Yup…you get paid the big bucks it ain’t a donation. Fans expect a return on their investment. I didn’t hear this player say he’s going to donate back half of his pay so the NIL fund could use it to upgrade next year’s team. I think this player is a good guy, but it’s just hard to feel for these “kids” raking in millions for doing basically nothing more than student athletes have done for decades. The people I feel sorry for are the students that have to take out huge amounts of student loans just to be able to go to college. They have years of payments and trying to get ahead while doing an entry-level job, just to get a degree.
Its just semi pro anymore. Its all transactional. Even Dan Hurley on 60 Minutes said half his team on a two-time defending national champion is already looking to split Storrs, CT, as soon as they can. Dan likes to speak in hyperbole but I dont doubt its just as bad there as anywhere else.
Have you ever been to Storrs? It is a nothing town, and then it gets cold and snows.
It’s just a money grab with no real consequences if they don’t perform. Now alums put up big money to sign the hot coach at any given time. But that contract has bonus clauses for performance and you have to earn that. And if you don’t perform at a base level, you get fired. So maybe these NIL contracts start putting in performance bonuses with much lower base pay? Oh wait…that won’t work because some big school will always throw away alum donations because they think there is more where that came from. So that is the real question. How long will alums throw away money without getting the return on their donation - the return they think they are paying for and expect? Oh wait…that won’t work because these big schools will just say…we have so much tv money we’ll just use it to pay top dollar for the players we want.
these kids are going to be so messed up in their heads when they get to the real world, even if that’s the NBA, but for sure if it’s just working at a career like common folks. Right now they just go to the portal to get more money from someone else. And it’s being freely handed out. That’s not how it works in life.
The surest way to make sum whole less than the sum of the parts is for players to start pursuing performance bonuses. Hey, I get an extra 300K if I avg 18ppg. I'd better make sure I take at least 15 shots to get my points, regardless of what it does to the team. Frankly, just go play pro ball somewhere and make money. Can't make it? Tough. NCAA is bounded with x parameters. You can make legit NIL but otherwise, you get just this basic structure.
I've said it before, until there are contracts with terms that protect both the athletes and the schools, it will just continue to be the wild west.
Becky, I agree 100%. And it will get worse with the revenue sharing. The world continues to adore and escalate athletes pay, while some struggle to afford food and rent, let alone tickets.
Becky, I agree 100%. And it will get worse with the revenue sharing. The world continues to adore and escalate athletes pay, while some struggle to afford food and rent, let alone tickets.
At least with NCAA basketball, if I am not mistaken, for the past several years, the fan attendance at several of these round of 64/32 sites seems to be declining I think due to high ticket prices.
Hard to tell if there is a decline with attendance at the 16/8/4/2 sites because the arenas are huge.
I'd like to see NCAA tournament attendance numbers.
But I suppose attendance doesn't matter greatly if tv is where the most $ is.
When you watch some of these games on tv, there are some/a lot of empty seats at some of the games, seems like these games always used to sell out. And it has been like this for several years now.
the last time I had NCAA tickets at the arena has been a few years ago. They had 2 sessions and needed to clear the arena between sessions. I can remember that there was not enough time to get back in for the start of the next session. We paid hundreds of dollars for our tickets to watch the games, but it did not matter, the games started on TV with most people still trying to get into the arena. It is all about the TV money, the NCAA could care less about who is in attendance.
Same thing happened in Hartford a few years ago. I remember Jay Wright saying it was the weirdest start to a game he had ever been involved with, as there were literally less than 50 people in the seats when the game started. I was lucky because I was probably within the first 1000 in the arena but still missed more than 10 minutes of game time. Others did not get to their seats until the second half had just started.
the last time I had NCAA tickets at the arena has been a few years ago. They had 2 sessions and needed to clear the arena between sessions. I can remember that there was not enough time to get back in for the start of the next session. We paid hundreds of dollars for our tickets to watch the games, but it did not matter, the games started on TV with most people still trying to get into the arena. It is all about the TV money, the NCAA could care less about who is in attendance.
I have had that happen to me in Nashville for ncaa tournament men's games...you have an arena's worth of people outside lined up waiting to get in, but they can't start entering the arena until the previous game ends and the fans that are currently in the arena are forced to leave the arena first in order to make room for the entering fans...it is a total mess...there are two sessions, each session requires a separate ticket to get into the arena...the first session people have to leave the arena before the second session people can get into the arena
the last time I had NCAA tickets at the arena has been a few years ago. They had 2 sessions and needed to clear the arena between sessions. I can remember that there was not enough time to get back in for the start of the next session. We paid hundreds of dollars for our tickets to watch the games, but it did not matter, the games started on TV with most people still trying to get into the arena. It is all about the TV money, the NCAA could care less about who is in attendance.
