Florida and Tennessee NIL Collectives Raising "Millions"
This article might be behind a paywall, but the inevitable conclusion of NIL is starting to take shape. NIL is going to turn into a form of salary, funded by alumni and booster groups. The paragraph I found most interesting is below:
Eager boosters all over the country are forming groups. One collective at the University of Florida has raised over $5 million. Another at the University of Tennessee aims to generate $25 million each year, according to the Athletic. The website reported in March that one student clinched an $8 million deal.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-16/rich-college-sports-…
Don't worry the NCAA will be all over these guys. They'll be sorry. NCAA will certainly bring the hammer down.
They're gonna count to 3.
One...
...two...
...two and a half...
...two and three quarters...
...two and four fifths...
Antelope Freeway one/128th Mile
The NCAA... the Yosemite Sam that keeps chasing the fine line.
I'm a steppin...
Zeno
This may explain the current recruiting success for Tennessee. Hopefully the NCAA's new rules and guidelines for boosters recruiting for Universities will slow these NIL millions down (hahahahahahaha...).
Didn’t they just pay 8 million for a 5 star qb?
It gives better perspective as to how much “hidden” money was flowing around pre-NIL which further validates the significant disadvantage many schools were operating with.
I’m guessing a net effect of this will be a larger percentage of the money going to fewer players following the trend of wealth in the U.S. in general. As that continues, it will be really interesting how the team dynamic evolves. Jealousy is not something many 18-22 year old males handle very well.
Plenty, and I mean plenty of 18-22 males playing lucrative team sports like baseball and basketball, and I've never heard of jealousy impacting a team.
Really? I think it happens at all levels of life to varying degrees. Hell just 10 seconds on social media and you are awash in jealousy and its fueling a lot of issues especially with young people.
You haven't played sports.
Played basically my entire life until college.
Pray point me to any team that was ripped apart by jealousy
Sarcasm???
The more I've read about these contracts the more the big numbers quoted feel like NFL contracts where there's a decent chunk guaranteed but the huge numbers are based on highly unlikely outcomes that aren't worth really considering. Like, "up to $2M/yr" mentioned in some of these deals have to do with the collective being able to sign a super-lucrative deal with outside partners plus the athlete turning into a Heisman winner. They may happen in a few cases (at which point $2M is a steal), but a lot more of them are going to be for $250k and are still a drop in the bucket compared to what value the athletes generate.
I do think we'll see some national rules sooner rather than later because some of these collectives are going to go big early but might well run dry of funds as your big-time donors start figuring out they may not get a great ROI and/or start placing heavier requirements on the schools and athletes.
Big money donors do not care about a great ROI. They want to hang around their winning program and fawn over a bunch of kids.
I do agree with "but the huge numbers are based on highly unlikely outcomes." But the big numbers sure sound good to an 18 year old kid and his circle. Not too many years down the road...like maybe one...word will start getting around that the kids are getting screwed. That million dollar "promise" turns out to be only worth 25% of that. LOTS of unhappy people at that point. This train wreck is only just beginning.
Don't worry, in the lost scrolls there are tales of UM money cannons waiting a century to be unleashed.
Sad, but true. The Michigan Indifference!
you just need a dance, like a rain dance but for alumni:
I’d be lying if I said that the NIL stuff and the portal aren’t impacting my interest. They are. I understand these athletes were getting the short end of the stick and I don’t oppose either measure, but it has completely transformed the entire process of college athletics in two years. It’s just too much a part of it. NIL talk now dominates college football and basketball like salary caps and contract disputes dominate professional sports.
These particular athletes were never getting the short end of the stick. They are just getting even sweeter deals (overall) now than they were before NIL.
Some college students study full time (and try to get a meaningful degrees from it that will land them a job), have to pay for all of their schooling (loans or directly), play serious sports (requiring practice & training), maybe participate in a few other after-school activities *and* work a part time job on the side to have some spending money. For all 4 years of school. Those sound more like the ones getting the "short-end".
It's all just sad because the spirit of college sports is dying faster by the year. Between NIL and the new transfer rules we are basically seeing this turn into free agents playing wherever the money is best - with little to no loyalty to a school (let alone interest in actual academics). Many people will simply cry "this is the future, get used to it" and they are probably correct... but I'm not certain it will still pique my interest.
