NIL ????

[TigerAlum]

What schools within the MIAA are giving out NIL money? Or have a collective set up?

Any actual proof or just my sons friend's cousin, ex girlfiend, friend of friend gets it.

So all this talk in other threads isn't really is what I'm hearing.
The athletes don't get much from the NIL gear sales, mostly it's family and significant others buying stuff, a few bucks.

Maybe UCMs QB got some and a few guys at each school randomly got in some ads.

What I've been saying for months about this on the forum is that the NIL and D2 right now is extremely insignificant and as much as people want to think NIL is a big deal at the D2 level it's not. If the NCAA is really honest it's really only for a select few...the superstars and big schools/conferences.

I think it's great to see even a few get it but as much as people think it's impacting all NCAA sports and levels it's not there.

New kids might think they will be getting some, maybe even asking for it but it sure sounds like ita not happening. It might a not YET but not right now.

[Predatory Primates]

I agree NIL is small in D2. Small time pillow money.

It doesn't get significant.until you get to big money programs, or a player grows a big Soc. Media following.

[Kiss My Ass]

I agree NIL is small in D2. Small time pillow money.

It doesn't get significant.until you get to big money programs, or a player grows a big Soc. Media following.

I was watching The Herd on FS1 and Colin said the big money programs have 18 to 20 million in NIL money with the QB getting 4 or 5 million. WOW

[IowaBearcat]

I agree NIL is small in D2. Small time pillow money.

It doesn't get significant.until you get to big money programs, or a player grows a big Soc. Media following.

Even big programs don't have significant money, unless you're a top player. Median NIL is in the hundreds. Still pillow money at best for 80%. Ability to simply transfer and feel more relevant on the bench of a D1 program is worth way more than a small check too. The new revenue sharing and 20 more scholarships will be even harder to compete with.

I'm waiting for D2 schools to start adding on fees to build their NIL pools outside of donors though. Already happening at many major D1's through tuition fees, ticket price increase/fees, chair back fees, etc. Would you pay an extra $5 per ticket if it went into a "portal pool"?

[libertybearcat]

Even big programs don't have significant money, unless you're a top player. Median NIL is in the hundreds. Still pillow money at best for 80%. Ability to simply transfer and feel more relevant on the bench of a D1 program is worth way more than a small check too. The new revenue sharing and 20 more scholarships will be even harder to compete with.

I'm waiting for D2 schools to start adding on fees to build their NIL pools outside of donors though. Already happening at many major D1's through tuition fees, ticket price increase/fees, chair back fees, etc. Would you pay an extra $5 per ticket if it went into a "portal pool"?

I think the new 105 roster limit could end up helping D2...no more walk-ons on those rosters...depends on if FCS is able to expand their scholarships AND how many of those schools could afford to add them. If they allow FCS to increase their number of schollies, could we see some schools drop back down to D2 (or other lower levels) because they can't afford enough scholarships to compete with those schools that can?

Still will be a challenge to hold on to talent, but if you're developing talent that moves up...couldn't you also become a destination for those players who want a chance to move up...you could still have them for a year or two...

D2 schools will need to find ways to differentiate themselves...one of the reasons I was disappointed AD didn't get hired is he had a plan that appeared to differentiate NW from other D2 schools. Hoping UCO doesn't find the funding for him to do it there. Not going to share what it was...

Definitely going to be interesting.

[IowaBearcat]

I think the new 105 roster limit could end up helping D2...no more walk-ons on those rosters...depends on if FCS is able to expand their scholarships AND how many of those schools could afford to add them. If they allow FCS to increase their number of schollies, could we see some schools drop back down to D2 (or other lower levels) because they can't afford enough scholarships to compete with those schools that can?

Still will be a challenge to hold on to talent, but if you're developing talent that moves up...couldn't you also become a destination for those players who want a chance to move up...you could still have them for a year or two...

D2 schools will need to find ways to differentiate themselves...one of the reasons I was disappointed AD didn't get hired is he had a plan that appeared to differentiate NW from other D2 schools. Hoping UCO doesn't find the funding for him to do it there. Not going to share what it was...

Definitely going to be interesting.

I'm probably more pessimistic and feel like prioritized walk-ons will just receive partial scholarships now, since that too is allowed. Obviously going to depend who can afford to fund 105 too, so there should be some trickle down, but as you laid out, they'll just transfer back out in many cases. I sympathize with admissions offices who have to deal with trying to determine academic progress and credits going across so many schools. haha

To me, a plan should include raiding talent from down, and less chasing the above. 6300+ football players in the portal as of today. 3700 are FCS or FBS. I'd rather spend 95% of portal time chasing other D2, JuCo and NAIA talents.

