NIL money sucks outside the top athletes

[billhoward]

Here's the best story so far on how Name Image Likeness money trickles down, and it is trickle-down as in, "When the horse eats, so too shall sparrow." It's in the  Washington Post (10/21/24), headlined "The hidden NIL economy of college sports." Some top lines:

* The majority of NIL payments are small-money deals — less than $500, and often much smaller.
* "Private companies can bankroll publicly funded sports programs with little scrutiny."
* Most public schools contacted by the WaPost provided scant information even though public universities are keeping supposedly public records.
* The majority of NIL money goes to men but there are exceptions such as LSU gymnast Dunne.
* Some decent-size payments went to non-stars that were connected to fame. Deion Sanders' son Shedeur has a Google/KFC deal apparently worth $400,000. His daughter Shelomi (11 minutes total playing time at Colorado) may have been the unnamed Colorado player who got $42,500.
* How much did Caitlin Clark make at Iowa, a public thus public records school? Iowa did not provide records.

Aside: Many of the major newspapers are aghast at how much money college athletes are making. But that's because they focus on the Texas quarterback, Duke forward, and Livvy Dunne. People like that, the outlier high-earners. That's what I'm reading in the New York Times from a quote-real NYT reporter (not Athletic writers who eat and breathe sports). One of the Times reporters profiles himself as "writing about how the intersection of money, power and sports impacts our culture." I took the "intersection of" thing off my bio around 2010.

[Local Motion]

Screw the NIL and focus on the academics.   We have a family friend who was three time All Ivy in football and he also ran track.   He received scholarship offers from multiple FBS programs.   Today he's a Managing Director for one of the top banks in the world and his bonus check exceeds multiple times the money he would have earned under at a major football program.   When he was accepted to an Ivy, his single mother said forget the scholarship we'll scape together the funds to go Ivy.   The value of a good education simply cannot be understated.

[billhoward]

Match and raise (same story, different names): We had friend on our block got a full-ride baseball scholarship to a Big Ten school and a football offer from an Ivy. He went Ivy, worked his way through school, after graduation 5-8 years working up the ladder, took a smallish media company public then merged it with a bigger media company (or maybe it was the other way around and did a spinoff) and everybody did well. He was personable, like to play golf, people who like you are more willing to do busines with you.

That said:
* He wouldn't have minded a little pocket money via NIL while he was playing.
* And it would be a very little pocket money if you read the WaPost not NYT or WSJ stories, which (WaPost/NYT) focus on the few at the top. Under $1,000 a year if any, and maybe under $500 for most players. But the alumni underwriters could equalize the payments so everybody gets, say, $2500 a year, which would be a quarter-million a year for football and something they could easilyt fund.
* Ivy sports associations / sports alumni groups are very good at offering summer-intern placement in jobs that pay real money and provide an inside track to that first job.

[billhoward]

Despite WaPost said and what I believe(d), I'm hearing there are some special challenges to the Ivies, most of all in basketball. A top twenty school with a good academic reputation uses the Ivies as a secondary recruiting poll. The kid plays really well freshman year in the Ivies and gets offered serious money to a Duke, Stanford, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Rice, Michigan (actually, the top public university in about half the fifty states). It could be a half-million dollars from the NIL group plus tuition-room-board from the school. It also affects football. It could affect lacrosse or soccer or wrestling, a sport where the big time school has a shot at picking up another NCAA title or a final four position.

I believe football is increasing permissible team size, including slots with scholarships, from 85 to 105. Sounds like that gives an Alabama, Texas, Oregon, etcetera, the chance to keep good players out of the hands of teams competing but ranked outside the Top 25.

[ugarte]

I believe football is increasing permissible team size, including slots with scholarships, from 85 to 105. Sounds like that gives an Alabama, Texas, Oregon, etcetera, the chance to keep good players out of the hands of teams competing but ranked outside the Top 25.

Always amazed when a player that could start at CMU or wherever and maybe develop stays at Alabama for 4 years cheering for starters that he will never get enough reps to displace. I guess self-confidence in the ability to break through, camaraderie and being part of a winner displaces those other factors but I'm still surprised.

[Al DeFlorio]

Creative NIL initiative at Hofstra lacrosse: https://www.usalacrosse.com/magazine/college/men/hofstra-announces-landmark-nil-deal-entire-mens-lacrosse-team