Is There an NIL Collective for UM FB defense?
Anywhere to donate to hold onto our elite defense? So much talent on this roster.
With staff turnover, the only thing that matters now is holding on to the players. Is there an NIL focused on the defensive side of the ball to donate to?
UM’s defense will be one of the most if not the most talented in the country next year, if the players stay.
Best D-line, DT’s elite, edge should be better, more experienced. We did lose depth here, however.
Great LB’s, speed and athletic, beefed up with a transfer.
Great secondary despite losing Mikey. McBurrows has a ton of experience at nickel and expect a 2nd corner to step into Wallace role. Sabb, Paige and Moore? - crazy flexibility for scheme, especially with Will locking down 1/2 the field.
Maybe only UGA and OSU have proven defensive talent and scheme like UM going into 2024.
If Moore can navigate the schedule with a max of 2 losses, UM makes the playoff and it buys the program a year to reload, rethink NIL, and restaff. Yes, 2025 is probably a rebuilding year.
All that said…Fire Warde! Losing Herbert to the Chargers for a position that doesn’t exist in the NFL was final straw for me. Coordinators leaving for a shot at the NFL with Jim and not dealing with 24-7 recruiting and portal, especially when passed over for promotions, understandable at least.
TLDR:
1) Where can I donate to hold onto our defensive players?
2) Fire Warde. Feckless leader
February 10th, 2024 at 11:36 AM ^
https://www.championscircleuofm.com
February 10th, 2024 at 11:40 AM ^
Yup, didn't even reach the $1 million dollar goal... During a championship run.
And yet teams like Miami, with an abysmal fan base and putrid record can buy players and coaches left and right.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:50 AM ^
The $1 million doesn’t represent the full amount of money they raised or are trying to raise. It’s just what they were trying to crowdfund during the championship run.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:58 AM ^
I posted this above but they did raise $750k during a single run while overall they've raised $6.2 toward a $10M goal.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:01 PM ^
thats because miami isn’t crowdsourcing their NIL from regular fans.
I will stop watching college football before I spend a cent of my own money on 18-20 year old kids
I am not wealthy, but if I had money to give, I would give to more charitable causes than a college football team
February 10th, 2024 at 12:09 PM ^
I would gladly have a chunk of my ticket money/Hulu subscription/MDEN purchases go towards players, but yeah I’m not donating to an NIL fund.
February 10th, 2024 at 4:54 PM ^
And this, folks, is the Michigan Difference!
February 10th, 2024 at 6:29 PM ^
This 100%. It is insane to me that they are looking for regular people to donate money to put together a football team. Forget that. Just feels so wrong. We all know other schools are just tossing money at players. Just pay them with revenue money.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:09 PM ^
Coke money bro…
February 10th, 2024 at 11:36 PM ^
How much cash did other programs raise by crowdfunding. Guessing Michigan is tops in the country there, and that our NIL shortage is in the big money end. Our total fund is 6 million, while Ohio State is probably drumming up a ballpark amount of 20 million this cycle.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:52 AM ^
My understanding is that you can contact the Champions Circle and state which player(s) you would like to receive your donation.
February 11th, 2024 at 2:35 PM ^
Sounds like Hunger Games 😂
February 10th, 2024 at 11:38 AM ^
I'm absolutely NO FAN of Warde and wished Santa would move him out, but that's not going to happen after a NC and Warde getting to the CFB Playoff lead. Warde was a solid, even better than average AD during the pre-NIL era.
Anyone hear who has a real beef should be messaging the BoR. I remember when some people wanted Lloyd fired after The Horror. Word was that the BoR loved him and they would decide his fate, not AD Martin. I don't things have changed.
Everyone here needs to take a lesson from JJ when he was a SR in HS after we got crushed at home vs. Wisconsin 2020. Take deep breaths.
As for Herbert, it's pretty much been established he had one of the best if not the best deal for S&C coaches in CFB and a long-term contract. He bet on himself and "won" by getting Bolts job. The guy is going to be miserable when he finds out his energy and rah rah nature is not going to motivate a locker room of guys with guaranteed deals. He will be out in 2 years.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:26 PM ^
Was he a great pre NIL AD? I don't remember much from him back then. Yeah, he had Beilein, Bakich, and Harbaugh winning big ten championships but the cracks were showing and now the dam has burst. He could always do the pencil pushing and ass kissing stuff that got him the CFP committee chair position.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:44 PM ^
Yeah - I agree with this. Can't blame Minter, Elston, and Clink for taking the same job at the pro level (especially when it's pretty clear that the latter two aren't on this earth to be DCs)
Herbert is probably going to regret his decision, but who am I to fault a guy for giving in to the allure of "the big leagues." Maybe he's just sick of the midwest winters.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:50 PM ^
Maybe Harbaugh has something innovative in mind with Herbert.
Yes, the stars make tens of millions and have their own strength coaches and interact with them on their own terms.
But what about the reserves and the practice team? If Harbaugh can get contributors at way-below-market value prices from previous year reserves and practice team members, maybe he'll find himself an edge. (Until others catch on.)
"Build me 2-3 functional starters at the league minimum salary each year."
February 10th, 2024 at 11:38 AM ^
It doesn't matter, because NIL isn't working as it should. Michigan barely raised a million dollars with championship circle during a championship run. I'm also sure that a majority of people replying in this thread did not donate.
