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Welcome to the New World of NIL


Bobref

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9 hours ago, DE said:

Just an example here.....

Let's say your son gets an NIL for 1 million.  He is a minority.

My son does not.  He is not a minority.

Equal players.

That is unfair.  I want the same amount.  I will file a law suit for discrimination.  See how that works.  Totally stupid isn't it?

A lot to answer.  Pandora's Box is wide open.  Best of luck shutting it.

The only thing that makes any sense here is the description “totally stupid.”

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  • 2 weeks later...

Notre Dame is handling NIL in a unique way.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/brady-quinn-leading-notre-dame-collective-fans-react/ar-AAWkBeK

Brady Quinn Leading Notre Dame Collective: Fans React

Former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn is spearheading the new NIL collective for the school.

A closeup of Brady Quinn throwing the ball for Notre Dame.
© Provided by The SpunA closeup of Brady Quinn throwing the ball for Notre Dame.

The collective already has some Fighting Irish players signed up for it. FUND (Friends of the University of Notre Dame) started up back in January and it anticipates working with more than a half-dozen Notre Dame football players this spring.

The board for it includes Tom Mendoza, Pat Eilers, and Jason Sapp.

Per Pete Sampson of The Athletic, the board will interview players to determine the best possible fit and charitable interests. After that, it matches the charities with the players.

Quinn is really excited about getting this going.

“Notre Dame is very much in this in the NIL space,” Quinn said. “The goal is to provide these student-athletes with the opportunity to be able to take a portion of their time and receive compensation for it, but really falling under the guidelines of God, Country, Notre Dame, causes that are bigger than yourself. And that’s what this is all about.”

The Notre Dame fanbase is pretty excited about this new endeavor.

It will be fascinating to see how this is used to try and get recruits to come to South Bend, too

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Some more great NIL news, this time from the wide world of college golf:  https://deadspin.com/it-runs-in-the-family-1848814115

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Say what you will about NIL — you can’t deny it’s giving the world some incredible content. Legendary golfer John Daly’s son, 18-year-old John Daly II, has officially inked a sponsorship deal with Hooters, and gave us the most incredible statement of all time:

“Hooters is the ideal place for me to go and unwind after a long day on the course or in the classroom, so I am honored to be chosen as an ambassador for the iconic brand. I have seen my father’s great relationship with Hooters over the years, and I am proud to continue my family’s association with this iconic brand.”

How did no one see this coming?

Now there’s an iconic quote. The gen chem to Hooters pipeline is, of course, a staple of the college experience. Little John is a freshman golfer at Big John’s alma mater, the University of Arkansas, and this marks Hooters’ first official NIL sponsorship deal. The wing chain also signed the elder Daly to an official partnership, though he has served as a brand ambassador in the past (referred to by a Hooters senior VP as a “long-standing relationship.”)

The 55-year-old Daly, who won two majors in the 1990s, can claim the real Tradition Like No Other in Augusta each year, where he sets up an RV in a Hooters parking lot to sell merchandise and sign autographs. A true man of the people.

The father-son duo took home the trophy at the 2021 PNC Championship in December, the tournament where Tiger Woods made headlines for his public return to the sport. Looks like the Dalys have even more in common than their love of golf and their alma mater — the apple didn’t fall far from the tree!

image.png.55883e9d85426e1d184f1298ed893ed7.png

 

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So is this a positive spin on NIL,  college athletes actually choosing to stay for 4 years of college instead of going pro early?:

https://reason.com/2022/04/21/americas-best-college-basketball-player-might-earn-2-million-without-going-pro/

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The best college basketball player in America will stay in school for his senior season and get paid for doing so—thanks to some recent changes to National Collegiate Atheltic Association (NCAA) rules that have opened up markets and opportunities for student-athletes.

For Congolese immigrant and University of Kentucky basketball star Oscar Tshiebwe, those changes mean the potential to earn millions of dollars next year without going pro.

Tshiebwe announced Thursday that he would forgo the upcoming National Basketball Association (NBA) draft to finish his college career at Kentucky. It's the first time since 2008 that the winner of the John R. Wooden Award, which is given out annually to the best college basketball player in the country, has declined to immediately depart for the NBA.

