Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, has a lot of money and influence to throw around these days as he lords over a new media empire of podcasts and websites.

And one of the many ways that Portnoy is wielding his money and influence is helping the football team at his alma mater, Michigan, land top recruits. Portnoy received a lot of credit online for helping the Wolverines flip Bryce Underwood – the No. 1 ranked 2025 recruit in the country – from LSU to Michigan last week.

Portnoy is deflecting some of that credit for landing Underwood, the 6-foot-3 quarterback, but explained on Barstool’s College Football Show how it all came together.

After Portnoy declared after a Michigan loss earlier this season that he would be willing to put up in the ballpark of $2-3 million in NIL funds for the Wolverines to find a new quarterback, he got a call from the program. One thing led to another, and all of sudden, Portnoy found himself on a Zoom call with Larry Ellison, who is worth about $224.6 billion according to Forbes, a figure that makes the cofounder of Oracle one of the five richest men in the world.

And Ellison isn’t a Michigan grad, but his wife is.

The next night, Portnoy, Ellison and his wife Jolin were on a call with Underwood and his parents. And it wasn’t long before Underwood changed his commitment to the Wolverines.

“We talked and we pitched Bryce – I said, ‘Listen, first of all, Barstool and the marketing, but more importantly Larry Ellinson and Jolin, nobody can match us, this guy is a legend.’ And we pitched and we pitched,” Portnoy said. “But oh boy, Michigan is back.”

According to The Advocate, LSU’s NIL offer to Underwood was about $1.5 million. The New York Post reported that Michigan’s NIL offer was around $10.5 million.

Portnoy said that a “collab” with Barstool and Underwood is coming soon.