Top basketball recruit AJ Dybantsa’s decision to commit to BYU on Tuesday reportedly had a significant financial factor.

According to Adam Zagoria of the New York TimesThe asking price for Dybantsa’s Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) was “close to $7 million.”

Dybantsa announced his decision Tuesday morning on ESPN’s First Take, choosing BYU over major programs in Kansas, North Carolina and Alabama:

17 year old Dybantsa is rated by 247Sport as a 5-star prospect, and he is considered the No. 1 overall college basketball recruit in the class of 2025.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Dybantsa plays his high school basketball at Utah Prep in Hurricane, Utah, which gave BYU an in-state advantage over some of the Blue Blood programs that pursued him.

“At BYU, the entire staff from the head coach down came from the NBA,” Dybantsa said. “Head coach Kevin Young coached my favorite player in KD (Kevin Durant) and Devin Booker. They both had a lot of good things to say about him. We watched clips of both of them.”

Young was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2016 to 2020 and with the Phoenix Suns from 2020 to 2024.

In his first season as head coach at BYU, Young has gotten the Cougars off to a 6-2 start, and they may be on their way to a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Dybantsa was the No. 1 ranked college basketball recruiting class in 2026 before reclassifying to 2025 and retaining the top spot. He is also the early favorite to go No. 1 in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Originally from Brockton, Massachusetts, Dybantsa has already made a major impact internationally, winning gold medals with Team USA at the 2023 FIBA ​​U16 Americas Championship and the 2024 FIBA ​​U17 World Championship.

He also led the 2023 Nike Peach Jam with 25.8 points per game and led the World Team at the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit with 21 points and seven rebounds in a 98-75 loss to Team USA, according to Borzello and Biancardi.

While BYU has reached the NCAA Tournament 31 times and made it to the Elite Eight, the Cougars aren’t typically in the running for players of Dybantsa’s caliber.

In fact, Borzello and Biancardi noted that Dybantsa is BYU’s first five-star recruit since the ESPN recruiting database was created in 2007.

However, Dybantsa’s arrival signals the beginning of a new era for BYU, and it could potentially be the kind of program shift that makes the Cougars legitimate national title contenders for the future.