tampered with Addison, while he has not yet in the transfer portal. PSN has been told to expect Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi to make a public statement that will target USC’s alleged tampering with his best player. Sources also tell Pittsburgh Sports Now that new USC head coach Lincoln Riley is believed to have used the same questionable tactics to lure Oklahoma freshman quarterback Caleb Williams from Oklahoma to USC.
While this isn’t official, the word is that USC is offering Addison a NIL deal north of $2 million to head to Southern California. PSN is also told that this isn’t the first time a program has offered Addison a large sum of money. Following the season, it’s believed that Kentucky offered the Biletnikoff winner $800,000 to go to Lexington and he turned them down.
It’s a shocking loss for Pitt, losing a two-year starter who developed from a four-star recruit out of Frederick, Maryland into the best wide receiver in college football. Addison earned Pitt’s third Biletnikoff Award in 2021, joining Antonio Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald, and earned consensus All-American honors on the heels of a season in which he caught 100 balls for 1,593 yards and 17 touchdowns.
After two seasons at Pitt, he will reportedly finish his career with 160 catches for 2,259 yards and 21 touchdowns in just 24 games. Addison’s loss isn’t just devastating from the on-field standpoint as he was expected to be a key piece in leading Pitt’s offense post-Kenny Pickett. It’s one of the most shocking moves of the off-season, the NIL era drawing a seemingly secure player to a new location.
Jared Wayne and Konata Mumpfield form a very strong duo without Addison in the picture, and Jaylon Barden is the next slot piece in line to earn massive playing time. Jaden Bradley, Addison Copeland and now Che Nwabuko will be expected to step up — and Pitt could look into the portal themsleves for a replacement.
But there will be no replacing the loss that Addison’s absence leaves on Pitt’s roster.
I’m definitely less of a college football fan now. This type of stuff is ruining the sport
This is just total bullshit I really hate what college sports has turned into
This going to be the death of college sports there’s way to many schools that can’t compete than the ones that can ,we are just 1 yr into this so called nil crap and look how out of control it is already
Pitt booster needs to step up and pay the man his money. Cowboy up and nut up or shut up. Pitt wants to be in the big boy game then put on your big boy pants and put the women and children to bed and hunt for F@&ken dinner.💰💰😡
Good luck with that, Pitts NIL compliance office is already known as the most difficult to work with in the entire country and trying to get things to pass their severely elevated restrictions has agents telling kids that they won’t work with them if they stay at Pitt. Speaking from specific experience working with some of the guys at Pitt and something as simple as trying to get a players custom designed logo onto a t shirt for sale approved was over a month process requiring over 25 revisions for the NIL compliance office to finally ok it. Everything from… Read more »
Even if the money is equal Pitt can’t offer what USC did which is:
LA weather and a beautiful campus
Caleb Williams
Lincoln Riley offense
5 star recruits
national program that will be on prime time all season
I can’t knocked Athletes who enter transfer portal for better opportunities, BUT it is ILLEGAL for a college to approach a student athlete from another college and persuade him to enter transfer portal for financial gain.
Riley did it with Caleb Williams already with no repercussions. He’s building a stacked roster with transfers right away. NCAA sits back and does nothing.
F Addison.
We have other WRs.
This is tampering at it’s worst.
Nice how Mark Emmert opens up the transfer portal, gets NIL going, ruins college football, and then leaves.
F him too.
NIL absolutely ruining college sports.
F off Addison.
Good show of character.
Wears shades indoors to pick up his trophy the other day. Yep… He’s heading to LA. Don’t let the door hit him in the ass. We have Wayne, Barden, Bub, Konata, young guys plus Bartholomew. Will be fine but there is a serious problem with college football. Pitt better find a way to compete. Maybe Brickell donates another $20 million lol.
