Jim Larranaga has some strong comments in defense of NIL:
LinkJim Larranaga on NIL: "TV makes money, right? The shoe companies make money. The universities make money. The athletic directors..they benefit from their relationship with the shoe companies. And the coaches make a hell of a living.
Well, what's wrong with that filtering down?"
More Larranaga: "To me that's big time athletics. I think the NCAA Tournament is the best sporting event in the world and these guys should be rewarded for the great job they do, not only playing the game, but representing their universities."
I have to say, I’m not at all a fan of the LifeWallet guy buying a final four team for his alma mater. But we’ve seen so many legendary coaches retire over the past two+ years in large part due to the changes in the sport, NIL being chief among them. Larranaga has at least been able to adapt and thrive, so I have to give him credit for that. With that said, it would be pretty awesome if FAU won the title. You know their players are getting little if anything out of NIL.
If fans want to watch college players who are in it for only the joy, there are lots of non-revenue sports. Though even those athletes are privileged, both in regards to scholarships and getting accepted to the school.
The U.S. is unique that way. In virtually all other countries, college admission has nothing to do with sports, though tuition is dramatically less. You can also watch 20 year olds play soccer in other countries, though they’ve generally skipped college altogether.
As for NIL, some would say that capitalism is always messy, blunt, coercive, and unfair—and they might add that if that’s a problem, you can move to Finland, which apparently has one of the more difficult languages and the happiest people but very mediocre basketball.
Last edited by johnb; 03-26-2023 at 06:51 PM.
Lauri Markkanen? Alex Murphy?
It's UNC, but I thought the perspective of Jamison and Carter were interesting in how NIL opportunities/commitments impacted UNC players' approach or commitment to team success. I'm sure they aren't the only team in the country whose stars lost some focus because of NIL.
UNC Basketball: Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter give their take on what went wrong during Carolina’s 2022-23 season - Tar Heel Blog
I'm much less bothered by the notion that college athletes are paid than I am by the notion that they are not (actually) college students -- [I]i.e.[I] the LifeWallet guy "buying" players (or Baylor Schierman making it to clear that his transfer to Creighton was driven by NIL payments) is much, much less of a concern to me than was UNC's fake academic program.
If there were to be some real teeth to making sure that college athletes were (legitimately) students for the time they were in school -- which I suppose is a pipe dream in that the NCAA has basically given up policing this and leaves it up to the schools to determine how much integrity they want to have about whether the athletes are really students -- I would have no problem at all with NIL payments.
At least in my book, what makes "college athletics" is not that the players are amateurs (playing for free / "for the love of the game"), but simply that they are actually college students, rather than solely professional athletes who happen to wear a uniform loosely associated with the brand of a university.
I echo these thoughts. I think all college athletes should be paid, but figuring out how to do that in a fair and equitable way is something the NCAA obviously doesn't want to touch. If we have to use NIL as a side-door to get that done, I'm all for it. I, for one, think Nigel Pack has more than provided $400k in value for Miami, not only in the money made by their athletic department but in visibility for the school. Likewise, every other player on any team that Miami has played this year has contributed to that value by providing a means by which Pack and his teammates developed, and should be compensated accordingly (much like we have no issues with paying minor league baseball/hockey players even if they're 18 years old). In an ideal world, there'd be some sort of organization (I won't say the word union, even though I just did) that does some work to ensure everyone gets a small sliver of the pie, but that's likely a pipe dream in the short term.
I could go into my thoughts on this in more detail, but can't do it justice while quickly typing a response while waiting for code to run, so I'll exercise some self control and stop
Scott Rich on the front page
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How long before a NIL donor tells a player “it would really help me out if you win by less than 6 tonight”?
While FAU, SDSU, the U, and UCONN are all very popular letters, used the world over, they aren't especially popular basketball programs.
March Madness ratings are, therefore, getting crushed, and if UCONN loses tonight, CBS is facing a financial bloodbath. I cobbled together several sources, but it seems that CBS has decided to do something about this crisis. They aren't going to announce it officially, since NIL deals can be kept quiet, but it's a big deal.
Basically, CBS has decided to pay its own NIL money. The amounts will be based on player performance, anticipated draft status, and the team they play for.
The promo line: The Most Watched Players on the Most Watched Network.
Here's the gist:
1. Returning CBS All Americans get paid:
$100,000 if 3rd team
$250,000 if 2nd team
$500,000 if 1st team
$1,000,000 if POY
In addition to the above, if slotted into 2nd round of the CBS Mock Draft: $250,000
if 1st round: $500,000
if lottery: $1m
2. Returning players from Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky:
Rotation players (>15 mpg or >5 ppg or >4 rpg or >3 assists pg): $200,000
Starters (>20 games +/- 10 ppg): $350,000
If slotted into into 2nd round of the CBS Mock Draft: an additional $600,000
If slotted into 1st round: an additional $1.25 m
If slotted into lottery: an additional $2.5 m
Transfers into those programs get an automatic $100K and then a prorated amount based on performance--the articles were fuzzy on those details. Incoming McDonald's All Americans (and/or 5 stars, based on a consensus 247 rating) get $25,000/month as long as they remain enrolled in school.
Stars for those programs could make upwards of $3m in NIL just from CBS, which is why Gradey Dick is apparently going to quietly renounce his decision to go pro this year.
Obviously, this might be criticized by some fans, including fans of programs without much of a national following (eg, FAU, SDSU, UNC), but it is likely to improve ratings. My impression is that there is more fine tuning to be done, but that's the gist.
https://www.sportico.com/business/me...ss-1234715764/
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball...inal-game-2017
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/202...h-coach-k-cbs/
https://theathletic.com/4361226/2023...aa-tournament/
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/202...s-wbc-fs1-xfl/
Last edited by johnb; 04-01-2023 at 07:59 AM.
Good one!
Late to the party, but here are some suggestions for the 2022-2023 All-NIL Name Team. I left off Adama Sanogo because I felt the Sanogo/Sunoco thing was a little forced. This is a PG-rated board, so I deliberately avoided pairing a certain Kansas OAD with the sporting goods company. (I guess I could have added Duke's own Stanley Borden, but I didn't want to come across as a homer.)
2022-2023 All-NIL Name Team
Tyree Appleby, Wake Forest
Supreme Cook, Fairfield
Kimo Ferrari, Brown
Adam Seiko, San Diego State
Nike Sibande, Pittsburgh
Honorable Honorable Mention Mention
Boo Buie, Northwestern
Federiko Federiko, Pittsburgh
Osun Osunniyi, Iowa State
Tony Toney, UAB
We already see some pretty wild names in college sports. NIL might make things even more interesting. Why not name your kid Burger King just in case he winds up being a D1 athlete to help his NIL prospects?