Category Archives: NIL

Loopholes and A**holes: Working Around the Clearinghouse

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Well, this isn’t necessarily unexpected.

Earlier this week, Yahoo! Sports reported that 18 Nebraska football players were challenging more than $1 million in third-party NIL deals rejected by the College Sports Commission (CSC), the new enforcement arm of college sports. The 18 athletes are the first group to go through the arbitration process.

The Cornhuskers are not afraid to challenge the CSC, becoming the first university to publicly enter arbitration. But sources across college sports tell On3 that Nebraska will not be the last. At least half a dozen schools across the Big Ten and SEC received notable deal denials last week, which could ultimately land in arbitration, sources tell On3.

The CSC rejected Nebraska’s deals because they violated a policy dubbed “warehousing,” when a multimedia rights partner purchases athletes’ NIL rights. Sources have told On3 that the CSC is pinning too many deals on the “associated entity” term, which is used to describe deals facilitated by NIL collectives or schools’ boosters.

In a new data release by the CSC this week, associated contracts tied to schools’ sponsors and booster-operated companies made up 63% of all NIL agreements in the last two months. In total, the CSC said 711 deals worth $29.3 million have been reviewed and not cleared.

“Frustrations are starting to boil over,” one SEC NIL collective told On3. “The CSC is taking some extreme liberties in their judgment on deals.”

And, of course, when folks get frustrated, the lawyers get involved and, eventually, the path is paved to let them do whatever the hell they want to do.

What the fuck?

And to think, Gurley and Green had to sit out games for what amounted to less than 1% of what they’re arguing about now.

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue

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No way around it, Dylan, you’re number 2.

At least he’ll have plenty of time for poetry and prose whilst sitting on the bench.

For I have dreams that do not sleep with pride.
I hear the crowd though silence cloaks mine ears;
I feel the laces though no ball is mine.
Each practice snap, each film-lit midnight hour,
Builds brick by brick the tower of what I’ll be.
A king is not made king by crown alone,
But by the weight of waiting for the crown.

Then let me bide. Let patience be my coach.
This bench is not a prison, but a forge.
And when my hour arrives, let all men say:
“He did not languish—nay, he sharpen’d there.”
So shall I rise, when destiny gives leave,
Not as a boy who wish’d, but one prepared.

– from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Eugene”, probably

Friday Night Frights

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My, how times have changed from my days in high school in the 1990s. If someone from your hometown got a sports scholarship somewhere, they were a hometown hero. Now, it’s about the guy from your hometown and their agent ($$).

Programs developing reputations in world of NIL

The big NIL spenders, according to high school prospects, are becoming clearly defined. The usual suspects like USC, Oregon, Texas A&M and LSU dominate the high-end offers, new programs are trying to enter the arms race.

UCLA, Cal and North Carolina were frequently cited as “most open” regarding NIL discussions with recruits. For UCLA and Cal, NIL is a tool to ignite fanbases under first-year coaches; for UNC, it’s about providing Bill Belichick the resources to improve the program’s fortunes in year two. Their pitch is simple: “This is your minimum offer, this is what it could grow to, and if you perform, we’ll reset the table.”

Conversely, Georgia was the program most frequently cited for offering substantially less than some of its peers. Kirby Smart‘s program sells NFL development as a long-term financial play that outweighs an upfront NIL check. (emphasis added)

The article also cites that high school kids are now seeing that their NIL valuation is $300,000 and they start upselling from there, asking for a million or more.

Whatever happened to the good ole days of getting a Trans Am and your family a fat stack of Benjamins in a McDonald’s back, huh?

