Some question the sustainability of boosters donating money to a collection for, in many cases, athletes who have never played a down of college football and can transfer freely.
“Do we want a new weight room or do we want to spend it on a 17-year old who may or may not pan out?” asks Greg McElroy, the former Alabama quarterback who is now an ESPN analyst.
Ruiz, the billionaire Miami booster, says he’s unsure if he’ll keep signing so many athletes to NIL deals, expecting such deals will lose their value after their inaugural year. “Next year, it becomes standard,” he says. “People pay less attention, so you get less return on your investment.”
“But,” you may say, “what about the Tennessees of the college football world that don’t worry about ROI so much?” To which I can only ask in response, when’s the last time the Vols spent money on college football wisely? Look how far that’s gotten them lately.
In the end, I just don’t see how the current spending spree is sustainable.
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Maybe. There are plenty of people walking around with more money than brains. I’d guess there will always be someone willing to pay something for the latest greatest recruit.
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As long as Ole Siwash U performs at a decent enough level to keep hopes up for next year, boosters will remain grateful and generous. I can see donations drying up when things go to Tech level, but seven to nine win Tennessees and Auburns will continue to rake it in.
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That’s poor man thinking. A couple mil a year from a proud (read vain) booster with a couple billion is an afterthought.
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booster money to players has been flowing for years, decades,etc… it will never dry up… prices for athlete service could/should come back down as imho that is what has changed with nil i.e. the amount being paid to athletes
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One mans Mickey D’s bag, is another mans envelope hand shake…#AUBURNBAGMANISALIVEANDWELL!
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#AUBURN SUCKS!
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Once upon a time, the #1 draft pick in the NFL became the highest paid player in the NFL before ever playing a down. That was fixed. The NIL will be fixed too.
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An, albeit limited, anti-trust exemption and a CBA helps rid the NFL of some financial insanity.
College football has neither. It’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
The irony is that its the tv money caused the issue AND its the grease that keeps it running….for now.
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The market is very good at penalizing stupid decisions and rewarding good ones. It helped that the players union and NFP were able to negotiate for everyone else. But even without it, it would have eventually been fixed as free agency grew.
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Makes you wonder how the professional leagues thrive by eliminating pretty much every freedom in the market.
And if you make really really atrocious decisions and finish last?
Congrats: you pick first!
You did everything right and won?
Here’s a trophy and the very last pick.
Walmart vs Amazon is a market.
Bill vs Jets ain’t.
NFL vs. Soccer is a market.
Vandy vs. Georgia ain’t.
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Naah, ego and hubris never die, especially among the unbridled wealthy…it may plateau, but the big money is here to stay…I personally wouldn’t take expensive stakes in teenagers, but clearly there are folks that will…and I think more step forward now that it’s done in the light
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Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun…Fuck Tooth Nation
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Agreed. This will settle out in a couple of years and everyone will be back to status quo. Meanwhile Jimbo will still go 9-3 (at best) with the greatest cla$$ money ever bought. And Tennessee will still suck.
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When ole Bear went to Greater Bryan, Tejas in 1954, the story goes that he put a 10 gallon stetson on a table and told the big boosters to fill it up with money so he could go get some players…
What’s changed???
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Not sure what the NCAA can do at this point. All I can think are 1) check to make sure every dollar of an NIL deal is paid attached to some service (appearance, commercial, social media post etc) and 2) rely on transfers or kids that are cast aside ratting out their former schools.
would take an Army of support staff at NCAA to monitor. Maybe that staff could be supported by fines levied as schools in violation, but I doubt they have the organization 2. is the same as it ever was.(few and far between).
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In a collective, I’m not spending a million on one player. It’s spread among all the deals. I think the market will start to standardize values for anyone less than a 5 star, but the money will keep flowing if collectives keep adding a lot of small contributors. If the NIL contracts call for a % of a player’s future earnings in the NFL, then they might even become close to self-sustaining. That’s a clever and back door way to get NFL owners to fund this minor league system. 4% of Matt Stafford’s salary is almost $500,000 per year. This will take years to build, but that’s how I’d do it. I’d even accept buyout offers from pro agents…I’ve got a never ending pool of new deals to sign with that money. Hell, I might even be able to sell shares of this to private investors in the future and really monetize this thing. Convert payments to Crypto and really build a high risk financial house of cards akin to a Ponzi scheme. That’s the direction I think this goes sooner than you might expect.
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Shorter take…big money guys constantly seek to hedge the risks of their investments.
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Let’s see how things look in a recession, not after a period of massive monetary and fiscal stimulus. Point being there is some normalization of the spending that will occur and ROI becomes more important in those situations.
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Your starting lineup for today’s game, on offense we have the Coca-Cola QB Stetson Bennett IV, playing the Delta Airlines WR positions are McConkey & Smith, at Home Depot RB we have Milton & McIntosh. Lowe’s Home Improvement offensive lineman today are…
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Schools that spent like crazy on facilities prior to NIL (like Georgia) are sitting in a far better position right now than those that didn’t. I think NIL will come back to earth some but I think that schools and boosters are going to put a lot more resources into NIL rather than facilities. If NIL drops off some then facilities are going to be back in vogue with recruits.
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In my mind, NIL was just the beginning. When NIL settles back into a sustainable path, things will move to the next island of cash.
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