Eh. Not sure I buy that as being THE factor here, TBH.
He’s not looking at most of the big NIL schools. No A&M or Oregon or even Miami close to home. But he is looking hard at Ohio State, which - thus far anyway - doesn’t seem to do upfront NIL either.
If it were as simple as the bag, I’d understand walking away from Keeley. But this feels more like, to some degree, he committed early and then blew up, Bama/OSU came calling, the ND shine wore off, he (or his people) wanted to take some visits and shop around.
None of that feels insurmountable. And of course you don’t neg recruit a kids family. But you can keep talking and maybe he circles back around. I kind of think you have to at least try.