The NCAA will allow athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness

Lorewarn said:
Not the victory but the action; in the deed the glory.
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[Eyeroll]

Okay, fine. Let's forget NIL, and keep going 3-9. That'll be fun, won't it?

Additionally, aren't we already subverting that quote with all the money some of the volleyball players are making, not to mention Casey Thompson?

 
Jeremy said:
I don't know. Selfishly, I would think this would put us in a good position. Not many athletic departments are as cash rich as UNL. We used to have the weightlifting/training edge for decades, then everyone caught up.

We've been needing a new edge since the Solich days, and this could be it. Pump the cash into the collective, hype it up, and watch the 4/5 stars come calling.

Do you guys wanna win or not? If you donate, they will come.
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The unfortunate situation is because of how the rule is written with schools not being able to direct funds to athletes, it matters not one iota how much cash the AD has on their balance sheet. If anything the university soliciting donor funds for their own projects like the stadium renovations and new football facility directly impacts how much money can go into our NIL pool from our top end donors. The school is in essence competing against ABM/NIL for dollars.

I agree with you this is the exact thing we’ve been waiting for. Tennessee is doing exactly what NU should be doing. A guy like Dylan Raiola should have a $5-$10M deal on the table at NU. Instead we’re talking about losing him to OSU, Mathis to Texas, etc. NU does not have the athletic culture or want to go really compete in NIL in terms of “pay for play” IMO. We will do things the “right” way because that’s who Nebraska is and we’ll wind up being able to not afford the top end players and continue the mediocrity 

 
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I guess if there's one positive of this stuff, maybe there won't be quite as much pressure for guys to leave early for the NFL? Or maybe that's wishful thinking...

 
Toe said:
I guess if there's one positive of this stuff, maybe there won't be quite as much pressure for guys to leave early for the NFL? Or maybe that's wishful thinking...
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NIL has helped a few high profile basketball players stay in school instead of declaring for the NBA draft.

 
seaofred92 said:
The unfortunate situation is because of how the rule is written with schools not being able to direct funds to athletes, it matters not one iota how much cash the AD has on their balance sheet. If anything the university soliciting donor funds for their own projects like the stadium renovations and new football facility directly impacts how much money can go into our NIL pool from our top end donors. The school is in essence competing against ABM/NIL for dollars.
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Exactly.  So I'm not sure how you are so sure it's Frost and the Athletic Department to blame for everything.  I guess you can say indirectly due to on-field results.  But they really don't have any direct control over NIL stuff.  It's about donors being willing and organized to do it.

And it's disingenuous to claim that we're stupid for doing the facility project.  Tennessee is doing both.  A&M is doing both.  They've obviously just had better luck getting donors on board to do it.


 
Mavric said:
Exactly.  So I'm not sure how you are so sure it's Frost and the Athletic Department to blame for everything.  I guess you can say indirectly due to on-field results.  But they really don't have any direct control over NIL stuff.  It's about donors being willing and organized to do it.

And it's disingenuous to claim that we're stupid for doing the facility project.  Tennessee is doing both.  A&M is doing both.  They've obviously just had better luck getting donors on board to do it.
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First off- just because they are not legally allowed to have a formal relationship (i.e. member of or employee of) with the collectives doesn’t mean that the schools aren’t directly communicating with the collectives on almost a daily basis between compliance, coaches, administrators, etc. You think Frost and company don’t know the inner workings of the deals for Thompson, Mathis, etc? Every NIL deal signed has to be reported to compliance. You think all of those guys and deals just showed up here magically on their own? I mean the guy that runs ABM is literally one of Frost’s best friends. 

Second- it’s pretty easy to know we have a finite number of dollars available for all of our booster and athletic administration related activities. The big time donors will always in some capacity continue to donate to the school- it’s a massive write off for them on their annual income if they do it right and gets them access and perks across all sports. But it’s NU’s job now and in the future to have an understanding of what that finite dollar amount truly is and what their appetite for issuing new debt will be versus taking away funds from potential NIL deals. Instead of raising $100M privately could NU have issued additional debt in the lowest interest rate environment ever and allowed those donors to allocate the other $50M differently? Could we have borrowed against future earnings in some capacity? Moving forward with the building itself isn’t the problem. But raising 2/3 of the money privately when those funds are needed elsewhere almost certainly is.

That being said- we were not ready for how NIL was going to actually be used. We were well prepared for the marketplace based corporate sponsorships like Runza and Muchachos. We were NOT ready to jump in from day 1 with the pay for play type deals and it’s pretty obvious- not sure how you can view it any differently. We’re coloring within the lines and not operating at all in any grey area. I don’t even think NU has to be Texas A&M as it relates to NIL- Tennessee is a great model to follow. And yet we’re going to lose multiple important roster pieces to other schools when we have obvious and glaring needs. If the money isn’t there for us to be offering multiple kids $1M+ then that’s fine- but all I ever heard when NIL was coming was about how NU was going to be one of the best schools for it and that’s proven to be extremely false. And maybe actually allow for the general public to contribute funds like Tennessee and TAMU and a million other collectives do- especially with NU’s fanbase that’s another few $M raised annually. 

