OSU leads in a lot of things but the nil seems to be a tough one for us for some reason. Don’t we have the largest fan base of millionaires in the nation? lol I think it’s killing college sports slowly.
Columbus is a fairly rare case of a major city (2+ million people) that is still somehow a college town where everyone is obsessed with the local school. There are so many other things going on in such a large city that money can be given to that are significantly more important in the grand scheme of things.
Compared to cities like LA, Chicago, Boston, Manhattan, San Francisco, etc, where college football is basically a distraction and not a primary passion for the general public, Ohio State is surrounded by millions of people that care about college football...BUT, compared to cities like Athens, Tuscaloosa, Clemson, College Station, etc, there is an entire large city of wealth and needs that have to be met.
We're in a strange in-between place where we have both millions of people in the immediate vicinity of the school that really care (unlike the largest cities in the country), and our richest fans have many other things to support with their money (unlike the small college towns filled with alumni that have few things other than football to care about, with the schools we are directly competing with for when it comes to NIL).
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
I find your generalization about boosters of other schools in smaller towns, patently false. Most of the boosters of Alabama do not live in Tuscaloosa they live in Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville, etc. Most UGA boosters live in Atlanta and the ones spending a ton of money also have homes on sea island. They are not wanting for things to do for their cash. They are simply part of the Fanbase that cares a little more about winning and holds football in higher regard relative to the rest of the university.
It seems the main problem is the university (I believe this is true for most institutions in the Big Ten conference) does not believe in a model where players are paid to come play here. The university is not against players profiting from their name, image, likeness, but that is not the same as recruiters offering money to come play here. As fans, we shouldn't want that either. That's what the Cleveland Browns are for: for mercenary (I mean that in a good way) players to play for our city's team for money. Ohio State is/should be different. The reason I love the Buckeyes so much is not because they win (that helps), it is because those players share something with me, our love for Ohio State. You get rid of that, the whole thing is, maybe not quite meaningless, but would have much less meaning.
I agree the school admin wants to take the "higher road" here in that they don't want a play to play model, and I also think that recruiting players who want to be here instead of players who just want money will be a good strategy in the long run, but...
Right now, that just means your team won't get the talent it needs to continue competing at the highest levels and will decrease your revenue overall because there will be fewer playoff appearances, potentially, and other big games won't mean as much if you aren't performing as well. They need to figure out a happy medium somehow.
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
It doesn't matter what the university wants, it has no control over fans/boosters. Other university presidents may want their alumni to give to the university instead of NIL collectives, but the alumni give to the NIL collectives anyway.
I think tOSU is waiting for the Feds or college football governing body to put a cap on NIL. Wait and see approach. Its getting out of hand....I think the intentiln of NIL was to put a bucks in the acckunts of athletes, not necessarily millions. The recruit that wants out of letter of intent at Florida is just the start of a new messy era of college football. Btw, hate to admit it but Daban warned everyone of this....
Conversely for the idle mega-rich, (heirs to mayonnaise empires, people who cashed out on cryptocurrency and NFT's at exactly the right time, scamps from Colorado boarding houses adopted by rich gold mine owners)
i never realized you were among the chronically rich /elite few in our midst. (deferential hat tip)
It definitely makes it more difficult, the waters are muddied, they're murkier, the roads are going to be much more tricky to navigate, but here we are... I have full confidence that the Ohio State staff will get this put together, and not just do it in the sense that Miami (FL), Florida, and Texas A&M have attempted to do so, they'll actually integrate it with the program and make it work for them as opposed to just tossing a bunch of money in a bag and giving it to a kid.
Regulation has to be coming, one way or another, either the NCAA sorts it out or the coaches and players will start policing themselves. Eventually the coaches trying to do all this stuff in a under-handed way are going to get found out and put on blast.
The Excellence of Execution, the Best there is, the Best there was, the Best there ever will be!
Spot on Johnny. Let's take a look at Coach Day during his opening press conference as head coach compared to before the Peach Bowl after a grueling December filled with recruiting, transfer portal, NIL, award shows, and game planning for the CFP:
Yep Day has been through it. But losing UM will do that to you. He could look a lot worse next November. I assume UM will be favored in their house. Can he survive a 3rd straight loss? I don't know, for his sake and ours I hope he gets that W in Ann Arbor.
And I’m old. I have lots of takes on NIL. I will leave that for another time. Think of how college football has changed since his day one. In football years, the day he signed on the bottom line, is literally the Stone Age in regards to recruiting.
Part of the problem is everyone agreeing to mislabel situations as "NIL." Let's be clear . . . no high school recruit has any NIL value whatsoever. Any money paid to high school recruits is pay to play.
We know this, so why play along with the charade? I get why high school recruits, coaching staffs, and boosters would play along, but why in the world would media and fans feel beholden to such stupidity?
Thanks for hearing me out. I didn't add the second part, which is that some upper classmen do have NIL value.