But outstanding student-athletes of the recent past have not had the same financial opportunity that Tshiebwe does, thanks to the NCAA's recent decision to let players cash in on endorsement deals using their name, image, and likeness (usually abbreviated as "NIL"). Though college players are not directly paid for their talents, they are allowed to profit off NIL deals in the same way they've always benefitted from scholarships. For a player like Tshiebwe, these new opportunities can be quite lucrative, as Stadium basketball writer Jeff Goodman notes:

 

Oscar Tshiebwe will likely earn in the neighborhood of $2 million this season through NIL, source told @Stadium. https://t.co/MHlbaJa7RO

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 20, 2022

 

Prior to NIL deals being legalized, college players with the talent to play professional basketball were foolish not to make the jump to the next level. Coming back for another season at school meant uncompensated work and the risk of an injury that might reduce or eliminate their hopes of playing in the NBA.

The erosion of the NCAA's cartelized control over student-athletic revenue has created a more dynamic set of choices for players like Tshiebwe. Though he was undeniably the best player in college basketball this year—in 34 games, he recorded 28 double-doubles (basketball lingo for games in which a player scores at least 10 points and at least 10 rebounds), including 16 in a row at one point—most experts projected Tshiebwe to be a second-round draft pick, largely due to the different skill sets required to excel in the college and professional versions of the sport.

Staying in school for another year, and getting compensated for it, means Tshiebwe will get to further develop those skills in the hopes of a larger payday in next year's draft. It also means another shot at a national championship, after Kentucky was stunningly eliminated from this year's "March Madness" by Saint Peter's College, the Cinderella story of the tournament.

"That's not how I wanted it to end," Tshiebwe told ESPN. "It's the best motivation."

He's not the only student-athlete getting what they deserve from the NCAA's new rules—which have created some weird and wonderful results. Doug Edert, who became the star of Saint Peter's upset run in March, landed an endorsement deal with Buffalo Wild Wings. A University of Arkansas wide receiver earned a deal for his dog, Blue. An offensive lineman for Ohio State is getting paid to hawk, yes, scented candles. And Louisiana State gymnast Olivia Dunne has reportedly leveraged her massive social media following into NIL deals worth over $1 million.

Even the NCAA—which for years fought the idea of letting players profit off NIL deals as it sold players' likenesses to video game companies and sold jerseys with players' numbers on them—is a winner here. By staying in school, Tshiebwe gives college basketball "a rare win for the sport in the talent tug-of-war with the NBA," writes Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde. "So this is a win-win for college hoops as a whole and Tshiebwe in particular. He has established marketability in a place that loves its college basketball heroes. Put his face on billboards on New Circle Road in Lexington. Let him sign autographs at Keeneland Race Course. If he likes the steaks at Malone's, have him endorse those. Pay the man for being the star Wildcat he is."

Mainly, this is a story about how opening up markets benefits everyone. Well, everyone except perhaps the college teams that end up facing the brunt of Tshiebwe's revenge tour next season.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

So is this a positive spin on NIL,  college athletes actually choosing to stay for 4 years of college instead of going pro early?:

https://reason.com/2022/04/21/americas-best-college-basketball-player-might-earn-2-million-without-going-pro/

 

Watched him play a few times.

Very nice college basketball player.

Does his skill set translate to the NBA?  IMHO, not really.  Though I would take 12 of his types over any lebron james types.

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  • 4 weeks later...

NIL is already driving big-time college coaches insane:  https://deadspin.com/jimbo-fisher-declares-war-on-nick-saban-in-press-confer-1848949727

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You know what? Maybe everyone getting along wasn’t so great after all. When you think about it, there haven’t been any real true, deep-down, openly public, hate-filled coaching rivalries in college for awhile. Jimbo Fisher blew all of that up today in about 11 minutes, between 10:04 and 10:15 a.m. central time. He is coming for Nick Saban and he is not going to back down.

In one of the more jaw-dropping press conferences in recent history, the Texas A&M coach got up on the podium today after a last-minute announcement that he would be responding to comments Saban made yesterday during an Alabama fundraising event, notably: “I mean, we were second in recruiting last year. A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right?”