 
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Mavric said:
Exactly.  So I'm not sure how you are so sure it's Frost and the Athletic Department to blame for everything.  I guess you can say indirectly due to on-field results.  But they really don't have any direct control over NIL stuff.  It's about donors being willing and organized to do it.

And it's disingenuous to claim that we're stupid for doing the facility project.  Tennessee is doing both.  A&M is doing both.  They've obviously just had better luck getting donors on board to do it.
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I think it's unfortunate that we've absolutely sucked for the last 7 years.  Donors probably getting tired of thowing money around to see a s#!tty product on the field but then again Tennessee hasn't been great and they're somehow getting it done.

 
This article does the best at laying out how NIL/collectives work (as well as the push/pull between donors giving to schools and collectives) of any I have read.  Its's The Athletic, so it costs, but you can find good deals to subscribe (I think $1/month, well worth it imo).  

Texas A&M donors giving millions (for facilities and ‘The Fund’) with goal of dancing on Kyle Field for years to come

First, they dismiss that A&M spend $20M+ on their recruiting class:

Several investors in The Fund told The Athletic that while several members of the 2022 class did secure deals, the total numbers on the deals are in the low single-digit millions. Asked why they’d bother to correct an assumption that almost certainly would lead more recruits to consider Texas A&M, the answers were similar. They don’t want current players to feel shortchanged, and they don’t want future recruits to be disappointed when they learn the actual numbers. But make no mistake, they’re working to make those actual numbers larger.

As for how collectives work:

The most efficient way to handle players — and the easiest way to guarantee an amount of money — is to buy the players’ NIL rights entirely and then act as a marketing agency, making deals on behalf of the players and then using the proceeds from those deals to recoup the marketing guarantees made in the players’ contracts.

For example, the deal for the five-star class of 2023 recruit that Stewart Mandel outlined in The Athletic last month is structured this way. That deal could pay the player up to $8 million over a four-year period and includes several guaranteed payments at various dates within the deal. Should the collective book enough deals for the player to cover the amount of the guarantee, then the contract converts to a relatively standard split (90 percent for the player, 10 percent for the collective) for the remainder of the deal. If the collective doesn’t book enough deals, then it eats the loss.

An administrator at a Power 5 school recently compared the philosophy behind such deals to the music business. A record company signs 100 artists hoping one turns out to be Tim McGraw. That deal then pays for the other 99 deals and generates a profit for the company.

Understanding all aspects of these arrangements remains a work in progress as everyone learns about a system that didn’t exist a year ago. For instance, one current Texas A&M Football player who has a deal with The Fund that includes all of his NIL rights recently made an appearance and then asked the business owner when he would be paid. After a few confused phone calls, an organizer of The Fund explained to the player that he would be paid by the The Fund (and not the business) on an agreed-upon schedule and that the money for each individual appearance would go directly from the business to The Fund .

Organizers of The Fund also worry about how the players will handle the money. That’s why several of the contracts are set up so that a substantial portion of the guarantee will be paid out in April 2023. Why? Because that’s when taxes are due, and it would ensure the player would have enough cash on hand to pay the IRS. There was some trepidation about providing a payment so close to the May 1 deadline to enter the NCAA transfer portal and play somewhere else the following season, but ultimately the collective decided helping to keep its favorite team’s players on Uncle Sam’s good side superseded any concerns about those players transferring.

 
Maybe I'm just "butt hurt" ... but I'm not a fan of where NIL is going and I think in the end that it will be those with the big pockets and know how to "skirt" the gray areas that will win.  That won't be :bigredn:  in my opinion.  It seems that Nebraskan's want to be the liberal, elite type folks ... but because of the nature of Nebraskan's [being more of a Bible belt mentality], we won't be able to push the "edges" quite like the liberal elite folks.

In it all ... I'm not wondering how taxes will work out in all this.  If these kids deserve a free scholarship [+ free medical care] and making  a million dollars a year ... then certainly they can afford to pay taxes on it all.  At least, if you want recognition for your name, image and likeness, I would think that means that you can also face real world taxes.

How does all this look or work for these guys?

 
BigRedN said:
Um, you have missed the point.  Austin is a very, very liberal, elitist type area.  Yet, the bigger point is if all the folks who are pro-NIL will also be pro-tax on all this money.
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You got me, those Texas donors are woke liberal elites.

The controversy surrounding the Texas Longhorns football program and the school song, "The Eyes of Texas," has provided a glimpse of just how far some of the school's wealthiest boosters say they're willing to go to keep the song as part of the game-day experience.

"My wife and I have given an endowment in excess of $1 million to athletics. This could very easily be rescinded if things don’t drastically change around here," one donor wrote in an email to UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell in October. "Has everyone become oblivious of who supports athletics??"

The note was one of nearly 300 that reached Hartzell's office from June until October, with nearly 70% in favor of keeping "The Eyes," according to a report Monday by the Texas Tribune. 

"UT needs rich donors who love The Eyes of Texas more than they need one crop of irresponsible and uninformed students or faculty who won't do what they are paid to do," wrote a retired judge who graduated from the university's law school.

 
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