An obvious example is Bryce Young doing Dr. Pepper commercials because his NIL truly can help to sell soft drinks. The perverse thing is that Bryce Young probably got paid way less than $13M to do those commercials, while a high school recruit very few fans have heard of - yet - (and therefore has close to zero actually NIL value) gets a $13M "NIL" deal to go to Florida, which was subsequently reneged.
Ohio State's "problem" is that they're treating NIL as NIL.
Can't wait to see this! A 4,000 page nil bill that no one has read and full of pork. Yep, that should do it.
The end of college football as we know it.
I know - no politics - but since this was in the article...
NIL is a huge mess and I don't have a lot of confidence it's going to get cleaned up anytime soon. I don't have a lot of confidence in Congress (like ever) and frankly this isn't a high priority issue.
In the meantime, OSU needs to figure out if it's going to continue to do things by the book and risk losing recruiting battles indefinitely to schools that are out-bidding them or if they are going to play the game like others do.
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
-Jack Handey
TOSU could easily pivot and start paying recruits directly. The problem is someone at the school or administration WOULD turn us in as its still against NCAA rules and the NCAA WOULD try to make an example of us again like with Tattoogate. The main advantage the South has is nobody at any school down there opens their mouths. Gene won't allow anything until it's regulated (fat chance of that)
I could actually see another path where the schools start to self regulate through the conferences. Once the large programs and their conferences have had enough, I believe they will get together and try to regulate it in some fashion.
The unintended consequences are always the downfall of a many great idea. NIL is Pandora's box blasted to pieces. CFB as we have known it is dead. Not sure it will ever be the same. The players deserve, have earned, the right to be compensated no doubt. I'm just lamenting days gone by....a simpler, less stress time.
Maybe in Big 5 FBS, but perhaps not in all those in FBS.
For example, what effect does it have at Ivy League schools, which do not offer athletic scholarships? How much NIL is there for the ne'er-do-wells in the Big 5 leagues?
What about FCS, Div II and Div III?
Seems to me that some schools, where they are more interested in cash & championships than educating college athletes (e.g., SEC with 1 year schollies, as opposed to B1G's 4-year schollies), are the ones driving this change. It appears that institutions with integrity will lose recruits to those with fewer scruples.
Our honor defend, we'll fight to the end !
"it's not magic, it's fundamentals" that lead to Ohio State's success. - Ryan Day
I do a fair amount of work with tech venture capital companies (VC's) and I can tell you that all this NIL is going to head that way very, very soon. At the end of the day, everyone wants an ROI (return on investment) and the risk is VERY HIGH that there is absolutely NO "ROI" on these NIL deals. None. And despite the amount of "cool" you can get by being a rich guy that built a cool facility to host some blue chip recruits signing their NIL deals and taking some pics, that gets old very, very fast. You're literally throwing money in the toilet. What's needed for that ROI to be "there" is tying success on the field (TV viewership, social media interactions, ticket sales, swag sales, product sales, etc) with the amount of money invested in the players. How do you do that? Well, the only "real way" is to follow the NFL way and have "salary caps" and whatnot based on revenue share etc. We MUST tie NIL to how the schools/conferences do revenue-wise. Because isn't that the point anyway? We all got "mad" about the fact that college athletes were "making millions for their schools but not being paid a penny." Well, that's actually STILL the case. The too slick for their own good lawyers essentially created a situation where they've allowed players to get paid, but have let the schools, the conferences, and the media completely off the hook "because the schools are PROHIBITED from paying them." What? OSU/B1G could lead the way and offer a "standard" revenue share (rev share) for the players on their teams. But those players would SIGN CONTRACTS with performance bonuses etc. That takes care of tampering, pays the players, and you lose this "wild west" feel to the NIL sitch. JUST DO WHAT THE NFL DOES. Problem solved. This isn't that hard.
Great analysis and I think the VC analogy is helpful up to a point. Except that a lot of these supposed "NIL" deals for high school recruits aren't really business deals. They're good old fashioned pay-for-play on steroids using the "NIL" smoke screen. So, as you suggest, I would expect these "NIL" VC deals to have much worse hit rates than real world VC deals. And that's saying something because real world VC deals have very low hit rates to begin with.
Thanks. You're spot on. At least with VC's there's some sort of ROI sought/expected, even if they take 50% stake in the company, or take the company altogether if the company fails to meet the goals set by the VC. This is, as you say, "pay for play." It's completely unsustainable. I was actually working with an OSU NIL firm (that will remain nameless and was NOT The Foundation) and they were pitching a few players (none of the well known ones) from the football team, and some from the other teams (female BB, a kid from another school etc) and they were selling it to me as "marketing/pr." Now, this is absolutely no criticism of anyone, but how are these athletes going to help me market my stuff? It's one thing to have CJ Stroud or Marvin Harrison JR hocking my wares, but these folks? I'd never even heard of them. I'd essentially just be giving them money, and maybe get a photo to post on my IG that those two people follow me. But the same COULD be said for the NFL. How many stars are there exactly that get shoe deals etc? A few. The rest are professionals you've probably never heard about, but they're invaluable to the team, so how do you pay THEM? Rev share (of sorts).
