OSU's Jeremiah Smith Says He Could've Gotten 'Over $10M, Easy' in Transfer Portal After Miami Buzz

Having already talked about being aggressively pursued in the transfer portal, Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith opened up about how much money he could have gotten if he had decided to leave the Buckeyes.

Speaking to Chris Low of On3.com, Smith revealed he could have gotten "over 10 million dollars, easy" from another school.

"But that's not how I operate," Smith said. "... Teams were telling my agent they had a certain amount of money for me to come there."

Smith said last month there was a program that made a "very hard" push to get him to leave Ohio State after the 2025 season wrapped up.

It's widely assumed Miami is the school that made the attempt to get Smith away from the Buckeyes. He is from the Miami area and the Hurricanes were among the programs he was considering in 2024.

In fact, prior to the Cotton Bowl between Ohio State and Miami, Smith confirmed he probably would have committed to the Hurricanes if they had been playing at their current level when he was a high-school recruit two years ago.

Chris Smith, Jeremiah's father, told Fox Sports' Michael Cohen prior to the Cotton Bowl that his son was "this close" to flipping from Ohio State to Miami when he was committing in December 2023:

"He was like, 'Dad, I want to go and gamble on myself.' I told him, 'You know you can lose at gambling, too, right? Why gamble your life when you know it's a sure thing over here [at Ohio State]. Not knocking [Miami]. Not saying they can't develop him, but if you want to go to U-M, you're really not going to get developed [as much] because all you're going to do is rely on your skill set, which you already have. And I want him to think in a business sense."

Miami got the better of Ohio State in the bowl game en route to reaching the College Football Playoff Championship Game.

The Buckeyes won a national title in Smith's freshman year and played in the quarterfinals last season, so it's not like he has been out of the spotlight.

It's also hard to argue that Ohio State isn't the right choice for Smith. He has 2,558 receiving yards and 27 touchdowns in 29 games over two seasons.

NFL scouts and analysts have been projecting him as a potential top-three pick in the 2027 draft since his first year in college.

Smith's financial portfolio even without the $10 million transfer deal is doing just fine. On3.com currently has him ranked as the third-most valuable college athlete by NIL with a $4.2 million valuation.