NIL is Michigan's absolute golden opportunity
(Sorry for yet another NIL thread, please delete if too repetitive)
A top NIL program needs two things: A numerous, rich alumni base and a deep passion for football.
In that aspect, Michigan is top 3, at least top 5 in the entire nation for that. The only schools on par or better are the University of Texas and Texas A&M, both extremely wealthy schools. USC, Alabama, Penn State, or even Ohio I'd say is at best on par or a bit lower than us.
For so long, our expectations always were a bit larger than any of our built in advantages. Ohio will always have more talent with no in-state rival. ND will always recruit well nationally. MSU exists to beat us. Not to mention recruiting players to the northern tundra is always difficult, no matter how great Ann Arbor is.
But the NIL changes everything. If the Texas A&M rumors are true, they are paying each member of the incoming class an average of 260k per year, and College Station is a boring town that gets way too hot way too often. We can easily match that in a world where head coaches are getting 10 million plus, assistants are routinely getting 2~3 million.
Does it sound a bit uncomfortable? Perhaps, but I go to Texas A&M for grad school after a Michigan undergrad, and literally nobody is bothered anymore, if they ever were. Everyone is too busy looking at all the 5 stars and beating the shit out of the sips year after year.
So I'd say without going overboard, go for it. It's not our fault our state doesn't have the best talent and has snowstorms in May, but the alumni base and football passion is something we've built over decades. It just takes a few wealthy connected alumni to get the ball rolling. Nothing wrong with using that at all. Texags.com very recently started basically a gofundme for NIL two days ago, and already have 21k in MONTHLY commitments.
January 8th, 2022 at 8:11 AM ^
I’d like MGOBLOG to start a similar fund and let all of the “money cannon” posters pony up!
It would be (IMO) an epic fail as most of them are all talk. Everyone is waiting for someone else to take on the burden.
January 8th, 2022 at 3:35 PM ^
If this group organized a Kickstarter or GoFundMe, I expect it to do pretty well. There are thousands of us and having the ability to finally directly impact the program in a helpful way should bring out a big chuck of us. 20-100 bucks a month adds up fast with the volume of passionate well-to-do people here.
I picked up some Dax Hill swag earlier this year from the players trunk, and this type of contribution is similar.
How and to whom are the Aggies going to deliver their accumulated money?
January 8th, 2022 at 10:32 PM ^
The Texags staff say at LEAST 75% of the donations will go towards the players. This is new so they're figuring things out. They also say they'll publish detailed numbers regularly. And from seeing how then run their site, I do actually believe them
If you do sign up to donate, you get an icon on your username that shows how much you're donating a month. I already see a bunch of "100" next to usernames.
Considering how many of them have an emotional attachment to aggie football and live on texags, apparently thats a big deal
January 8th, 2022 at 8:50 AM ^
Just buying championships and wins. This sport is trash now and makes the NFL look like a fun league because at least it's somewhat fair.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:44 AM ^
We were already doing that by paying coaches 10 mil a year, who turn around and buy lavish homes, spending hundreds of mil on facility upgrades etc
But now that we're paying the actual players, who deserve it the most, and have an incredibly short football careers with high chance of brain damage, suddenly the sport is trash? Not to mention most will have useless general studies degrees because of all the football commitments?
NIL is the most capitalist/American thing to happen to college football. Next to the exploding coaching salaries and conference realignment for more $$$$
January 9th, 2022 at 8:10 AM ^
This is interesting. If you could buy Nick Saban or the best college football player for Michigan, which one would you get? The answer if you want to win is Nick Saban. The idea that the coaches are not worth the money is crazy talk. It doesn’t mean don’t pay the players, but in college the coaches will always be the more valuable piece. Even in the pros, th e coaches make more than 80 or 90 percent of the players.
January 14th, 2022 at 2:49 PM ^
This may not be a popular opinion, but I really don't think there's anything special about Nick Saban as a teacher or tactician. His singular strength was his ability to (through likely illegal means) construct a NFL-like football program at the college level, talentwise. I'm not saying he's not a good coach. But if you plugged 20 or so other top coaches into the head coach seat at Bama tomorrow, I don't think the results there would be any different.