The "solution" may be just that, designating college athletes to be employees. Let them form a bargaining unit to negotiate a master work agreement to govern nil, recruiting, portal, etc. that sets out the rules and responsibility of both sides. I would hate to see that happen, but short of Congressional action, a union contract may be the only way out.
Too much time spent at the North Heidelberg rather than the classroom. SSD 68-72
Athletic programs scrape by with revenue vs cost. OSU is currently in the hole 80mil now so where is the money to come from. I can see 10-15 a year cut from coaching salaries but where else?
That's a good question, but the B1G just made a seven year TV deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC worth $8 BILLION, so I'm not sure why OSU (or the rest of the teams in the conference) are so "hat in hand." $8 billion for what? Presumably mostly football and men's basketball. Who is getting all that money? Not trying to sound like a communist "bourgeois vs proletariat" here, but that's almost a billion dollars for each of the B1G schools (currently). Surely each B1G school could "stipulate" that each team gets a "rev share" of that money.
Yep. And "all that money" helps provide sports programs and scholarships to underprivileged athletes who are going to get just a degree from school. Not millions like those who will go onto the NBA or NFL will make.
At the end of the day, everyone wants an ROI (return on investment) and the risk is VERY HIGH that there is absolutely NO "ROI" on these NIL deals. None.
This x100. for most companies/businesses, NIL makes no sense (except on the small scale, like a couple $1000's to show up at an event, an opening, or doing a commercial). For rich people that can throw money around, its a matter of time before they are unwilling to do that any more. What doesnt help the case is the disaster at TAMU -- a huge negative ROI is not going to leave a good taste in most peoples mouths.
Don't expect any help from Congress, they have been well aware of the issue for over a decade and have done nothing, the coaches aren't going police themselves. Coaches are going to stretch the rules as far as possible, some will cross the line, intentionally or without intent. What I see is more schools spending more time working the portal and less time and money recruiting high school kids. Most teams have limited resources and you are recruiting an older player who has practiced and played the college game for a year or two instead of following a kid for three or four years and all the time and effort required. You are getting a better vetted candidate as well, they will have had time to transition from high school life to college life. The elite of the elite will always be recruited by the big boys with huge staffs and nearly unlimited budgets, it is the second and third tier players that I am referring to.
One of the few ways this gets cleaned up is somebody going to a very public trial, convicted and sent to prison for years if the commit some type of fraud against players
Agreed. I "fear" that this is going to take the shape of a player being sued by a university or an NIL sponsor. I have absolutely no idea what's in a contract like the one Quinn Ewers signed that saw him leave HS early, but if it said something like "we will pay you $1 million to be the starting QB at OSU" or whatever, and then he leaves OSU, that's a breach of contract and the sponsor has the right to sue him (unless stated otherwise). We're already seeing the Florida Gator QB getting ready to sue Florida for breach of contract because the $13 MILLION four year deal "fell through." (That's $4 million MORE than Lamar Jackson is getting on HIS rookie deal, fyi) There is no "precedent" for enforcement of these deals as some are even made when they are minors. Good luck enforcing a contract with a minor. I'm of the mind that schools like OSU should even, perhaps, have the players pay THEM for the "opportunity" to access OSU's brand, audience, history, tradition, etc. In fact, if someone WAY smarter and more motivated than me would hop on the idea, I would essentially do what IMG and other "football factories" do and "sell" my players to schools based upon the potential of making both the players AND the university money. That's essentially how other entertainment industries work. The "real money" is in OSU's brand and reach. Let a smart NIL agent figure that out and you'll have the pick of the litter everyday when an NIL agent can properly "sell" their talent to bigtime schools and other brands like Nike. Imagine Nike selling a shoe deal to a college player? Imagine the shoe sales, etc. Now we're talking.
Another issue that is running in a parallel lane to the NIL issues is the National Labor Relations Board indicating that ( NLRB) that student athletes are employees of the school, conference and the NCAA.
Let the players who only care about money go somewhere else...they are more hassle than they are worth because they could flip at any moment and then you've wasted so much time recruiting them. It doesn't seem to be working out for Texas A&M anyway. Also good luck getting those boosters to pay up year after year.
We are still getting great players and those players are making money off their name as is intended.
Agreed. They can always sell insurance if the workload is too much. Our whole staff will be making almost a million plus in a few years, and that sort of compensation requires more than a 40 hour workweek.
Current NIL is a joke...buying players straight out of highschool.
The players need to bargain for media rights money because they're owed some of that. This whole thing was a sad attempt at sidestepping, saying "fine, you can have someone elses money if they're willing to pay you, just don't ask US for money" - ADs
The schools are making money off the NIL of all of their athletes, in a collective sense. The "brand" of a school has no clout if the product (team, players) has no draw.
An analogy would be a record label -- you don't get distribution or broadcast deals if all of your bands suck. But if you have a great band, all the musicians should get a cut of the revenue -- not just the frontman.