 

And that was followed up by the fascinating claim that Saban’s Alabama players made their $3 million in NIL deals by — direct quote — “doing it the right way.” Deion Sanders and Jackson State football also caught a stray for apparently paying their five-star QB recruit, which Sanders immediately called a “LIE” on Twitter.

Those comments might have raised some eyebrows, but it’s absolutely-f*cking-nothing compared to the bomb Jimbo just dropped on the college football world. The Aggies coach was fired up on that podium, not letting reporters finish their questions and taking agitated chugs from his water bottle before hurling out one-liners full of implications about Saban’s recruiting practices.

 

I wish I could just give you the full transcript, but here are some highlights. Jimbo opened by saying that it’s “a shame that we have to do this” and “despicable that somebody can say things about 17-year-old kids.”

“We never bought anybody, no rules were broken….We’ve never done anything that goes against the laws of the state of Texas,” Fisher continued. “Some people think they’re God. Well, go dig into his past or ask anyone who’s coached with him, find out what he does and how he does it. Go dig into how ‘God’ did his deal. You may find out about a lot of things you don’t want to know.”

Fisher, after calling Saban a “narcissist” who thinks that he “walks on water,” and heavily implying that Saban’s recruiting practices were not exactly up to snuff on legality, repeatedly encouraged the gathered press to dig into Saban’s past and ask around about his recruiting practices, referencing “the operations and tactics of certain people” but refusing to elaborate.

He also referred to a comment that the Alabama coach made last week regarding the NIL era, reminiscing on when college football had “parity,” saying, “When parity was there, certain people never followed the rules anyways.These are pretty serious accusations against Saban, who has drawn criticism from former recruits and players in the past 24 hours about those comments as well.

The one-liners from Fisher were endless. “Greatest ever, huh? You got all the advantages, it’s easy.

“You coach with people, like Bobby Bowden, and learn how to do things. You coach with other people and learn how not to do things…I don’t cheat and I don’t lie. If you lied, your old man slapped you on the head. Maybe someone should have slapped him.

Each accompanied by a sip of water, a meaningful look directed toward the crowd, and a bit of a smirk. A&M did, after all, beat out Alabama, not just on the recruiting front, but on the field this past fall, 41-38.

Fisher insisted again and again that the A&M program has never broken any state laws, asked that the government get involved to create NIL legislation and left it at that, and explicitly said “We did not buy any players.” This entire debacle goes back to an unconfirmed message board rumor that the Aggies spent $30 million to land their 2022 recruiting class, which spread around Twitter. Fisher has denied it from the start, calling it a “joke” and “irresponsible.”

Well, with Saban continuing to double down on that rumor, Fisher was probably warranted in this response. Saban, who was speaking to a room of potential donors and was probably just trying to get more money for the Alabama collective, quite frankly, likely didn’t mean the comment as a full-on declaration of war. He just wanted more cash. But Fisher took it as such, and the first shots of an SEC battle that we can only hope will go down in the legendary annals of college football have been fired. Names have been called, implications have been made, accusations are being thrown around. Fisher said that Saban tried to call him and he declined the call. This is war to a personal extent that we haven’t seen in this sport in a long time. Ohio State x-ing out the Ms on campus has nothing on what’s about to go down here. Iron Bowl publicity will look like a podunk high school game compared to the A&M-Alabama storm that’s about to happen.

It was long before I was alive, but I’ll fondly reminisce anyways. It was 1988 — two different schools, two different coaches, but in a rivalry showdown now known as Catholics vs Convicts. Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz gathered his team after a pregame brawl against Miami. The words leading up to it vary in differing accounts, but it always ends like this: “You save Jimmy Johnson’s ass for me.”

While there was no postgame back alley coach-on-coach fight after that game, I’m not so sure Jimbo will be as courteous. Come October 8, I can see a very similar speech going down in that A&M locker room. Fisher is coming for everything Saban has — not only his games, not only his recruits, but for his very legacy. This is gonna be fun.

Happy 100 days until college football!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
11 hours ago, Bash Riprock said:

FTA:

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“One phone call, and they’re out the door,” Day said. “We cannot let that happen at Ohio State. I’m not trying to sound the alarm, I’m just trying to be transparent about what we’re dealing with.”

Yep Mr. Day.  You are no longer running a college program but a professional one.  Deal with it; it may help with your NFL head coaching aspirations one day.

