Journalism Regarding Paying Hockey Players

[Chris '03]

Since several threads seem to have devolved into speculation about rev share and NIL and other payments to players and there have been calls for "evidence", here's a thread to post published stories that relate to hockey schools and their payment efforts.

Maine:
https://www.mainepublic.org/education-news/2026-03-23/umaine-launches-fund-to-directly-pay-student-athletes?fbclid=IwVERFWAQvmqZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe4rnYbPFHuhH_X-P9kMZ4WIykg3Rtfec5LcEqJ_zQkAwoFcHR3ZoV0TVCSaI_aem_jnziwQ-6DxHC2DUQqnmFIw

[BearLover]

Thanks for the thread. I'll post what I can find. As for the above article about Maine, sounds like very little paying of players is happening at the moment.

[BearLover]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/48288787/inside-impact-nil-revenue-sharing-college-hockey

Stories like this one are why I find this topic so frustrating. Thousands of words, yet almost no information. Not a single hard number in the entire article. ESPN couldn't even confirm the McKenna number? As usual, half the quotes in the article are from college administrators saying they have no idea what other schools are doing.

The quote from Pecknold comports with my own understanding of the situation: a bunch of smaller schools are endeavoring to pay players to stay competitive with the Big 10, but they just don't have the money. So the coaches plead with the school to divert money from other sources, or plead with donors to step up. These same donors were already keeping the program afloat, and now they're asked to donate even more. Sounds hard to pull off in practice...

[adamw]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/48288787/inside-impact-nil-revenue-sharing-college-hockey

Stories like this one are why I find this topic so frustrating. Thousands of words, yet almost no information. Not a single hard number in the entire article. ESPN couldn't even confirm the McKenna number? As usual, half the quotes in the article are from college administrators saying they have no idea what other schools are doing.

The quote from Pecknold comports with my own understanding of the situation: a bunch of smaller schools are endeavoring to pay players to stay competitive with the Big 10, but they just don't have the money. So the coaches plead with the school to divert money from other sources, or plead with donors to step up. These same donors were already keeping the program afloat, and now they're asked to donate even more. Sounds hard to pull off in practice...

Great - they beat me to it. This is Part 2 of my report. Next week. But it will probably frustrate you just as much.  No one wants to say what they are doing on the record.  Neither you or I will probably ever get real numbers.  I can only tell you what I can glean from talking to a couple dozen people.  That's as good as it will get.  But it is real.

[BearLover]

This is not entirely on point, but I saw this online. Assuming it's accurate, it shows the extreme difficulty of revenue sharing for any school that doesn't have big-time football:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFbbcipWQAAzxO4?format=jpg&name=large

[adamw]

This is not entirely on point, but I saw this online. Assuming it's accurate, it shows the extreme difficulty of revenue sharing for any school that doesn't have big-time football:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFbbcipWQAAzxO4?format=jpg&name=large

true in one sense - quite the opposite in another.

if a school has no football team at all, and hockey is important to that school, it leaves a bunch of money left over for the hockey program ... see: Denver and Providence.

[BearLover]

This is not entirely on point, but I saw this online. Assuming it's accurate, it shows the extreme difficulty of revenue sharing for any school that doesn't have big-time football:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFbbcipWQAAzxO4?format=jpg&name=large

true in one sense - quite the opposite in another.

if a school has no football team at all, and hockey is important to that school, it leaves a bunch of money left over for the hockey program ... see: Denver and Providence.

This graphic is specific to PSU and of course does not apply to every school, but your conclusion definitely can't be drawn from this graphic. It shows that once you subtract football from the equation, PSU athletics are far in the red. Basketball barely breaks even, everything else loses money. Football props up everything else. Schools without football are going to have a much more difficult time finding anything left over to share with athletes.

[Trotsky]

Larry Ellison drops dead tonight and I wake Tuesday to find myself his sole heir due to an incident at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1983 I had expunged from my memory but which he treasured forever.

I have 200 billion dollars.

Can I just buy us players now?  How would I do that?

[Beeeej]

Larry Ellison drops dead tonight and I wake Tuesday to find myself his sole heir due to an incident at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1983 I had expunged from my memory but which he treasured forever.

I have 200 billion dollars.

Can I just buy us players now?  How would I do that?

First there's the 10 billion dollar research fee to your attorney...

[stereax]

Larry Ellison drops dead tonight and I wake Tuesday to find myself his sole heir due to an incident at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1983 I had expunged from my memory but which he treasured forever.

I have 200 billion dollars.

Can I just buy us players now?  How would I do that?

First there's the 10 billion dollar research fee to your attorney...

Attorneys! Just wait for me to pass the bar please <3

[marty]

Larry Ellison drops dead tonight and I wake Tuesday to find myself his sole heir due to an incident at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1983 I had expunged from my memory but which he treasured forever.

I have 200 billion dollars.

Can I just buy us players now?  How would I do that?

First there's the 10 billion dollar research fee to your attorney...

Attorneys! Just wait for me to pass the bar please <3

Easy to "Pass the bar" in T-Mobile Arena because beer was almost $20.

[adamw]

This is not entirely on point, but I saw this online. Assuming it's accurate, it shows the extreme difficulty of revenue sharing for any school that doesn't have big-time football:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HFbbcipWQAAzxO4?format=jpg&name=large

true in one sense - quite the opposite in another.

if a school has no football team at all, and hockey is important to that school, it leaves a bunch of money left over for the hockey program ... see: Denver and Providence.

This graphic is specific to PSU and of course does not apply to every school, but your conclusion definitely can't be drawn from this graphic. It shows that once you subtract football from the equation, PSU athletics are far in the red. Basketball barely breaks even, everything else loses money. Football props up everything else. Schools without football are going to have a much more difficult time finding anything left over to share with athletes.

here we go again my man ... I am telling you factual information. Literally everyone is talking about the landscape in these terms. This is not me making subjective assertions out of thin air. Just for one example -- at the Frozen Four (and not for the first time) College Hockey Inc's director specifically mentioned (again) that the schools that add hockey going forward will be those without football programs. Why? Because of what I said. This is universally understood to be the case within hockey - yet for some reason, you tell me this isn't true. Amazing.

Denver and Providence, specifically -- the only two prominent hockey schools without football -- are going to be dedicating $500,000-plus of rev share money to hockey - which puts them in the upper 10% of hockey-playing schools. Conversely, Arizona State is getting $0 because all of its rev share money is going to football and basketball.

All of that is also in my Special Report, which I know you read.

[Weder]

Denver and Providence, specifically -- the only two prominent hockey schools without football

BU fans just shot their TVs.

[stereax]

Denver and Providence, specifically -- the only two prominent hockey schools without football

BU fans just shot their TVs.

Bless 'em.

[ugarte]

It shows that once you subtract football from the equation, PSU athletics are far in the red. Basketball barely breaks even, everything else loses money.

beware the numbers of a motivated accountant