Polls

[scoop85]

Wow fascinating article.
Hockey is very different from football and bball- franchises have ALREADY drafted these kids, so what's stopping them from paying their big prospects via an NIL contract?

I doubt they can do that (at least directly) without the player being under contract.

[BMac]

Why can some booster pay but their future employee no? NHL rules?

[JasonN95]

Why can some booster pay but their future employee no? NHL rules?

Why would a NHL team want to pay a drafted player? They already have the kid locked up, no?

[scoop85]

Why can some booster pay but their future employee no? NHL rules?

Why would a NHL team want to pay a drafted player? They already have the kid locked up, no?

If they don't sign out of college then they will become a free agent, so if they were permitted to do an NIL deal with a drafted player I imagine that could help lock them up.

[BMac]

Exactly. Also, why would a "booster" pay $800k for Nijel Pack to pay bball at Miami?

I can also imagine agents paying kids just for the HOPE they'd sign with them after school.

[George64]

Do you suppose that some unsavory Ivy alum might use NIL to get around our athletic "scholarship" ban?  Bob Kane '34, former Dean of Athletics and Physical Education at Cornell and president of the USOC, must be turning over in his grave.  He was a true gentleman (and great writer), who truly believed in the now antiquated ideal of amateurism.

[Trotsky]

Do you suppose that some unsavory Ivy alum might use NIL to get around our athletic "scholarship" ban?  Bob Kane '34, former Dean of Athletics and Physical Education at Cornell and president of the USOC, must be turning over in his grave.  He was a true gentleman (and great writer), who truly believed in the now antiquated ideal of amateurism.

Yeah, but amateurism was just a gatekeeping device to keep the Poors out.  

Pay them in tequila, coke, and Quinnipiac cheerleaders.  Know your market.

[abmarks]

i wonder if the NIL game will trickle into college hockey or maybe it already has for those bigger schools.. play college make 500K is pretty good for the high level talent.

Until I read this article, I hadn't realized how out-of-hand NIL has become.  I think it's just a matter of time before it filters down to B1G hockey, if it hasn't already.

Call me naive, but this just floored me, "Nijel Pack's two-year, $800,000 contract with Miami booster John Ruiz is the most publicized NIL deal since the NCAA began allowing college athletes to make money off their popularity. ACC player of the year Isaiah Wong's $100,000 deal with Ruiz also became public knowledge."

I like to think our well-heeled alumni have more important priorities.  I think we can soon forget about a third NC$$ championship.  I'll settle for a Cleary Cup and ECAC Championship.
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Probably is already in big10

From https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2023/03/24_The-Big-Tens-Big-Day.php

Michigan Tech coach Joe Shawhan:

"There's a side of this that you're starting to see — I probably shouldn't even get into this — you're starting to see the emergence of the (transfer) portal and the NIL and the Alston money (Name, Image and Likeness rights) and all those things," Shawhan said. "The Big Ten is flexing a little muscle right now, and how to do you compete with players who are getting paid. And things like that. And they're jumping ship, jumping ship, jumping ship. You're putting your team together, and people can put their team together out of the portal now.

"And I'm not complaining about it. I just think college hockey's such a beautiful sport, and the parity, the opportunity for schools like St. Cloud, Michigan Tech, Mankato, Duluth — all Division II schools that have one a lot of national championships — you look at their roster and you say, 'Well, I could use that guy, I could use that guy.' You see it everywhere. To take the parity out of it, all of a sudden you get the SEC and the Big Ten in football, that's all you get, and lose everybody else.

"Even coaches will be jumping ship. Tough way to go through life when you're trying to teach life lessons and develop men. But ... we're not at that point yet. I was just digressing."

[George64]

i wonder if the NIL game will trickle into college hockey or maybe it already has for those bigger schools.. play college make 500K is pretty good for the high level talent.

Until I read this article, I hadn't realized how out-of-hand NIL has become.  I think it's just a matter of time before it filters down to B1G hockey, if it hasn't already.

Call me naive, but this just floored me, "Nijel Pack's two-year, $800,000 contract with Miami booster John Ruiz is the most publicized NIL deal since the NCAA began allowing college athletes to make money off their popularity. ACC player of the year Isaiah Wong's $100,000 deal with Ruiz also became public knowledge."

I like to think our well-heeled alumni have more important priorities.  I think we can soon forge about a third NC$$ championship.  I'll settle for a Cleary Cup and ECAC Championship.

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Just another example of how big-time college athletes have become de facto professionals — "University of Minnesota athletic department and its exclusive multimedia rightsholder, LEARFIELD's Gopher Sports Properties, announced today that Dinkytown Athletes is the Official NIL Collective of Gopher Athletics.

Dinkytown Athletes launched in 2022 and is affectionately named after the historic and adjacent neighborhood to campus. It had previously operated as an independent collective with the mission to support student-athletes at Minnesota with name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities, educational resources and post-graduation career opportunities."

Come to Minnesota, play hockey, get free tuition, room and board, AND make money.  You don't even have to make your own NIL deals, we'll do it for you!
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[Trotsky]

Good.  Everybody got rich off these guys except them.  Now they're getting a piece and it's a travesty?

Now they should unionize.  Fuck the schools.

[BearLover]

Good.  Everybody got rich off these guys except them.  Now they're getting a piece and it's a travesty?

Now they should unionize.  Fuck the schools.

If NIL money became a thing in college hockey, Cornell's chances of competing nationally would go to zero.

[Trotsky]

Good.  Everybody got rich off these guys except them.  Now they're getting a piece and it's a travesty?

Now they should unionize.  Fuck the schools.

If NIL money became a thing in college hockey, Cornell's chances of competing nationally would go to zero.

Yeah, fuck the players because of who I root for.

[BearLover]

Good.  Everybody got rich off these guys except them.  Now they're getting a piece and it's a travesty?

Now they should unionize.  Fuck the schools.

If NIL money became a thing in college hockey, Cornell's chances of competing nationally would go to zero.

Yeah, fuck the players because of who I root for.

I wasn't making any sort of normative claim about whether the system is good or better than what came before. I'm just saying—the more NIL becomes a thing, the more winning is a function of how much money boosters dump into a program.

[Trotsky]

Good.  Everybody got rich off these guys except them.  Now they're getting a piece and it's a travesty?

Now they should unionize.  Fuck the schools.

If NIL money became a thing in college hockey, Cornell's chances of competing nationally would go to zero.

Yeah, fuck the players because of who I root for.

I wasn't making any sort of normative claim about whether the system is good or better than what came before. I'm just saying—the more NIL becomes a thing, the more winning is a function of how much money boosters dump into a program.

And I was saying if it's the right thing to do who cares?

[George64]

Good.  Everybody got rich off these guys except them.  Now they're getting a piece and it's a travesty?

Now they should unionize.  Fuck the schools.

I agree that with some limits, athletes like other students should be allowed to profit from their notoriety.  If a math major proves, say the Riemann Hypothesis, he/she cannot be prevented from pitching computers.  My concern is the degree of university complicity.  Can the local auto dealership show Minnesota's leading scorer in his or her uniform?  Should the university be allowed, even at arm's length (Dinkytown Athletes), to broker NIL deals for its athletes? This reminds me of PACs, but that's a whole other annoyance.

And, BTW, Minnesota benefits from NIL deals - their athletes get paid by third parties.  The university doesn't have to pay them out of the athletic department budget or contribute to their 401(k)s.
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