 

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  • 1 month later...

NIL has forever changed the game. 'The NCAA created this monster themselves.'

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/2022/07/06/year-into-nil-ncaa-struggles-keep-up-college-sports-shakeup-name-image-likeness-future-explained/7766493001/

(Note: Story is behind a paywall)

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This is the first story of a five-part series taking a closer look at name, image and likeness. We'll look at how NIL has changed the game, who enforces what and what the future may hold and more.

BLOOMINGTON – Last Friday, college sports turned the academic calendar to Year 2 of what has become the most-impactful policy change in modern NCAA history.

If we did not necessarily expect name, image and likeness (NIL) reforms to remake college athletics — and many of us did — we certainly know now the expansive and likely permanent impact NIL will have .

During the past year, we’ve watched as college athletes were compensated, above board, with millions and millions of dollars, beyond the scope of a scholarship for the first time. Institutions once considered sacrosanct in college sports, such asthe NCAA, have been strained and frayed by the upheaval. Calls for a new form of governance more fit for modern purpose have intensified, coming from some of the industry’s biggest power brokers.

Reform bordering on revolution is remaking American college sports before our eyes,  with no end in sight. Proponents say most of these changes are not just welcome, but necessary. Critics wonder where the line will be drawn to declare what is too far, and whether a landscape now seen as too unregulated can ever be reined in.

“I don’t know how it’s going to settle out,” said Kurt Zorn, who until recently served as IU’s faculty athletics representative and as a voting member of the NCAA’s Division I Council. “I have a better feel for what it’s not going to be than what it’s going to be. I don’t think it’s going to be anything very close to what we’re accustomed to.

"I just don’t think the current model is sustainable.”

How college athletics arrived at this point has answers steeped in decades of history, and triggered just in the past few years. The latter pushed the NCAA-defended amateurism concept to its breaking point, paving the way for NIL last summer.

....

Begun as a mechanism for centralizing NIL resources within individual fanbases, collectives have sprung up across the country in the past year. Most, if not all, Power Five athletic departments have at least one collective operating within their alumni/donor base. Some have two or more.

In theory, their function is straightforward: They act as a clearinghouse for fans and boosters wanting to contribute money that can be pooled to fund NIL deals between athletes representing a given school and third parties. In practice, critics fear they have become a workaround allowing boosters to pay players to sign with certain schools.

In either event, they have rapidly become indispensable to bigtime college athletic departments.

At a speaking engagement recently, Ohio State football coach Ryan Day reportedly told Columbus business leaders the Buckeyes estimated they would need $13 million to keep their roster together annually. Collectives appear the most efficient way to fill that gap.

....

The biggest thing is just opening up the doors to college athletes having the same rights as professional athletes, and really having the same rights as anyone else in the United States,” said Darren Heitner, an expert in sports business and law, and founder of Heitner Legal. “College sports is in a much better place than it was a year ago, primarily because student-athletes are able to enjoy these rights.”

The opening of Pandora's Box is rarely pretty.

 

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If Day says it takes $13 Million a year to keep the roster together each year, I wonder what the cost was while this was all still under the table? I agree it looks crazy right now, but I do feel in a couple years, things will settle. There are a lot of people taking chances on kids that are not panning out. That alone will control some of what happens, especially when you consider a couple of those that did not pan out were very high profile athletes. 

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On 4/6/2022 at 11:11 PM, Irishman said:

My perspective 

More and more kids are having to choose between work and participating in extra curricular activities. We have seen kids in our program that are going to work instead of practice, or are going home to watch younger siblings instead of practice. You COULD tell a kid if you miss again, you are off the team. You get a response back “ok”. Sure, old school thinking would say cut them. But when there is no real depth, and you could end up with a team of 15-20 kids, that really is not an option. So you get creative in how to deal with this type of thing. You do what you can. Maybe this alleviates some of this and can keep more kids participating? Talking to other coaches in the area, it is the same everywhere. That’s why I really do just roll me eyes when I see conversations about what makes a great, when so many programs are focused on coaching the kids we have, trying to get the most out of them from day to day is the goal. So, outside the box thinking like this might be a way to address a growing problem. 

