The Victors

By Rachel Bachman

and Emily Glazer

Sept. 17, 2026 9:00 pm ET

Top donors and leaders of the University of Michigan gathered for a barbecue in May at the sun-soaked waterfront estate of Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison in Palm Beach County, Fla.

Then came a surprise, smaller meeting hosted by an intensely private and particularly powerful alumnus and sports-team booster—Jolin Ellison, class of 2012, an international studies graduate and Larry Ellison’s sixth wife.

Among those summoned were members of the university’s board of regents, athletic director Warde Manuel and real estate tycoon Stephen Ross, the school’s biggest donor.

Following an introduction by a leader of Champions Circle, a fundraising group supporting Michigan athletes, Jolin floated an idea to create a semi-independent entity to pay the university for the use of certain assets, such as premium seating, as a way to raise revenue for athletes, said Michigan regent Michael Behm, who attended the meeting.

The idea was met with some skepticism. “We’re a public university,” Behm said later in an interview. “We don’t sell any assets of the university in that manner.”

The group, which included Larry, brainstormed ideas, such as potentially removing rows of seats at Michigan Stadium to install field-level suites and other premium seating plans for football and basketball games, according to people familiar with the discussion. Jolin said she didn’t recall any proposal to buy or sell university assets.

Although no decisions were made, the attentive gathering of Michigan power players shows how a voice as unlikely as Jolin’s is heard in the financial arms race reshaping college sports—especially when backed by a husband with a net worth of roughly $200 billion.

Pressure on institutions to cover the skyrocketing costs of player compensation required to sign and keep top athletes has opened the door to greater influence from affluent boosters seeking a hand in the success of college sports.
Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., is known as the Big House.
Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., is known as the Big House. Walter Arce Gmg/ASP/ZUMA Press

Since late 2023, when the Ellisons first showed an interest in supporting Michigan sports, the couple has become one of the university’s largest contributors to the players’ compensation system known as Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL, according to people familiar with their giving. Jolin said she and her husband have contributed about $10 million, a previously unreported figure.

The Ellisons’ generosity helped bankroll player acquisitions and opened doors for Jolin’s behind-the-scenes involvement in Michigan sports teams over the past three years. Jolin helped land quarterback Bryce Underwood and other star athletes, hosted a workout and barbecue at the couple’s home for young local players, and called and texted Michigan athletics staff with unsolicited feedback, former staff members said.

Jolin said in a series of email exchanges with The Wall Street Journal that she never critiqued or questioned coaches. She says she is just a fan. “The coaches decide which players they want, how they want to run the team,” Jolin said, “and we as Michigan supporters help support their efforts.”

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Through a spokesperson, Larry declined to comment.

During a disappointing football season last year, Michigan’s head football coach told a colleague that Jolin would stop donating unless he was fired—a claim Jolin denied.

Jolin doesn’t fit the typical profile of a deep-pocketed college booster. The archetype is Cody Campbell, the oilman and former Texas Tech football player known for donating tens of millions to his alma mater to fund athletes in everything from football to a $1 million softball pitcher.

In contrast, Jolin is a woman, was born in China and grew up with little exposure to sports. As a Michigan student, she embraced the school’s sports culture. “I went to my first Michigan football game in Ann Arbor, and for some mysterious reason, I fell in love with it,” she said.

“A woman without a traditional athletics background becoming actively involved in a part of college sports historically dominated by older white men should be celebrated, not viewed with suspicion,” said Champions Circle co-founder and CEO Jared Wangler. “I hope her example inspires more people from different backgrounds to get involved.”

The University of Michigan referred questions to Manuel, the athletic director. “I value hearing from the Ellisons and others who can offer thoughtful advice based on their experience,” Manuel said in a statement.

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Big fan

In late 2023, when Michigan was on the way to winning its first football national title in 26 years, Jolin sent an unsolicited email to Champions Circle, which raises funds for athletes through contributions, events and business deals.

Looking back, the email couldn’t have arrived at a better time. The NIL era, which began in 2021, allowed college athletes for the first time to get paid for endorsements. A lawsuit settlement in 2025 let schools share some of their sports revenue with athletes, roughly $20 million for every campus, plus annual adjustments.

The NIL market will reach an estimated $4.5 billion for the 2026-2027 school year, according to Opendorse, which connects athletes with brands and tracks endorsement trends.

The payrolls of college football teams, in particular, have skyrocketed, exceeding $40 million this season for a handful of schools. Michigan is in that range, according to a person familiar with the matter. Private supporters and groups such as Champions Circle play a key financial role.

The rapid changes to college sports have spurred lawsuits and caught the attention of President Trump. A bipartisan bill moving through Congress, the Protect College Sports Act, seeks an antitrust exemption to limit player pay and university transfers, among other provisions.

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Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood last year.
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood last year. Getty Images

A year after Jolin’s outreach to Champions Circle, the Ellisons joined its front ranks, helping land Underwood, the national No. 1 quarterback recruit in late 2024. The Ellisons’ pledge helped make Underwood’s roughly $3 million-a-year deal possible.