It is called capitalism and your opinion or feelings don't give you the right to reach into the pockets of other people to stop them from getting paid their market value.
It doesn't matter what college athletes in other sports get paid or how much work they do. For whatever reason, people won't pay a lot of money to watch college wrestling, volleyball or soccer (a sport I am passionate about). Doesn't mean the athletes don't work hard but they don't have the same market value as the football and basketball players.
The fact is that at most P5 football, the two or three revenue sports are subsidizing the other sports at their schools (at Michigan they are also subsidizing the rest of the school). B1G is supposedly going to be paying $100 million per school per annum within the next few years which is 99% based on football and basketball.
College football is the perfect mix of minor leagues combines with college tradition, nostalgia and pride. Society has made its decisions - doesn't mean they can't blow it via excess NIL and free agency; however for now, football is king and the players will reap the benefits.
Market value is a fine thing when discussing an employee job searching or discuss about the price of a commodity... not necessarily when talking about benefits a student receives for participating in a school funded & organized activity (such as a varsity sport). Let's be honest - that is exactly what NIL is, merely with the legal loopholes that require payments via 3rd parties for various "marketing" considerations. And, especially at public universities, it absolutely *does* matter that people are treated the same.
The fact that these schools have been allowed to monetize their sports to the extent that one or can subsidize an entire AD is not a justification for this behavior. It may benefit the other student-athletes but what good does it do the general student body? Why is that AD revenue not helping to bring down tuition for all?
College sports are not meant to be minor leagues - that's why we *have* minor leagues. College sports are supposed to be for full time students to be able to participate as a distraction from their studies - look at *how* they came into being in the first place. They were *never* intended to be monetized nor as a primary reason for attending the school. That is fact - not just opinion. That, in many cases, they became these things us a sad testimony to the greed and misplaced priorities of college administrators over the years.
No, NIL is people being paid what people want to pay them. Whether someone is a student or employee or whatever else you want to call them, what gives anyone the right to stop this?
Not shocked. If they had the gall to funnel money when it was illegal, you just knew they’d put the pedal down once it became legal.
Sadly, I have a hard time seeing the NCAA striking down on boosters and universities, and if the University of Michigan does not join NIL to the level of almost every other school, then NIL will hurt the two sports that are money-makers for the university (football and basketball). Some have talked about the NCAA putting caps on how much players can make through NIL; maybe that could be a valid answer to this big issue?
NCAA putting caps on how much players can make through NIL
That will never fly. Legally. The horse is out of the barn.
Salary caps bring us back to where this all started...you think $EC teams will abide by a salary cap? Now we are back to under the table and 20k dollar handshakes.
I see no end in sight. Any semblance of purity (was virtually long gone anyway) in major college sports is gone forever, for better or for worse.
if the University of Michigan does not join NIL to the level of almost every other school..
But, how is UM supposed to know what level other schools are offering?
There's no honesty amongst thieves.
It's a very slippery slope to play this game..
"But, how is UM supposed to know what level other schools are offering?"
It's no secret as schools and the news media report on it all the time. Mr. Dickinson said it best in a recent interview.
I was beyond naive in thinking that Michigan would actually benefit from the money being out in the open. I fear where this thing will end up in the next 5-10 years. Not necessarily because I think it’s the wrong thing, but because of how far I think Michigan could end up falling behind.
We're losing because we're not even trying. We have only ourselves to blame.
I don’t particularly like it, but I respect it. They can raise money legally and legitimately and lure recruits. They want to bring their programs back to prominence. They are doing all they can within the rules.
Michigan will continue to be too hidebound and stuck up, smelling its own haughtiness, to keep up with the Jones'. NIL is out of the box, and the idle talk the NCAA throws out for a soundbite every couple of months is just that - idle talk. Any action will end up right back at SCOTUS, where Justice KegParty will dissolve the anit-trust exemption and derail the money train.
It's a bold, new, world. You can be part of it, or you can be left behind...
If I had a ten spot for every comment on MgoBlog over the past 12 months touting the unmatched power of the Michigan “Money Cannon™️“ I could take a vacation to Turks & Caicos.
