Michigan Wolverines Football sent shockwaves through the college football world by flipping Belleville (Mich.) High five-star+ quarterback Bryce Underwood from LSU.
With that news came the announcement by Champions Circle, Michigan’s official collective, that Oracle founder Larry Ellison and his U-M alum wife Jolin Ellison were “instrumental” in helping the Wolverines land Underwood “with invaluable guidance and financial resources.”
Ellison, per Forbes.com’s real-time billionaires list, is the second-richest person in the worldbehind only Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. The 80-year-old’s estimated net worth is $233.3 billion.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoywho said earlier this season that he’d be willing to help Michigan reel in a top-flight quarterback by signing them to an NIL deal with his company, deflected credit for landing Underwood after the commitment, saying he played a “tiny role.”
The truth is, there were other “Michigan men and women” playing an even bigger part, including the Ellisons.
“I was trending worldwide when it happened,” Portnoy explained on the Barstool College Football Show that released Tuesday. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, Dave got Michigan Bryce Underwood,’ and it all stemmed from the Pick ‘Em [Podcast] when we were just talking. I said, ‘I’m gonna go get us a quarterback because I’m a Michigan man. And I’ll put my own money, $2-3 million, into this thing, and I’ll make sure we have a quarterback and this will never happen again.’
“That started the ball rolling on what will be known forever as the renaissance of Michigan. Yeah, we won the national title last year, we were down this year. But it set off a series of events, a chain reaction basically. And I did say when we did it, I’m like, ‘I want to do it myself. I want to find the guy, I don’t want the NIL [collective] involved, and then we’ll do stuff from Barstool.’
“Well, I got a call from the Michigan football team. And they’re like, ‘Hey, we saw what you said. It’s great to have so many Michigan men out there willing to step forward, lead from the front, those who stay will be champions, the team, the team, the team, the team.’
“And they said, ‘Hey, there’s this donor who wants to talk to you.’ I said, ‘I’m doing this myself. I don’t need to talk to anybody.’”
“‘Please, this woman is a big fan of Barstool, big fan of you. She’d love to talk to you. Her name is Jolin.’
“I was like, ‘Alright, I’m working on a quarterback. I’m studying the field, what do we gotta do.’
“They said, ‘Oh, her husband, by the way, is a guy by the name of Larry Ellison. You ever heard of him?’
“I said, ‘Larry Ellison? Like the No. 2 richest guy on the planet? Yeah, I’ll take that phone call.’ That night, we’re on a Zoom — me, Jolin, Larry Ellison.”
Here’s how part of the conversation went, according to Portnoy:
Portnoy: Larry, where’d you go to school?
Larry Ellison: Oh, Illinois.
Portnoy: Jolin, what about you?
Jolin Ellison:Michigan.
Portnoy: Interesting. When did you go to school?
Jolin Ellison: The Brady Hoke era. I never want to live that era again. We’re the national champs. I have two kids. I can’t stomach waking up on a Saturday knowing that we’re not the best team on the field.
Portnoy: I’m with you, what do we have to do? What do we have to do?
The next course of action, per Portnoy, was to set up a call with himself, the Ellisons and Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class.
“I said, ‘Count me in,’” Portnoy continued. “This was a month, month and a half ago. So we jumped on that Zoom — myself, Michigan football — and we talked and we pitched Bryce. I said, ‘Listen, first of all, Barstool and the marketing, but more importantly, Larry Ellison and Jolin, nobody can match this. This guy’s a legend.’ And we pitched and we pitched.”
Portnoy is extremely excited about the future of Michigan football under head coach Sherrone Mooreespecially considering the Wolverines have alignment from key supporters like the Ellisons.
“Oh boy, Michigan’s back,” Portnoy said. “I didn’t know how it would come about or the role I would play. But Jolin, on that first phone call, she’s like, ‘I needed somebody to step up from Michigan and show that they cared as much as I did.’ And it was like the mega-powers uniting.
“I can’t be happier with the prospects. I was offered to do the entire signing, you know the old signing by the stars? We are so in lockstep. I can’t wait. I can’t feel better about my program.”
Portnoy said he was uncomfortable with the credit he was getting from Michigan fans for landing Underwood and brought it up to Jolin Ellison. But she’s not in it for that, either.
“It was before it was really known. It’s like, ‘I’m getting a lot of this credit. I’m a little uneasy,’” Portnoy revealed. “She was like, ‘I don’t need the credit. I need national championships. I need to stack ‘em.’
“When I found out we had the second-richest person on earth — the second-richest person on earth — saying, ‘all I want to do is win.’ And by the way, we were talking that first call, we were talking every quarterback like, ‘Should we take him? Him?’ I was like, ‘Ehhhh.’ It was beautiful!”
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