We are really starting to see the true realities playing out of the significant drop off in participation over the past ten years.  Stats indicate the high water mark for high school participation was the 2008-2012 period.  So we are ten years out now from when those moms were starting to pull their 5 year olds out of contact football.  This trend will continue and have its biggest impact on small 1A and 2A schools in outlier areas.  

 

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1 hour ago, Irishman said:

If Day says it takes $13 Million a year to keep the roster together each year, I wonder what the cost was while this was all still under the table? I agree it looks crazy right now, but I do feel in a couple years, things will settle. There are a lot of people taking chances on kids that are not panning out. That alone will control some of what happens, especially when you consider a couple of those that did not pan out were very high profile athletes. 

Hope you are right but not so sure.

Repeatedly lighting money on fire just seems to be the American way these days…

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Can Boilermaker Alliance, John Purdue Club co-exist in same financial space?

https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/college/purdue/2022/07/07/purdue-athletics-name-image-likeness-boilermaker-alliance-john-purdue-club/7827856001/

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For the first time, Purdue’s athletic department was able to cover the scholarship costs for its more than 450 athletes during the 2021-22 academic year.

That’s a significant bill.

During the 2020-21 school year, the cost of the scholarships was $12.1 million, and the figure is roughly the same during this past academic year. The funds are raised directly through the John Purdue Club and the athletic department receives no financial help from the university for this cost or other expenses.

Why is this important?

With Name, Image and Likeness beginning its second year and the Boilermaker Alliance, a collective on behalf of Purdue, ready to launch, will the worlds of the John Purdue Club and NIL collide at some point?

Several of the same boosters who give annually to the John Purdue Club, the fundraising arm of the athletic department, to help with scholarship costs or make donations toward capital projects are likely to be approached by the Boilermaker Alliance, which launched its website on July 1. 

Does Purdue have enough donors to support both, and could NIL erode the work of the John Purdue Club?  

“Do I worry about it? Yes, there’s always a concern,” Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski told the Journal & Courier. “Since it's become clear that we’re heading in this collective direction, we've delivered the message: ‘Hey, our existing priorities continue to be existing priorities and necessities.’

“This is an emerging priority that’s sort of a new initiative; new initiatives pop up all the time. We have a new capital project, we have a new this, and we have a new that. That doesn’t lessen our need to fund our annual scholarship bill, it doesn’t lessen the need to fund capital projects around our enterprise.”

Purdue is about to embark on a big capital project following the 2022 football season.

Phase 1 of the Ross-Ade Stadium renovation will get underway by adding a new team/tunnel entrance from the Kozuch Football Performance Complex to Rohrman Field, converting the existing team store into an athlete nutrition/dining facility and constructing a concourse connector adjoining additional seating in the south end zone.

The south end zone area will undergo a transformation where a seating structure will be constructed around the scoreboard, permanent seating options will be available in the lower part and the addition of a terrace seating section, similar to Major League Soccer Stadiums. 

The estimated cost is $45.4 million, and the $15 million gift from the Bob Rohrman Family, announced in 2019, will help fund the renovation project. More funds have been raised for Phase 1 to move forward.

It’s the same with the men’s and women’s basketball locker room renovations. The funds for the $6.7 million project, which will begin after the 2022-23 seasons, are already in place.  

The goals of the John Purdue Club and the Boilermaker Alliance are to identify new donors who are willing to contribute to either organization. The Boilermaker Alliance might appeal to a different demographic than the John Purdue Club.

Bobinski said the reaction from donors has been "mixed" regarding the collective. 

"There are those that just philosophically struggle with it, particularly when it’s not implemented in a sort of a true market dynamic way," Bobinski said. "When it looks like cash for a signature on a letter of intent or whatever it is, that doesn’t feel good. It looks like you’re buying somebody’s services and that doesn't feel good to our people almost across the board.

"They would like more substance to it. In terms of we need to give student-athlete X or Y some amount of money to choose us without anything in return, that's not the Purdue vibe. We've got first-generation college students who have worked and earned every single thing and that's what resonates with them." 

Boilermaker Alliance co-founder Jeff McKean said the collective will not be in the pay-for-play business and its focus is on taking care of the current athletes. 

