Thoughts on NIL

[johnbt]

The whole concept of what NIL collectives do at most schools today violates what the NIL rules prohibit, yet the worthless NCAA is simply looking the other way while schools openly allow these collectives to recruit players with $$$. We have 3 or 4 threads on here talking about how Alabama needs to step up their game so they can offer these players more NIL to come, which is just blatantly against the rules. Saban refused to play the game, called Jimbo and TAMU out, and yet still was able to pull top recruiting classes. Unfortunately we are now seeing that many of these players were coming to play for Saban, NOT for Alabama, as much as that hurts us as Alabama fans to admit. Now with Saban gone Alabama is way behind the curve.

Most posters on this forum seem to think that NIL has given the boosters (NIL collectives) open season to offer $$$ for them to play for their favorite team, but that is still against the rules. The NCAA will totally implode with this, or they will grow some stones and start enforcing it. Funny that it hasn’t been talked about much, but I am hoping the FSU deal is a shot across the bow for some of these schools. For those of you that really didn’t follow what happened there, read this.

As much as I would like for Alabama to keep winning, I hope that DeBoer remains on the high road and keeps the boosters out of the recruiting. I am not saying we don’t need an NIL collective. Once they get here, let them make all they can in NIL and a collective is the best way to do it. It’s just the way that teams have weaponized NIL as a recruiting tool is a clear violation of the rules and the original intent of NIL.

Without a strong NIL, we will be Florida in about 2 years

We will look back on Saban days like they look back on Urban and Spurrier

 

[Snuffy Smith]

Without a strong NIL, we will be Florida in about 2 years

We will look back on Saban days like they look back on Urban and Spurrier

Not saying we don’t need one, what I am saying is that I hope we keep it in between the lines. NCAA has shown in the past they are not above stepping on Alabama for violations that every other team has gotten away with.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

What amazes me is that NIL is NOT supposed to be connected to any University (and by extension the Athletic Department), yet it appears that coaches are the ones making the offer$. You can't tell me that each and every recruiter has an NIL representative present when the offers are made.

HOW does that not raise multiple red flags...? (I know, I know. The NZAA is turning a blind eye.)

The inmates are running the asylum.

 

[Snuffy Smith]

What amazes me is that NIL is NOT supposed to be connected to any University (and by extension the Athletic Department), yet it appears that coaches are the ones making the offer$. You can't tell me that each and every recruiter has an NIL representative present when the offers are made.

HOW does that not raise multiple red flags...? (I know, I know. The NZAA is turning a blind eye.)

The inmates are running the asylum.

They have been, but this is in essence what FSU just got slapped with 2 year probation for. NIL is intended to be offered to players on your roster. NOT to recruits and absolutely no contact is supposed to occur between recruits and boosters/NIL collectives. The only way this is supposed to be used in recruiting is to be able to say “our team averages $XXX in NIL money”.

 

[davefrat]

The whole concept of what NIL collectives do at most schools today violates what the NIL rules prohibit, yet the worthless NCAA is simply looking the other way while schools openly allow these collectives to recruit players with $$$. We have 3 or 4 threads on here talking about how Alabama needs to step up their game so they can offer these players more NIL to come, which is just blatantly against the rules. Saban refused to play the game, called Jimbo and TAMU out, and yet still was able to pull top recruiting classes. Unfortunately we are now seeing that many of these players were coming to play for Saban, NOT for Alabama, as much as that hurts us as Alabama fans to admit. Now with Saban gone Alabama is way behind the curve.

Most posters on this forum seem to think that NIL has given the boosters (NIL collectives) open season to offer $$$ for them to play for their favorite team, but that is still against the rules. The NCAA will totally implode with this, or they will grow some stones and start enforcing it. Funny that it hasn’t been talked about much, but I am hoping the FSU deal is a shot across the bow for some of these schools. For those of you that really didn’t follow what happened there, read this.

As much as I would like for Alabama to keep winning, I hope that DeBoer remains on the high road and keeps the boosters out of the recruiting. I am not saying we don’t need an NIL collective. Once they get here, let them make all they can in NIL and a collective is the best way to do it. It’s just the way that teams have weaponized NIL as a recruiting tool is a clear violation of the rules and the original intent of NIL.

I posted this a while back, but by the time he retired, Bama was Saban and Saban was Bama.

What once was unthinkable came to be…a coach became bigger than the program...and it yielded once unthinkable and magnificent results.

Maybe this should be in the good news thread, but the immediate aftermath of his retirement further magnifies what a monumental presence this man had not just for Bama but the entire landscape of college football.

When my father passed away 6 years ago, he and my mother were married 65 years, and they had a really good life together. Then and now when my mother grieves for him I remind her that if there’s a downside to even the most wonderful marriages, it‘s that it’s almost inevitable that one of them is going to end up alone, but although things will never be the same, things can still be really good.

Although an imperfect analogy, I view the loss of Saban in somewhat similar terms.

I don’t think we will be as good under any other coach, although I believe we can remain a contender year in and year out. But we will more than likely never experience anything near what we have over the last 17 years. That doesn’t mean things can’t continue to be really, really good. But that also depends on what one thinks is really, really good but not as great as it used to be.

 

[Snuffy Smith]

I posted this a while back, but by the time he retired, Bama was Saban and Saban was Bama.

What once was unthinkable came to be…a coach became bigger than the program...and it yielded once unthinkable and magnificent results.

Maybe this should be in the good news thread, but the immediate aftermath of his retirement further magnifies what a monumental presence this man had not just for Bama but the entire landscape of college football.