Can’t sugarcoat that losing Addison is massive, not sure how they replace his production and the pressure he puts on defenses (doubling him opens up everyone else, not thats gone)
If he doesn’t want to be here so be it. The issue is that this is all a done deal and he hasn’t even entered the transfer portal yet. Definitely tampering and a bitch move from Addison for not going immediately to the portal if he wanted out.
I believe the bigger issue is that the NCAA has messed this up since the beginning with the transfer portal and NIL. No regulation. No rules. No contracts.
Paying players with absolutely zero accountability of the whole idea of being enrolled in college.
A player could sign a NLI, get a massive NIL deal, get paid and play one season without ever actually attending a class or even pretending to be a student. By the time his “”GPA” caught up with him, he’d be gone.
What a joke.
Looks like I’ll only be watching FCS Duquesne from now on 😴😴
Beyond disgusting. It’s bad enough that the same 4 or 5 teams mostly attract the best recruits every year, pre NIL. NCAA needs to fix this ASAP or fans for 90% of the teams will start refusing to pay the inflated ticket prices that are needed to support such shenanigans. I’m done with college football unless they fix this mafia-like bribery system.
If this is the case, then Usc and their pos coach need to be held accountable as well! This is 🐎💩
This is beyond awful. Not sure how this is going to be fixed but USC paying 2 mm for one year? If Pickett were still here he might have stayed but LA, that offense and Caleb Williams were too much to overcome. College football is done.
I hope all the people that cry about (players should get paid) are happy now. The product that was college football is all but ruined. If this is true and Addison leaves I’m pretty sure I’ll never watch another college football game in my life. I hope the sports popularity gets demolished over the next decade. It’s hard to understand how nil can be forced on college football when it clearly ruins the product. As far as Addison goes, He was going to be a millionaire in 12 months anyways. I really don’t blame him though. Once again all the… Read more »
Right. If Akron has a media outlet they would be not to fond of Auditioning Mumpfield as a True Freshman to have him to be Snatched up by a bigger Club.
If this plays out, he goes to USC, plays one year, skips the bowl game (s) and turns pro. His numbers may be greater simply because there is no film on him from previous seasons in that conference. He is leaving a team that was in the New Years 6 and won its conference championship for a team that did none of the above. And joining a qb that has no experience with him. Not a good idea even for $2M. As far as the transfer portal is concerned it should only be open during the same time frame as… Read more »
He has no experience with Slovis either (and very little with Patti). You can’t compare USC and Pitt…USC is top 5 program of all time and he has his buddy Caleb and a dynamic offensive minded coach to go play for. He’s just working the system that’s been afforded and football is now the wild west. He will be a top 5 pick next year. This is the first domino to fall and every team will now have this issue that was started by Caleb Williams
You are missing the point. Transfer portal us Legal. NIL deals are Legal, BUT it is ILLEGAL for USC to approach a student athlete from PITT and persuade him to enter transfer portal for financial gain.
His points stated he has no experience with USC QB so I answered with my thoughts. It is illegal, but has been going on and is just now out in the open more with NIL money.
You write “While this isn’t official, “the word” is that USC is offering Addison a NIL deal north of $2 million to head to Southern California. ”
This is irresponsible and slanderous.. either it’s true or not.. don’t start bs rumors
I am a PITT alum. Can’t blame him if does. Employees leave Companies for Higher income elsewhere as well. I am interested if Harvard bumps up from FCS. They would have Deep pockets and Alumni to bring back their 19th Century glory days in FB.
PITT is to Akron, as Alabama/USC/.etc is to PITT. Wait till the University in the center part of Pennsylvania grabs up PITT’s talent.
As I said over a year ago, the teams that win in the NIL era will have NIL specialists on staff to help their athletes find the money. Pitt has failed in this regard, USC has not.
You’d think Mark Cuban or David Tepper could step up and throw around some money to help Pitt get some top athletes.
I hope he gets to LA and shits the bed, doesn’t get picked where he thinks he should and is a NFL bust. Note to NFL scouts: this guy will be Antonio Brown on steroids if he’s pulling this shit at 20.