NIL Thread
- Thread starter jessej
- Start date
Yes, I have confirmed all NIL money is going directly to Josh Oduro for the next 10 years. Also, all direct George Mason living relatives are at the mercy of Josh's will and are subject to any and all indentured servitude as deemed necessary by the Oduro family collective.
The players have no control over the purse strings. They are given their stipends a few times a year. I imagine they'll hire a new Chair this Spring.
Don't know how anybody could say that we didn't see this coming. College athletics will never be the same and its pretty sad. I mean just look no further than down at FAU and their players being recruited during the NCAA tournament. There is nothing the NCAA can do about it and it's pretty sad. The rich will get richer and the mid major programs will just be the developmental league for the big boys. NIL and the portal can not, and should not, coexist.
Two teams from midmajor leagues made the final 4 this year, I’d say we are doing just fine. Parity at the tournament is just as good as it’s ever been. Either mid major programs will learn how to make the portal and NIL work for them or they will die.
If you’re a player, it’s not sad at all. You actually get a piece of the enormous revenue generated by their own talents. it’s the American way.
It’s also the American way to adjust and be creative in order to be competitive. Mid majors will continue to have a significant presence in late round NCAA tournament games.
This is the new reality. Like it or not, and I think more effort should be made to adjust and stay competitive rather than be the old man in the rocking chair yelling at the clouds.
Last edited:
Hey! Wait a minute!
I have no issue with players getting a "piece of the enormous revenue" but that is not what is going on here. You have kids playing for one school getting shopped around to bigger schools by someone just trying to line their pockets. You have kids getting recruited by other schools (and their big wallet donors) while those same kids are making a final 4 run. NIL is not necessarily the problem its the combination of NIL AND the portal. And only time will tell if "mid majors will continue to have a significant presence in late round NCAA tournament games" but I don't think they will. You will have the 2006 Mason or 2011 vcu teams that pop up every 10 years or so but that is probably it.
Literally 5 years apart and if you check it there has been a mid major in the Final Four every few years since we broke the seal. Tons of pairity in the tournament and kids who got recruited over will work harder to maybe play into one of those lucriative NIL deals at a bigger school. There are few downsides for the players and that's a good thing.
The only thing that'll go away is squads similar to our 2006 team...4-year players who have been there forever. Probably won't happen much anymore but that's no reason to think you can't win and run a successful program if you still attract talent or know how to develop it. So the big names are all going to the P6 schools and making huge NIL bags...how is that different from the P6 schools sucking up 1-and-dones like they did for years (and continue to do)?
There's no point in wishing that they'd stack the deck in favor of mid major schools, which is what all this dreaming is about. Schools like us will always be an underdog, and just because we don't have an easy path to a championship ahead of us doesn't mean there isn't another way to go about it.
These players aren’t getting a dime from the NCAA, though. That money is staying within the institution. And they aren’t exactly earning on their own the same way a non-athlete student might be monetizing their Instagram or Twitch (which is how it was sold to us). It’s essentially back channel pay for play recruitment brought into the light, which if are fine with that that’s ok, but let’s not pretend that this is any kind of real salary structure or revenue sharing by the universities and the athletes.
This very well may end in professionalizing the sports which in turn will probably spell the end of the NCAA. Seems like the Power 5 conferences are already expanding in ways to turn themselves into their own professional leagues. Not sure what that means for the future, but it might mean that anyone left out of the party might not even have an athletic department 20-30 years from now.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #232
The Portal Issue
I believe these are the early days of the Wild, Wild West
and it will take a few years to get to a new equilibrium.
what the initial data shows
1) Most kids getting into the portal don't get offers as there simply aren't enough scholarships to go around
2) Most players who do get offers get them from lower schools - in terms of basketball playing levels
3) of the 1500 -2000 players in the portal, only about 100 or so will actually move up to better programs
First simple solution is to make this analysis mandatory before signing to enter the portal
and make sure that players know that entering the portal will end their scholarship and in many cases their chance of getting a college degree
I believe these are the early days of the Wild, Wild West
and it will take a few years to get to a new equilibrium.
what the initial data shows
1) Most kids getting into the portal don't get offers as there simply aren't enough scholarships to go around
2) Most players who do get offers get them from lower schools - in terms of basketball playing levels
3) of the 1500 -2000 players in the portal, only about 100 or so will actually move up to better programs
First simple solution is to make this analysis mandatory before signing to enter the portal
and make sure that players know that entering the portal will end their scholarship and in many cases their chance of getting a college degree
One of the problems is that fans are now realizing that the players may be less committed to the institution than we are. We root for Mason because of our association with the university and, in the past, felt like the players were representing "US". That's becoming less true with NIL.
