NIL Discussion

[W.E.D 11,070]

12 hours ago, LPTiger said:

DAG I  get exactly what you are saying but in baseball the NCAA only allows 11 scholarships.    They must be split among 35 players.   They don't get tuition room and board and 3 meals.  Each baseball player, on scholarship  on average gets 1/3rd tuition, 1/3 books, 1/3 meals.   They must come out of pocket for the remaining 2/3rds.   Prior to NIL, baseball players had to pay their way to come to AU.

Only if Alabama had an education lottery and they could fix this

[JerryAU 1,667]

20 hours ago, LPTiger said:

I think you have hit on something.   People don't understand it.   If you go to the ON To Victory website you can donate and earmark where your dollars go i.e. 100% to baseball (please 6lb 3 ounce sweet little baby Jesus).   Or 50% football and 50% baseball.   If you do not earmark your dollars, there is a formula that is used to determine who gets what.   I do not know what the formula is.   You are 100% correct.   Baseball is in bad need of donations.   Prior to last night just 12 people had made an earmarked donation to baseball.   I became #13.   We really need baseball $$$ and no amount is too small.    While every girl on scholarship for Volleyball has a full ride, because of NCAA regulations baseball gets just 11 schollys to divide among the entire roster.    Baseball NIL $$ are being used for tuition, food and housing.   These kids aren't buying Charges.   Please give even if it is $25.  p.s. our boys have won their last 3 series including series against #1 and #2.   Doesn't that deserve $25, $50, $100?   

People don't understand it and who the devil knows where OTV donations go?  OTV takes a 10% cut off the top for operating & administration fees, then what?  Who decides which athletic program gets what cut of the donations?  Who decides which players on the team get what % of NIL funds?  The whole operation is too vague to the average season ticket holder who's paying TUF donations + their family season ticket package + their donation to academics, which is what my family commits to AU.  

I'm glad to see OTV for student-athletes and I believe some deserve to be paid for their efforts and hard work.  But I we only hear a tiny little fraction of the money hungry parents, athletes' street agents, high school coaches, guardians & mentors with their hands out wanting their piece of the pie.  Everyone wants to get paid; I can't imagine how OTV could possibly work independent from the coaching staff.  No one knows an athlete like their position coach, no knows what a player's actual value to the operation is like their coaches.  So how does OTV determine which program and which player is deserving?  

[LPTiger 5,166]

3 hours ago, JerryAU said:

People don't understand it and who the devil knows where OTV donations go?  OTV takes a 10% cut off the top for operating & administration fees, then what?  Who decides which athletic program gets what cut of the donations?  Who decides which players on the team get what % of NIL funds?  The whole operation is too vague to the average season ticket holder who's paying TUF donations + their family season ticket package + their donation to academics, which is what my family commits to AU.  

I'm glad to see OTV for student-athletes and I believe some deserve to be paid for their efforts and hard work.  But I we only hear a tiny little fraction of the money hungry parents, athletes' street agents, high school coaches, guardians & mentors with their hands out wanting their piece of the pie.  Everyone wants to get paid; I can't imagine how OTV could possibly work independent from the coaching staff.  No one knows an athlete like their position coach, no knows what a player's actual value to the operation is like their coaches.  So how does OTV determine which program and which player is deserving?  

Jerry, these are all very important and well thought out questions/concerns.   I'm going to reach out to Wesley Spruiell and get the answers.   I've been on here arguing for NIL and I'm sorry I haven't thought of these questions/concerns.

[Mikey 16,605]

6 hours ago, JerryAU said:

I can't imagine how OTV could possibly work independent from the coaching staff.  No one knows an athlete like their position coach, no knows what a player's actual value to the operation is like their coaches. 

This 100%. The thing won't work without input from the coaches. There's an old adage, "Never invest in something you don't understand". There's a lot we don't understand about NIL.

I do see a need for baseball players who don't have a full scholarship ride to have some extra income, but how does it work?

[LPTiger 5,166]

10 hours ago, JerryAU said:

People don't understand it and who the devil knows where OTV donations go?  OTV takes a 10% cut off the top for operating & administration fees, then what?  Who decides which athletic program gets what cut of the donations?  Who decides which players on the team get what % of NIL funds?  The whole operation is too vague to the average season ticket holder who's paying TUF donations + their family season ticket package + their donation to academics, which is what my family commits to AU.  

