Name, Image, Likeness

I know there are folks who wonder about the money being passed around in NIL these days. I get emails all the time from people who want to know what I know.

Well, on the latest edition of the DBR Podcast, we had Brendan Marks of The Athletic as our guest. He told us that he and a few other college sportswriters at The Athletic are working on a major project to reveal the reality behind NIL in the current marketplace and he gave us some hints. It was quite revealing.

He said the NIL budget for just an average power conference school is around $2.5 mil. For mid-majors it is more like $500k, at the most. That is why all these kids who made all-conference in their mid-major conference move up to a power conference, the difference in what you can make is stunning. He also made it clear that Duke and UNC do not have the NIL budgets of the big players in the SEC or the Big 12, both of those conferences are spending like crazy on NIL.

There is a ton more there. I wish I could tell you exactly where to listen in this long podcast, but the NIL comments are sprinkled throughout the episode (and there is a good bit more of it in part 2 of our interview with Brendan, which is coming on Monday or Tuesday next week). Anyway, have a listen and enjoy --

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/RRTET7320327183?selected=RRTET4572521607
 
Thanksgiving NIL Tourney

Norlander and Dodd reported there will be "$1 million NIL payouts for eight participating schools," while the players involved "will have future earnings opportunities through long-term NIL contracts."
This is the first time something like this has been created in college sports.
The eight teams who will participate in this groundbreaking tournament are Alabama, Creighton, Houston, Notre Dame, Oregon, Rutgers, San Diego State and Texas A&M.
Click to expand...

https://www.si.com/fannation/name-image-likeness/nil-news/elite-college-basketball-programs-playing-revolutionary-nil-event-brad9
 
I've heard Duke is fairly likely to participate in this tournament starting next year.

Honestly, given the direction the sport has been going for the past couple years, a tournament where there is actual enhanced prize money for the winning teams makes perfect sense. The SEC and Big 12 are just crushing it in NIL spending these days. ACC teams really cannot keep up. Anything that might spread the wealth around a bit more would be helpful!
 
JasonEvans said:
I've heard Duke is fairly likely to participate in this tournament starting next year.

Honestly, given the direction the sport has been going for the past couple years, a tournament where there is actual enhanced prize money for the winning teams makes perfect sense. The SEC and Big 12 are just crushing it in NIL spending these days. ACC teams really cannot keep up. Anything that might spread the wealth around a bit more would be helpful!
Click to expand...
Several years ago I was kinda rudely laughed off the forum by some of the untouchables around here when I said that the ACC's demographic problems were going to end the league - at least as one of the major conferences - at some point. The NIL/Portal combo has hastened that horizon I would say. Thus the ACC getting pantsed in NIL spending. It's inevitable. You cannot beat demographics, ultimately.

Now I predict this: the fans (writ large) collective GAF will come back to haunt all these big money plans. Gambling interest will increase, hiding this fact for a while...but it's coming. The key relationship has been changed forever.
 
HereBeforeCoachK said:
Several years ago I was kinda rudely laughed off the forum by some of the untouchables around here when I said that the ACC's demographic problems were going to end the league - at least as one of the major conferences - at some point. The NIL/Portal combo has hastened that horizon I would say. Thus the ACC getting pantsed in NIL spending. It's inevitable. You cannot beat demographics, ultimately.

Now I predict this: the fans (writ large) collective GAF will come back to haunt all these big money plans. Gambling interest will increase, hiding this fact for a while...but it's coming. The key relationship has been changed forever.
Click to expand...
I remember you and I going toe to toe about NIL/portal issues. But I never disagreed with your assessment of the effect it might have on college sports.
 
