Football players launch Ann Arbor NIL Club
See free article above.
The football players have released an NIL group funded through fan membership fees. Donations start at $5 a month, and will include a Hutchinson jersey for those in the $25/mo tier and a steak dinner with players for the $100/mo tier. There will also be player generated content and digital events (such as member only video calls with players) available to all members. It looks like the platform takes 18% of the donation and another portion to cover credit card fees (guessing 2-4%), but the remaining will go to 100+ football players.
Time for some to put their money where their mouth is.
https://www.annarbornilclub.com/
August 22nd, 2022 at 9:22 PM ^
The site says it is for the 100 football players not 400 scholarship athletes…
edit: it says 100+ football players
August 22nd, 2022 at 9:23 PM ^
Notre Dame - $1691
Purdue - $411
August 22nd, 2022 at 9:50 PM ^
It’s probably more like $40000/115= $348 per month.
There are 85 scholarship players, but I’m guessing it’s shared with the entire team, and I admittedly took a wild ass guess at total team members being about 115.
August 22nd, 2022 at 9:17 PM ^
Great idea. Makes perfect sense.
August 22nd, 2022 at 9:40 PM ^
Cool idea. Honestly not sure if it's small potatoes or big potatoes, but they seem excited about it.
How about 500k to get tacos with Brady and Gisele??
August 22nd, 2022 at 10:47 PM ^
Do they even eat tacos?
August 23rd, 2022 at 7:50 AM ^
Beet tacos with alfalfa I would assume
August 23rd, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
Avacado tacos with alfalfa
August 23rd, 2022 at 4:25 PM ^
I think they're excited that now everyone has a way to get paid, not just the "name brand" players. Unfortunately, the 18% fee is fairly big and the players have to do actual work to get paid, but it's something.
August 22nd, 2022 at 10:08 PM ^
Let's see if the money cannon talk from so many on here is a real thing or was all talk.
August 22nd, 2022 at 10:15 PM ^
Gonna be super disappointed if there's a chicken dinner donation tier
August 22nd, 2022 at 10:29 PM ^
Is there a 3rd base tier where you donate $42.27? And if so what benefits do you receive?
August 22nd, 2022 at 10:39 PM ^
MH - Did you mean 42.27?
August 22nd, 2022 at 10:48 PM ^
He meant the beat down we're about to give them in Columbus
August 23rd, 2022 at 7:51 AM ^
I think you donate 27 first. But thenyou have to explain how 27 = 100. If it's cold outside, you should cancel everything.
August 22nd, 2022 at 11:34 PM ^
Seems like a great start. It doesn't totally negate our biggest disadvantages in recruiting (no Pay for Play, difficult transfer policy), but this might start to offset at least the former. By current policy it seems like coaches aren't discussing pre-arranged NIL deals (pay for play), but if on a recruiting trip a player can tell a recruit "everyone on the team automatically gets a stipend of X amount of dollars monthly" that's a start. Now, $450 a month is unlikely to move the needle for top300 recruits, but I think this really could be a step in changing the culture and catching us up with the times. If normal fans raise the first 50k, maybe rich fans can multiply that. Good news!
August 23rd, 2022 at 1:35 AM ^
I'm imagining this as phase 1 to give every player a piece of the pie. In phase 2, each player could have his own FansOnly-like exclusive domain people can subscribe to as an add-on (i.e., content above-and-beyond their core contributions), w/ the price at each player's discretion. Phase 3 could include revenue generated via page-specific ads.
August 22nd, 2022 at 11:47 PM ^
This is a good thing for the players, but is a few hundred a month going to be significant to the kind of upper-tier 5-star recruits who are looking to ink million $ deals with sponsors before playing a down? Isn't that what's separated recent college football royalty from us as of late?
So, again, good for the players, but if I were donating I wouldn't expect much by way of recruiting return, just a slightly more equitable situation for players who generate billions and don't get to meaningfully share in the profits they're generating.
August 23rd, 2022 at 10:51 AM ^
I would assume this is more of an 'and' offering. Like hey, here's this tremendous history of the program, great school, biggest stadium, etc etc and you'll have lots of chances to find NIL deals on your own with how huge the fanbase is, but as a fall back all the guys get a cut from this NIL fund so you'll get a nice baseline even if you never start plus whatever else you drum up for yourself
August 22nd, 2022 at 11:54 PM ^
I know of someone with a share of $7Billion that may want to contribute a little along with a thank you note that says something along the lines of “couldn’t have done it without you, thanks 4 everything.”
August 23rd, 2022 at 4:04 AM ^
/checks website
"Join members-only message boards and chatrooms discussing all things Michigan Football from recruiting to gameday"
you might want to change the headline to "Players launch mgoblog competitor"
lol
August 23rd, 2022 at 6:30 AM ^
Good Luck to them. As much as I like college football, I won't be donating. I am not a fan of NIL and never will be.
