How a unique NIL deal helped this Kansas State walk-on chase his football dreams
Xavier Loyd came close to leaving the Kansas State football team last year.
Not because he was unhappy about playing wide receiver for the Wildcats or because he thought he would be a better fit with a different program. He wasn’t thinking about anything like that at all. The walk-on sophomore has thoroughly enjoyed his time at K-State and he has big goals for the rest of his time under coach Chris Klieman. His reasoning was based on something else entirely -- he didn’t have enough money to pay for his tuition.
It didn’t matter how much he liked it in Manhattan. He couldn’t afford to stay.
“If I didn’t get any money from a scholarship or something else like that I probably would have had to leave Kansas State,” Loyd said, “because me and my family didn’t have the funds for it. It was really frustrating, because I have dreamed about playing at this level since I was a little kid and to have that opportunity snatched away from me just because I wasn’t able to pay for tuition was really a bummer.”
Months have passed since Loyd openly worried about his future with the Wildcats, and he remains a valued member of the K-State football team. But he is still a walk-on and he doesn’t have much money in his bank account. So what changed?
Loyd was the beneficiary of a special NIL deal in which K-State donors agreed to pay him and two other football walk-ons the equivalent of an athletic scholarship. Just like that, his worries disappeared.
“It allowed me to be a lot looser in practice,” Loyd said. “Before that I had a lot on my mind, day in and day out. Getting that relief was tremendously good for me, because I didn’t have weight on my shoulders anymore. I didn’t have to worry about paying for anything.”
Wildcat NIL negotiated the arrangement and surprised Jack Blumer, Ty Bowman and Loyd with the news at about this time last year. Former teammate Ryan Henington, who works for Wildcat NIL, summoned Loyd to Bluemont Hotel in the heart of Manhattan to tell him the news on a random spring afternoon.
Loyd almost didn’t go because he was feeling under the weather that day. But he didn’t feel sick after he heard the news.
“I remember being really confused,” Loyd said. “I went up there and they had cameras and lights everywhere. Then they sat all three of us down and we were being put on a NIL scholarship that would cover our tuition. That moment was so surreal. I was basically in tears. They gave me an opportunity to continue chasing my dream.”
Most of the time, when you think about NIL deals in college athletics you think about big-money transactions that help convince players to enroll, transfer or remain at certain schools because the finances are too good to pass up. Fancy cars, six-figure paydays and autograph signings are now commonplace for student-athletes on campuses all across the country.
But five-star recruits aren’t the only ones benefiting from unique NIL deals.
Loyd, who appeared in just two games as a reserve last season, is proof of that.
A 6-foot-2 and 187-pound receiver from Blue Springs, he was not heavily recruited coming out of high school. In fact, he recalls that his only scholarship offers came from Alabama A&M and Division II schools located across the region. Rather than go that route, Loyd chose to bet on himself by walking on at K-State.
There were times when it looked like he might have to fold his metaphorical cards, but now he is excited about what the future holds.
“I am working my tail off every day to have an opportunity to show the coaches what I can do,” Loyd said. “Hopefully once my number is called I can do what I can to provide for the team and help us go back-to-back as Big 12 champs.”