At some point, the coaches have to coach up this high priced talent. That $25mil a year Tennessee is raising is going to drop once they realize the overall talent and coaching at Bama, UGA and LSU is still better by a country mile.
No matter what anybody, Sam Webb etc, says about what Michigan is working on I believe we are gonna be left behind nationally with NIL. We’re not playing the game the way the big boys are playing. We will never get the recruits OSU does. It’s frustrating bc we have the means but we choose not to play it that way.
I've probably missed this at some point but what is stopping, say, mgoblog from raising a bunch of money from its readers and signing athletes to be spokespeople for the site?
I don't know if Brian is being held back by Michigan (ie: the AD in some way), or if he is just worried about financial and legal implications from opening up his business in that way. It would immediately go from being an independent site with 'no' affiliation with the AD to being it's biggest booster. Couple those issues with suddenly rubbing elbows with, and managing, other people's money (ie: millionaire mega-donor types) - being the primary POC for background donors and the AD/recruits - and I get it. I wouldn't want to be in that situation, either... So, while I wish Brian/MGoBlog would facilitate a 'money canon', I can understand any hesitancy to do so.
Agreed. Reminds me of the axiom that journalists report the news, not create the news.
That being said, put my name down to be an Mgobooster if someone ever figures out how to organize this group. I won’t ask for anything in return. No hanging out with the players, no politicking, no anything. Just take my $500 per year and put it in the canon. But, like, please tell me we are eventually gonna use the GD thing.
It is pay-walled, but I wonder what exactly this 'collective' is signing a player to do? In my mind NIL deals are basically like product/company endorsement deals.
What would a 'collective', whose only purpose is to raise money to give to athletes, ask for in return for their money? Speaking at 'collective' fundraising events? Or does it just not matter at this point?
It doesn't matter. Mr. Money doesn't need a reason to donate his cash because any questions about that will instantly become a way the NCAA is trying to control a players income. It will go nowhere because the NCAA doesn't want anything to do with another court case.
All the rich guys that used to pay for access illegally can now do it legally. What’s holding them back?
At least they don’t have to waste some of the collective proceeds at McDonalds now.
The market seems to be circling around $1 million per player for top end talent. We have it, let's use it.
Let's say mgoblog users only need to directly arrange a $10 million per year unofficial war chest, and the actually rich will drum up the other $15M on their own. That would cost this:
10,000 mgousers $1,000
20,000 mgousers $500
30,000 mgousers $333
50,000 mgousers $200
I believe there are 30,000+ regular visitors to mgoblog. The next Denard Robinson, Lamar Woodley, David Terrell are waiting for us.
I think this is a mischaracterization of the vast majority of Michigan alumni/fans. I think most alumni, if they are inclined to donate to the university, it would be for scholarships or to clubs and organizations they were a part of when on campus. When the university signs tv deals for hundreds of millions of dollars and charges a small fortune for tickets, I would not be inclined to help out the poor athletic department by stepping in to pay for players so the AD can protect its bottom line.
Major donors typically have an edifice complex and would rather see their name on a building, not lining the pockets of teenagers who, if we are paying them to come here, are likely future pros anyway.
And this is why our recruiting will be ranked 10th to 20th every season for as far as I can see. Good bad or otherwise this is what we are and that will be the result.
The first honest thing the SEC has done in decades.
Will be interesting to see, on the way to an inevitable Super League, how many fans start voting with their feet. I already feel the game is so degraded, so shitted up with ads, that I'm down to simply tuning in to the most important Michigan games, staying with it if they're competitive. . . I'm not sure that even watcher numbers make that much difference at this stage, if the ad revenue is flowing, but one thing I have realized lately watching the NBA, after years of ignoring it: It's a pretty good product, a markedly better product than college basketball (NCAA tourney aside). I'm still a pretty casual watcher, but I watched more NFL last year than I did college football, and I'd have laughed if you said that would ever be the case.
This is all anecdotal--sizing up my own gut response--but I think there will be unanticipated outcomes. I mean, if everyone is stuck inside in an increasingly dangerous and crumbling world, televised sports will continue to exploit a captive audience. Watching TV 2-6 hours a day is what a somewhat pathetic America does. But I think some erosion is inevitable.
Imagine if people came together to fund education for kids...
Go Blue.