Auburn’s NIL Future

[gravejd 3,272]

Just keep in mind that paying out big money does not = success on the football field. Yes it will be an advantage to certain school who have larger alumni and richer alumni. But you can't write a check and get a good football team. Ask Jerry Jones. Yes we need boosters and sponsors to help out our guys. But the goal should not be to match whatever bama or texas are doing. The goal should be to remain competitive in the terms of NIL so that we can pull in quality players. Then have an unrivaled staff that can develop those players and put them in the NFL. If we can do that we will be successful. 

[TigerHorn 1,354]

24 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

And that is different from what has been going on for decades how, exactly? Just that it actually benefits some kids now?

Some schools - UAT for one example, and OU in the case of Dupree - have been the darkside of college athletics for a long time. They have "processed" 10 athletes for every star produced. Other schools, and AU has been very good about this, have pushed preparing these kids, and graduating them either during their scholarship years or after, regardless of their on-field contributions. Those now-young-adults have a future better than being unskilled labor. 

Kids need guidance. Did you know what to do with $100k when you were 18? Probably not. 

Men who have built empires from nothing need no such guidance. 

[TigerHorn 1,354]

1 minute ago, gravejd said:

Just keep in mind that paying out big money does not = success on the football field. Yes it will be an advantage to certain school who have larger alumni and richer alumni. But you can't write a check and get a good football team. Ask Jerry Jones. Yes we need boosters and sponsors to help out our guys. But the goal should not be to match whatever bama or texas are doing. The goal should be to remain competitive in the terms of NIL so that we can pull in quality players. Then have an unrivaled staff that can develop those players and put them in the NFL. If we can do that we will be successful. 

It's a fair example, but Jerry Jones has a salary cap to work with. As of right now, universities have no such cap. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

6 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

Some schools - UAT for one example, and OU in the case of Dupree - have been the darkside of college athletics for a long time. They have "processed" 10 athletes for every star produced. Other schools, and AU has been very good about this, have pushed preparing these kids, and graduating them either during their scholarship years or after, regardless of their on-field contributions. Those now-young-adults have a future better than being unskilled labor. 

Kids need guidance. Did you know what to do with $100k when you were 18? Probably not. 

Men who have built empires from nothing need no such guidance. 

So you are suggesting that no child under the age of- what year exactly are you proposing?- should be allowed access to money that they have earned?

[1auburn1 1,120]

WRT "bow waves" and othe complex financial packages for players, while possibly good ideas from people who have experience in matters like this, they aren't gonna happen.     The horse is not only out of the stables on this but it's about to run for the hills.    Athletes and advocates fought hard for financial compensation to make it's way to these kids and they are starting to get it with basically no strings attached for deals they work for themselves.     The question is for the schools, how does this affect our business model and what does it mean for education (which what a university is supposed to be focused on anyway).  

For education, I don't know.   Some players who made some cash in school might be able to stay longer, if needed, and finish their degree.   For others, some of which never had any money, will be fooled by the quick influx of cash and blow off their education opportunities even more than before.  Then they're one injury from being broke again.   Pro athletes go bankrupt at an alarming rate.   17-18 yr old kids will be even worse and most definitley won't manage their money correctly in most cases.     Again, it's going to be up to the individual on how they take care of their finances.

So if you're Auburn, you need to make sure that the "money" people are fully informed about how important NIL deals will be to the success of the program and the importance of how everyone needs to pull together in the same direction.    The President and AD are money-raisers anyway and they have to take the lead on this.    I also could see where schools will need to start offering financial planning services to athletes so that they one's who get deals at least have someone talk to them about investing wisely.    It will be a bad look for the school (and bad for the players/families) if a bunch of the players lose all of their money and then don't have an education either.     If some/all of this is in direct violation of NCAA/NIL rules, I don't know, I haven't read them, but let's not be naive to think anything that's not completely clean can't be done under the table.   That's the way it's always been done. 

[AUGoo 2,666]

16 hours ago, ToomersRevenge said:

Texas boosters opened the floodgates by agreeing to form NIL groups over $10 million to get most major players to over 100k across I believe five sports. 

Maybe we should start the AUFamily fund.  Everyone kick in some $$.  Maybe get some inheritance soon.  How old is Golf again?

Screw my kids I might have to leave it all here.

Both Dollars.

[McLoofus 35,182]

22 minutes ago, 1auburn1 said:

I also could see where schools will need to start offering financial planning services to athletes so that they one's who get deals at least have someone talk to them about investing wisely.

Auburn has already done this part. Pretty sure all the power programs have.

[AUght2win 6,883]

1 hour ago, TigerHorn said:

Wrong. Alan Green is a university employee. So are the coaches, and they all get a base salary from the university. The Athletic Department most certainly does derive a portion of its funding from the university and the public coffers. If that were not the case, then the AD would be paying rent on the land that JHS and the Arena sit on at minimum, if not on the facilities themselves. In-kind contributions are still money. Ask the IRS about that. Start charging the AD for those in-kind contributions, and that "profit" turns into a loss right now. 