When my father passed away 6 years ago, he and my mother were married 65 years, and they had a really good life together. Then and now when my mother grieves for him I remind her that if there’s a downside to even the most wonderful marriages, it‘s that it’s almost inevitable that one of them is going to end up alone, but although things will never be the same, things can still be really good.

Although an imperfect analogy, I view the loss of Saban in somewhat similar terms.

I don’t think we will be as good under any other coach, although I believe we can remain a contender year in and year out. But we will more than likely never experience anything near what we have over the last 17 years. That doesn’t mean things can’t continue to be really, really good. But that also depends on what one thinks is really, really good but not as great as it used to be.

@davefrat sums it up better than any post I have seen. Mrs. Snuffy said last week - "I feel like we have lost a family member."

 

[davefrat]

@davefrat sums it up better than any post I have seen. Mrs. Snuffy said last week - "I feel like we have lost a family member."

We did.

We lost our patriarch.

 

[CrimsonCleanse]

If there is going to be NIL, there should be a salary cap….the haves keep having, the have nots can’t. When will Title IX bring the lawsuit?

 

[HighlandOak]

If there is going to be NIL, there should be a salary cap….the haves keep having, the have nots can’t. When will Title IX bring the lawsuit?

I just don't see Title IX getting involved because it would also limit what females could make.

 

[B1GTide]

If there is going to be NIL, there should be a salary cap….the haves keep having, the have nots can’t. When will Title IX bring the lawsuit?

Without a collective agreement that would be illegal in America

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

So how exactly do these players get paid anyways? A check from the collective? How often?🤔

 

[bamacon]

It's on the schools. Share the revenue, collectively bargain, and get the kids under contract.

Stop building put put golf courses and waterslides to pretend this isn't a business.

Since these are often public universities it seems like legally speaking they should not be allowed to do all these things regardless of NCAA bylaws etc. it’s not like they could pay professors “under the table” or hide donations. ALL of this crap should be made public and dragged into the light. They obviously want to be the NFL so they should reach out to them for guidance. Congress is going to get involved with this issue again and probably soon.

 

[B1GTide]

So how exactly do these players get paid anyways? A check from the collective? How often?🤔

It varies greatly.

 

[bamacon]

It varies greatly.

Yup and Bama at first was trying to make it how it was originally supposed to work. Business gets a player to do a billboard or radio spot etc. and they get paid. Texas A&M and others started the collectives and were literally just handing out cash. That had CNS hot and he mentioned that whole summer, during every fundraiser speech, and on every interview. Cannot say that we were not warned.

 

[B1GTide]

Yup and Bama at first was trying to make it how it was originally supposed to work. Business gets a player to do a billboard or radio spot etc. and they get paid. Texas A&M and others started the collectives and were literally just handing out cash. That had CNS hot and he mentioned that whole summer, during every fundraiser speech, and on every interview. Cannot say that we were not warned.

The first big deal in America was signed by Ewers in Columbus. It was with a car dealership, and Ewers had to do commercials. The deal was for just over $1MM. Ewers did not win the starting job and left after one year for a better deal at Texas. He was paid by a collective and has never worked a minute for his NIL $ at Texas.

I think that a few schools tried to do it right in the beginning - maybe even most schools. But Texas and Texas AM had different plans. And they changed the entire game as other schools had to meet them where they were because the NCAA was doing nothing to enforce their own regulations.

 

[Coach25]

Yup and Bama at first was trying to make it how it was originally supposed to work. Business gets a player to do a billboard or radio spot etc. and they get paid. Texas A&M and others started the collectives and were literally just handing out cash. That had CNS hot and he mentioned that whole summer, during every fundraiser speech, and on every interview. Cannot say that we were not warned.

I can’t wait to read the next Saban book now that he is retired. He won’t pull any punches. I have a feeling it will be a great read like all his books have been and I think he will truly reveal a lot of behind the scenes things that we may have been oblivious to. Wonder what all he will say about NIL and transfer portal.

 

[RammerJammer14]

As an aside. One thing that also bugs me with all this money floating around and NIL and stuff. The club teams are still getting screwed. I played a club sport at Alabama and the way they get treated by the university, they might as well be lepers. They have to fund all their own equipment and uniforms and stuff and then the university won’t even let them use university logos or names on anything, despite representing the university in competition.

I know that Title IX drives a lot of the reason for club sports- for example, the university has a varsity women’s rowing team but the men’s team is a club team, because of Title IX scholarship concerns. The men’s club rowing team keeps their stuff near the women’s rowing sheds, they practice at the same times, etc but only one gets anything from the university. The same is true for soccer and a couple other sports. And I also understand that most of these club teams would be non-revenue generating sports. But still.

With all this money floating around, you’d think they could cough up some schollies to pull a club team into varsity, or at least invest in some minor facilities. The Alabama Rugby Team is the oldest club on campus, and all they get is a small shed to store their equipment in off the rugby field that isn’t even theirs.

 

[davefrat]

The NCAA could have put something in place years ago to avert the insanity we’re currently seeing, but instead they doubled and tripled down on the antiquated idea that amateurism still applied to a multi-billion dollar industry where everyone but the players were getting rich.

Then the courts opened the floodgates and Emmert and company were caught with their pants down and now all they care about is keeping their hand in the cookie jar.

Since we’ve done away with the idea of amateurism in college sports, it’s probably also time to do away with the concept of student athletes in football and basketball and just concede that they’re minor leagues for the pros.

 

[HighlandOak]

Since we’ve done away with the idea of amateurism in college sports, it’s probably also time to do away with the concept of student athletes in football and basketball and just concede that they’re minor leagues for the pros.

I would prefer returning to amateurism for college sports, and creating a pro football minor league, along with the developmental basketball league.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Yup, my enjoyment is dwindling.