Understandably the players are now being treated more fairly from a dollar and cents and freedom of movement perspective. But for many, their loyalties may becoming strictly transactional.
It's a different story for many fans who have stuck with rooting for Mason in good times and bad. Not much "return" on our emotional investment during the Hewitt/Nestor years, but we still kept our season tickets and continued going to games.
Understandably the players are now being treated more fairly from a dollar and cents and freedom of movement perspective. But for many, their loyalties may becoming strictly transactional.
It's a different story for many fans who have stuck with rooting for Mason in good times and bad. Not much "return" on our emotional investment during the Hewitt/Nestor years, but we still kept our season tickets and continued going to games.
What the data doesn’t show is a significant number of kids who are in the portal did not go there willingly, they were forced out by a coach who wanted to give their scholarship to another player.
So much of this narrative that kids are out there chasing a bag is just total nonsense. While some of them are making decisions based on money, there are many more whose choices are being made for them by adults in a cutthroat game.
Pretty gross how many coaches are out there complaining about the new system when they’re a huge part of the problem and have been for a long time.
I think if you’re going to tell someone that if you enter the portal your scholarship is revoked you also have to guarantee a scholarship for four years so long as they don’t quit the team and are academically eligible. In other words, coaches can’t just be pushing kids into the portal if they don’t develop the way the coach thought they would.
Show some loyalty on the front end, maybe get some back.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #236
100% agree
and add in the option that if a player is unwanted by a new coach the athletic scholarship gets converted to an academic scholarship for the remainder of their 4 years, as they can use some of the coach's buyout money to fund this.
FreeGunston12
All-American
No one is going to be revoking scholarships for entering the portal. That is a terrible way to undercut your own efforts to keep the players you want. Not much logic to that idea.
I was more advocating the latter thing than the former. I’m not sure if we guarantee scholarships. I know the P5+Notre Dame do.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #240
Inside NIL collectives' strategies to men's basketball's transfer portal
Some name, image and likeness collectives have a budget for men's basketball players that eclipses $2 million annually for NIL deals.
my takeaways
"More than 20 percent of Division I scholarship men’s basketball players have entered the transfer portal in the sport’s second offseason of the NCAA’s name, image and likeness era, including at least eight reigning conference players of the year who have eligibility remaining."
"High-quality players who entered the transfer portal – or their representation – are often hoping the players will sign agreements worth $250,000 to $400,000 per year, with some of the most in-demand players hoping to earn at least half a million dollars."
if these are funds diverted from funds normally donated to the University then most funding goals will go unmet as in most cases the University will not give their blessing to drain/share/cannibalize their own funding sources.
" There are A-10 programs with NIL backing and it may not be $400,000 a year but $40,000, $50,000 is still a solid amount of money in these players’ pockets. ”
" “There’s so much bullshit that floats around out there,” said Joe Messmore, a co-founder of Home of the Brave, which supports athletes at Bradley. "
" There’s a trickle-down effect, such that collectives that support high-major or mid-major programs might identify compensation that’s competitive with professional basketball salaries in the U.S. or Europe in order to try to retain their best players, and then collectives that support mid-major or low-major programs are forced to try to come close to matching their high-major peers in order to try to keep the program’s roster intact. "
" While a collective that supports a mid-major men’s basketball program might have a $250,000 annual budget for the sport, a collective that supports one of the sport’s best programs might agree to a $250,000 contract with a player who’s considered one of the best who entered the transfer portal. "
" Collectives that support a school at the mid-major level, which is admittedly a broad classification of schools, will likely have a budget for men’s basketball players that ranges from $150,000 to $350,000. One collective’s budget doubled from the 2022 season to 2023 due to the number of current men’s basketball players with whom it wanted to partner. "
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