"We get paid to score touchdowns, not kick field goals"
-- Urban Meyer
Great article J. Ginter. There hasn’t been one time that I thought about the impact of NIL on the coaches, especially head coaches work/life balance! I’m one that almost always falls back on the line ,”that’s why you get paid the big busks!” If something doesn’t change, then soon the job won’t be worth any amount of money! At that point, SOMETHING, will change.
I’m never a fan of relying on the government to fix a problem, but in this case, it seems like that might be the only way to put up some boundaries! Obviously the NCAA doesn’t want to touch it!
“When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.” — Paul Brown
NIL happened and fans instantly became experts on how to handle it, while the coaches that actually have to handle it on a daily basis, barely understand it. OSU is surviving this pretty well so far and one day soon I’m confident they’ll be using it to their advantage.
The best college coaches are making around $10m a year. Please excuse me if I'm not sympathetic to how many hours they work a week. Assistant coaches are earning over $1m per year.
It's no different than a high stress job on Wall Street and many other professions. You can retire early if you wish. Make this kind of money, set for life. Also, in many careers you'll work excessive hours, and never see this level of compensation.
No one's feeling sorry for the CFB coach. Woe is me, they have to work a lot.
if you want an even Bigger mess let Congress control this Shitty mess ...let's go full Socialism ..doesn't anybody read the Constitution anymore ....and when the censors of this site suspend me like they always do just remember the writer of this article brought up the subject first ...
A great deal of the nil issue revolves around the transfer portal.
Go back to a modified version of the old rules - mainly you sit for a year if you want to transfer - unless maybe the head coach changes or you file a hardship.
Right now NIL is just a euphemism for salary negotiation. The fact that the HCs have to somehow navigate this insanity is nuts. Overnight, coaching in the NFL has become far preferable to coaching in Div 1 college. At least the NFL has some kind of structure to Free Agency Transfer Portal and compensation NIL money issues.
Why don't colleges just make them all sign non-compete agreements? Corporate America is currently doing that to every low-level, non-important employee, so why can't colleges? Seems like there would be a stronger argument as to why a football player shouldn't be allowed to go to another team to compete against Ohio State than there is for some low-level manager taking a different job. Might put a quick end to the endless transfers. I'm only sort of kidding here...
now you are going down the hole that qualifies someone with a non compete as an employee or a contractor. Like I mentioned above the NLRB may issue a ruling next year that shakes everything up.
The Letter of intent and award of a scholarship is basically a non compete for the current academic year
Love the Chryst Timeline - in 2018 signed for $3.3 million, increasing by $100,000 each year thereafter.
Overtime is Authorized - as they used to say on my NRC Licensed Nuclear Reactor Operator job. Lots of weekends / nights / holidays because folks seem to like electricity and the company employed 9 of us. About the same as I like Buckeye Football.
Ryan Day (1-2 v TTUN) is signed through 2028 overall compensation $9.5 million per season. His base salary will be set at $2 million.
So I'd like some OT on recruiting, NIL, player development, general nice guy duties with a Michigan ass whipping going the other way in 2023. Or renegotiate a discount.
That 11/25/23 game will be 1456 days since our last satisfactory performance in The Game.
I don’t have any sympathy for anybody who makes $9 million a year to coach football. If you have to work 24 hours a day from August 1 to January 1, take a nap and then get in your car and go recruit… well, that’s the job. You’re getting $9 million. Suck it up buttercup.
Now, that said, I saw Ryan Day in the team hotel on my way to breakfast before the Peach Bowl. He looked like if you shoved a lump of coal up his ass it would come out a diamond. Tired? Yup. Pressure? Yup. $9 million.
On NIL, I’m sick of hearing about money grubbing 18 year old kids. The idea was to put some spending money in their pockets, not to mint a new set of millionaires each year. They will never get the toothpaste back in the tube. Should have structured it from the start to give every athlete $10k from the university, and I mean all athletes. Pay for it with those enormous tv contracts and have the collectives send their money direct to the university for disbursement.
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OSU leads in a lot of things but the nil seems to be a tough one for us for some reason. Don’t we have the largest fan base of millionaires in the nation? lol I think it’s killing college sports slowly.
Fire Kevin Warren
Maybe because people want to donate money to more worthy causes than to top tier football players who will be millionaires in a few years?
Columbus is a fairly rare case of a major city (2+ million people) that is still somehow a college town where everyone is obsessed with the local school. There are so many other things going on in such a large city that money can be given to that are significantly more important in the grand scheme of things.
Compared to cities like LA, Chicago, Boston, Manhattan, San Francisco, etc, where college football is basically a distraction and not a primary passion for the general public, Ohio State is surrounded by millions of people that care about college football...BUT, compared to cities like Athens, Tuscaloosa, Clemson, College Station, etc, there is an entire large city of wealth and needs that have to be met.
