As-of-now-former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson declared for the NFL draft, but several Power 4 programs are willing to break the bank to poach him from Tuscaloosa and make him richer at a new home.
Simpson told On3's Chris Low how his offseason went, with the Miami Hurricanes and Ole Miss Rebels being aggressive about reloading their College Football Playoff-caliber rosters with the Martin, Tennessee, native.
Of course, his home state Tennessee Volunteers were also in on his recruitment, scheming a way to get back at their Third Saturday in October rival for the 37-20 loss UT took to the Tide this past season.
Simpson essentially admitted that Alabama guilt kept him from pursuing more money and having a better chance to win a championship. He believes Tide fans would've turned against him and disregarded the CFP appearance he just helped lead the program to.
“Miami was kind of like, ‘All right, we’re moving on,’ and then they lost out on Sam Leavitt and came back with that big number,” Simpson said. “And then Ole Miss called again and said they could match it. I had a knot in my stomach. I didn’t know what to do.
“I really felt good with my decision to go pro, but that amount of money to play college football again for what amounts to about eight months makes you stop and think. I remember my parents telling me that $6 million was more than they had made the whole time they had been married, but the thing they wanted most for me was to be happy.
“KD and Coach Grubb have been so good to me,” Simpson said. “I’m sure they were wondering what was going on because they wanted a decision from me last Thursday so they could start building their roster for next year. I was honest and told them what I’d been offered, but that I just couldn’t do it because of everything I stood for and what Alabama had meant to me and the legacy that I built there. Everybody would just remember me as the guy who took all this money and went to Miami or Tennessee for his last year. But I was a captain. I put my hand and footprints in the cement at Denny Chimes. I would have lost everything that I built at Alabama.”
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Ty Simpson would've ripped teams off at that price point
Simpson is a top-10 QB if he returns, which he's not going to. With that said, the Vols, Canes, and Rebs would've been risking a lot to potentially be disappointed. He almost got a higher salary from one of them than he's about to get in the pros.
Simpson is a first-round pick in the NFL, with the league's QB problems becoming evident after 44-year-old Phillip Rivers was deemed a better candidate for the Indianapolis Colts' playoff hopes this past season, after Daniel Jones' injury, than anyone not born in the 1980s. In a draft as deep under center as 2024, he's probably not.
Alas, Simpson is not the kind of guy who gets one of the biggest rev-share salaries of all time. The Texas Tech Red Raiders are almost assuredly going to regret paying former Cincinnati Bearcats QB Brendan Sorsby over $5 million, not because he'll be bad by any stretch, quite the opposite, but because practically no player can make that much of an impact.
Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza may have been worth that for the Indiana Hoosiers, but only if they close the deal against Miami next Monday in the National Championship.
Simpson going to the NFL is probably best for everyone involved. Besides Simpson himself.