You are doing everything right. Sit with that for a moment.

Does this narrative sound familiar?

Your athlete walks in your door. They’ve been given a scholarship, an NIL deal, and maybe even the opportunity to participate in the new revenue sharing program.

You remind them to be smart with their money. You put your athlete through financial classes, set them up with financial advisors and give them countless workshops. You’ve emphasized the importance of planning for their future.

And yet, for “so many reasons,” it never seems to be enough.

You have athletes continuously jumping into the portal with the hopes to make a little more.

Yet you’ve repeatedly pointed out that there should be so much more to their athletic college journey than the unreliable “promise” of a few more bucks (which AD Advisors research shows ends with 60% transferring down and 10% losing their scholarships all together).¹

You watch amazing athletes experience life-changing injuries that completely alter the direction of their life.

They have to process that the future money they had counted on has instantaneously disappeared. At the same time, they’re reconciling that the money they received while in school wasn’t managed as well as it should have been.

Or the most frustrating,

you discover the athlete who just left your program a couple of years ago is back to ground zero. They have nothing left.

They started off strong.

And yet, for some “mysterious” reason, it is all gone.

So what’s actually going on here?

How is that possible?

These students were given every financial tool and resource you and your team could offer,

yet they have left your team for something “better,” or even worse the money has just been spent “on stuff.”

Stop for a moment and look at yourself (or a person important to you).

You can explain financial mechanics to anyone.
You know exactly what you should do.

And yet, for some unexplainable reason, you still find yourself, or someone important to you, making the same mistakes.

Let me ask,

have you ever stopped and asked yourself why?

Seriously… I am asking you.

Why, even when you know exactly what you should do, do you or your loved one end up right back where you began?

You’re not the only one seeing this

You and your athletes are not alone. Frustration and finance go hand in hand.

The National Endowment for Financial Education, in conjunction with the market research firm Verasight, looked at how people are actually doing financially right now.

• 88% felt some form of financial stress as they began 2026.
• 77% said they experienced a financial setback in 2025.
• 81% of 18–29-year-olds had already experienced a financial setback.

That means, before they’ve even really stepped into adulthood, most young adults are already behind the eight ball.

My saying has always been: Financial Literacy is putting Financial Knowledge into ACTION.

We know that reading literacy means a person is actually reading.

Financial literacy is someone truly managing their day-to-day money.

To be clear, the programs aren’t the problem

Thankfully in August of 2024, the NCAA required all Division I schools to provide a substantial financial literacy program for their athletes.

Programs like iGrad, Bank of America’s Better Money Habits, and Merrill’s partnerships with IMG Academy are comprehensive, well-designed, and research-backed. They’re addressing important topics like budgeting, taxes, and credit.

I’m not here to replace them; these are strong programs.

Here’s what’s missing

What these programs can’t provide you, though, is years of sitting across from someone, recognizing their specific financial mindset, appreciating where they came from, what gaps exist, and understanding how to meet that person where they actually are (maybe even when it’s not where they think it should be).

I now teach financial literacy to college students with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the University of Cincinnati’s TAP program.

I’m creating a four-semester curriculum from scratch because traditional approaches don’t work when the foundation is missing.

My students are proving that, not because I’m teaching different content, but because I’m building a foundation that works for them first.

For five years before TAP, I taught “Finance w/ Hillary” in a Cincinnati men’s homeless shelter, working with men from every background imaginable, including former athletes, CEOs, entrepreneurs who’d lost everything, even some who struggled with reading or writing, all sitting in the same classroom.

I’ve seen firsthand what happens when the foundation is missing.

Here’s how I help

I offer you and your team that same foundation-building approach.

I come to your campus during the off-season, work directly with your athletes in person (not Zoom, not modules), and build the spending awareness and confidence that makes all of your existing programs actually work.

The challenge we’re all facing is exactly what Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert discuss in When Helping Hurts: well-intentioned help can actually cause harm when we address symptoms rather than root causes.

If we provide athletes with financial tools and resources without building the developmental financial foundation the tools require, we could actually be setting them up to fail, and then they are unfairly blamed for that failure.

I’m here to work with you and your entire team.

Whether they are receiving NIL or not, I know you want each and every student of yours walking out of your program with a solid financial foundation.

When we work together, your athletes don’t just get tools.

They get the ability to handle unexpected situations, navigate financial stress, and move through to graduation without making a tragic million-dollar mistake.

Remember:

It isn’t that you’ve been doing anything wrong. It’s that you now have the answer to the question you didn’t even know how to ask:

Why, with everything you’re doing, is it still not working?

Want to understand this more deeply? Read these:

• What I Learned Teaching Finance in a Homeless Shelter
• The Foundation Everyone’s Missing
• Trust Without Knowledge: The Advisor Problem
• Beyond Budgets: Teaching Spending Awareness

Hillary Bullions
Financial Coach for College Athletes
hillarybullions.com

Sources:

¹ AD Advisors. (2024). The Portal Puzzle: Is It Right for College? White paper analyzing 800+ FBS football student-athlete portal entrants, 2020-2021. Retrieved from https://www.adadvisors.agency/