We're in a strange in-between place where we have both millions of people in the immediate vicinity of the school that really care (unlike the largest cities in the country), and our richest fans have many other things to support with their money (unlike the small college towns filled with alumni that have few things other than football to care about, with the schools we are directly competing with for when it comes to NIL).
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
I find your generalization about boosters of other schools in smaller towns, patently false. Most of the boosters of Alabama do not live in Tuscaloosa they live in Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville, etc. Most UGA boosters live in Atlanta and the ones spending a ton of money also have homes on sea island. They are not wanting for things to do for their cash. They are simply part of the Fanbase that cares a little more about winning and holds football in higher regard relative to the rest of the university.
It seems the main problem is the university (I believe this is true for most institutions in the Big Ten conference) does not believe in a model where players are paid to come play here. The university is not against players profiting from their name, image, likeness, but that is not the same as recruiters offering money to come play here. As fans, we shouldn't want that either. That's what the Cleveland Browns are for: for mercenary (I mean that in a good way) players to play for our city's team for money. Ohio State is/should be different. The reason I love the Buckeyes so much is not because they win (that helps), it is because those players share something with me, our love for Ohio State. You get rid of that, the whole thing is, maybe not quite meaningless, but would have much less meaning.
EddieG
I agree the school admin wants to take the "higher road" here in that they don't want a play to play model, and I also think that recruiting players who want to be here instead of players who just want money will be a good strategy in the long run, but...
Right now, that just means your team won't get the talent it needs to continue competing at the highest levels and will decrease your revenue overall because there will be fewer playoff appearances, potentially, and other big games won't mean as much if you aren't performing as well. They need to figure out a happy medium somehow.
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
It doesn't matter what the university wants, it has no control over fans/boosters. Other university presidents may want their alumni to give to the university instead of NIL collectives, but the alumni give to the NIL collectives anyway.
I think tOSU is waiting for the Feds or college football governing body to put a cap on NIL. Wait and see approach. Its getting out of hand....I think the intentiln of NIL was to put a bucks in the acckunts of athletes, not necessarily millions. The recruit that wants out of letter of intent at Florida is just the start of a new messy era of college football. Btw, hate to admit it but Daban warned everyone of this....
CBus love
slight aside ...
i never realized you were among the chronically rich /elite few in our midst. (deferential hat tip)
(also sleep deprived)
It definitely makes it more difficult, the waters are muddied, they're murkier, the roads are going to be much more tricky to navigate, but here we are... I have full confidence that the Ohio State staff will get this put together, and not just do it in the sense that Miami (FL), Florida, and Texas A&M have attempted to do so, they'll actually integrate it with the program and make it work for them as opposed to just tossing a bunch of money in a bag and giving it to a kid.
Regulation has to be coming, one way or another, either the NCAA sorts it out or the coaches and players will start policing themselves. Eventually the coaches trying to do all this stuff in a under-handed way are going to get found out and put on blast.
The Excellence of Execution, the Best there is, the Best there was, the Best there ever will be!
Spot on Johnny. Let's take a look at Coach Day during his opening press conference as head coach compared to before the Peach Bowl after a grueling December filled with recruiting, transfer portal, NIL, award shows, and game planning for the CFP:
Yep Day has been through it. But losing UM will do that to you. He could look a lot worse next November. I assume UM will be favored in their house. Can he survive a 3rd straight loss? I don't know, for his sake and ours I hope he gets that W in Ann Arbor.
Muck Fichigan
WOW,,, YIKES.
And I’m old. I have lots of takes on NIL. I will leave that for another time. Think of how college football has changed since his day one. In football years, the day he signed on the bottom line, is literally the Stone Age in regards to recruiting.
West Palm Buckeye
Part of the problem is everyone agreeing to mislabel situations as "NIL." Let's be clear . . . no high school recruit has any NIL value whatsoever. Any money paid to high school recruits is pay to play.
We know this, so why play along with the charade? I get why high school recruits, coaching staffs, and boosters would play along, but why in the world would media and fans feel beholden to such stupidity?
Very valid point. Hadn’t thought of it that way before but definitely like the mindset.
Thanks for hearing me out. I didn't add the second part, which is that some upper classmen do have NIL value.
An obvious example is Bryce Young doing Dr. Pepper commercials because his NIL truly can help to sell soft drinks. The perverse thing is that Bryce Young probably got paid way less than $13M to do those commercials, while a high school recruit very few fans have heard of - yet - (and therefore has close to zero actually NIL value) gets a $13M "NIL" deal to go to Florida, which was subsequently reneged.
Ohio State's "problem" is that they're treating NIL as NIL.
Well articulated, Fido, and I agree
I don't always finish my sentences but when I do
Can't wait to see this! A 4,000 page nil bill that no one has read and full of pork. Yep, that should do it.
The end of college football as we know it.
I know - no politics - but since this was in the article...
NIL is a huge mess and I don't have a lot of confidence it's going to get cleaned up anytime soon. I don't have a lot of confidence in Congress (like ever) and frankly this isn't a high priority issue.