Yes, the AD brings in a lot of revenue, but without the university and its underlying funding, NONE of the AD exists. Something like only 25 of the 120 D-1 AD's turn a "profit", and it's not the same 25 every year. NONE of the non-P5 schools reported a profit. Where do you think those losses are made up from?

WRT to the kids, most who have come through AU left with degrees, or got them via the follow-on programs that AU runs. In the new normal, where is there any incentive to keep a kid who's doing everything right, but just not making it on the field? If you create a bow wave, kid gets a degree AND doesn't get to blow all of his $ while in school. They get out with a shot at life and a nest egg that most students would kill for. The NIL with no bow wave combined with the Portal is a path to making most student athletes the next "Best That Never Was". I think that dude is a truck driver now. 

I've supported the idea of viewing the players, as a whole, as a union. Their participation by year could accrue in a pension to be paid out when their playing days are done. 

At least in the scholarship model there was the illusion of 85 guys being paid equally in the form of tuition. Now, Bryce Young will get a million+ per year, while the 2nd string OL gets literally nothing. In addition, the star QB at GSU, who Alabama schedules for homecoming, gets nothing based on his school choice.

People are right when they say CFB is a billion dollar business. But there are 10s of thousands of kids that are responsible, not just the star players. Take away the backups, the practice squad players, the non P-5 schools and CFB isn't CFB.

So I think all likeness revenue, or at least a portion/tax percent, should go into a pot that ALL players gets a share of at the end of their career, depending on how many years they play. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

I just don't understand the direct correlation some are making between these kids earning endorsement money and dropping out of school. Can someone explain that to me? How will endorsements- clearly based on athletic performance- result in lower graduation rates?

Do you think that kids are going to get $100k and decide that they no longer need the NFL nor a college degree? Do we really think that there is going to be a crisis where a significant number of kids are earning that kind of money?

How many kids do you think are going to be offered even $10,000 for their NIL? How many are going to let that compromise their futures?

What precedent for this are you citing?

Edited December 2, 2021 by McLoofus

[AUght2win 6,883]

5 hours ago, W.E.D said:

Sp you're mad Auburn fans would like their ultra wealthy alumni to do the same thing other schools are doing bc we as posters here aren't worth 900mm like Yellawood??

FWIW, there there was some Auburn Recruiting LLC that paid players, I bet a lot more ppl besides Yellawood would contribute. s***, I'd throw a few hundred in there to buy an autograph from Tank so he stays a year.

Essentially a go fund me for players 

Just don't complain when the big money guys are running things again. Nobody is giving multi-millions without some say-so in return. That's literally the good ol' boy model. 

[AUght2win 6,883]

9 hours ago, IronMan70 said:

Auburn can't use their own money in the NIL so it IS about other people's money. The point was about using intermediaries to accomplish this. A private entity is set up that provides the funds to the players for xyz services. The entity can consist of 100, 250, 500 private contributors or more and the administrative part of it can be done in several ways.

A lot of people would be willing to contribute to something like that including me. This should already be being done but I haven't heard about it. That's just ONE way of funding the NIL and keeping it funded. Some schools like Texas, as was mentioned in the thread, already have the funds available. Heck I think they even own oil wells. Other schools have to get creative to fund this. 

Those are interesting ideas but I wonder about the legality. You can't just set up a gofundme for players. It has to be in use of business/advertising, as I understand.

[homersapien 11,498]

Maybe I am just too old-fashioned, but I find all this extremely depressing.

 

[TigerHorn 1,354]

40 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

So you are suggesting that no child under the age of- what year exactly are you proposing?- should be allowed access to money that they have earned?

They would have exactly the same access that a big company exec has. For example:

- Total NIL annual comp is $500k, not a bammer QB, but maybe a UGA CB here

- base NIL comp they get $100k in salary

- Another $100k in bonus for every academic year completed with passing grades toward a degree

- $300k linked to some level of performance metrics, both on the field and academic, paid out over five years

By the time they graduate, they've been extremely well-paid to play a game while earning a degree AND they have another several hundred k coming to them spread out over the next five years as they transition into a new likely-non-NFL career. They can afford to become low-/un-paid GAs and learn the coaching profession, they can pay for the college degree they really wanted but didn't have time to get, or they can just keep paying off all their baby mommas. The point is, instead of ending their college careers with no job, no degree, broken body, and no cash, which is what will happen with most teens when you hand them a wad of cash, now they get to nearly 30 with some cash runway, have maybe grown up and have a huge head start on life. 

The portal is now no longer something you enter on a whim because you don't want to earn your way up the depth chart, and the coaches have incentive not to just cut kids because their NIL is still going to be paying that cut kid 3-5 years from now. 

[CoffeeTiger 5,223]

33 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

Just don't complain when the big money guys are running things again. Nobody is giving multi-millions without some say-so in return. That's literally the good ol' boy model. 

Didn't know big money guys ever stopped running things or having outsized influence. 