August 23rd, 2022 at 1:11 PM ^
NIL as it was intended to be is great.
I’m not a fan of inducements or bagmen but I will be donating to this club.
Everyone on this board should get on board, even if its only 10-20 bucks a month.
August 23rd, 2022 at 7:19 AM ^
Once there’s a way to donate to this I vote it gets stickies to mgoblog. Not my site and not my decision and my vote means nothing.
August 23rd, 2022 at 7:31 AM ^
I could be off my rocker here, but the Michigan fan base is huge and pretty strong. I could see hundreds of thousands of $5 commitments.
August 23rd, 2022 at 7:32 AM ^
Anyone have any insight into how this will be taxed? Also wonder what kind of contract they make a team sign. Just seems like with it being such easy money for the organization that you will see a bunch of competitors sprout up.
August 23rd, 2022 at 8:41 AM ^
Seems most are missing the point here with the per-player calculations. This thing is going to blow away $50k....already at ~$5,900 at 8:40AM EST on day 1.
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:04 AM ^
I’m in. I mean if I can fling xQc $5 a month this is a no brainer.
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:33 AM ^
Cool. I like it. Still need more overall from the university, but it's a start at least. I'm in!
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:39 AM ^
Read this in our local paper in Dallas last month about what SMU is doing. Will be interesting to see how this all gets sorted out.
https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/smu-mustangs/2022/08/08/sources-new-nil-collective-to-pay-smu-football-mens-basketball-players-36000-per-year/?outputType=amp
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:46 AM ^
Is your username, to keep it biblical, an onanism joke?
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:45 AM ^
I feel like this will be way more than 50k a month. Maybe not right away but in 6 months or so if just 100,000 people donate $5 a month (which I think is totally plausible) that’s $500,000!! I could see this getting even bigger than that. Michigans fan base is huge.
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:55 AM ^
So $300 a year for a Hutch jersey
$1200 a year to have dinner with the players.
Seat licenses if you buy season tickets.
Parking and Tail gate fees.
Streaming in my future likely just to watch games from home.
Seems like so many are excited, I know i am a frugal Scotsman but when is enough literally enough?
August 23rd, 2022 at 9:56 AM ^
It seems a tiered system is developing which may not be a bad thing. Big names go to Valiant Management for deal negotiations and the remainder of the team (without whom those big names wouldn’t be so big) ride the collective gravy train.
My problem is that YOKE is so pedestrian and has become the go-to for many teams. I was hoping Michigan would come up with something exceptional and hopefully out of school pride and not an 18% vig.
There have also been contract concerns wrt the players signing away NIL rights, perhaps in perpetuity. It truly is the Wild West out there.
August 23rd, 2022 at 11:37 AM ^
Imagine giving your own money to this while the University keeps making millions upon millions and does nothing.
August 23rd, 2022 at 1:00 PM ^
Agreed, although it still might be nice to see something similar for non-revenue sports. They were never going to get millions (from the University or elsewhere), but with smaller teams it wouldn't take a whole lot of contributions to make their college sports experiences much nicer. Some of them work just as hard, but without big paydays at the end, even for the top players.
Since this is a blog that likes to talk about the importance of equity, I would love to see that happen.
August 23rd, 2022 at 3:09 PM ^
I totally agree.
This whole football crowd funding is just hilariously bad especially after that B1G tv deal that was just signed.
August 23rd, 2022 at 1:15 PM ^
Just chipped in my $25/ month......
I believe the $50k/mo is only the starting point, currently close to $9K already in the first 6 hours..
August 23rd, 2022 at 2:01 PM ^
Can you sign up for a month, get your jersey, and then cancel for a $25 jersey? That seems like a worrisome loophole.
August 23rd, 2022 at 2:42 PM ^
I used to work at a non-profit that gave gifts for becoming a monthly donor, and our average donor lasted for 11 months. You always have some early cancellations (after month two is typically the largest because some number of people thought they were only making a one-time payment), but the substantial majority stick on for quite a while. I get it isn’t quite the same comparison, as a Hutch jersey might be more coveted than what we gave out and thus have a few more people willing to test that loophole, but I’d bet it wouldn’t be too large of an impact. Most people are honest, and also most people forget to go through the steps to cancel a recurring payment.
August 23rd, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
Done! Glad there is something we can do to help further the NIL conversation. Hopefully the fan base steps up and fills that void!
Go Blue!
August 23rd, 2022 at 8:13 PM ^
Finally, an easy way to deliver $$ right where we want to. Glad to see this! Give these people some money.