[libertybearcat]

I'm probably more pessimistic and feel like prioritized walk-ons will just receive partial scholarships now, since that too is allowed. Obviously going to depend who can afford to fund 105 too, so there should be some trickle down, but as you laid out, they'll just transfer back out in many cases. I sympathize with admissions offices who have to deal with trying to determine academic progress and credits going across so many schools. haha

To me, a plan should include raiding talent from down, and less chasing the above. 6300+ football players in the portal as of today. 3700 are FCS or FBS. I'd rather spend 95% of portal time chasing other D2, JuCo and NAIA talents.

It's my understanding the rosters are limited to 105 and all can have scholarships (or equivalent), so there won't be walk-ons, but there will be a lot of transferring...the more years there is all this transferring at some point won't they have a big enough sample size on how many of those guys end up with scholarships at other D1 schools and lower level...I'd think people will take a more measured approach to the decision to transfer...also with a 105 roster limit won't there be a sub set of player who are pushed out too?

Look at NW's rosters from 2003-2016...lots of Nebraska kids who would have normally been walk-ons at NU, but when they hired Callahan and totally gutted it...those kids came to places like NW...some of them did start to go FCS with the ND and SD schools went to FCS...so it would seem that you could see a fair amount of good talent falling to D2.

Seems like there could be more guys either deciding from the get go a lower division school is their best opportunity...I also think if you offer the right value propositions you would keep more of those kids who could move up, not all of them, but keep more of them.

Lets say you're fully funded with 36 schollies...that's 72 with half...assume most could find 25% in financial aid...leaves 25% to potentially fund through NIL If school costs a total of $25k...that's $6,250 still needed $450k for those 72 guys...(and that $25k cost is year one only...you can easily secure much cheaper housing and meals outside living in the dorms...so they now have a full ride equivalent...without even tapping your big money donors...how hard would it be to just find 100 football alumni to do $500 a month...$6k a year...there's $600k in NIL or 200 alumni (not just football alumni) doing $250 a month...same $600k...now you have an extra $150k to spread around to other players or give more to your best 72...that would help keep more of those guys moving up AND be more attractive to bring up guys from lower division or even other D2s...

It wouldn't be that difficult to do.

Problem most D2 schools have is a small number of big $$$ donors and if you start going to them...how much less will the school be getting from them to help cover up other budgetary things? How long before you get push back from the school's foundation? Hell, I got reamed for saying we were going to be asking some my Fraternity's big money guys for money to build a new house because the Foundation was worried it would take from them. Lots of things to balance...so it would be best to create it from non-traditional sources that doesn't take away from the school's normal donor base.

Hell, maybe I'm way off here...but it doesn't seem to be that difficult to do. How hard of a sell would it be to go to your FB alumni to donate to DIRECTLY help the team...the old NW FB players I've spoken too said they'd be in on something like that. You'd get some guys who could do $10k or $15k a year and some that could do $1k or $2k...if you're budget is $600k and you can raise say $900k sock that $300k away to eventually endow a percentage of the annual budget...then all of a sudden you have even more money available.

But hey, what do I know? Made one phone call and had the money pledged for what AD wanted...it isn't rocket surgery or brain science! ;)

[Predatory Primates]

Even big programs don't have significant money, unless you're a top player. Median NIL is in the hundreds. Still pillow money at best for 80%. Ability to simply transfer and feel more relevant on the bench of a D1 program is worth way more than a small check too. The new revenue sharing and 20 more scholarships will be even harder to compete with.

I'm waiting for D2 schools to start adding on fees to build their NIL pools outside of donors though. Already happening at many major D1's through tuition fees, ticket price increase/fees, chair back fees, etc. Would you pay an extra $5 per ticket if it went into a "portal pool"?

A lot of the big money schools (think ou, TX, Bama] have nil collectives where every player gets a guarantee. Some are 50k or more as a minimum.

I think the end game for those schools is to make it a straight salary. Then ticket and merch prices will really go nuts.

[IowaBearcat]

It's my understanding the rosters are limited to 105 and all can have scholarships (or equivalent), so there won't be walk-ons, but there will be a lot of transferring...the more years there is all this transferring at some point won't they have a big enough sample size on how many of those guys end up with scholarships at other D1 schools and lower level...I'd think people will take a more measured approach to the decision to transfer...also with a 105 roster limit won't there be a sub set of player who are pushed out too?