January 16th, 2022 at 3:01 PM ^
wasn't special at MSU or NFL
January 8th, 2022 at 5:01 PM ^
There are plenty of professional sports leagues with teams in different financial situations, like MLB for example. I think NIL is going to more fairly disperse the top talent across 20-25 teams as opposed to 5-6 teams today, which will make the sport much more enjoyable. In 4-6 years I think the top programs will have dedicated NIL pools of at least $20M per year, and competitively the sport will look more like it did in the 80s and 90s when 10 or 15 teams could legitimately win the national championship in a given year. Not all change is bad. NIL is the right thing for the players and will be good for the sport overall.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:46 PM ^
"I think NIL is going to more fairly disperse the top talent across 20-25 teams as opposed to 5-6 teams today, which will make the sport much more enjoyable. In 4-6 years I think the top programs will have dedicated NIL pools of at least $20M per year, and competitively the sport will look more like it did in the 80s and 90s when 10 or 15 teams could legitimately win the national championship in a given year."
I think a lot of people would be interested in such an outcome, but I'm curious why you think there is an imperative for 19-20 schools to reach some parity with those at the top of the pile today, or why you think that their head start doesn't leave them where they were, only with lots of the rest of the 130 schools many, many further leagues behind where they are now. I'm open, but you have to supply some of the reasoning behind "I think." Lots more than four or five schools were already breaking the rules, for example; most people even concede that we were. But in the past all of the guys in the locker room at least pretended that they were equals; what happens when your QB is making two million a year? Who hates him, fails to protect him, how--just to address a tiny sliver of this--do you insure him? Lots, lots, lots to be worked out. And we don't even know whether the presidents of B1G universities like it at all.
January 9th, 2022 at 8:55 AM ^
I mean, it's the same thing in all professional sports today - most starting QBs make a lot more than their offensive lineman. They're all getting paid a lot of money to play a kids game which is more than you can say for the average Joe watching on TV or kid walking around on campus.
The reason a few schools are dominating today is because, yes, they're breaking the rules to a greater degree and the playoff system is so narrow. There are still going to be schools at the top once NIL takes full effect but it won't be nearly the same level of dominance - they won't be able to afford it. I don't have any real numbers here, but what are the odds that five schools - Alabama, Clemson, OSU, Georgia and Oklahmoma - are able to get like half of the top paid players when there's a set market price? It just won't happen - no one will be able to establish that kind of financial dominance. It will look a lot more like European football where there are 20-ish elite teams, and in the last 5 years, eight of them have been a finalist for the Champions League. By comparison, over the last 5 years, five teams have played in the CFP final game.
In fact, European football is a great parallel for what should happen in post-NIL college football. Europe has five top leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France) just like the Power 5 conferences. And they don't have salary caps, so the market just functions. In the last 15 years England has had 4 different clubs participate in the UEFA final game, Spain and Italy 3 each, Germany 2 and France 1. Imagine 3 different teams from the Big Ten and Pac 12 in the CFP final in the next 15 years. That's a lot more fun that was has been happening.
January 10th, 2022 at 1:00 AM ^
La Liga has a salary cap. It's different for each club and set by the league.
January 10th, 2022 at 5:29 PM ^
Right, the more revenue you have, the more you can pay players.
So yes it's a salary cap, but the inequality is still there.
And I mean inequality just in the spending sensse
January 9th, 2022 at 6:30 PM ^
Top-paid OL will not hate or fail to protect their top-paid QB
January 9th, 2022 at 10:20 PM ^
You haven't worked in many business contexts, have you? A lot of room for jealousy there, believe me.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:23 AM ^
But if the end goal is generational-life-changing money in the NFL, how does being petty and getting your QB sacked help?
January 16th, 2022 at 5:34 PM ^
Respectfully disagree.
January 11th, 2022 at 7:18 AM ^
"Just buying championships and wins. This sport is trash now and makes the NFL look like a fun league because at least it's somewhat fair."
