A former Colorado assistant football coach has reportedly fled to the Middle East in an attempt to secure name, image and likeness (NIL) funding.
The school’s former special teams coordinator, Trevor Riley, wrote in his resignation letter: Sports Illustrated review — This month, he tried to get funding for his Colorado-based 5430 Alliance NIL group by lobbying Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund during the holiday season last year.
“You paid me $90,000 a year and put me in charge of a special team,” Riley reportedly wrote. “I did all this work in your name and was told to keep it going. I’ve exhausted all of my connections in the Mormon community worth about $3 trillion and now I can’t get these people to answer the phone because I learned today that none of my attempts are going to come to fruition.”
“I went to Saudi Arabia and met with Saudis interested in doing business with them. I have email receipts to prove it, and you totally ignored it.”
In his resignation letter, Riley added that he “did nothing illegal” in his endeavor.
Colorado State Spokesperson He told CBS In Riley’s own words, he acted on his own initiative to secure funding for the group.
“Trevor Riley himself says he is acting on his own initiative and is no longer an employee of the university,” the spokesman said.
Riley, a former Jets and Patriots linebacker, served as a graduate assistant under then-head coach Deion Sanders at Jackson State and moved to Colorado as special teams coordinator last season before resigning earlier this month.
Blueprint Sports, which runs the organisation in question, said it had never instructed Mr Reilly to accept money from PIF.
“We want to be clear that Trevor Riley has never been given any authority or instruction to speak or advocate on behalf of the 5430 Alliance in Saudi Arabia.” Blueprint told Front Office Sports“Since our launch in March 2024, all funding and initiatives have been managed solely within domestic channels and are in no way related to Mr. Reilly’s work. Any assertion to suggest otherwise is unfounded and patently false.”
Riley, According to The Athletictried to expand the organization’s fundraising sources, but resigned after Blueprint decided to oppose his proposal.
he told ESPN 700 this week. He also spent the holiday season in Jordan earning his own pennies while trying to secure funds for the organization.
“I spent two months, sacrificed a lot of my own money and a lot of my time,” Riley said. “I spent Christmas in a Turkish bath in Amman, Jordan, saying hello to my kids, ‘Hey, I’ll see you in two weeks.'”