In the meantime, OSU needs to figure out if it's going to continue to do things by the book and risk losing recruiting battles indefinitely to schools that are out-bidding them or if they are going to play the game like others do.
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
-Jack Handey
TOSU could easily pivot and start paying recruits directly. The problem is someone at the school or administration WOULD turn us in as its still against NCAA rules and the NCAA WOULD try to make an example of us again like with Tattoogate. The main advantage the South has is nobody at any school down there opens their mouths. Gene won't allow anything until it's regulated (fat chance of that)
Upon us all, a little rain must fall
I could actually see another path where the schools start to self regulate through the conferences. Once the large programs and their conferences have had enough, I believe they will get together and try to regulate it in some fashion.
The unintended consequences are always the downfall of a many great idea. NIL is Pandora's box blasted to pieces. CFB as we have known it is dead. Not sure it will ever be the same. The players deserve, have earned, the right to be compensated no doubt. I'm just lamenting days gone by....a simpler, less stress time.
Muck Fichigan
Maybe in Big 5 FBS, but perhaps not in all those in FBS.
For example, what effect does it have at Ivy League schools, which do not offer athletic scholarships? How much NIL is there for the ne'er-do-wells in the Big 5 leagues?
What about FCS, Div II and Div III?
Seems to me that some schools, where they are more interested in cash & championships than educating college athletes (e.g., SEC with 1 year schollies, as opposed to B1G's 4-year schollies), are the ones driving this change. It appears that institutions with integrity will lose recruits to those with fewer scruples.
Our honor defend, we'll fight to the end !
"it's not magic, it's fundamentals" that lead to Ohio State's success. - Ryan Day
I do a fair amount of work with tech venture capital companies (VC's) and I can tell you that all this NIL is going to head that way very, very soon. At the end of the day, everyone wants an ROI (return on investment) and the risk is VERY HIGH that there is absolutely NO "ROI" on these NIL deals. None. And despite the amount of "cool" you can get by being a rich guy that built a cool facility to host some blue chip recruits signing their NIL deals and taking some pics, that gets old very, very fast. You're literally throwing money in the toilet. What's needed for that ROI to be "there" is tying success on the field (TV viewership, social media interactions, ticket sales, swag sales, product sales, etc) with the amount of money invested in the players. How do you do that? Well, the only "real way" is to follow the NFL way and have "salary caps" and whatnot based on revenue share etc. We MUST tie NIL to how the schools/conferences do revenue-wise. Because isn't that the point anyway? We all got "mad" about the fact that college athletes were "making millions for their schools but not being paid a penny." Well, that's actually STILL the case. The too slick for their own good lawyers essentially created a situation where they've allowed players to get paid, but have let the schools, the conferences, and the media completely off the hook "because the schools are PROHIBITED from paying them." What? OSU/B1G could lead the way and offer a "standard" revenue share (rev share) for the players on their teams. But those players would SIGN CONTRACTS with performance bonuses etc. That takes care of tampering, pays the players, and you lose this "wild west" feel to the NIL sitch. JUST DO WHAT THE NFL DOES. Problem solved. This isn't that hard.
Round on the ends and "HI" in the middle. O-HI-O.
Great analysis and I think the VC analogy is helpful up to a point. Except that a lot of these supposed "NIL" deals for high school recruits aren't really business deals. They're good old fashioned pay-for-play on steroids using the "NIL" smoke screen. So, as you suggest, I would expect these "NIL" VC deals to have much worse hit rates than real world VC deals. And that's saying something because real world VC deals have very low hit rates to begin with.
Thanks. You're spot on. At least with VC's there's some sort of ROI sought/expected, even if they take 50% stake in the company, or take the company altogether if the company fails to meet the goals set by the VC. This is, as you say, "pay for play." It's completely unsustainable. I was actually working with an OSU NIL firm (that will remain nameless and was NOT The Foundation) and they were pitching a few players (none of the well known ones) from the football team, and some from the other teams (female BB, a kid from another school etc) and they were selling it to me as "marketing/pr." Now, this is absolutely no criticism of anyone, but how are these athletes going to help me market my stuff? It's one thing to have CJ Stroud or Marvin Harrison JR hocking my wares, but these folks? I'd never even heard of them. I'd essentially just be giving them money, and maybe get a photo to post on my IG that those two people follow me. But the same COULD be said for the NFL. How many stars are there exactly that get shoe deals etc? A few. The rest are professionals you've probably never heard about, but they're invaluable to the team, so how do you pay THEM? Rev share (of sorts).
Round on the ends and "HI" in the middle. O-HI-O.
That would make players employees and all kinds of labor issues will crop up. In theory it works;in reality I don't see it.
Bobcat66
The "solution" may be just that, designating college athletes to be employees. Let them form a bargaining unit to negotiate a master work agreement to govern nil, recruiting, portal, etc. that sets out the rules and responsibility of both sides. I would hate to see that happen, but short of Congressional action, a union contract may be the only way out.
