Eight months before Mel Tucker became one of the highest-paid college football coaches in America, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo was back in the ear of one of his former walk-ons who had long since ditched his uniform for a business suit.
Mat Ishbia, who won a national title with the Spartans in 2000 on a team led by Mateen Cleaves, became a billionaire several times over in January when he took his Pontiac mortgage firm United Wholesale Mortgage public. Ishbia's net worth in October was more than $8 billion, and he retained about 70% ownership in the firm, according to Forbes.