AP: Send money! The NIL era has some football coaches telling fans to put up or shut up for top recruits

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Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
I thought about this today. Could you sign a coach to a $20 million per year contract, with $5 million a year guaranteed, with the expectation that the coach donates $15 million a year to a collective?
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I doubt that is allowed. More likely, PJ might be able to negotiate his media and endorsement income where he would take a small percentage of the deal with the rest being contributed to DTA! Not sure about that, but I would think his outside income sources are the best bet for this to work.
 

The root cause of this is a disaffected alumni network that is the worst I've seen in the Big Ten.

Sports are how most alumni engage with their alma mater, especially if they have moved.

I used to live in Chicago for many years and it's the Big Ten melting pot. Every school's got their bars, alumni org, etc. Minnesota has the smallest and weakest level of activity there of anyone, except maybe far-away Rutgers.

Tampa Bay, same thing. There is no active alumni association here. There once was a small game watch but nobody comes and the hosting bar had never heard of it. That's the only one in all of Florida on the U's website. Many other major cities across America have nothing. But there's multiple Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, MSU, etc bars here and active, thriving alumni orgs.

I would argue that sustained mediocrity in football and men's basketball have formed a vicious cycle with alumni engagement so that when people have money to spend, they ain't spending on Gopher sports that they can't even get together with a few alumni on Saturday to watch.
 

I think the best chance we have since people don’t want to donate to NIL is make the players employees of the university. They can then pay them through the B1G and tv revenue stream.

B1G is richest conference and that would put us on the top of the mountain for recruits.
 

fmlizard said:
The root cause of this is a disaffected alumni network that is the worst I've seen in the Big Ten.

Sports are how most alumni engage with their alma mater, especially if they have moved.

I used to live in Chicago for many years and it's the Big Ten melting pot. Every school's got their bars, alumni org, etc. Minnesota has the smallest and weakest level of activity there of anyone, except maybe far-away Rutgers.

Tampa Bay, same thing. There is no active alumni association here. There once was a small game watch but nobody comes and the hosting bar had never heard of it. That's the only one in all of Florida on the U's website. Many other major cities across America have nothing. But there's multiple Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, MSU, etc bars here and active, thriving alumni orgs.

I would argue that sustained mediocrity in football and men's basketball have formed a vicious cycle with alumni engagement so that when people have money to spend, they ain't spending on Gopher sports that they can't even get together with a few alumni on Saturday to watch.
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I'm here in Sarasota now. Retired. Would love to have a Saturday afternoon bar to watch football. Have you tried in the past?
 

Letting the schools directly pay the players is much better than this option. There would be massive Title IX implications with paying basketball and football players, so I'm not sure if it's even a realistic option.

Fans typically support a team by watching them on TV (purchasing cable with Big 10 network, YouTube TV, etc.), go to games and by purchasing jerseys and things like that. College football makes a TON of money off their fans.

Could you imagine if the TWolves or Vikings then asked fans to directly pay for salaries?
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
There would be massive Title IX implications with paying basketball and football players, so I'm not sure if it's even a realistic option.
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Just curious, if the players refused the scholarship and used NIL to pay their own tuition, would they be under title 9 anymore? I mean, the student bookstore doesn't have to employ an equal number of male and female employees, right? And I'm sure some people make more than others based upon what they are doing, like being an assistant manager vs. just running the cash register.

If none of that is subject to title 9, why would these new football employees be under it? And if they aren't, then the U doesn't have to provide a similar setup for the females athletes.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Letting the schools directly pay the players is much better than this option. There would be massive Title IX implications with paying basketball and football players, so I'm not sure if it's even a realistic option.

Fans typically support a team by watching them on TV (purchasing cable with Big 10 network, YouTube TV, etc.), go to games and by purchasing jerseys and things like that. College football makes a TON of money off their fans.

Could you imagine if the TWolves or Vikings then asked fans to directly pay for salaries?
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Agree. Hope they change the rules so schools could pay directly. Then need some sort of union/structure/salary cap to make a more level playing field. Not sure that will ever happen though.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Just curious, if the players refused the scholarship and used NIL to pay their own tuition, would they be under title 9 anymore? I mean, the student bookstore doesn't have to employ an equal number of male and female employees, right? And I'm sure some people make more than others based upon what they are doing, like being an assistant manager vs. just running the cash register.

If none of that is subject to title 9, why would these new football employees be under it? And if they aren't, then the U doesn't have to provide a similar setup for the females athletes.
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I believe if the money comes directly from the school it would be subject to Title IX.

There are some people who want Title IX to be so expansive that even if the money comes from a private entity to the athletes, they believe it should be subject to Title IX.
 




