Nike co-founder Phil Knight has donated around $1 billion to the University of Oregon in order to fulfil his dream at seeing the Ducks win the college football national championship.

Still, it didn’t stop the Ducks from being defeated in their College Football Playoff quarterfinal against Ohio State, a fellow Nike school.

Knight, 86, pledged unlimited NIL money to help his beloved Oregon win its first college football national championship. Oregon’s last appearance in the championship game was against the Buckeyes in 2015, where it was defeated 42-20. On Wednesday, it faced a similar blowout.

The $35 billion Nike co-founder and former track alum’s total donations to the university are crossing the billion-dollar mark, according to Front Office Sports. Knight also played a “huge, big role” in flipping a top prospect from Ohio State to Oregon before the Buckeyes slew the Ducks at the Rose Bowl.

However, despite pouring money into the Ducks, Nike has also poured money into the Buckeyes for years, meaning Knight’s company funded Oregon’s downfall. Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork told ESPN in August that the football’s NIL funds sit at around $20 million, and a 15-year, $252 million deal signed with Nike back in 2016 is averaging around $16.5 million per season.

Ohio State’s NIL war chest has allowed the school to retain several high-caliber college football players, turn some heads, and commit top high school stars. The Buckeyes have already managed to get the No. 3 quarterback in the 2025 high school class, Tavien St. Clair, to commit.

The Ducks were beaten in the Rose Bowl by the Buckeyes

The Ducks were beaten in the Rose Bowl by the Buckeyes ( 

Image:

Getty)

The player Knight played a role in flipping from the Buckeyes to the Ducks is the No. 1 receiver in the 2025 class, Dakorien Moore. The player put on a show Thursday in the Under Armour NEXT All-American game, winning the MVP award and giving Ducks fans reason to be excited for their national championship hopes in years to come.

Moore had an 83-yard punt return for a touchdown in the All-American game. Ducks head coach Dan Lanning is likely to stay on in Oregon for next season, but as their season came to a close, he admitted his team failed to grasp an obvious opportunity at glory.

“I thought our guys prepared well going in. Obviously, they had a better plan than us,” said Lanning. “But that’s an excuse. That’s an opportunity that we had to recharge. I thought our guys did practice well. I’d tell you if that wasn’t the case. I thought they had a great focus. I just don’t think our plan was good enough. I think they had a great plan to attack us. So credit to those guys.”

“We had an opportunity. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity,” Lanning added. “I’m not going to make excuses for our opportunity. And ultimately you have to be great teams to beat teams at the end of the year we didn’t do that. This is the road we had to travel. And they did it better than us tonight. No complaints for us for having that opportunity. They just took advantage of it and we didn’t.”