Look at NW's rosters from 2003-2016...lots of Nebraska kids who would have normally been walk-ons at NU, but when they hired Callahan and totally gutted it...those kids came to places like NW...some of them did start to go FCS with the ND and SD schools went to FCS...so it would seem that you could see a fair amount of good talent falling to D2.

Seems like there could be more guys either deciding from the get go a lower division school is their best opportunity...I also think if you offer the right value propositions you would keep more of those kids who could move up, not all of them, but keep more of them.

Lets say you're fully funded with 36 schollies...that's 72 with half...assume most could find 25% in financial aid...leaves 25% to potentially fund through NIL If school costs a total of $25k...that's $6,250 still needed $450k for those 72 guys...(and that $25k cost is year one only...you can easily secure much cheaper housing and meals outside living in the dorms...so they now have a full ride equivalent...without even tapping your big money donors...how hard would it be to just find 100 football alumni to do $500 a month...$6k a year...there's $600k in NIL or 200 alumni (not just football alumni) doing $250 a month...same $600k...now you have an extra $150k to spread around to other players or give more to your best 72...that would help keep more of those guys moving up AND be more attractive to bring up guys from lower division or even other D2s...

It wouldn't be that difficult to do.

Problem most D2 schools have is a small number of big $$$ donors and if you start going to them...how much less will the school be getting from them to help cover up other budgetary things? How long before you get push back from the school's foundation? Hell, I got reamed for saying we were going to be asking some my Fraternity's big money guys for money to build a new house because the Foundation was worried it would take from them. Lots of things to balance...so it would be best to create it from non-traditional sources that doesn't take away from the school's normal donor base.

Hell, maybe I'm way off here...but it doesn't seem to be that difficult to do. How hard of a sell would it be to go to your FB alumni to donate to DIRECTLY help the team...the old NW FB players I've spoken too said they'd be in on something like that. You'd get some guys who could do $10k or $15k a year and some that could do $1k or $2k...if you're budget is $600k and you can raise say $900k sock that $300k away to eventually endow a percentage of the annual budget...then all of a sudden you have even more money available.

But hey, what do I know? Made one phone call and had the money pledged for what AD wanted...it isn't rocket surgery or brain science! ;)

Walk-ons can still happen, but obviously the programs that have been in place are going to be fundamentally destroyed. That's why I'm curious how some of these partial scholarships are going to be handed out.

I hope you're right, but if they do trickle down, I worry many will expect some kind of D1-ish perks, or NIL cause they may think they're playing down. There will be value propositions in multiple forms, smaller bidding wars, demands, etc.

$5 per ticket, 6 home games, if you can average 5000 per game. $150k in the pot. Add an "athletics fee" per student. Gotta find ways to avoid donor exhaustion too, and like you said, avoid taking from Paul to pay Peter.

I have no idea how hard/easy funding raising and aligning donations is. But I know it takes the right people in place to trust their investment is worth it. So I hope JM gets creative, builds support and pushes modern changes. A lot riding on his relatively inexperienced shoulders.

[IowaBearcat]

A lot of the big money schools (think ou, TX, Bama] have nil collectives where every player gets a guarantee. Some are 50k or more as a minimum.

I think the end game for those schools is to make it a straight salary. Then ticket and merch prices will really go nuts.

Yes, I'm mostly familiar with University of Iowa's "Swarm" collective that has been struggling to gain members and raise funds. But I know there are 2 dozen others who are much larger and growing.

It's going to create classes within NCAA sports, where those with the deepest pockets, simply out-spend, above NIL market value, to stack their alma mater's rosters. When the NCAA had to back down after the Tennessee QB case, it secured it even further. It's gonna be the Wild West until Congress steps in and screws things up further.

[NWFanatic]

If the players get a salary what about OT, sick days, Holidays, pensions, vacations, COLA, EOC, HR, Unions etc?

[GorillaTeacher]

If the players get a salary what about OT, sick days, Holidays, pensions, vacations, COLA, EOC, HR, Unions etc?

All subject to negotiation.

[SW_Mustang]

So if I'm understanding things right. The schools do not pay the student any money. It is all outside money.

Don't mean to quote an old post - but here's an "NIL" introduction:

"NIL" is an acronym for "Name, Image, Likeness." It's a fancy way of saying "marketing" (or "sponsorship deals"). Under the old rules, players who worked hard to make it to the highest levels of sub-professional sports were not allowed to profit from their own name - that right was only reserved for the schools, conferences, administrators, coaching staff, TV Networks, and supporting cast of business ventures. Essentially, if a player accepted any amount of money for just about any reason, it would be considered a major NCAA violation and could even set a program back a few years. It was one of the only aspects of higher education where a student was not allowed to profit off of their work.