I wouldn't be surprised if... Within a decade or so, money and Title IX issues result in college football teams forming their own entities legally independent from the school, then partnering with and charging the school some sort of licensing fee or performance contract for playing games for the school. This would be a backdoor way for players to get a slice of media revenue. The independent school teams would need to create and enforce their own student conduct guidelines to be acceptable to the universities.

Just my wild ass take on this.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
But why? If they are not scholarship athletes, then how is it different from any other student who gets a campus job?
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Every on-campus job is subject to Title IX. If the school didn't allow women to hold certain positions in the book store, they would be in violation of Title IX.

Title IX is not an NCAA thing, it's part of the Civil Rights Act and merely states that no person, on the basis of sex, can be discriminated against if they receive Federal Financial Aid. The U receives financial aid and therefore they cannot discriminate on the basis of gender.

Like all well-intentioned government actions, that simple concept was the seed of this bureaucratic mess/utopia (depending on your opinion). Title IX isn't cooked into the NCAA and athletic scholarships, the Title IX offices are the judge, jury, and executioner for accusations of sexual assault amongst college students. It's grown to be an all-encompassing force on college campuses.

The interpretation of Title IX, in the NCAA, is what lead to the requirement in number of scholarships, financial backing, etc.

Right now, there is a lawsuit in Oregon , where female students are suing the U of Oregon because they do not believe they have the same NIL opportunities as male students. Mind you, all of the NIL $ is coming from private entities. Their argument is essentially that U of Oregon, is giving more NIL opportunities to men because the private entities are really just a proxy for the Universities.

Sorry if that was way more than you wanted and I am not attempting to derail the conversation into some political debate about Title IX. However, it was hard to explain without some background that Title IX would still rule if any funds are coming from the University (and potentially even if they aren;t).
 

Panthadad2 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if... Within a decade or so, money and Title IX issues result in college football teams forming their own entities legally independent from the school, then partnering with and charging the school some sort of licensing fee or performance contract for playing games for the school. This would be a backdoor way for players to get a slice of media revenue. The independent school teams would need to create and enforce their own student conduct guidelines to be acceptable to the universities.

Just my wild ass take on this.
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This would be the way.

The football team essentially breaks away and becomes a private entity and they school can pay money to sponsor them - something like that.
 

GopherFanatic19 said:
I think the best chance we have since people don’t want to donate to NIL is make the players employees of the university. They can then pay them through the B1G and tv revenue stream.

B1G is richest conference and that would put us on the top of the mountain for recruits.
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It also allows for unions and collective bargaining which would really get a handle on parity, tampering, and other regulation issues.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Sorry if that was way more than you wanted and I am not attempting to derail the conversation into some political debate about Title IX. However, it was hard to explain without some background that Title IX would still rule if any funds are coming from the University (and potentially even if they aren;t).
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No need to apologize - that was the explanation I needed to understand why my idea wouldn't fly!
 


the only way to put the genie back in the bottle without completely transforming college sports is for Congress to pass national NIL legislation - AND for that legislation to survive a Court challenge.

but the real kicker is currently taking place in Federal Court in California. (from ESPN on Nov. 3)

Class-action status in the damages portion of an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA was granted by a federal judge on Friday, a decision that could put the association on the hook for a potential multibillion dollar payout to former and current college athletes.

House vs. the NCAA is being heard in the Northern District of California by Judge Claudia Wilken.

Brought by Arizona State swimmer Grant House in 2020, the lawsuit challenges the NCAA's remaining name, image and likeness compensation rules. TCU women's basketball player Sedona Prince and former Illinois football player Tymir Oliver are also listed as plaintiffs.

Wilken's latest ruling could make more than 14,000 current and former college athletes eligible to claim damages if the NCAA loses the case.

Plaintiffs' attorneys are also targeting the billions of dollars in media rights revenue for the football and basketball players whose sports drive the value of those deal for the NCAA and the five wealthiest college sports conferences.

"What we're going to be asking the court to do for the class is to strike down all current prohibitions on NIL. And so the most significant is the rule that prohibits conferences from paying students for NIL," Steve Berman, one of the lead plaintiffs' attorneys and a familiar legal foe of the NCAA, told AP last month.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
This would be the way.

The football team essentially breaks away and becomes a private entity and they school can pay money to sponsor them - something like that.
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Talking out of my ass, per usual, but if the Big Ten COP/C were to reform as an independent entity free from university president edict that might allow conferences and players to arrange broadcast NIL rights distributions free from Title IX and employment reclassification entanglements.

I’m not sure the universities would want to cede any control, or loss of or say so on revenue.
 

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