5-star QB Ryder Lyons sends clear message about NIL after unexpected BYU commitment

Five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons' surprising commitment to BYU marks a unique win for the Cougars amid lofty NIL spending sprees in college football.

Lyons (6-foot-2.5, 220 pounds) plays for Folsom (California) High School, where he ranks as the No. 4 quarterback, the top player in his state and the No. 13 overall recruit in the class of 2026, per 247Sports.

One of the top players in the country, Lyons holds a $785,000 On3 NIL valuation and has amassed over 30 scholarship offers. Some of which from major programs with plenty of backing from an NIL perspective.

Teams like USC and Oregon were previously favored to land the elite passer before he ultimately chose BYU. The Ducks even had Lyons on campus for the weekend of June 13, but that trip to the defending Big Ten champions apparently didn't sway him from the Cougars.

It's difficult to quantify BYU's efforts in the NIL space, as the university is private, but the recruiting trail has always been a challenging aspect for the program. The Cougars finished 59th in the 2025 cycle after signing the nation's No. 62 class of 2024.

Enter Lyons, whose decision to pledge to BYU makes him the highest-rated recruit for the program since 2003 and the third highest-rated recruit in school history.

And it wasn't NIL money that drove his decision, Lyons' revealed Tuesday during an appearance on "The Pat McAffee Show."

"It's hard," he said of his recruitment and NIL offers. "It's hard for sure. I do have someone who handles it for me. I have an agent. I have a whole team. But it definitely makes it just confusing. I mean, you're thrown a lot of money from a lot of different places."

"But I think you got to obviously stay humble," Lyons said. "Money is not the biggest part. I mean, the biggest part is making it to the NFL, because that's where the serious money is. That's where the long term money is."

Lyons went on to credit his mother for pushing him to think beyond his collegiate career with sights set on the NFL.

It's clear that the Lyons' family feels comfortable with allowing head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator/ quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick to develop him into a professional.