The collective and the Jonn Purdue Club will have to co-exist in the same space because NIL isn’t going away. The parameters might change, but the idea of athletes benefiting from Name, Image and Likeness is here to stay and that’s why the Boilermaker Alliance was created.

“There’s no question we have to help Purdue in this realm for the near term,”  McKean said. “If you don’t do that, it’s not going to be good for the future of our programs.” 

So the "deep pockets" among Purdue alumni and fans will be asked to dig even deeper into those pockets.  There has to be a breaking point, right?

 

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18 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Can Boilermaker Alliance, John Purdue Club co-exist in same financial space?

https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/college/purdue/2022/07/07/purdue-athletics-name-image-likeness-boilermaker-alliance-john-purdue-club/7827856001/

So the "deep pockets" among Purdue alumni and fans will be asked to dig even deeper into those pockets.  There has to be a breaking point, right?

 

There likely is a breaking point.....just not sure what that looks like. It may be something different for each school. Back in the 20's, Fordham University was a national power in football. After a few near misses at playing in a championship game, the priests running the school decided there was too much emphasis on athletics. The concern in this current era is what schools are willing to do to try to compete. My first thought is other sports will be cut, but in so doing, they will still have to comply with Title IX. Things will be crazy for the next several years. 

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I can see the power conferences, whatever they look like in a year or two, forming their own governing body outside of the NCAA. I can also see something like Kirk Herbstreit described as far as D1 Football goes. He said there will likely be less than half the teams there are now competing on the D1 level....maybe 50-55 teams; the ones that are able to commit to a huge investment.....like Day said at osu....$13 Million a year to keep a roster together. Herbstreit also mentioned there are a number of programs who cannot even compete as far as upgrading facilities go. Those programs will fall further behind in this era. 

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California legislature opens up potential pay-to-play future: https://deadspin.com/california-legislature-opens-up-potential-pay-to-play-f-1849170950

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Last week, USC and UCLA confirmed reports that they were making a move to the Big Ten Conference.

Aside from the complications of travel — the shortest travel distance for the schools would be 1,501 miles to Lincoln, Nebraska — everything about the move makes perfect sense.

From a football perspective, it can return relevance to the West Coast. In the eight-year history of the College Football Playoff, just two Pac-12 schools have finished in the top four (Oregon in 2015 and Washington in 2016). The lack of competition in the conference on top of the lack of respect has left Pac-12 teams watching the likes of Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson compete year in and year out.

So the move to the Big Ten can restore the schools’ reputations. But this wasn’t the only impactful news of the offseason for these schools.

In February, the California Senate began discussions on Senate Bill 1401. SB 1401, also known as the “College Athlete Race and Gender Equity Act,” would have required California universities to provide 50 percent of its football and men’s and women’s basketball revenues to their student-athletes.

 

In May, the bill didn’t pass through the Appropriations Committee, and thus was dead for this legislative session. However, Sen. Steven Bradford, a major supporter of this bill, as well as SB 206 — the bill that helped assert Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights for college athletes in 2019 — said he would reintroduce it (or a very similar version of it) in December. And if it ultimately passes — especially before the schools move to the Big Ten in 2024 — it could completely alter college football recruiting as we know it.

Under the bill, a USC football player in the Pac-12 could make $200,000 a year in shared revenue alone. That number would be added to any NIL deals a student-athlete agreed upon. Following the move to the Big Ten in 2024, that number could skyrocket.

In the 2019 fiscal year, the Pac-12 paid out an average of $33.6 million to its 12 members. The Big Ten, however, paid out an average of $49.2 million, with its longest-tenured members receiving an average of $54.3 million.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit both conferences hard. But one got hit much harder than the other.

In the 2020-2021 year, the Big Ten saw an 11.6 percent drop in revenue, and paid their schools $47.8 million.

In that same year, the Pac-12 suffered a whopping 35.7 percent drop in revenue, and distributed to their schools a mere $19.8 million.

With the move, USC and UCLA could be seeing greater than $20 million in additional revenue, and, if SB 1401 or a similar bill passes, so too could student-athletes on their football and basketball teams.

So not only could USC and UCLA lure recruits with their sunny blue skies and their relevance in a conference like the Big Ten, but also, they could pay well over $200,000 a year to their student-athletes, before they even start negotiating more money on NIL deals.