At the time, the Ellisons’ marriage wasn’t public. But a November 2024 news release from Champions Circle, thanking the Ellisons for their role in helping land Underwood, also named Jolin as his wife. The following month, the Journal confirmed her degree and her age, now 35.

The couple has five children. Larry, now 82, is one of the world’s richest people, largely from his stake in Oracle, the software company he co-founded in 1977. He attended the universities of Illinois and Chicago but didn’t graduate and had no known ties to the University of Michigan before meeting Jolin.

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Larry also has two adult children—Paramount CEO David Ellison and film producer Megan Ellison—from an earlier marriage. David took over Paramount and is now battling a dozen state attorneys general on antitrust issues to complete an $81 billion acquisition of rival Warner Bros. Discovery.

In April 2025, the Ellisons held a dinner at their Florida compound, hosting donors, school officials and former Michigan stars such as Los Angeles Rams running back Blake Corum and NBA player Duncan Robinson.

Guests included Ross—the businessman who has given more than $500 million to the university—the athletic director, then-football coach Sherrone Moore and then-men’s basketball coach Dusty May, who noted that the Ellisons fly a Michigan flag outside their Florida home.

Jolin developed an interest in basketball during the 2025-26 season, when the men’s team compiled a 37-3 record, May said. During an event early this year at the Ellisons’ Florida compound, Jolin asked May questions typical of many donors, such as, Who are we recruiting? Who are we replacing this player with? May recalled.

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May, who now coaches the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, said he also spoke with Jolin’s husband, Larry. May described him as a longtime basketball fan who followed his nearby Florida Atlantic University teams when May coached there before taking over at Michigan in 2024.

The Ellisons gave about $1 million to the men’s basketball team for the 2025-26 season, Jolin said. The team payroll was roughly $12 million, May said.

In April, the Wolverines won the national championship.
From left, David Ellison, Larry Ellison and Jolin watching the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament on March 15, 2018, in Indian Wells, Calif.
From left, David Ellison, Larry Ellison and Jolin watching the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament on March 15, 2018, in Indian Wells, Calif. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
‘Selling our soul’

Unlike other Michigan boosters, the Ellisons weren’t interested in sideline passes or VIP seats because they don’t attend games. Jolin said they had been invited but decided not to go.

Yet, while Underwood struggled as quarterback during the 2025 season, Moore, the head football coach, told colleagues that Jolin frequently called and texted him, according to former Michigan staff members.

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Former Michigan staff members said that between the texts and calls, Jolin contacted football coaches more than any other booster that season. Moore tired of her feedback and late in the season gave one of his staff the job of corresponding with her, the staff members said. Jolin discussed the team’s play with the staff member, those staffers said.

Jolin said she texted Moore three times in 2025 between September and December, two congratulating him on wins and one unrelated to games. She said she believed she called Moore once last season. “I certainly did not question or advise any Michigan coaches about in-game play-calling after every game,” she said.

Not long after Michigan narrowly defeated Northwestern University, a historically weaker team, Moore came out of a meeting with Manuel in mid-November and told a colleague that Jolin wouldn’t be giving another dime as long as he was head coach, according to one former Michigan staff member.

Jolin said she didn’t threaten to halt donations. “I was contributing to Michigan athletics at the time and continued afterward, regardless of the change in head coach,” she said. Jolin said she had met with Manuel and told him that she believed Moore shouldn’t serve as coach if the rumors she had heard about him were true.

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Weeks later, on Dec. 10, Moore was fired for conducting an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, and on the same day he was arrested after confronting the woman at her apartment. He reached a plea deal and was put on probation. Moore’s lawyer didn’t provide a comment.

Manuel didn’t address questions relating to Jolin and Moore.
Sherrone Moore, Warde Manuel and Dusty MayGetty Images (3)

The University of Kentucky, the University of Utah and Michigan State University are among the schools that have created quasi-independent groups to generate extra revenue and keep pace with rising player pay.

Yet Michigan, which boasts one of the nation’s largest endowments at about $22 billion, would be the most prominent school to take such a step. The Michigan Board of Regents so far has resisted such moves, even though the idea floated at the Ellisons’ home last spring was to keep the quasi-independent entity under school control.

Less than a year ago, the regents torpedoed a plan by the Big Ten Conference to spin off its assets. Mark Bernstein, then-board chair, said at the time it would be tantamount to “selling our soul to private capital.”

The idea of restructuring Michigan athletics assets into a semi-independent entity remains stalled and will likely fall to a new administrative team. Michigan’s new university president takes the helm on Dec. 1, and the university has said the athletic director would step down at the end of the year.

Michigan fans, meantime, have closely followed the ups and downs of Underwood, the player most associated with the Ellisons’ largess. He floundered as the Wolverines barely beat Western Michigan, the underdog, in the season opener, then looked stronger in a win Saturday against No. 11 Oklahoma.

“I’m a fan, not a coach or an investor,” Jolin said. “I support Michigan because I want the team to win—not because I expect anything in return.”

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