Lincoln Riley says USC has taken 'monster leaps' on the NIL front

Just two days after sending a message on the recruiting front by reeling in five commitments from highly-coveted prospects in the Southeast and Texas all on Sunday, USC coach Lincoln Riley seemed to appreciate the opportunity to make another statement when asked about the state of USC's NIL operations.

"NIL has, it's taken some monster leaps since we've been here. It's taken some monster leaps in the last several months, which has been really positive," Riley said. "It's great to see our fan base and our supporters, I think for everybody it's just been gaining an understanding of what it is and how it's not important -- it's imperative. You have to have it."

The Athletic's Antonio Morales reported that House of Victory, the main NIL collective for USC Athletics, had tripled its budget for this year ahead, though he didn't provide specific numbers.

Riley intimated that USC's football players did better finding their own NIL deals last year rather than through the collective itself and that he hoped that balance would be different moving forward.

"Last year was OK, it was great outside of the whole collective world. I mean, our guys were able to, obviously being in LA, our guys probably get more outside deals than anybody in the country, which is awesome. But we need the support to be right there with it too from our donors and from our collectives," Riley said. "That has taken some massive, massive jumps here in the last several months, I think as our people get educated on what this really means. But it's got to continue, like any part of this. You want things to get better, you have to do something about it, behaviors have to change.

"You have to tear down things and build new facilities, you have to bring more money in, you have to bring in great coaches, you have to raise more NIL. You've got to keep pushing the issue. We're trying to do it here and we're asking all our people on the outside to continue to do that as well."