And for reference on NIL deals, within weeks of committing to the Trojans, incoming transfer quarterback Caleb Williams inked three different deals reportedly valued to be north of $400,000 combined — Fanatics Authentics, a grooming brand called ‘Faculty’ and Beats By Dre. Andre Romelle Young, also known as Dr. Dre, endowed the Iovine and Young Academy at USC and donated $70 million to found the school. It would be safe to assume that Williams won’t be the last Trojan to strike a deal with Beats By Dre.

The schools will have to wait a few months before the bill is reintroduced. But when it is, all eyes will be on USC and UCLA football. Because after finishing with records of 4-8 and 8-4, respectively, the schools made plans to jump ship to the superior Big Ten conference, and set themselves up for football relevance. We’ll all be waiting to see if they’re in a position to offer their football recruits a starting salary that is upwards of $200,000 a year. Not bad for a couple of schools who haven’t even sniffed the College Football Playoff since USC’s Rose Bowl appearance and victory in the 2016-2017 season.

Oh, what a time for D1 college football.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

now other sports are getting involved in NIL deals??  How does this not create advantages/disadvantages in the recruiting game??

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34302303/darlington-raceway-signs-coastal-carolina-qb-grayson-mccall-rare-nil-deal-nascar-track-college-football-star

 

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  • 1 month later...

Florida A&M fiasco reminds us that college sports are professional sports

https://deadspin.com/florida-a-m-fiasco-reminds-us-that-college-sports-are-p-1849480307

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NIL is sensible. It was ridiculous that “amateur” athletes were not allowed to accept anything of financial value for their athletic talents, except for the fees to attend the institution so that they can play on the team and be properly housed and nourished so they can play well.

Athletes work for their schools. They can only take classes at certain times and must keep their bodies in outstanding physical condition so they can help generate money for the institution while wearing its colors. Yes, college is ridiculously expensive, so the free tuition and room and board are helpful, but that serves the school as much as the athletes. Without scholarships, there’s no way that schools could fill out football rosters with talent that people would pay admission to watch play, much less a network shell out billions of dollars to air the games on television.

What happened with Florida A&M over the weekend is a reminder that while college athletes are free to accept money now, it’s not enough. The labor that they put in both in and out of season generates revenue for the schools and conferences. If college football was amateur athletics, then when FAMU’s football team originally decided as a group not to travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on North Carolina, no one should’ve batted an eye.

FAMU was going to be down 20 players due to compliance issues. Only seven offensive linemen were going to be eligible to play. The team was informed of this information the night before the game. The players originally decided that they weren’t going to play. It was a reasonable decision. They were going to play football — a collision sport — against a Power 5 school with a limited roster not due to injury, but because of compliance issues a significant percentage of the roster was ineligible to play.

FAMU’s coach, Willie Simmons, left the decision to play up to the players, but they weren’t the only people involved in the discussion. Simmons said in a statement that, after they had originally decided not to play, the players talked with some university officials, including the president, and then came to the conclusion to participate in the game.

Why would FAMU’s leadership be so vested in the players’ decision that they wanted to speak to them? There were trying circumstances that led to non-professional athletes lacking some of the necessary confidence, and players, to take the field. If football isn’t their job, it shouldn’t be an issue that they decide not to play. But if football wasn’t their job a $450,000 check would be in jeopardy.

I don’t know what was discussed in those meetings. The players wrote a letter stating that after serious thought and dialogue they decided to play, not for the institution, “but for our families, teammates, classmates, our rabid fanbase, and our coaches who had prepared us and loved us.” They also stated in the letter that they are going to kneel during FAMU’s alma mater after games, because they are not satisfied with their circumstances as athletes at that school, and unhappy with how news of all those ineligible players made the team look, when they don’t believe what happened is their fault.

However, I am an American. I know the worth of $450,000, and what the overwhelming majority of organizations in this country would be willing to do to ensure they received that money. Also, the fact that the players participate in a game and the university gets a giant check destroys any concept of amateurism. FAMU’s players played a game of football for money, like every other Division I team did in Week 0 and all will do through the National Championship Game. Whether it’s a Power 5 program part of a major television contract, or an FCS school that needs the check to balance the budget, money is exchanging hands for the players’ services. Except that money is going from one cuff-linked hand to another, and none to the people whose sweat-inducing labor is providing the entertainment.