Now - athletes are allowed to accept "NIL" money from non-university avenues. In theory, this meant athletes could sign deals to appear in advertising, make social media posts, sign autographs, etc. - basically anything professional athletes could do. NIL itself did not allow a university to pay an athlete. I don't know where that stands right now with all the court battles and stuff going on, but NIL just allows athletes to use their image for monetary gain - same as everyone else in society.

That all being said - in practice, when we hear about these obscenely large NIL deals being signed, those are typically coming from "NIL collectives" (which is a fancy way of saying "booster clubs"). At the big schools, it's a conglomerate of wealthy donors that pool money to redistribute to athletes. There is currently no rule against doing this. Since the collectives aren't formally a part of the university, they are free to do this. NIL collectives do exist at smaller schools too but have far less impact.

The dirty little secret in all of this that nobody wants to acknowledge - the NCAA has allowed this practice for decades. It's pretty well documented that players were being paid large sums of money to play sports. The NCAA typically only heavily enforced these rules against the smaller programs, non-revenue generating athletes, or against larger athletes if the media broke the news first to force the NCAA's hand (like Reggie Bush, only after he graduated). Johnny Manziel was pretty openly being paid large sums of money - but he also generated so much for the NCAA they needed to keep him on the field as much as possible.

NIL really won't have much of a noticeable effect on the lower divisions. Collectives will exist, but the pot of money in D2 is so much smaller than it is in the SEC. Occasionally, a larger collective may offer money to a player to transfer up, but that's a very anecdotal situation.

I'm not an expert on all the ins an outs, but I'd be happy to answer any questions - I'm a marketing guy who did a project on the feasibility of NIL at small schools, and I've also followed it since the original Deestroying bru-haha.

[Mule4ever]

I still like my sports but as I get older I have less win for my alma mater or win for my state pride. It is now just a minor league system for all sports. It used to be about rivals now it's who has the most money gets the best players in football and basketball some players are using the extra year for NIL instead of the pros because the money is better.

[voicefromthestands]

Don't mean to quote an old post - but here's an "NIL" introduction:

"NIL" is an acronym for "Name, Image, Likeness." It's a fancy way of saying "marketing" (or "sponsorship deals"). Under the old rules, players who worked hard to make it to the highest levels of sub-professional sports were not allowed to profit from their own name - that right was only reserved for the schools, conferences, administrators, coaching staff, TV Networks, and supporting cast of business ventures. Essentially, if a player accepted any amount of money for just about any reason, it would be considered a major NCAA violation and could even set a program back a few years. It was one of the only aspects of higher education where a student was not allowed to profit off of their work.

Now - athletes are allowed to accept "NIL" money from non-university avenues. In theory, this meant athletes could sign deals to appear in advertising, make social media posts, sign autographs, etc. - basically anything professional athletes could do. NIL itself did not allow a university to pay an athlete. I don't know where that stands right now with all the court battles and stuff going on, but NIL just allows athletes to use their image for monetary gain - same as everyone else in society.

That all being said - in practice, when we hear about these obscenely large NIL deals being signed, those are typically coming from "NIL collectives" (which is a fancy way of saying "booster clubs"). At the big schools, it's a conglomerate of wealthy donors that pool money to redistribute to athletes. There is currently no rule against doing this. Since the collectives aren't formally a part of the university, they are free to do this. NIL collectives do exist at smaller schools too but have far less impact.

The dirty little secret in all of this that nobody wants to acknowledge - the NCAA has allowed this practice for decades. It's pretty well documented that players were being paid large sums of money to play sports. The NCAA typically only heavily enforced these rules against the smaller programs, non-revenue generating athletes, or against larger athletes if the media broke the news first to force the NCAA's hand (like Reggie Bush, only after he graduated). Johnny Manziel was pretty openly being paid large sums of money - but he also generated so much for the NCAA they needed to keep him on the field as much as possible.

NIL really won't have much of a noticeable effect on the lower divisions. Collectives will exist, but the pot of money in D2 is so much smaller than it is in the SEC. Occasionally, a larger collective may offer money to a player to transfer up, but that's a very anecdotal situation.

I'm not an expert on all the ins an outs, but I'd be happy to answer any questions - I'm a marketing guy who did a project on the feasibility of NIL at small schools, and I've also followed it since the original Deestroying bru-haha.

Thank You . This is what I thought was going on but after reading posts I had questions .