Here's a great listen. Say what you want about the New York Times, but this episode is pretty dang powerful.
If you want to understand what we're up against in NIL
- Thread starter HI Cock1
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It's as if we have gotten into a quantum accelerator and gone back in time to the pre-1973 days when the richest schools were able to put as many players on scholarship as they desired. Back then college football was dominated by Alabama, Texas, Southern Cal, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Michigan, Notre Dame and Penn State. All the other schools were the peasants. Unless the Athletic Directors of the peasant schools get together to try to force some sanity back into college football, adjust to being 2nd class from here on out.
I have been a gamecock for a long time. I am used to 2nd class. Even some 3rd class.
Unfortunately, you're probably right. We don't have enough rich alumni... and we don't have a winning tradition to defend.
Focus is on Texas in 2021. After a crappy season, the coach said, "We need guys who are 6'5 and 320 for the Oline." A non-profit in Austin was created called "Horns with a Heart" that was ostensibly a charity. Their real mission was to promise any OL who came to UT $50k. Their goal was to get 5 big guys; they got 7, including a flip from a guy heading to Oregon. As for the NIL part, the players had to do one social media post per month or something similar. That's how they get away with being a charity. The IRS approved a bunch of these collectives as non-profits... and then changed the rules to make it more "charitable" for the community because to be tax-exempt, you should be providing a community benefit, right?
So... yeah, it's all about money and what each school can promise. The schools make too much $$ from football to want to change. The NCAA must do something more than they are, but the toothpaste is out of the tube. Definitely worth 30 minutes.
And the one we do have they treat her like sh#t
Sometimes you have to bite your tongue and kiss a little ***!
I don't mean to quibble, but all this talk about "schools" bringing in all this money is misleading. Schools have checks written to them once in awhile from these athletic departments that operate as separate entities business-wise. The lion's share of that money is plowed back into athletics - and needs to be. The costs associated with funding major college athletic programs are enormous and many operate at actual losses, not manufactured ones.
We have to be creative. For example, I don’t believe for a second that Ole Miss has more NIL opportunity than USC. But from the jump, their AD went head first into it, preaching the importance of NIL to their donors. Ours said “you have 2 options, Gamecock Club or NIL…do what you want.” Gladly, it seems like some of that has been solved.
It will be for Carolina like it was in the 1960s. We were, in essence, a tad better than Southern Conference schools. My first South Carolina football game was in November 1963. We played Tulane, in Columbia. We lost 20-7. In beating us that afternoon, Tulane snapped a school record 17-game losing streak.
All that would mean for us is eventual depletion.
So what's the realistic, doable answer that will survive court challenges, because as is, NIL is slowly and surely burying us?
If I knew, and I could give you a definitive unchallenged answer than I would gladly do so, however .....
Let the top 30 or so programs break away from the NCAA in football and let everyone else go back to a pre NIL model. Let the 100 teams that are NCAA programs abide by a set of rules that makes athletes be actual students who are actually admitted to the school first and then are given athletic scholarships.
I'll know it when I see it. Right now they are leaning toward schools paying players directly but they don't want to make them employees. I can't reconcile it in my own mind. I also can't see a model in which we won't be underfunded.
Maybe the obvious answer is we muddle along as is and, accept our lot in collegiate sports of life. That's OK with me. It's unfortunate for those 20+ years younger than me.
Glad you didn't say, "we" with respect to our history of being a middling program. I keep hoping for efforts to break the cycle.
Right, we're lucky to be this much closer to death than they.
It's really impossible to understand the different ways the money flows with the NIL around because there's absolutely no regulation or transparency. It's just a lame-brained law whipped up by a lame-brained, attention-seeking politician who didn't care at all about the plight of college football or equity on any level.
Universities have been living the good life since our government decided to back (and now forgive) student loans. From that point, schools have hiked tuition costs for a now extremely overpriced education with the confidence that they will always be paid. In return for that favor, Universities have now become incubators for political and progressive nonsense, as well as fringe medical research (e.g. gender change for children.)
The idea that Universities aren't moving money between ADs and themselves in the reckless NIL environment is likely flawed. Creative CPAs can tuck or move most anything they need to. And as we experienced under Spurrier's successful run, an nationally prominent football team can have an impact on the University image as a whole and that can have a big impact on the bottom line of everything. It's all in the family.
Universities have been living the good life since our government decided to back (and now forgive) student loans. From that point, schools have hiked tuition costs for a now extremely overpriced education with the confidence that they will always be paid. In return for that favor, Universities have now become incubators for political and progressive nonsense, as well as fringe medical research (e.g. gender change for children.)
The idea that Universities aren't moving money between ADs and themselves in the reckless NIL environment is likely flawed. Creative CPAs can tuck or move most anything they need to. And as we experienced under Spurrier's successful run, an nationally prominent football team can have an impact on the University image as a whole and that can have a big impact on the bottom line of everything. It's all in the family.
LOL. Well, lucky in the sense that we won't have to experience as much of the frustration and annoyance with our collegiate sports lot in life as they will.
Death itself redirects a lot of things. I'm prepared but not ready. Family time is precious.
Since NIL began we’ve averaged approximately 7 wins. About the same as our all time history. We currently have the #7 and #4 transfer classes on 247 and On3. A lot of unnecessary panic in this thread. We will be able to remain stable. But if we’re going to consistently compete at a high level we either need regulation to level the playing field or we need our state legislature to be creative with NIL laws in SC.
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I think we'll come up short under any circumstances without the kind of regulation that probably won't pass judicial review.
Looking to politicians for a solution to any problem is a terrible idea. If the legislature gets involved, disaster will soon follow. There is no law preventing anyone from giving money to an NIL collective or from paying an athlete directly for their NIL.
I don't see a lot of panic in this thread. I see a lot of acceptance of reality and that is a good thing.
OK, so then don't complain when schools like Mizzou keep landing top talent bc their state laws are MUCH more athlete friendly than most. Mizzou's coaches and school personnel can directly assist in securing NIL deals for kids. That would have been helpful when we first tried to set up Park Ave, no?? In Mizzou, you can also get NIL as a HS player if you sign with an in state school. In Montana, the school itself can act as the agent for the athletes. In TN, school officials can directly work with athletes on NIL opportunities, and the collectives can be directly involved in recruiting HS players. More and more states are enacting similar laws...I'm sure there are more.
We're doing nothing in SC. The only reason Park Ave still exists is bc Carolina Rise is funding it. We can sit around all day and cry about how it, but until our legislature works to level the playing field it's going to be an uphill battle.
Your previous post talked about how great we are doing in the portal. Mizzou is behind us in portal rankings so their laws must not be making too much of a difference. Our recruiting class (HS recruits) is ranked #19, Mizzou is #24. Again, they aren't pulling away from the rest of college football because of their NIL laws.
I don't think NIL issues are holding us back. Being a middling program with absolutely no history of winning, having a downtown campus in a city that isn't exactly a "Best College Towns" place, having an off campus stadium and having our in state rival be a perennial championship contender competing with us for recruits who want to play in SC are factors that are probably affecting our recruiting more than any NIL issues. Top recruits want to go to top programs for the most part. Until Carolina makes some noise in the win/loss column, new NIL laws aren't going to make much difference.
I'm prepared, too. But, I don't want to rush things.
I don't care how little might be your bank account nor how pitifully small might be your investment portfolio that you leave behind. If you leave behind children and grandchildren, you will then have died a rich man.