NIL GONE WILD

For discussion regarding the Vanderbilt Commodores' football program.

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Seadog73
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NIL GONE WILD

Post by Seadog73 »

If you scroll down from Auric's link on Michigan's CO-OC, or go to this link - https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... alls-apart you will see that Florida's $13,000,000 4* QB has asked for a release from his NLI because his NIL (NLI, NIL, that is so confusing) deal has fallen through.

And there's this on the same subject -
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/flori ... et-bigger/


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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Johnmn555 »

It's pretty safe not to start a thread devoted to whether we should go after him when his recruitment reopens...
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Seadog73 »

I would not dream of doing that.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Dore2Dore »

NIL & transfer portal have made things so much more difficult - especially at Vandy. It is a whole new world sadly, but the young men & women that stay & graduate will be positive influences in our world & maybe that is most important.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Go Vandy! »

Johnmn555 wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 12:00 pm It's pretty safe not to start a thread devoted to whether we should go after him when his recruitment reopens...
I have $130 to contribute. Now if we can just raise the remaining $12,999,870, we'll have ourselves a 4th string QB!! (Maybe, and this is just me dreaming, 3rd.)
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Johnmn555 »

I'd be interested in what an ad firm would advise a client with respect to the actual value, in business terms, of NIL for an unproven 18 year old potential college player who will be playing in, say, Knoxville TN. Probably next to nothing. To get these kind of sums for an ad campaign or sponsorship, a professional player must be very proven and perhaps playing in a major market. It goes to show this is all fraudulent brown bag money dressed up as NIL. They might just as well pay a player a few million to mow someone's lawn.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Seadog73 »

But UT has already come very close to paying someone close to "a few million to mow someone's lawn." Isn't that what hey were paying Butch Jones while he was washing Nick Saban's Mercedes?
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by BILTMORE »

Johnmn555 wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:01 pm I'd be interested in what an ad firm would advise a client with respect to the actual value, in business terms, of NIL for an unproven 18 year old potential college player who will be playing in, say, Knoxville TN. Probably next to nothing. To get these kind of sums for an ad campaign or sponsorship, a professional player must be very proven and perhaps playing in a major market. It goes to show this is all fraudulent brown bag money dressed up as NIL. They might just as well pay a player a few million to mow someone's lawn.
I have some perspective on this. I work at an ad agency/marketing firm that represents local and regional brands all over the country. In markets with rabid power 5 fan bases (particularly the south, midwest and Texas), our clients were hot to trot get in the NIL game. We've dabbled in it but the results have been total hit or miss.

The "hits" were usually product of good luck and an uncommon willingness for the respective athlete to participate. One such was 5 star Luther Burden. He's a truly fine young man with a professional head on his shoulders who understood the potential value of partnering with our client. Even though his payday from our local client was small compared to what I imagine his NIL Mizzou collective pay was, he was happy to make a little more and do a little more in furtherance of his own personal brand. And our client has seen some benefit.

But to your point, Johnmn555, the NIL collectives are in fact nothing more than booster slush funds for recruiting. They offer very little by way of marketing upside for those who contribute. They don't necessarily prohibit athletes from making more from non-competing brands - but they do discourage them from doing so because why hustle for 10k when you can simply send a tweet or sign a football for 1-12 million?

The misses for us were examples of this latter scenario. They athletes just didn't want to do it. We even have a client who's the official sponsor of a major college athletics dept. They pay big money for that privilege and get a huge branding boost out of that. They/we tried to to mix in actual athletes through separate NIL deals to give their "official sponsor" marketing an extra boost. Couldn't get any players from any sports to participate (though note: the participation was routed through the school's NIL AD, so I'm not sure where the breakdown occurred). Another client tried to get a star female player (truly one of the most well-known female athletes in colleges sports) to appear in some of their TV ads. We wrote some cute stuff that was well within her wheelhouse. She and her agent gave us the "meh" treatment.

Our final analysis is that the benefit you may get from the individual player is less than what you would get from simply playing the NIL game. Meaning - it might earn you some good will from the overall fan base to be known as a business that sweetens the NIL pot for their beloved teams but that the association with the individual player is too unpredictable to really be all that valuable. In other words -try to structure something that positions you as a de facto "official sponsor" of Big State U, but don't worry so much about whether or not the individual players are stars or busts. Like sponsor the players on the Oline. The pitching staff for women's softball or something. Or just commit to working with some player every year. Kind of an overpriced PR campaign rather than a serious marketing campaign.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by AuricGoldfinger »

This story just further confirms that many (not all) players are now committing first to the cash, and second to the school/coach/program/facilities/cheerleaders/etc. NIL deals were not supposed to be signed or committed to until the student athlete was on campus, but that was hopelessly naive. We'll see many more of these kinds of departures in the future, too, as student athletes get to campus and realize they're not getting what they were promised, or the coach decides he doesn't want his new QB being the second highest or even the highest paid person in the locker room.

