NIL Future

[Uncle Rico]

You didn’t answer the question what you’re feeling so confident about.  And you provided examples of what you think may ruin it.

I’m confident NIL won’t ruin college sports because college sports as we know it are over.

NIL is simply the result of the people running the sport burying their heads in the sand despite all the evidence pointing to this inevitability.

What will happen is, the Big Ten and SEC and whatever monolith they’ll create for football will use NIL and the portal and whatever other doomsday happening as an excuse for why they have to split from the NCAA when the real reason is, they just want that sweet TV money.  They have a solid foundation of fans that will believe they had no choice because NIL and these maladies forced their hands but it’s not true.

How this will change college basketball remains to be seen because football drives it all, but no, it’s not an NIL problem.  It’s a money problem all right, just not the money problem generating angst.

[HutchwasClutch]

I’m confident NIL won’t ruin college sports because college sports as we know it are over.

NIL is simply the result of the people running the sport burying their heads in the sand despite all the evidence pointing to this inevitability.

What will happen is, the Big Ten and SEC and whatever monolith they’ll create for football will use NIL and the portal and whatever other doomsday happening as an excuse for why they have to split from the NCAA when the real reason is, they just want that sweet TV money.  They have a solid foundation of fans that will believe they had no choice because NIL and these maladies forced their hands but it’s not true.

How this will change college basketball remains to be seen because football drives it all, but no, it’s not an NIL problem.  It’s a money problem all right, just not the money problem generating angst.

Sounds correct to me.

[lawdog77]

So, the elites get the best players and the non-elites fight to build teams out of the thousands of basketball players not recruited by the elites.   

Good thing that recruiting is an inexact science and many players develop when they age

[Pakuni]

Good thing that recruiting is an inexact science and many players develop when they age

You're right, but the downside of that is that the elite programs are going to poach a bunch of those players after they develop.

[lawdog77]

You're right, but the downside of that is that the elite programs are going to poach a bunch of those players after they develop.

As long as we are the poacher and not poachee

[BrewCity83]

Here's what we need:

https://badgerswire.usatoday.com/2024/04/17/wisconsin-badgers-football-nil-beer-varsity-collective-launch/

Someone with a connection to a local brewery needs to get them connected with the MU NIL collective and get us our own NIL brew. 

[JakeBarnes]

Here's what we need:

https://badgerswire.usatoday.com/2024/04/17/wisconsin-badgers-football-nil-beer-varsity-collective-launch/

Someone with a connection to a local brewery needs to get them connected with the MU NIL collective and get us our own NIL brew.

There's been a lot of collab with Good City brewing and David is a MU law alum. Not sure how they feel about doing an NIL thing, but it'd be pretty good to have an NIL beer right by the stadium...

[BrewCity83]

It sure would.  Get the brand into Fiserv Forum and Miller Park too.  Now we're talking some volume.

[mug644]

Why not connect the Be the Difference NIL collective with MU's own student business venture, Blue and Gold Brewing https://www.bandgbrewing.com?

[Viper]

I’m confident NIL won’t ruin college sports because college sports as we know it are over.

NIL is simply the result of the people running the sport burying their heads in the sand despite all the evidence pointing to this inevitability.

What will happen is, the Big Ten and SEC and whatever monolith they’ll create for football will use NIL and the portal and whatever other doomsday happening as an excuse for why they have to split from the NCAA when the real reason is, they just want that sweet TV money.  They have a solid foundation of fans that will believe they had no choice because NIL and these maladies forced their hands but it’s not true.

How this will change college basketball remains to be seen because football drives it all, but no, it’s not an NIL problem.  It’s a money problem all right, just not the money problem generating angst.

are you contributing $ to Marquette basketball player salaries?

[Uncle Rico]

are you contributing $ to Marquette basketball player salaries?

Not a dime

[Herman Cain]

I think this deserves a separate thread.  Personally I hate it,  but get that these are the times.  I also think realignment is awful  as well.  Imagine being in the B20, not having charter planes, and going to a mid-week track meet from Cali to College Park?  Anyway, will there be an NIL cap and can MU compete with schools with much larger endowments and alumni bases?  Will it get to a point where Ivies and Stanford for example just pay for the best talent?  All of this concerns me.  I'd prefer not to get rid of my islands and planes. 

Muggsy:
The MU Alumni and Supporter community has limited resources.

Yes, MU has spent extensively on it’s own program Pre -NIL and that was money well spent over the years.

Seems like our Coach has advocated to the Boosters that everyone on the roster to have some NIL. Seems like that ohilosophy works well with the high school player development approach that appears to be the current mode.

MU can’t compete with Big Dollar schools on a pure NIL basis , however I am not convinced the evidence is there that pure dollars can buy Championships. Simply because there are still a lot of teams with dollars and talent develops at different rates. Also there are roster limits and kids don't want to sit on the bench either. So MU just needs enough to attract four Big East Quality kids a year and coach them up. 

Hopefully the Big East remains a strong viable conference  and  that should also keep the high school talent considering MU. Networks have a stake in seeing their content be worth something. So next Media contract should be solid.

MU under Shaka, in an NIL environment, is a solid top 15 program. Not a bad place to be.

[brewcity77]

There's been a lot of collab with Good City brewing and David is a MU law alum. Not sure how they feel about doing an NIL thing, but it'd be pretty good to have an NIL beer right by the stadium...