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

They would have exactly the same access that a big company exec has. For example:

- Total NIL annual comp is $500k, not a bammer QB, but maybe a UGA CB here

- base NIL comp they get $100k in salary

- Another $100k in bonus for every academic year completed with passing grades toward a degree

- $300k linked to some level of performance metrics, both on the field and academic, paid out over five years

By the time they graduate, they've been extremely well-paid to play a game while earning a degree AND they have another several hundred k coming to them spread out over the next five years as they transition into a new likely-non-NFL career. They can afford to become low-/un-paid GAs and learn the coaching profession, they can pay for the college degree they really wanted but didn't have time to get, or they can just keep paying off all their baby mommas. The point is, instead of ending their college careers with no job, no degree, broken body, and no cash, which is what will happen with most teens when you hand them a wad of cash, now they get to nearly 30 with some cash runway, have maybe grown up and have a huge head start on life. 

The portal is now no longer something you enter on a whim because you don't want to earn your way up the depth chart, and the coaches have incentive not to just cut kids because their NIL is still going to be paying that cut kid 3-5 years from now. 

I don't think you and I are anywhere close on how any of this works or will work. 

First of all, those numbers are wildly exaggerated for all but a handful of kids. 

Second of all, the entire idea of NIL is already based on pay for play. As in, both the player and the payer have a vested interest in that player's continued success on the field. That only happens through continued education until graduation or draft day.

Third, you're simply assuming that paying the kids immediately will result in "ending their college careers with no job, no degree, broken body, and no cash". But let's say for a second that there is in fact some realistic correlation there. Exactly how is that different than what's been going on since at least as far back as the 60s? Other than the kids getting money over the table than they did under it in the past? 

Fourth, kids don't already have to earn their spot if they transfer? Are you aware of the fates of most of the kids who have transferred away from Auburn- it's been many of them- over the last 10, 15 years?

Fifth, why do coaches care if these players' endorsement deals are still paying them after they're gone? You don't think the money's coming from Auburn, do you?

 

 

 

[W.E.D 11,070]

24 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

$300k linked to some level of performance metrics, both on the field 

That's illegal

[IronMan70 3,277]

School A delays the money, school B does not. As a practical matter one school will have a competitive advantage over the other because the kids will pay more attention to it. Each idea has to be thought of through the prism of being competitive.

[AUGoo 2,666]

1 hour ago, AUght2win said:

Those are interesting ideas but I wonder about the legality. You can't just set up a gofundme for players. It has to be in use of business/advertising, as I understand.

So, I'm guessing, all you do is have them promote AUFamily on their Instagram account. 

WaaaaLaaaaa! Advertising.

[AUinfusion 390]

2 hours ago, AUDevil said:

I don’t understand why AU doesn’t have an announcement within a week showing a similar commitment as any other big school.  Hopefully we have bright and aggressive staff devoted towards putting deals together and getting buy-in from major donors.  If I’m a recruit, this is a major factor.

 

This is the new arms race and probably more important than facilities.

Yup. In an environment where it feels like a few schools have built unassailable fortresses around paying players, this feels the kind of disruption that will let aggressive participants level the playing field. We're crazy not to be leaning into NIL, hard.

[ToomersRevenge 284]

1 hour ago, AUGoo said:

So, I'm guessing, all you do is have them promote AUFamily on their Instagram account. 

WaaaaLaaaaa! Advertising.

As others have said you can technically just pay them to be advertisers for you and have them show up to literally anything and pay em. Single tweet or whatever. At that point there’s no actual difference between just paying them.

[AUreo 753]

Tim Cook could definitely help out with his own money. Apple doesn’t have to get involved at all.

Tim Cook receives over 5 million shares of Apple stock worth $750 million

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/26/tim-cook-receives-apple-stock-worth-750-million.html

[AUght2win 6,883]

1 hour ago, AUreo said:

Tim Cook could definitely help out with his own money. Apple doesn’t have to get involved at all.

Tim Cook receives over 5 million shares of Apple stock worth $750 million

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/26/tim-cook-receives-apple-stock-worth-750-million.html

Again, through what business or advertisement will this flow through?

[McLoofus 35,182]

Auburn Athletics just posted its highest graduation success rate in program history. 93%, up from the previous record of 91%. 

Damned shame how NIL has destroyed the already tenuous connection between college sports and education. Just a damned shame, I tell ya. 

[cbo 7,967]

39 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Auburn Athletics just posted its highest graduation success rate in program history. 93%, up from the previous record of 91%. 

Damned shame how NIL has destroyed the already tenuous connection between college sports and education. Just a damned shame, I tell ya. 

And it's already ruined the game, as others on here will tell you. I can't even enjoy it anymore. During the Iron Bowl, all I did was think about NIL. 

[AUght2win 6,883]

On 12/2/2021 at 2:00 PM, ToomersRevenge said:

As others have said you can technically just pay them to be advertisers for you and have them show up to literally anything and pay em. Single tweet or whatever. At that point there’s no actual difference between just paying them.

I don't think you can. The NCAA likely reserves the right to parse out what is clearly a money-front vs. a genuine advertising business arrangement.