How is that any different from professional sports, you say? It's not, and that's the point. It's actually worse, because it's almost entirely unregulated. Is that the business colleges want to be in? I'm all for the free market, but this is more like a flea market, with a guy over in the corner who will sell you some knockoff Prada bags, or a woman who pulls you into the shadows to show you some Nikes that fell off a truck near JFK airport.

The Athletic beat writer for Florida was on the Dan Patrick Show this morning discussing the Jaden Rashada situation, and he mentioned that boosters (excuse me, "collectives") were making phone calls to recruits on signing day representing schools the players hadn't even visited, trying to make a deal. In one case, the a firm behind one of the collectives didn't even exist until 72 hours prior to signing day.

I know I sound like the proverbial "Get off my lawn!" guy. I know the games are still just as exciting as ever. I know the players deserve a piece of the pie. But in my mind, this will lead to the biggest changes to and reorganization of intercollegiate athletics in history. It's just not sustainable. I know there's always been dirty deals under the table in recruiting for as long as there have been college sports, but there were rules then, even if the punishments often didn't match the crime and the shady business couldn't be proven. Schools will eventually decide they are either in or out. The toothpaste is out of the tube and they'll never get it back in.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by OldDude »

Thanks for the interesting post, Biltmore.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Johnmn555 »

Thanks for the perspective Biltmore. As you say, a slush fund, largely untethered to the real business realities of potential for successful ad campaigns or sponsorships.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by VUDU »

I think NIL is going self-regulate to a certain extent in a couple of years when it starts hitting boosters that it's a never-ending money suck. In order to maintain these types of "salaries," the big donations are necessary every year. They're not a one-time thing. Sure, NIL is here to stay, but I'll bet we won't be seeing multi-million dollar offers 5 years from now. Part of that will also be the fact that some of these guys getting the big offers are going to be busts.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by Lynchsr »

If there was a rule that said a player could not enter into a NIL agreement/contract with collectives associated with a university/school until the player is enrolled in the school, would this all get simplified? At least until the transfer portal opens up.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by OldDude »

VUDU wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:18 pm I think NIL is going self-regulate to a certain extent in a couple of years when it starts hitting boosters that it's a never-ending money suck. In order to maintain these types of "salaries," the big donations are necessary every year. They're not a one-time thing. Sure, NIL is here to stay, but I'll bet we won't be seeing multi-million dollar offers 5 years from now. Part of that will also be the fact that some of these guys getting the big offers are going to be busts.
Also wonder how the athletic departments will react when Joe Booster, who used to give the department half a million a year unrestricted, now gives those bucks to the collective.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by AuricGoldfinger »

OldDude wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:08 pm
VUDU wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:18 pm I think NIL is going self-regulate to a certain extent in a couple of years when it starts hitting boosters that it's a never-ending money suck. In order to maintain these types of "salaries," the big donations are necessary every year. They're not a one-time thing. Sure, NIL is here to stay, but I'll bet we won't be seeing multi-million dollar offers 5 years from now. Part of that will also be the fact that some of these guys getting the big offers are going to be busts.
Also wonder how the athletic departments will react when Joe Booster, who used to give the department half a million a year unrestricted, now gives those bucks to the collective.
I think that is a legitimate question, and another reason why schools will have to decide if they are in or out.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by alathIN »

Johnmn555 wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:01 pm I'd be interested in what an ad firm would advise a client with respect to the actual value, in business terms, of NIL for an unproven 18 year old potential college player who will be playing in, say, Knoxville TN. Probably next to nothing. To get these kind of sums for an ad campaign or sponsorship, a professional player must be very proven and perhaps playing in a major market. It goes to show this is all fraudulent brown bag money dressed up as NIL. They might just as well pay a player a few million to mow someone's lawn.
Correct. It's not about the business value of a player's endorsement to a car dealership in Athens. It's about a rabid fan who's made a fortune selling cars and is willing to spend a chunk of it to ensure the #1 QB prospect comes to play for the Dawgs.
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Re: NIL GONE WILD

Post by FayetteDore »

OldDude wrote: Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:31 pm Thanks for the interesting post, Biltmore.
I echo that thanks to Biltmore, and to Auric too. Valuable insights that make Vandymania what it is.
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