Boolah, Boolah.....
Let's raise our glass to the sacred student warrior. Who risks life and limb for the love of our sacred U. He asks no more than a meager stipend of room and board, a humble education, and the honor of entertaining our over-indulged asses
PAY the players!
January 16th, 2022 at 5:38 PM ^
Dark money.
January 8th, 2022 at 8:52 AM ^
If Michigan football had a dime for every Mgoblog hot take on NIL, we'd soon have an all-star team of Georgia/Bama/Clemson players, and still have enough to solve world hunger, put a woman on Mars, and build a fusion reactor. Keep em coming. Lots more to be said.
January 8th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^
NIL is Keyser Söze for Mgoblog.
January 8th, 2022 at 10:15 AM ^
Yes, to withdraw from the B1G and dominate the Ivy League. :)
No, but more seriously, I do think that creating a conference of the best academic institutions in the P5 conferences might be worth exploring. Rewrite some of the more archaic rules, slightly narrow the field--introduce some stuff that would make the game more fun. Move on and out-evolve the SEC and its moribund model--maybe drop all but medical timeouts. Come up with something worth watching and go from there.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:35 AM ^
Nobody wants to watch junior varsity teams compete, no matter the gimmicks.
It’s the same reason Arena football or the WNBA will never have huge fanfare.
We have a 100k+ capacity stadium to fill and not even the most ideological academic provost wants to see the $ cannon that is UM football turned off.
January 8th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
You are literally posting this on a board dedicated to a team that plays a jv sport.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:59 AM ^
NIL is a reality now, and other colleges are using it to make legitimate what they've been doing for years behind the curtains. For Michigan to get into NIL in a large-scale, coordinate way will be to bring Michigan to the same level as Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Clemson, Texas, Ohio State, and a handful of other schools.
What NIL is really going to do is create a greater separation between the "haves" and the "have nots." The playoff system started this; exploitation of NIL will further it. Two reasons for this: (1) the lesser schools won't have as much money to out-bid the top programs; and (2) it will take significant outbidding by a lesser northern school to get a top recruit to go there. If a player is offered $1M to go to Alabama, that same player is going to require something more than $1M to go to Iowa.
If it ever happens that "market value" rules come into the picture -- that is, a player can't receive compensation for NIL beyond the "reasonable" market value of the NIL of the player -- then it will make it harder still for lesser schools to compete. A top QB's "reasonable market value" at Nebraska would be far less than what it would be at USC in Los Angeles simply because of the geography of both. Look at the game of baseball and which teams have money to buy the best players.
The next 10 years are going to bring dramatic changes to the college game.
January 16th, 2022 at 5:32 PM ^
Hope you're right about dramatic changes.
January 16th, 2022 at 5:33 PM ^
I may have an idea how to level the field.
January 8th, 2022 at 12:07 PM ^
Jimbo: NIL deals were happening before, it's just legal now
Jimbo Fisher breaks down the changing landscape in college football with NIL deals and how that affects recruiting.
https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/32877709
January 8th, 2022 at 12:22 PM ^
and College Station is a boring town that gets way too hot way too often.
Seconded by a fellow A&M grad student (without the UM undergrad degree ?), though I haven't been back for almost 20 years. What's new in College Station?
I have some very good memories of my time at A&M, but there are plenty of things about the culture that turned me off, like members of the corps shouting 'hats off' or 'off the grass' at unsuspecting (and unknowing) visitors, new students, etc. I still vividly remember my first experience when they flew my cohort down for a recruiting weekend. Me and two other guys decided to check out the bar scene after an evening gathering with faculty and grad students, so we went to the Dixie Chicken. We get our beers, sit down at a table, and then we hear a corps member yell out in a loud voice 'where are all the black women at?'. Our jaws dropped, and it was a dealbreaker for one of the other guys from NJ who decided to go to Rutgers instead.