CameronBornAndBred said:
Armando Bacot answers something we've wondered; how much does he make at Carolina?
Turns out it was two million, which works out to like 250K per year. ;)

www.wralsportsfan.com

Armando Bacot says he made $2 million-plus while at UNC through NIL :: WRALSportsFan.com

Armando Bacot made the revelation during Tuesday's episode of the "Run Your Race" podcast, hosted by former UNC player Theo Pinson
www.wralsportsfan.com www.wralsportsfan.com
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that this is real NIL money as it was originally intended. Bacot (and his agent) worked with third party businesses for commercial opportunities. This isn't a case of boosters presenting him with a bag of money for unspecified reasons. (Though maybe they did, and he told them, "Just send that money to the ACC referees, and tell them it's a gift from me.")

I know that Jeremy Roach did an social media ad with Raid bug spray, and Jared McCain did something online with Downy, but so far there hasn't been much of a traditional broadcast TV market for college basketball endorsers, at least the men. Based on what I remember from last spring...

Caitlin Clark: State Farm, Gatorade
JuJu Watkins: AT&T
Cameron Brink: New Balance
Flau'Jae Johnson: Powerade, Amazon (with Angel Reese)
Armando Bacot: TurboTax
Elliot Cadeau: Marriott

Yeah, the only male college basketball players with national TV ads both went to Carolina. So why are their fans blaming NIL when their team can't bring in a center from the portal?

Still hard to believe that the NCAA did a 180 on this issue, from complete restrictions to no rules at all. And it's sad that NIL was the ultimate misdirection: they told student-athletes, "Here, we'll graciously give you some means of earning that you should have always had", all while tightly clutching the tournament revenue.
 
brevity said:
Keep in mind that this is real NIL money as it was originally intended. Bacot (and his agent) worked with third party businesses for commercial opportunities. This isn't a case of boosters presenting him with a bag of money for unspecified reasons. (Though maybe they did, and he told them, "Just send that money to the ACC referees, and tell them it's a gift from me.")

I know that Jeremy Roach did an social media ad with Raid bug spray, and Jared McCain did something online with Downy, but so far there hasn't been much of a traditional broadcast TV market for college basketball endorsers, at least the men. Based on what I remember from last spring...

Caitlin Clark: State Farm, Gatorade
JuJu Watkins: AT&T
Cameron Brink: New Balance
Flau'Jae Johnson: Powerade, Amazon (with Angel Reese)
Armando Bacot: TurboTax
Elliot Cadeau: Marriott

Yeah, the only male college basketball players with national TV ads both went to Carolina. So why are their fans blaming NIL when their team can't bring in a center from the portal?

Still hard to believe that the NCAA did a 180 on this issue, from complete restrictions to no rules at all. And it's sad that NIL was the ultimate misdirection: they told student-athletes, "Here, we'll graciously give you some means of earning that you should have always had", all while tightly clutching the tournament revenue.
Click to expand...
Actually, one of the first national TV ads featuring a college player that I recall featured Paolo Banchero. I think he was featured in a video game or something? I can't recall exactly. But he was definitely in an ad on TV while he was still at Duke. It was mentioned here somewhere, but I can't find it.
 
Phredd3 said:
Actually, one of the first national TV ads featuring a college player that I recall featured Paolo Banchero. I think he was featured in a video game or something? I can't recall exactly. But he was definitely in an ad on TV while he was still at Duke. It was mentioned here somewhere, but I can't find it.
Click to expand...
Sure, I remember Paolo’s TV ad, but that wasn’t last spring.

It’s a weird situation. All of a sudden you have hundreds (maybe more) of recognizable celebrities who are interested in making commercials, and an advertising industry that doesn’t know what to do with them.

At a national level, how marketable are college athletes? Clark (before going pro) and LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne each generated huge followings wherever they went, so it’s not much of a gamble for a company to build an ad campaign around them.

Even some of the ads I listed above look like the advertisers are hedging their bets. Watkins is a featured part of a Joel Embiid ad. Brink and Cadeau do not speak, and are surrounded by others, so that it doesn’t matter if you can or can’t identify them.

