Michigan football landing Bryce Underwood is one of greatest recruiting stories ever

When the buzz started to come out about Michigan football trying to flip Bryce Underwood, many connected the pursuit to Dave Portnoy, who earlier during the 2024 season said he was willing to pay for the Wolverines to land a top-tier quarterback in the portal.

Portnoy, the CEO of Barstool Sports was serious. He revealed on Tuesday that Michigan football called him and asked him to have a call with another donor who happened to be Jolin Ellison, the wife of Larry Ellison who is the CEO of Oracle and one of the single-richest people on the planet.

At one point, Portnoy told Jolin that he was worried about getting too much of the credit for flipping Underwood. She replied, "I don't want credit. I want national championships."

Jolin was a student at Michigan during the Hoke era and told Portnoy she couldn't stand to see Michigan football go back to being like that and there were times this season that harkened back to the Hoke era, at least a little bit.

At any rate, it was clear that Michigan football needed more talent, especially at the quarterback position. That's where it all starts. Michigan wouldn't have won the national title without J.J. McCarthy and now that the Wolverines have Bryce Underwood, they are true national title contenders in the future as they as can build a playoff roster around him.

What's crazy about the whole thing is Larry Ellison, the Oracle Guy went to Illinois. He's not even a Michigan fan. His wife is and instead of asking for like expensive jewelry or something -- she's asking him for money to get players like Bryce Underwood.

Portnoy said they called the Underwood family and things went from there. The Michigan football staff had their role too, but it's an incredible story and it's awesome that for once, it was a major recruiting win for the Wolverines instead of heartbreak.

Here is the full quote:

“I got a call from the Michigan football team,” Portnoy said. “They said, ‘Hey, there’s this donor who wants to talk to you.’ I said I’m doing this [landing Underwood] by myself, and I don’t need to talk to anybody. And they said, ‘Please, this woman is a big fan of Barstool and you; she’d love to talk to you. Her name is Jolin.’ … They said, ‘Oh, her husband is a guy by the name of Larry Ellison. Have you ever heard of him?’ Oh, Larry Ellison? The No. 2 richest guy on the planet? Yeah, I’ll take that phone call.

“That night, we’re on a Zoom. And we’re talking. … She said, ‘I never want to live that era [Brady Hoke] ever again. We’re the national champs, I have two kids. I can’t stomach waking up on a Saturday knowing we’re not the best team on the field.’ And I said, ‘I’m with you. What do we have to do?’ And she said, ‘I know what we’ll do. Let’s set up a call tomorrow night with Bryce Underwood and his parents.’ I said count me in. This was a month and a half ago.”

We all know the rest of the story. Now, Michigan football is looking to build a top-5 recruiting class and when the transfer portal opens, I'd expect them to be aggressive there too. The next few weeks could be really fun, especially if the Wolverines find a way to pull an upset on Saturday.