P.J. Fleck: New Minnesota NIL collective ‘incredibly important’ to maintain roster

Dinkytown Athletes joined the already crowded Minnesota Golden Gopher-focused NIL collective market on Monday. However, unlike other Gopher collectives, Dinkytown Athletes appears to have support of the Minnesota athletic department, including football coach P.J. Fleck.

Dinkytown Athletes was co-founded by former Gophers offensive lineman Derek Burns and Rob Gag, a lifelong supporter of the Minnesota program. The collective will work with Gopher student-athletes to connect them with the community for NIL deals that will include payments. The collective says it already has around 60 student-athletes from various sports signed.

Fleck said Monday he considers Dinkytown Athletes’ work essential – especially when it comes to retaining top talent. He called it “incredibly important for the future of our program, important for college football and all student-athletes.”

“I can’t say this enough – how important this is,” Fleck said. “So, I’m calling on our donors, boosters, our fans, our alumni, anybody that supports our program to really look at this collective.

“It’s a call to action to really support our student-athletes here at the University of Minnesota in this ever-changing landscape of college athletics to keep moving forward… It’s incredibly important as we get into the roster management, building a roster of the future.”

#Gophers coach PJ Fleck opens his weekly news conference with a statement on @DTAthletes, an NIL collective, which unveiled today.

“I can’t say enough how important this is. Calling on anyone who supports our program to really look at this collective.” @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/wgW0QsDb6Y

— Jeff Wald (@JeffWaldFox9) September 26, 2022

Many questioned idea of using NIL for roster maintenance

Ohio State coach Ryan Day raised a lot of eyebrows earlier this summer when he said it’ll take $13 million in NIL compensation to keep the Buckeyes at the top of college football. Day insisted the top 25-30 players on Ohio State’s roster will need around $550,000 in NIL payments annually to stick around in Columbus and out of the Transfer Portal. Originally, many of Day’s Big 10 coaching peers – including Fleck – questioned the blueprint.

“We got one of the best coaches in the country at one of the best programs in the country saying that,” Fleck said in July. “Not only just ‘Wow. That’s different than we’ve heard before,’ but ‘OK, so how do we go do that?’

“And I think it immediately turns into how does college football change to make sure that happens? I think that’s the world we’re all kind of living in right now where this sand hasn’t settled to the bottom yet with everybody answering the questions about what everybody’s opinion is of transfer portal, NIL, pay for play, all this conference realignment. Still hasn’t settled yet.”

P.J. Fleck now backs NIL to sustain roster

Fast forward two months.

Now Fleck appears to fully support the idea that NIL compensation – or a “salary” as some college coaches are simply calling it – is an important way to keep top talent in your program.

“It’s incredibly important as we get into the roster management, building a roster of the future,” Fleck said Monday. “Especially in college football and our job of what we’ll need to be able to do as we keep moving forward to create the most elite experience here at the University of Minnesota.”

Several college recruiters who asked not to be named said they were not surprised by the pivot from Fleck.

“The sands are shifting,” an SEC recruiting coordinator told On3. “NIL isn’t just a recruiting pitch anymore. It’s a retainer. It’s a salary.

“Most originally thought you’d just have to focus on telling recruits, ‘This is what you can potentially get from NIL if you come here.’ Now it’s just as important to tell your players that you have a collective that will take care of them before they hop in the Transfer Portal.”

A Pac-12 recruiter agrees.

“The Transfer Portal is the NIL battlefield that nobody is really talking about,” the coach said. “You can try to win that battle by keeping your roster together through NIL compensation.”