Michigan's self-assessment of where it stands on NIL vs. competitors

Submitted by Communist Football on January 12th, 2024 at 5:20 PM

Chris Balas has an article up ($) about various goings-on. Subscribe to On3 for more details. One bit that caught my attention was this blurry snapshot of a slide, apparently given in a presentation to donors, in which Michigan executives expressed their assessment of where M stands on NIL collective funding vs. competitors:

It's hard to read, but it appears to break out NIL programs into three tiers:

  • Tier 1 ($10M+): OSU, ND, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Louisville, Texas A&M, Miami (YTM)
  • Tier 2 ($5M-10M): Nebraska, MSU, Washington, Georgia, Kentucky, USC, Oklahoma State, South Carolina
  • Tier 3 ($1M-$5M): Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, UCLA, Iowa, Indiana, UNC, Clemson, Vanderbilt

It has been reported that Michigan is seeking to raise $6-10 million this year for its Champions Circle campaign, which would elevate M to the second tier. But ti appears to need to get above $10 million to compete with the big boys.

Calling all Wolverine capitalists! Let's get it done!

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Football

huffstet

January 12th, 2024 at 5:40 PM ^

I’m in the camp that doesn’t think student athletes should get paid, and it is a slippery slope given the misalignment with academic institution’s mission.

I would never contribute money to NIL on a personal level. That said, I would contribute on a corporate level if the right opportunity presented itself.

Joined: 09/08/2008

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Bluesince89

January 12th, 2024 at 5:57 PM ^

So you must be ok with getting rid of massive coaching contracts? Massive TV contracts? Cratering the expensive sports facilities? Making it basically a club level sport and we just play local schools within driving distance? No more special admission standards for athletes? I remember when Rivals used to post GPAs and standardized test scores. Guys had like 3.2 GPAs and 15 ACT scores. No average student is even sniffing Michigan with those credentials. How does any of this stuff further the academic institution’s mission? Hint: it doesn’t. Or at least it’s not needed on that level. You can still accomplish whatever you think football accomplishes without any of this stuff. Harbaugh doesn’t need 10mm to “develop young men.” We don’t need a contract from Fox that pays us 60mm a year to do that either.
 

I wish there was just some intellectual consistency with this crowd. Michigan football generates hundreds of millions of dollars on the backs of mostly lower to lower middle class African-American young men. What’s so wrong with them sharing in the pie? 

Joined: 09/14/2008

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MMBbones

January 12th, 2024 at 5:45 PM ^

I'm questioning this a bit. In the grand scheme of college football, how much is $10kk? It's a lot compared to my tiny donation toward the cause, but as far as total monies raised?

This doesn't seem to hold water.

Maybe if the figures are off by a factor of 10?

Joined: 08/28/2008

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NittanyFan

January 12th, 2024 at 6:55 PM ^

That slide is pretty funny —- in that it rather obviously is created to trigger an emotional and financial reaction from a certain portion of Michigan fans.

”Look at where all our rivals are - all ahead of us!  And look at who our peers are - folk we are better than and other flotsam and weeds!  We cant become them!  But you can help solve this.”

That’s not a criticism.  It will probably be effective.  I’m tangentially in marketing and sales from a professional POV, I know how it works.  I appreciate what they’re doing here.

Joined: 12/04/2012

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jbDutch

January 12th, 2024 at 6:58 PM ^

While Michigan is obviously behind its peers in NIL. I think you have to take this slide with a grain of salt.  It's designed to trigger a bunch of donors during a funding pitch. Notice how OSU and ND are the first two schools in tier 1?  Yeah, that's not a coincidence.

I found these tweets from Alex Kirshner of Split Zone Duo interesting about how Oregon's NIL program is so good because Phil Knight has no issue paying athletes directly and treating it as a business transaction.

https://twitter.com/alex_kirshner/status/1745642169539391492

 

Joined: 03/24/2013

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UMForLife

January 12th, 2024 at 7:07 PM ^

You know who don't see in the top tier? Universities such as USC, Texas and UM with huge endowment. Basically, you need some of that money to go into NIL.

Joined: 11/04/2013

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CLord

January 12th, 2024 at 7:39 PM ^

Not outdated.  Presented this week at an event at at the downtown Houston Hilton which Ono and Warde both spoke at, where they reiterated the need for NIL to step up.

It was shocking to be honest.  The chance that it was presented falsely as a marketing ploy is slim as well.  If it was false why would they lie?

There was a fellow sitting at one of the tables with a Huskies jacket and hat on, so it didn't appear to me like this was meant to be kept in house.

Joined: 09/11/2011

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alum96

January 13th, 2024 at 12:06 PM ^

It should have only grown since 2016 - stock market up a lot, a lot of these wealthy have done very well post COVID as well as government has  rocketed tons of money into the economy.   

Once you are of a certain wealth, the power of compounding is enormous.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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Vote_Crisler_1937

January 12th, 2024 at 7:40 PM ^

I talked to a guy on the plane back from Houston who said this came from a presentation by Jared Wangler. This was presented to donors the day or two before the championship game. 

Joined: 11/07/2011

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MgoBlueprint

January 12th, 2024 at 8:37 PM ^

This isn’t a popular take and I’m not knocking anyone, but other collectives are run by heavy hitters with a lot of experience. Wanglers a good kid, but he was given a lot of money and responsibilities, but he doesn’t have the work experience or resume that competing collective leaders have. 
 

Joined: 12/15/2008

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Perkis-Size Me

January 12th, 2024 at 9:24 PM ^

As much as I hate to say it, wouldn’t this make the powers that be at Michigan even more resolute in not wanting to commit more to NIL?

Harbaugh just won a national title, while supposedly being in this tier 3. Now that they know he can  win it all with the resources that he has, are they not going to be more encouraged to just say “keep doing what you’re doing with what you have? Why do I need to give you more money when you just proved you can win it all with the college football equivalent of ten rubber bands and two rolls of duct tape?

I hope this doesn’t turn into a situation where Harbaugh is an unwilling victim of his own success.

Joined: 11/30/2011

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Commie_High96

January 12th, 2024 at 10:29 PM ^

This is all insane. We are yelling for people to donate money, not for a building to be named after them, but to hand over to teenagers. Maybe UM millionaires and billionaires are smart enough to think that’s not a great investment. 

Joined: 02/10/2012

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