Of course, not all advertising is national, and regional ads are a far less risky outlet for true NIL opportunities. I have seen Reese (before going pro) appear in an ad for Raising Cane’s, and maybe I’m just fast forwarding through, say, the car dealership commercials with Tulane football players.
 
brevity said:
Keep in mind that this is real NIL money as it was originally intended. Bacot (and his agent) worked with third party businesses for commercial opportunities. This isn't a case of boosters presenting him with a bag of money for unspecified reasons. (Though maybe they did, and he told them, "Just send that money to the ACC referees, and tell them it's a gift from me.")

I know that Jeremy Roach did an social media ad with Raid bug spray, and Jared McCain did something online with Downy, but so far there hasn't been much of a traditional broadcast TV market for college basketball endorsers, at least the men. Based on what I remember from last spring...

Caitlin Clark: State Farm, Gatorade
JuJu Watkins: AT&T
Cameron Brink: New Balance
Flau'Jae Johnson: Powerade, Amazon (with Angel Reese)
Armando Bacot: TurboTax
Elliot Cadeau: Marriott

Yeah, the only male college basketball players with national TV ads both went to Carolina. So why are their fans blaming NIL when their team can't bring in a center from the portal?

Still hard to believe that the NCAA did a 180 on this issue, from complete restrictions to no rules at all. And it's sad that NIL was the ultimate misdirection: they told student-athletes, "Here, we'll graciously give you some means of earning that you should have always had", all while tightly clutching the tournament revenue.
Click to expand...
Don’t entirely agree with your premise that this is NIL as originally intended. Yes, I’m sure the companies using Bacot’s “endorsement/image” saw some limited value; but I feel certain this value was not $2 mill and the Cheat collectives dumped cash in his account to make up the difference.

Same as for Roach, the bug spray gig pays him a bit, but Duke/Baylor have big time supplemented his account.

We (college teams) are paying players so that we can gain bragging rights. Fairly simple concept to me.
 
brevity said:
Sure, I remember Paolo’s TV ad, but that wasn’t last spring.
Click to expand...
I looked it up, and Paolo signed with the 2K22 video game either just before or just after he got to Duke (the article said "three months after graduating from high school"). I seem to recall seeing a brief spot for that game, with Paolo in it, some time in the winter of 2021-22 during a Duke game. I want to say just before Christmas, but I can't recall exactly, and I can't find it. Perhaps it wasn't run nationally, but was one of the winter regional spots?
 
A bit of searching revealed that Paolo had NIL deals while still at Duke with 2K, JD Sports and Panini.

www.dukechronicle.com

Duke men's basketball's Paolo Banchero becomes first college player in NBA 2K

Duke basketball’s freshman forward and top-tier NBA draft candidate is featured as a playable character in NBA 2K22, Banchero announced on social media Friday.
www.dukechronicle.com www.dukechronicle.com

www.dukechronicle.com

Paolo Banchero agrees to NIL deal with JD Sports

Paolo Banchero keeps shining, on and off the court.
www.dukechronicle.com www.dukechronicle.com

www.dukechronicle.com

Paolo Banchero agrees to exclusive NIL trading card deal with Panini

Duke’s highest-ranked freshman isn’t wasting any time on the NIL trail.
www.dukechronicle.com www.dukechronicle.com

Here is the JD Sports ad (go to the 0:23 mark for Paolo):
 
Ok, this is HUGE news -- it is expected that the NCAA is about to eliminate ALL Scholarship limits across ALL sports!!! There will be roster caps still, but all players will be eligible for full-rides. This will SEVERELY increase Athletic Department budgets and divide schools into the "haves" and "have nots". A school being able to offer all 10 male tennis players full rides vs. the current 4.5 scholarships is a HUGE chasm.

For football, this means it can have a full 105 (!!!!) full-ride scholarships!

Wow....

