NIL and the relentless pursuit of recruiting

[Total Red]

I see NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) having a major impact on recruiting. Probably more so at the P5 level but it will trickle down to the Valley as well. We've seen college athletic programs pour hundreds of million of dollars into facilities in an effort to stand out. Facilities will always be a factor but NIL deals could carry more weight. If school A has local company offering a NIL agreement for 5,000 a year, and school B has one at $25,000, which one do you think the athlete will choose? Is he/she still concerned about who has the nicer locker room or weight room? Not so much.

 

[MadBird]

I hate this.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

The NCAA and schools had a good run making millions (probably billions overall) off of their players while the players got a college education but not the bigger dollars, especially at the Big Boy level. How much would Trevor Lawrence have pulled in during his career at Clemson while the school profited? Things are definitely going to be changing. I don't know the specifics of how this will work but there was cheating in the past. I can easily see a lucrative booster club arranging for money to be funneled through some commercial agreement. This is the future now.

 

[Total Red]

Just a FYI. I am offering very reasonable rates on my NLI - contact Elite Model Mgmt for details. Semi-nudes available at a slightly higher rate if essential to the advertising theme and overall artistic integrity.

 

[fourthandshort]

I hate this.

Totally unlevels the playing field and they will regret this dumbass decision.

 

[redbirds2000]

Totally unlevels the playing field and they will regret this dumbass decision.

I don't think the NCAA wants a level playing field. They only care about the P5 and of the P5 they really only care about 20-25 schools for bball and maybe 10-15 for football.

 

[FriscoBird90]

I don't think the NCAA wants a level playing field. They only care about the P5 and of the P5 they really only care about 20-25 schools for bball and maybe 10-15 for football.

Concur. I think the NCAA decided to essentially get in bed with the P5 at the expense of all the other member conferences and institutions about 30 years ago. The NCAA has realized only too late that partially as a result of that decision the P5 is now too large for the NCAA to manage/discipline without fear of the P5 bolting and cutting out the NCAA entirely, which might still happen eventually; and the time certainly has passed for the "smaller" conferences to do anything about the NCAA's front office having stiffed them.

Men's college basketball and football has increasingly been morphing into the minor leagues for the NBA and NFL, but now it will be interesting to see what effect this opening of the cash spigots to largely P5 members and athletes has on women's college athletics and the other men's sports programs. At the end of the day, this strikes me as having all the markings of the NCAA doing its best to hold onto its ability to exist and prosper as an entity. If that means essentially having to admit it has become the P5's subordinate and the NBA's de facto minor league system in order to prevent establishment of a true minor league system for men's basketball run by the NBA, well, so be it. The only thing that could reverse the current trend is if the P5 conferences become a victim of their own success, have an enormous scandal or two or three or four related to how this is implemented and plays out, and the network and cable monies that have been surging into the NCAA and the P5 conferences start to recede as a result.