Isaiah Foskey admits NIL may have lured him away from Notre Dame

Had NIL been around in 2019, you probably wouldn’t have seen Isaiah Foskey in a Notre Dame uniform.

Over the weekend at the NFL Combine, Foskey spoke with the media following his on-field workout.

“I feel like I wouldn’t have gone to Notre Dame if there was NIL when I was coming into college,” Foskey told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It would have been pretty hard to go there, and stay there, given the amount of money other schools are throwing around.”

A former four-star recruit out of De La Salle, Foskey was a three-year member of the Fighting Irish, earning All-American honors in his final year. He selected the Irish over several top programs including Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, Texas and USC.

Foskey said he spoke with a recent Notre Dame signee who told him he had a more lucrative NIL offer to play elsewhere, but the athlete chose to play for the Fighting Irish.

“The price difference was so big, I wouldn’t know what to do,” Foskey said. “There’s so much pressure on the player and his family. … You can make NIL money when you’re at Notre Dame. You just have to work for it.”

Over his final two years at Notre Dame, Foskey was compensated for jersey sales and autographs, acknowledging he was appreciative of the opportunity, but he wishes he did more during his time in South Bend.

“I wasn’t really paying for anything, so I pocketed all the money from sales,” Foskey said. “For me, it was perfect timing not having NIL going into college and then having it while I was there, amid the hype of playing at Notre Dame. I wish I had done more looking back, but I felt like it would have distracted me.”

Foskey finished his combine workouts ranking top 10 in the 40-yard dash (4.58s), vertical leap (34.00”), broad jump (10’5”), shuttle (4.41s) and cone drill (7.28s). He checked in at 6-foot-5, 264 pounds with 34-inch arms and 9 7/8-inch hands.