Ex-Colorado staffer claims he sought NIL funding from Saudi Arabia's PIF
Trevor Reilly, who worked as Colorado's special teams coordinator, alleges he travelled to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to get its Public Investment Fund to contribute to the program's NIL funding.
"The arrangement was that, because I did all the NIL work at Jackson and got us through, you guys would pay me a modest salary and make me the special teams coordinator, which should have freed up time for me to handle NIL activities," Reilly said in his resignation letter, which was obtained by Jeff Hauser and Jason Jones of Sports Illustrated. "You paid me $90,000 a year and let me handle special teams. I did all this work in your name and was told to pursue it."
He added: "I burned through all my contacts in my Mormon community, which is worth about $3 trillion. Now, I can't get these people to answer my calls because I just found out today that none of my endeavors will happen. I even went to Saudi Arabia and got a meeting with the Saudis, who were interested in pursuing business. I have email receipts to prove it, and you guys let it fall flat on its face."
Reilly mentioned Wednesday on ESPN 700 that he also travelled to Jordan for NIL funding.
“I ended up being in Amman, Jordan (on) Christmas," Reilly said. "I had an opportunity to go over there and meet with their government. Then I ended up in Saudi Arabia. I met with (the PIF) for an hour and a half. We had a great meeting.
He added: "I spent Christmas in a Turkish bathhouse in Amman, Jordan. "Saying hi to my kids, 'Hey, I'll see you in a couple weeks.'"
Reilly joined Sanders' staff after working at Jackson State and recently resigned from his Colorado position. He said Wednesday that he had no problem with Sanders and his decision stemmed from disagreements with Blueprint Sports' approach to raising Colorado's NIL funding.
Reilly felt Blueprint was targeting the same top donors instead of trying to create reoccurring revenue.
"They made a bunch of promises, but really it seems like all they did was cash cheques," Reilly said.
Reilly also remarked: "Blueprint stinks, man. They're Wall Street people. They don't know football."