Got this quote from an article about Cleveland entering the portal.
“Guys like Cleveland are often lured into the portal by promises or interest given from coaches at other schools, with potential of how much NIL money may be involved. How it works isn’t technically illegal, but a coach can always be recruiting other players and talk to a Grassroots coach or even a close relative and basically say “if Player A would get into the transfer portal we would take him and if he came here our collective might be able to pay around X.”