The problem is the tv schedule for the round of 64...they are trying to squeeze 16 games into a 12? hour window...the games start around noon and the last game starts around 10pm? maybe, they need to maybe start the games at 10am or 11am...if anything goes wrong to throw off the time schedule: such as an overtime game, the game starts late for whatever reason, an extended pause due to an injury, any problem with the building such as a water leak or lighting problem or scoreboard/clock problem, etc., then the whole schedule gets screwed up and you have a problem like what happened in Nashville
I think they need to expand the NCAA tournament. NCAA basketball is getting to be like MLB: the rich teams just poach from the poorer teams. There is a lot of frustration building among the have-nots when the have-nots pay a coach a bunch of $ and he can't get it turned around because half of his roster gets poached every year. More tournament teams would ease the frustration.
They'll just make sure all B1G and SEC teams make the tournament, despite conference records of 2-16.
So I was at lunch with a friend yesterday and Neil Sullivan walked in as he was on his way to airport. My friend knows him and Neil came over to say hello. He told us that he started negotiated with parents/friends well over a month ago and talked about how crazy it is.
I asked my friend about how Brea left and he said that the money was the same and Brea told AG and shook hands that he was coming back and then he didn't.
Neil told me the same. He's become a full-time financial broker/middle man/bag man now on top of everything else he has to do. Like he had time for another full-time job as it is to constantly call people to line up money for recruits.
Two things can be true at the same time: the kids deserve some of the pie and its ruining my love for college athletics.
Neil told me the same. He's become a full-time financial broker/middle man/bag man now on top of everything else he has to do. Like he had time for another full-time job as it is to constantly call people to line up money for recruits.
Two things can be true at the same time: the kids deserve some of the pie and its ruining my love for college athletics.
Dayton needs a GM to take care of this stuff. It's only going to grow, and Neil can't reasonably be expected to handle all of it, just like AG shouldn't. Other teams in the conference have already made the jump, I think it's time for UD to do the same.
There needs to be a happy medium.
We've gone from scholarship, tutor, meals (so long as cream cheese is not on the bagels), stipend (yes, a stipend), better dorms/apt and better cafeteria, and free gear - but had to put up with NCAA rules on amateurism (e.g. NIL, unforgiving coaches and a focus on degree. But there was some accountability.
Now its this free-for-all but the athletes still get the scholarship, tutor, meals (but cream cheese is now allowed), stipend (yes, a stipend), better dorms/apt and better cafeteria, and free gear. But no rules on NIL and such but still have unforgiving coaches but no longer focus on degree (have you noticed that TV does not even mention major any more) but the players complain about being held accountable.
Revenue sharing is fine but all we are doing is going back to the days of the "mysterious brown paper bag" for certain athletes.
What is the happy medium?
Pro teams decided that a salary cap was the way to share revenues and not let the big guns just buy players. And lock players into a multi year contract. Maybe not the first year. But lock them down after they get a feel for the program and where they fit in and the university/coaches get a good look at a player for a year in their gym. Both coaches and players can shop for better options the spring of their first year. And maybe this idea doesn’t have all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed, but if somebody doesn’t get some rails on this it’s going over the cliff.
That is true for school; in the "pay for play" issue. NIL can spend as much as they want as long as it isn't "pay for play" Good luck whoever has to police that.
That's just it, no one is policing it now and all that money that a select numbers of schools have access too are lovin' it.
Wide-ranging article on NIL...BE schools spend $3-5 mil on NIL...Dayton and VCU NIL mentioned vs. some p4 schools
Call me a doubter. However they change the rules, the big conferences will find a way to still push out the Dayton's and Davidson's.
Call me a doubter. However they change the rules, the big conferences will find a way to still push out the Dayton's and Davidson's.
Maybe, there is a limit somewhere with all this, the spending growth is unsustainable. IMO, and as the article mentioned, state governors and state legislatures IMO at some point are not going to be ok with all this ever-increasing spending if it comes out of the state budget. Taxpayers will have to provide those funds if the funds come from the state.
This is where the A10 doesn't hold serve. This is why Dayton needs to be in a conference, either existing or new, that can get more teams into the postseason for revenue sharing. I don't remember the formula discussed years ago on here, but an increased conference distribution due to more teams in the tournament can offset these expenses. Fordham, Lasalle, Duq, etc don't need paid based off of the successful teams appearances.
Can't say I think much of our current A-10 leadership. It's more of a lack thereof. We may not ever get into the BE, but the A10 can't sit still. Maybe some combination of existing conferences can merge the top teams, like MVC and A10. Bradley and Drake have had some pretty good success, as have UNI and Belmont. Take those 4 plus one other MVC team, add in Dayton, Loyola, VCU, St Louis, and say GM and one other A10 team who has the facilities and NIL, make an 11 team league. Travel would be fine, mostly regional, and there would be some strong basketball teams there who are committed to winning. Would still prefer my 3 or 4 division BE, but I don't see that ever happening, any more than I see Dayton every getting an invite.
Dayton and the A10 seem to have a similar mind-set. Play it safe and keep on keepin' on the way things are. Timid and safe is the operative word.
just sayin'
Correction I have this comment a$$backwards React! Don't ACT! I meant to say
A poor strategy is "Don't ACT!" ... "REACT!"
