N/I/L and the EDSBS Charity Bowl
I've never written one of these before but this post seems too long for the message board.
Warning: I'm gonna ramble for a bit before I get to the point.
Name/Image/Likeness (N/I/L) is about to change college sports. In 14 days, all college athletes in the state of Florida can sign contracts to profit from their N/I/L. Within the next couple of years, every other state will follow suit (Michigan has already passed a bill but it doesn't take effect this year). There's a decent chance a national system will be established by Congress but . . . well, things don't always move so smoothly or quickly with Congress. Essentially, everything is completely up in the air right now and there's no clear way to prove to a recruit that he/she can really cash in on N/I/L at one school vs another school.
If Michigan is trying to show recruits how valuable it would be to come to UM from a N/I/L perspective, how do you prove to the recruit that the alum network wields a ton of money and the fans are willing to throw it around? How do you show that UM's fan base gives a player an N/I/L advantage?
So here's where I (start to) get to the point. Seth mentioned on the roundtable this morning that UM should show recruits the final amounts in the EDSBS Charity Bowl to demonstrate how much money is in the UM fan base. I think that's a great idea. To that end, I went back and tried to find the totals for each Charity Bowl. Here are the year by year totals from the top 5 finishers each year. I believe it started in 2008.
Pretty much everyone one this site knows that UM has "won" the Charity Bowl every year but you have to see the totals to really understand how much our alum base gives as compared to all others. The disparities in amounts given are astounding. Is it apples to apples for N/I/L? No. But is it the closest legitimate (i.e. non-violation) money example you can point to? I think so. And I think UM would be smart to point out these numbers.
2008 (couldn't find the final total but UM led the whole way)
Michigan $2,985
OSU $2,305
Florida $1,570
Texas $480
Auburn $355
2009
couldn't find
2010
couldn't find
2011
Michigan $5,843.83
Auburn $3,870.21
Alabama $1991.66
Georgia $1915.21
Texas $1625.73
2012
Michigan $6,316
Georgia $1,318
Oklahoma St. $1,158
Notre Dame $1,128
Georgia Tech $1,081
2013
Michigan $9057.83
Texas $3108.08
Auburn $2156.61
Notre Dame $1750.42
Denver $1200
2014
Michigan $10,183.68
Georgia $4,024.20
Notre Dame $2,249.32
Alabama $1,977.55
Georgia Tech $1,969.72
2015
Michigan $14,109.30
Texas $3,528.82
Notre Dame $2,562.28
Georgia Tech $2,179.26
Georgia $1,648
2016
Michigan $16,292.91
Texas $4,873.18
Georgia Tech $2,959.60
Ohio St. $2,004.94
Alabama $1,854.03
2017
Michigan $9,789.72
Georgia Tech $5,277.18
Texas $4,373.38
Texas St. $1,919.17
Georgia $1,584.83
2018
Michigan $21,973.02
Georgia Tech $13,121.83
Georgia $6,197.10
Louisiana Tech $2,322.82
Texas A&M $2,118.67
2019
Michigan $32,129.04
Georgia Tech $17,931.41
Texas $12,351.63
Texas A&M $8,512.32
Florida $5,049.64
2020
Michigan $60,051.14
Georgia Tech $20,365.94
OSU $21,741.81
Virginia Tech $14,741.42
Alabama $13,087.14
2021
Michigan $89,844
Georgia Tech $48,168
Florida $36,495
Cal $34,680
Alabama $27,585
Slippery Rock $25,896
Feel like that Slippery Rock money is Maize-tinted, too.
Yeah, I included them just to show that the UM lead is even bigger than it appears at first glance.
As a data person, I’ll quickly point out there are too many unknown variables and variabilities in the data to say this shows what you are proposing it shows.
As a sports fan I say, if it works, use it.
what's interesting is to see the growth over time:
2017 as an anomaly but $22k>$32k>$60k>$90k is a noticeable increase
and GT saw the same thing $13k>$18k>$20k>$48k
If you’re trying to get a recruit’s attention, I think that total merchandise sales would be a great place to start. Michigan is usually a top 5 program.
Social media impact would be another place you maybe would want to showcase, where M is usually top 5-10 with social media followers.
The charity stuff would be helpful to show parents that there is also some kind of soul and sense of responsibility among the fan base.
I think it will take a lot of creativity to make NIL work for more than just a few star players in the program. Some programs, like Wisconsin, might focus on really promoting their O-Linemen.
Willing to give money to charity does not equal willing to give money to a sports program to pay players.
In some areas( you can guess which ), they'll be more willing to give to a charity, in others they'd give to footbaw players 100x before thinking of a charity.
I think we're reaching here.
There are definitely many other financial figures we could use which would more accurately represent the universities ability to pay or get donor's/alum to assist in paying players.
Michigan has one of the best brands in sports. Need to show how that translates. It isn't very complicated.
As others have mentioned, merchandise sales, social media followings, etc. are directly relevant. Athletic department funding, revenue, facilities & equipment, school endowment, net worth of alumni, stuff like that is all indirectly relevant, because it gives you an idea of the amount of capital that could be tapped for NIL purposes.
I think the best thing Michigan can do is build the infrastructure to make sure student-athletes can make the most of these opportunities. Partnerships with professional service providers (tax, marketing, legal, accounting, so on), core education (is it better for someone who's going to be a famous athlete to understand calculus or personal finance?), etc.
Then, mobilize the fanbase. Get those social media accounts maxed out. Your tickets are sent to you via Instagram. If you follow the Michigan athletic department you get 10% off. Whatever it takes to encourage people to get on those apps and start following Michigan content.
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