Not sure what my point is in writing all of this. But I agree with the OP about the wealth, size, and commitment of the Aggie fanbase. I've seen it firsthand. Even in the down years when I was there, they were as zealous as any fanbase I've ever seen. But unlike the OP I have a hard time seeing the UM fanbase/alumni caring enough to really match them dollar for dollar. Football is more than a religion down there.
January 8th, 2022 at 4:15 PM ^
Maybe it will be a pre-Citizens United political contribution landscape. Where wealthy people will be "bundlers" cajoling their contacts into contributing to a "NIL" fund. I mean, what better way to get in with the CEO/owner of a mid-sized, family owned business then having your company kick in $10K a year to buy some facetime.
January 9th, 2022 at 11:55 AM ^
Seriously.
The proposal is fine.
This country is a mess. This is what we all waste our money on - whether an "amateur" football team can pay players enough to win what, 1-2 extra games a year?
I mean, if Michigan does it to the extent of these other ridiculous universities, let's get rid of the idea "Michigan football" is anything other than a different color of laundry.
January 10th, 2022 at 12:18 PM ^
CFB has been paying coaches salaries that rival NFL coaches for a while now and U-M’s AD has made equal to or more the U-M President… I don’t get why people think it’s paying the players though that taints “amateur” football
January 10th, 2022 at 12:27 PM ^
I agree with you. No way anyone in college should make this much money for athletics. That includes the coaches. Blow it all up.
January 10th, 2022 at 5:00 PM ^
you do realize that every school has rich alumni, right?
January 11th, 2022 at 2:20 AM ^
The point is that very few have as numerous and richer AND passionate about CFB than us.
January 11th, 2022 at 7:30 AM ^
"The point is that very few have as numerous and richer AND passionate about CFB than us."
I hear this all the time. I see no empirical proof about willingness to contribute. Which is what matters. So, Maybe? Maybe not? My guess is top 25 in willingness, not top 10. And bottom half in the willingness of the institution to be progressive in this area.
The final point is that neither you nor I know for sure. Given our institutional inertia, it's likely we'll not find out.
January 11th, 2022 at 12:53 PM ^
I hear this all the time. I see no empirical proof about willingness to contribute.
You mean like the stadium renovations and all the new facilities built in the last decade? That seems like pretty good proof to me people are will to ante up.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
You should Google "Leslie Wexner" and find out where he went to college, how much freaking money he has, and all the shit in that city/university that's named after him.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:05 PM ^
its not just that.
literally every school has a guy who can and will pony up to their university. Even Western Michigan has donors that can pony up...
https://wmich.edu/news/2021/06/64413
to think that UM has anything better (or worse) is ludicrous. Everyone has guns.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:11 PM ^
No idea why you're struggling so hard to get the point.
Yes every school has boosters, but some schools have more of them, and are wealthier. Like us.
Or are you going to say that Eastern Michigan can pay as much NIL as Michigan?
January 10th, 2022 at 7:21 PM ^
"Fair market value" wants a word.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:50 PM ^
I've been wanting to do this since nil came out. Also compile a place for all the student athletes websites for their own swag. So people could easily find and buy.
I also thought about doing a MGO blog athlete of the week.
Like a under the radar guy or practice squad guy. That person gets like $500 from the pool of money or something similar
January 13th, 2022 at 11:30 PM ^
260k per year for 20 players incoming ? How is this sustainable? The rest of the team, are gonna pissed for getting less.
January 14th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
Why would the idea of young athletes realizing the fair market value of their labor cause discomfort? Only in the twisted, Kafkaesque universe of the NCAA should that cause discomfort.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:04 AM ^
Robust NIL at Wolverine World U. football is our best shot to be competitive with a legit chance to be successful in the annual $EC playoff for the CFP Championship.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:04 AM ^
Robust NIL at Wolverine World U. football is our best shot to be competitive with a legit chance to be successful in the annual $EC playoff for the CFP Championship.
January 16th, 2022 at 3:00 PM ^
rich get richer
January 16th, 2022 at 5:26 PM ^
Can't beat 'em. Join 'em. Then beat 'em.
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