Too much time spent at the North Heidelberg rather than the classroom. SSD 68-72
That isn't going to happen. You would have to pay all the athletes as employees. Title 9 will ensure that.
Athletic programs scrape by with revenue vs cost. OSU is currently in the hole 80mil now so where is the money to come from. I can see 10-15 a year cut from coaching salaries but where else?
That's a good question, but the B1G just made a seven year TV deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC worth $8 BILLION, so I'm not sure why OSU (or the rest of the teams in the conference) are so "hat in hand." $8 billion for what? Presumably mostly football and men's basketball. Who is getting all that money? Not trying to sound like a communist "bourgeois vs proletariat" here, but that's almost a billion dollars for each of the B1G schools (currently). Surely each B1G school could "stipulate" that each team gets a "rev share" of that money.
Round on the ends and "HI" in the middle. O-HI-O.
I know that sounds like a lot but taking a look at OSU;s share it comes to roughly 75 mil a year which is about a third of the athletic budget.
Yep. And "all that money" helps provide sports programs and scholarships to underprivileged athletes who are going to get just a degree from school. Not millions like those who will go onto the NBA or NFL will make.
This x100. for most companies/businesses, NIL makes no sense (except on the small scale, like a couple $1000's to show up at an event, an opening, or doing a commercial). For rich people that can throw money around, its a matter of time before they are unwilling to do that any more. What doesnt help the case is the disaster at TAMU -- a huge negative ROI is not going to leave a good taste in most peoples mouths.
Don't expect any help from Congress, they have been well aware of the issue for over a decade and have done nothing, the coaches aren't going police themselves. Coaches are going to stretch the rules as far as possible, some will cross the line, intentionally or without intent. What I see is more schools spending more time working the portal and less time and money recruiting high school kids. Most teams have limited resources and you are recruiting an older player who has practiced and played the college game for a year or two instead of following a kid for three or four years and all the time and effort required. You are getting a better vetted candidate as well, they will have had time to transition from high school life to college life. The elite of the elite will always be recruited by the big boys with huge staffs and nearly unlimited budgets, it is the second and third tier players that I am referring to.
One of the few ways this gets cleaned up is somebody going to a very public trial, convicted and sent to prison for years if the commit some type of fraud against players
Agreed. I "fear" that this is going to take the shape of a player being sued by a university or an NIL sponsor. I have absolutely no idea what's in a contract like the one Quinn Ewers signed that saw him leave HS early, but if it said something like "we will pay you $1 million to be the starting QB at OSU" or whatever, and then he leaves OSU, that's a breach of contract and the sponsor has the right to sue him (unless stated otherwise). We're already seeing the Florida Gator QB getting ready to sue Florida for breach of contract because the $13 MILLION four year deal "fell through." (That's $4 million MORE than Lamar Jackson is getting on HIS rookie deal, fyi) There is no "precedent" for enforcement of these deals as some are even made when they are minors. Good luck enforcing a contract with a minor. I'm of the mind that schools like OSU should even, perhaps, have the players pay THEM for the "opportunity" to access OSU's brand, audience, history, tradition, etc. In fact, if someone WAY smarter and more motivated than me would hop on the idea, I would essentially do what IMG and other "football factories" do and "sell" my players to schools based upon the potential of making both the players AND the university money. That's essentially how other entertainment industries work. The "real money" is in OSU's brand and reach. Let a smart NIL agent figure that out and you'll have the pick of the litter everyday when an NIL agent can properly "sell" their talent to bigtime schools and other brands like Nike. Imagine Nike selling a shoe deal to a college player? Imagine the shoe sales, etc. Now we're talking.
Round on the ends and "HI" in the middle. O-HI-O.
Another issue that is running in a parallel lane to the NIL issues is the National Labor Relations Board indicating that ( NLRB) that student athletes are employees of the school, conference and the NCAA.
https://www.mcguirewoods.com/client-resources/Alerts/2022/12/national-la...
Let the players who only care about money go somewhere else...they are more hassle than they are worth because they could flip at any moment and then you've wasted so much time recruiting them. It doesn't seem to be working out for Texas A&M anyway. Also good luck getting those boosters to pay up year after year.
We are still getting great players and those players are making money off their name as is intended.
The day will come when a whale will sue the school and coach for not starting the recruit they bankrolled. Book it!
Mizzer, it a whale does that, it could be a huge problem! Lawsuit for beach of contract.
TampaBayBone Doc
The top coaches get paid $5-10m per year. I'm soooo sorry they have new things to worry about, but I'm sure they'll manage along somehow.
I'm less concerned about the stress of head coaches and more concerned about the general trajectory of college football.
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
-Jack Handey
Agreed. They can always sell insurance if the workload is too much. Our whole staff will be making almost a million plus in a few years, and that sort of compensation requires more than a 40 hour workweek.
Indiana is just Ohio West
Whatever the fix, it won't come soon enough.
And to think these kids were just asking for a little bit of spending $ to get by as a college student.
Current NIL is a joke...buying players straight out of highschool.