NIL took far too long to get to college sports, but thank goodness it’s here now. It allows the players to receive some sort of financial compensation for the work that they put in, and the revenue that they generate. Still, it’s not the crypto and HVAC companies that are reaping the benefits of the players’ training and performance. It’s the schools. And if the Big Ten is going to be signing all of these television contracts, and the president of a university is going to talk to students at a moment’s notice when they feel uncomfortable about playing football undermanned, those are professional athletes.

They deserve more than a sponsorship.

I don't know if I buy the "what happened is not our fault" line from the players.   "Compliance issues" probably means "bad grades"?  And who is ultimately responsible for that?

 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 5 weeks later...

The Deion Sanders effect is in full force in college football: https://deadspin.com/the-deion-sanders-effect-is-in-full-force-in-college-fo-1849861166

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Your network is your net worth

Every unbearable frat boy has said at least once in their life while claiming to be a sigma male.

In college football, it’s never been more true. With NIL deals becoming reality this season, adjacency to a marketable player only makes you more marketable. I mean, think of that State Farm commercial B.J. Raji did a few years back with Aaron Rodgers. Do you really think Raji would’ve gotten that opportunity if he wasn’t playing on the same team as Rodgers? Heeeeeeeell no!

We see it on social media all the time. A popular influencer blows up and all of a sudden, so do the people close to them. They start to build a brand of their own and that makes them money, just because they put themselves near someone else’s spotlight. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m saying that if you want exposure as well as a chance for big money and career opportunities, putting yourself in a position to get noticed is incredibly important. With Deion Sanders at the helm of the Colorado football program next year, no spotlight will be brighter.

Already, numerous college stars have expressed interest in joining Prime at Colorado.

Trey Sanders is a former 5-star recruit who played at Alabama for four years. He played well when healthy, but a series of injuries derailed his college career and now, the opportunity to have a lead role in an offense that will have national attention has reared its head and Sanders isn’t passing it up. Other players have already expressed interest in joining CU’s team as well. And many more players are likely to follow. Even if their long-term plan isn’t to stay at Colorado, it gives these players an opportunity to earn playing time, face time on a national stage, brand deals, and attention from NFL scouts. Why wouldn’t they take advantage?

There are a few downsides to Prime’s coaching hire. The most obvious problem is the lack of scholarship opportunities for CU commits. In fact, this has already started happening.

The influx of interested student-athletes from the transfer portal has led to less roster space, less opportunity for playing time for incoming freshmen, and less scholarship money up for grabs. These kids, who’d spent the last few months confident of where they would spend their freshman year of college now have to look elsewhere for scholarship opportunities. They wasted potentially months of their lives expecting to play for Colorado when that is no longer a viable option.

Of course, this opens up opportunities for students to get scholarships at other schools where the students are transferring out of, but let’s be honest, someone who had a scholarship to Colorado probably wouldn’t earn a scholarship to Clemson or Alabama or any of the elite football schools in America where these players are transferring away from.

The fact is that, although Deion Sanders might not be the best coaching hire, he’s very likely to turn the Colorado football program around in his first year. He straight up asked his players to enter the transfer portal. While he framed that statement around a message of machismo, essentially claiming that some of his players won’t be able to handle the changes he’s about to make, the more likely reason so many current CU players might hit the portal is because several highly-touted stars are going to want to go to Boulder and play for Sanders, thereby pushing the current players down the depth charts.

NIL money is all about grabbing that spotlight and being a marketable player. Disenfranchised players with immense competition across the country need to seize this opportunity to play for a head coach that will have every reporter’s eyes on him. If Colorado does well, the praise might go to Sanders, but then reporters will start looking at the students making plays and that’s a great recipe for further football success. It’s not rocket science, just the natural advancement of the post-NIL world. We better get used to it.

 

Pandora's box indeed.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

The Deion Sanders effect is in full force in college football: https://deadspin.com/the-deion-sanders-effect-is-in-full-force-in-college-fo-1849861166

Pandora's box indeed.

 

 

I’m sure someone is already looking closely at this, but I would really like to see something that cross-references NIL opportunities with transfer portal activity. You see where this is going, right?

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