Good City, Gathering Place, and Broken Bat all collaborated with the student-run Blue & Gold Brewing to develop the '77 Golden Ale last year and The Beer Can Cream Ale this year. I would probably say it's worth bringing to B&G Brewing's attention as it would be multi-purposed.

[mug644]

Good City, Gathering Place, and Broken Bat all collaborated with the student-run Blue & Gold Brewing to develop the '77 Golden Ale last year and The Beer Can Cream Ale this year. I would probably say it's worth bringing to B&G Brewing's attention as it would be multi-purposed.

As I posted earlier...

Why not connect the Be the Difference NIL collective with MU's own student business venture, Blue and Gold Brewing https://www.bandgbrewing.com?

[PointWarrior]

The MU Alumni and Supporter community has limited resources.


You know this how?

[Tyler COLEk]

The MU Alumni and Supporter community has limited resources.


You know this how?

Hermie is under the impression that schools are dipping into endowments to pay NIL.

[Uncle Rico]

The MU Alumni and Supporter community has limited resources.


You know this how?

He doesn’t

[tower912]

Will say this here rather than further corrupting the transfer portal thread.    I get the frustration with NIL and the thought this will drive fans away.  I had that moment with college football over a decade ago with the first big conference reorganization and the demise of that version of the Big East.  The same problem with men's professional golf right now.

Greed is still one of the seven deadlies.   

A long time ago, when you could still occasionally have a rational conversation with Chico, I argued that greed and narcissism were the biggest threats to society.   I haven't seen much to change my mind in the last dozen or so years.

[Pakuni]

Will say this here rather than further corrupting the transfer portal thread.    I get the frustration with NIL and the thought this will drive fans away.  I had that moment with college football over a decade ago with the first big conference reorganization and the demise of that version of the Big East.  The same problem with men's professional golf right now.

Greed is still one of the seven deadlies.

Who's guilty of greed here?

[Uncle Rico]

Will say this here rather than further corrupting the transfer portal thread.    I get the frustration with NIL and the thought this will drive fans away.  I had that moment with college football over a decade ago with the first big conference reorganization and the demise of that version of the Big East.  The same problem with men's professional golf right now.

Greed is still one of the seven deadlies.

I agree with this.  The money in college athletics is a massive problem, the biggest of which is the distribution of it.

Greed lead to conference realignment which destroyed decades long traditions and rivalries, done so with no regards to fans.  One of the unintended consequences has been the 4-hour games fans have to attend to stuff in commercials and terrible home schedules.  I know Badger season ticket holders who dropped season packages because of how bad the schedule is for football.  Easy to sell the Ohio State games.  Rutgers or Maryland?  Not so much.

The blame lays at the feet of the conference commissioners, school presidents and AD’s who chased every penny with no regard for the players or fans.  The reckoning has been coming for decades with regards to player compensation and they buried their heads in the sand. 

The portal and NIL are all things they could have controlled from the beginning.  Would people still howl about it being unfair?  Yup.  But you needed a plan and room to adjust.  Instead, you opened the floodgates with no plan to control the water.  That’s on you, universities, not the athletes.

[tower912]

Who isn't?   I have long thought that college athletes should get a stipend.   The legendary Jim Chones story comes to mind.   What we have now is the chaos that comes from a new product, a new way to make money, without enough guidelines.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Except there is no real evidence that fans are being driven away from college football or college basketball.

And while I agree that conference realignment is greed, I don't think NIL is. The current NIL environment is all about the NCAA and its member school digging in on amateurism until it lost control of its own destiny. The fact is many college athletes had values greater than their scholarships, and now we are living in an environment where they are allowed to max out those values.

And honestly good for them. There has been a lot of money flowing around intercollegiate athletics for years and it has mostly been used to build fancy new buildings and enrich the coaches and administrators in charge. So I am not going to hand-wring about Jonas Aidoo getting $1.4 million.  I have no idea if its sustainable or not. That's not my problem. It certainly isn't Jonas' problem. Grab that bag! Be smart with it. You will have a jump start on life that 99% of people your age won't have.

So don't blame the players because the adults in charge were unwilling to change. If everyone could go back a decade, the path would be easy. But a lot of people were paid a lot of money to be "in charge" of something. And they ended up REALLY bad at it.

[MU82]

Except there is no real evidence that fans are being driven away from college football or college basketball.

And while I agree that conference realignment is greed, I don't think NIL is. The current NIL environment is all about the NCAA and its member school digging in on amateurism until it lost control of its own destiny. The fact is many college athletes had values greater than their scholarships, and now we are living in an environment where they are allowed to max out those values.

And honestly good for them. There has been a lot of money flowing around intercollegiate athletics for years and it has mostly been used to build fancy new buildings and enrich the coaches and administrators in charge. So I am not going to hand-wring about Jonas Aidoo getting $1.4 million.  I have no idea if its sustainable or not. That's not my problem. It certainly isn't Jonas' problem. Grab that bag! Be smart with it. You will have a jump start on life that 99% of people your age won't have.

So don't blame the players because the adults in charge were unwilling to change. If everyone could go back a decade, the path would be easy. But a lot of people were paid a lot of money to be "in charge" of something. And they ended up REALLY bad at it.

Yep yep yep.

[MuggsyB]

I think the ramifications of all of this are far worse than the obvious.  And don't discount the roll that app gambling could play moving forward.  To think J Porter is the only one dumb enough to bet on his team or whatever is very naive.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I think the ramifications of all of this are far worse than the obvious. 

Like what?