The players need to bargain for media rights money because they're owed some of that. This whole thing was a sad attempt at sidestepping, saying "fine, you can have someone elses money if they're willing to pay you, just don't ask US for money" - ADs
They won't get a dime out of me
That's a great way to describe the situation.
The schools are making money off the NIL of all of their athletes, in a collective sense. The "brand" of a school has no clout if the product (team, players) has no draw.
An analogy would be a record label -- you don't get distribution or broadcast deals if all of your bands suck. But if you have a great band, all the musicians should get a cut of the revenue -- not just the frontman.
"We get paid to score touchdowns, not kick field goals"
-- Urban Meyer
Great article J. Ginter. There hasn’t been one time that I thought about the impact of NIL on the coaches, especially head coaches work/life balance! I’m one that almost always falls back on the line ,”that’s why you get paid the big busks!” If something doesn’t change, then soon the job won’t be worth any amount of money! At that point, SOMETHING, will change.
I’m never a fan of relying on the government to fix a problem, but in this case, it seems like that might be the only way to put up some boundaries! Obviously the NCAA doesn’t want to touch it!
“When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.” — Paul Brown
NIL happened and fans instantly became experts on how to handle it, while the coaches that actually have to handle it on a daily basis, barely understand it. OSU is surviving this pretty well so far and one day soon I’m confident they’ll be using it to their advantage.
The best college coaches are making around $10m a year. Please excuse me if I'm not sympathetic to how many hours they work a week. Assistant coaches are earning over $1m per year.
It's no different than a high stress job on Wall Street and many other professions. You can retire early if you wish. Make this kind of money, set for life. Also, in many careers you'll work excessive hours, and never see this level of compensation.
No one's feeling sorry for the CFB coach. Woe is me, they have to work a lot.
Congress. lol. How many ppl would want congress sticking their noses in their financial business? Like Dodd said, "be careful what you wish for."
if you want an even Bigger mess let Congress control this Shitty mess ...let's go full Socialism ..doesn't anybody read the Constitution anymore ....and when the censors of this site suspend me like they always do just remember the writer of this article brought up the subject first ...
A great deal of the nil issue revolves around the transfer portal.
Go back to a modified version of the old rules - mainly you sit for a year if you want to transfer - unless maybe the head coach changes or you file a hardship.
Right now NIL is just a euphemism for salary negotiation. The fact that the HCs have to somehow navigate this insanity is nuts. Overnight, coaching in the NFL has become far preferable to coaching in Div 1 college. At least the NFL has some kind of structure to
Free AgencyTransfer Portal andcompensationNIL money issues.JTatumCCS
I really don’t care how “hard” it is etc. I’m just tired of losing recruits because of this shit.
In Antoine Winfield I trust
Craig Zak
Why don't colleges just make them all sign non-compete agreements? Corporate America is currently doing that to every low-level, non-important employee, so why can't colleges? Seems like there would be a stronger argument as to why a football player shouldn't be allowed to go to another team to compete against Ohio State than there is for some low-level manager taking a different job. Might put a quick end to the endless transfers. I'm only sort of kidding here...
True story: I served ribs to John Cooper.
now you are going down the hole that qualifies someone with a non compete as an employee or a contractor. Like I mentioned above the NLRB may issue a ruling next year that shakes everything up.
The Letter of intent and award of a scholarship is basically a non compete for the current academic year
Love the Chryst Timeline - in 2018 signed for $3.3 million, increasing by $100,000 each year thereafter.
Overtime is Authorized - as they used to say on my NRC Licensed Nuclear Reactor Operator job. Lots of weekends / nights / holidays because folks seem to like electricity and the company employed 9 of us. About the same as I like Buckeye Football.
Ryan Day (1-2 v TTUN) is signed through 2028 overall compensation $9.5 million per season. His base salary will be set at $2 million.
So I'd like some OT on recruiting, NIL, player development, general nice guy duties with a Michigan ass whipping going the other way in 2023. Or renegotiate a discount.
That 11/25/23 game will be 1456 days since our last satisfactory performance in The Game.
Good men have aged and died in that interval.
I'd help out for FREE and be worth every penny.
Lord Hammercy
This story sort of struck a nerve.
I don’t have any sympathy for anybody who makes $9 million a year to coach football. If you have to work 24 hours a day from August 1 to January 1, take a nap and then get in your car and go recruit… well, that’s the job. You’re getting $9 million. Suck it up buttercup.
Now, that said, I saw Ryan Day in the team hotel on my way to breakfast before the Peach Bowl. He looked like if you shoved a lump of coal up his ass it would come out a diamond. Tired? Yup. Pressure? Yup. $9 million.
On NIL, I’m sick of hearing about money grubbing 18 year old kids. The idea was to put some spending money in their pockets, not to mint a new set of millionaires each year. They will never get the toothpaste back in the tube. Should have structured it from the start to give every athlete $10k from the university, and I mean all athletes. Pay for it with those enormous tv contracts and have the collectives send their money direct to the university for disbursement.