"beginning in 2025-26 academic year — by-sport scholarship restrictions are eliminated, and schools are permitted to offer scholarships to the entirety of their rosters."
sports.yahoo.com

Sources: NCAA to increase scholarships for sports, with football getting roster limit of 105 players

As part of the new revenue-sharing model, by-sport scholarship restrictions will be eliminated, and schools are permitted to offer scholarships to the entirety of their rosters.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

A couple other key things:
"Another key change to the scholarship structure: All sports will be considered “equivalency sports,” meaning partial scholarships can be distributed to players. Football, basketball and other sports are currently considered “head-count sports,” which require players on scholarship to receive a full grant."
"According to several power conference administrators who spoke to Yahoo Sports, programs are expecting to spend $3 million-7 million in additional scholarships each year."

Maybe the $5M or so in additional costs isn't as much as I thought, but that's a preliminary guess ....for a school like Duke where athletic scholarships are more expensive, I'd imagine it's higher.

"For the most elite power programs, the total cost of both the scholarship additions and the sharing of revenue with athletes will exceed $30 million a year — a figure reported in a story on Yahoo in May. "

And impact to Olympic sports mentioned at the end:
"To maintain compliance with the federal Title IX law, any scholarship increases in a men’s sport will likely need to be replicated in a women’s sport, driving up the additional costs. But not all programs can afford to add so many additional scholarships. Some administrators are in the process of “tiering” their sports by decreasing investment on certain programs and increasing investment in others. This includes staff and salary cuts as well as the reduction in scholarships from Olympic sports, especially those that generate little to no revenue."
 
Bluedog said:
Ok, this is HUGE news -- it is expected that the NCAA is about to eliminate ALL Scholarship limits across ALL sports!!! There will be roster caps still, but all players will be eligible for full-rides. This will SEVERELY increase Athletic Department budgets and divide schools into the "haves" and "have nots". A school being able to offer all 10 male tennis players full rides vs. the current 4.5 scholarships is a HUGE chasm.

For football, this means it can have a full 105 (!!!!) full-ride scholarships!

Wow....

"beginning in 2025-26 academic year — by-sport scholarship restrictions are eliminated, and schools are permitted to offer scholarships to the entirety of their rosters."
sports.yahoo.com

Sources: NCAA to increase scholarships for sports, with football getting roster limit of 105 players

As part of the new revenue-sharing model, by-sport scholarship restrictions will be eliminated, and schools are permitted to offer scholarships to the entirety of their rosters.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

A couple other key things:
"Another key change to the scholarship structure: All sports will be considered “equivalency sports,” meaning partial scholarships can be distributed to players. Football, basketball and other sports are currently considered “head-count sports,” which require players on scholarship to receive a full grant."
"According to several power conference administrators who spoke to Yahoo Sports, programs are expecting to spend $3 million-7 million in additional scholarships each year."

Maybe the $5M or so in additional costs isn't as much as I thought, but that's a preliminary guess ....for a school like Duke where athletic scholarships are more expensive, I'd imagine it's higher.

"For the most elite power programs, the total cost of both the scholarship additions and the sharing of revenue with athletes will exceed $30 million a year — a figure reported in a story on Yahoo in May. "

And impact to Olympic sports mentioned at the end:
"To maintain compliance with the federal Title IX law, any scholarship increases in a men’s sport will likely need to be replicated in a women’s sport, driving up the additional costs. But not all programs can afford to add so many additional scholarships. Some administrators are in the process of “tiering” their sports by decreasing investment on certain programs and increasing investment in others. This includes staff and salary cuts as well as the reduction in scholarships from Olympic sports, especially those that generate little to no revenue."
Click to expand...
Guess Duke will have to add 20 f-ball scholarships to appear to be football competitive. This likely means 20 fewer men’s schollies available in non-revenue sports or 20 more female spots on existing teams or new female sports.

Our AD has major soul searching in front of her.
 
My understanding is that the limit on the number of scholarships is going up to 105 for football, but the limit on the roster size is coming down (from 120). So, that means that Bama, Georgia, and everyone else in the SEC just lost 15 walk-ons.

Similarly, the scholarship limit has gone up to 15 for men's basketball. Which means that Duke can give more of their walk-ons scholarships (if they choose to). We already know that the number of recruited players that can expect playing time is significantly below that.
 
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