Anyway, I can hear Kirby’s recruiting pitch now. “I’ll offer you the minimum, but by the time you leave you’ll be asking for the supermax at the draft. Max we can give is 2 million a year, max a NFL team can offer is limitless. One of these things isn’t like the other, and if you don’t believe me, I can put you on the phone with Roquan, Jordan, Ladd, Brock, Jalen…just ask. They’ll tell ya, the NFL scouts will tell ya, you’re gonna be rich someday, but it ain’t gonna be right now. You can make millions for a few years at the other place, but you’ll be working for $50,000 a year three years later as a staffer at a company somewhere, and you’ll watch the guys who came here playing on Sundays wishing “why didn’t I go to Georgia”. I’ll take care of ya, but you’re gonna have to fight for it. I’m not paying you more than the guy in front of you who has been going through five years of hell on earth we call Bloody Tuesdays and SEC games and you wouldn’t want that, either. Take it or leave it, it’s my way, and you gotta trust me on this.”

Woof. I’d buy that for a dollar.

Stegeman, We Have a Problem

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This will be the second Georgia legacy to leave the program in two years.

Wilkins had some highlight reel dunks the past season, and I can’t fault the kid for wanting more playing time…but with Wilkinson and a host of other guys hitting the portal, wouldn’t he have stood to have more playing time next year, anyway? If you can’t get your most famous basketball alumni to keep their son committed to their alma mater, then we’ve either hit the lunatic fringe of the Portal Era, or there’s some serious internal issues we’re unaware of.

Make it make sense.

Your 4/8 Reminder that Auburn Sucks

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Lol.

I think I’d opt out of posting anything at all. But they did, and shortly after the Men’s Basketball team posted this:

Go Dawgs, and FTMFs.

Monday Musings: Won’t Someone Think of the Man-Children?

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Note to all: this is not a Playpen post.

Shot:

Chaser, worth a full listen

Mental health issues? Forget about concussions and injuries, we’re going to argue that a CBA is necessary to prevent mental health issues.

Note they referenced the 1%ers. Not all athletes are making Carson Beck money.. Most are making, if anything, what would amount to a entry level job wage for playing what amounts to a semi-pro sport. It’s the difference between a minor and major league contract, and we all know not all major-league contracts are the same. Acuna makes more the Albies, for obvious reasons.

But what it sounds like is that we’re posturing for collective bargaining and settling that it needs to be done because “won’t someone think of the children”.

Blow hard bullshit, if you ask me. Bilas had it right when he said the NCAA rules were changed when the pro rules changed and conferences had TV rights in 1984. It became a profit-margin endeavor, not a component of athlete benefits.

Interesting, if 1984 is the date, how that impacted Georgia football at the time. Dooley left five years later. Enter Kirby, and he wins back to back Nattys, and they shift the rules.

We’ll never quit paying for Jan Kemp, will we?

Discuss.

So It Begins…Portal Masters at Stegeman

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Can’t say I’m shocked, but here goes the yearly merry go round that is college basketball roster management. Wilkinson played well early, faded a little in the middle of the SEC schedule, but was the leading scorer on the team for many of our games.

With our bottom of the league NIL spending in basketball, I foresee this to be a repetitive experience for many years to come, unless we see a significant shift in prioritizing funding after the team’s back to back early departure from the NCAA Tournament.

SEC: It Just Means Overrated?

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The conference laid a dud in the college football bowl season, then turns around and does it again in March Madness.

Some would argue that the conference beats itself up during the regular season, and annual viewership in football suggests that no one is unhappy with the in-season product, but why are we seeing some recency trends of the conference not showing up in the postseason? Are we truly overrated, or is there something more to it? Has NIL tipped in favor towards the B1G so much that we are seeing the beginning of the big money taking over big tradition?

Discuss.

If Only We Had More Pro Players, We Would’ve Won

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Folks, this is Alabama sports in a nutshell:

If only we could bring back Chubb, Michel, Dean, and Roquan, we could’ve beaten Ole Miss.

Whatever, Bammers.

He’ll Be Back

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Jesus.

Well, great. And we have to travel to Oxford. The one thing I can say we have going for us is revenge, and Gunner seems to be a guy who is hell bent on earning it. And Kirby is his head coach.

Something tells me that lessons will be learned that day. It’ll be Georgia’s third chance against this guy, it took four quarters in the first match, and we seemed to have him in the first two in the rematch. Now it’s time to have him in the first quarter.

If lessons are being learned, let’s hope they are learned in Georgia’s favor.