I'm glad to see OTV for student-athletes and I believe some deserve to be paid for their efforts and hard work.  But I we only hear a tiny little fraction of the money hungry parents, athletes' street agents, high school coaches, guardians & mentors with their hands out wanting their piece of the pie.  Everyone wants to get paid; I can't imagine how OTV could possibly work independent from the coaching staff.  No one knows an athlete like their position coach, no knows what a player's actual value to the operation is like their coaches.  So how does OTV determine which program and which player is deserving?  

Jerry, at our current level of OTV donations, the staff's salaries and operating expenses are almost 10% of the donated amount.  If we were to double the donations, for example, the % would go down to 5%.   In other words, OTV is not set up for anyone or the entity to receive x% of donations.   It is set up to simply cover the exact amount of expenses.   OTV's bylaws state that the board and the entity cannot make a profit.  This structure is different (and more desirable) than the prior collective which did take some percentage over and above actual expenses.  OTV is set up to make sure every penny, over and above actual expenses, goes to our student athletes.

As to how the money is divided, the board creates a budget for the sports, based on donations, and the coaches have input on how the money is divided.   Outside of the three biggest sports (football, basketball and baseball) OTV has designated a "champion" who leads the fundraising effort for that sport.  Football receives the largest budget since it has the most players and generates the most revenue for the university.  I am most familiar with baseball.   No one on the baseball team is receiving a large amount of cash, from OTV, to buy cars, clothes, etc.   In baseball per NCAA rules, the team gets just 11 scholarships.   Those scholarships must be broken into pieces and divided over the entire roster.   Prior to NIL, most scholarship baseball players were having to pay to come to Auburn.   Now the goal is to have enough NIL dollars, that we can give a full scholarship (i.e. full tuition, books, room and board) to each player.   Meeting that minimum goal requires a little north of $1 million.   We currently have raised $550,000 form next year.   Other sports, women's volleyball for example (who had a really good year this year and is one the verge of a real breakout) do not have such a scholarship limitation so they require less NIL $$$.   One note, certain athletes, say a US Olympic Gold Medal gymnast, may have NIL deals that are totally outside of OTV.  Nothing prevents a business from reaching out directly to an athlete and compensating that athlete for their name, image or likeness. 

In the recruiting process,  our coaches cannot tell a recruit "if you come to Auburn you will receive X dollars in NIL funds."   What they can do is say "our current Friday night starting pitcher receives full tuition, books, room and board plus $500 per month."   I suspect other programs might fudge some here.

If a donor wants to donate and dictate which sport receives a portion of or all of their funds they can do that.    For example, I made a donation this weekend and dictated that all of it go to baseball (I did this after learning that baseball had only received 12 directed donations and was $500,000 short of its goal to get each player a full scholarship).

I hope this answers some of your questions and gives you (and others) some of the information needed to make a good and informed decision about donating to NIL.  Some people have issues with student athletes getting paid.   Quite frankly, it has been going on for a long, long time (at other institutions of course) particularly in football and basketball.    NIL can be a  good thing for Auburn if we all can get behind it.  It levels the playing field for us.   Our enemies to the west, east and north have been slinging cash,  job opportunities for family members, house sitting fees, etc. to athletes and their families for a long, long time.  We may have, perhaps on very isolated occasions had a rogue booster give someone a little help here and there, but we simply were not willing to systematically cheat and did not have the infrastructure set up to do so like our peers.   Now, we can better compete with our peers since it is now legal if we can all get past our angst.

This is a long enough missive, and it is late.   So I will stop here.  But,  I would be remiss if I didn't say thanks for your support for our great university.  I hope you (and others) will consider supporting OTV.  

[JerryAU 1,667]

LPTiger - Thank you for the clarification.  

Personally, I'm not donating to NIL as family is financially obligated to AU Academics + TUF + season ticket packages.  I do think transparency of OTV operations will help others step up and open their wallets. 

 

[cole256 17,084]

I've been hoping Texas goes stupid and be like we were and force Manning to play and run other QB's out. We should be on the Murphy kid right now so when that happens we already have a leg up and boom you have our next QB coached up ready to go for the next few years. Get him a big NIL offer right now!