The issue is that we didn't promote defensive players and that is an issue. You can't tell me that at least Elston or Clink wouldn't have stayed if not promoted to DC.
Michigan sold the chance to learn from Wink and the chargers basically did the same with Minter as a mentor for Clink. Clink will be a DC one day soon.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:57 AM ^
NIL really isn't funded by small donations - schools like A&M and Miami that spend a ton of money do so because of a couple of high-money donors. They just do. Also, they raised about $750k toward $1M for a specific fund; in total they've raised $6.2M toward a $10M goal, which again I assume comes largely from bigger donors. Michigan is behind some programs on NIL but again, I have a hard time they're nearly as far behind/ineffectual overall as this place likes to freak out about.
I'm sure Clink or Elston would have stuck around if they were given DC, but Moore made it clear he wanted a guy who had been a DC before to serve that role. Neither Elston nor Clinkscale had done so, and while we can disagree about that approach he's made that clear to people. It's an approach but as a first-time HC it makes sense; if UM had promoted either of them it would be a staff basically with no experience at the coordinators or HC who had done those jobs before.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:25 PM ^
But what happens when our best players on D transfer, and we have a nfl washout as DC and some flyers filling out the staff on D. Moore will look pretty stupid with his approach, it may make sense in a vacuum, but there are many other factors at play.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:48 PM ^
Sure it may not work out but the alternative was going with unproven guys at a key spot. Also, and I have to stress this again, Moore is having to make these hires at the absolute worst times possible. I'm sure Wink wasn't on his short list but people just assuming Clink or Elston would be good as first-time DCs are mostly going off vibes.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
Wisdom of that strategy, short and long term, will be revealed in a couple of years.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:36 PM ^
But it's being revealed right now. The insistence on the ravens tree combined with insistence of experienced playcaller have narrowed the field to such an extent that we have a very suspect DC and literally no other coaches on D from a top 2 defense in the past 25 years.
Moore needs to stop thinking he is smarter than everyone else and needed to change strategy before backing UM into a corner (which he has done).
Now we can only make platitudes like we will see in a few years if it works. If not, well I guess we will be a 9-3 club or worse. But think of the upside! Wait, there is no upside, this is just stemming the bleeding from poor decisions.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:53 PM ^
I mean, the logic is that you pick a guy who is familiar with the current defense and worked with guys you previously had on staff. And it's February when you're doing these hires; there is a limited group of DCs you can realistically go after. Hell, Ryan Day wanted to hire an OC and was stuck first taking BoB, who was fired by the Pats after being an unmitigated failure, and then having to get Chip Kelly after nobody in the NFL wanted him and he desperately wanted to leave UCLA before they fired him. It's a grim market out there.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:03 PM ^
Great points, my counter would be that if the DC options are all bad, go with the option that retains the star players as a stop gap for one year. TBD if that happens, but it doesn't bode well.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:12 PM ^
Sure, but we don't honestly know if kids will stick around for either of them. Chances are that Harbaugh went hard after these coaches so at best you give Elston or Clinkscale the DC job and then one of them bolts anyway and now you've got first-time coordinators at both lead spots plus a first-year HC. I'm not saying this is going to work out perfectly but my argument is mostly there aren't a ton of options and none are great.
February 10th, 2024 at 4:58 PM ^
I see the downvote police are at full force today. Supposed to be for trolling, not difference of opinion.
February 10th, 2024 at 5:20 PM ^
I haven't personally negged you yet, but I think it's fair for some others to find your persistent, repeated, vociferous negativity to be trolling 🤷♂️
Also, I've found that one of the quickest ways to get negged here is to tell people what they are or aren't supposed to neg!
February 10th, 2024 at 6:08 PM ^
Yea, I know that's a quick way to get negs, but it drives me nuts. And if you look at my posting history, you'll find I'm not one of the persistently negative posters. I'm usually pretty neutral to positive, but this last 3 weeks have been a non stop dong punch. Pretending everything is great and every decision Moore has made is golden is just not my MO.
February 10th, 2024 at 6:44 PM ^
I must have missed that in the rule book.
February 10th, 2024 at 7:16 PM ^
It's actually posted somewhere on mgoblog faqs or somethjng, someone linked to it recently. It's definitely what the site owners deem etiquette. And very reasonably so. Place becomes an echo chamber if you just neg any contrary opinion. I'm very close to my 5K signed poster, so I'm taking it very seriously!
February 10th, 2024 at 12:50 PM ^
That's a bit rich from Moore to have that attitude. He has no HC experience at a different school. NFL teams are promoting from within. Why couldn't we do the same? Our coaches didn't soak anything up from Minter/McDonald?
The Wink hire with Clink is genius. The Wink hire without Clink is suspect, because Clink is proven.
Clink helps us against OSU. That was his purpose. He neutralized OSU WRs.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:02 PM ^
That and we stole him from Kentucky where he was outrecruiting us.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:10 PM ^
It's not "rich" to want someone different than Elston or Clinkscale as your first DC. Elston is 50 and outside of 1 year as DC at CMU has been a position coach everywhere else. Maybe he's not quite there to be a DC. Clinkscale got passed by both Macdonald and Minter for the DC job and neither of them really had much experience (save Minter's 1 year at Vandy). Multiple guys have decided he isn't quite ready to be a DC. I hope that changes and maybe he becomes a pro DC or a college DC soon. But it's not Moore's fault to not want to lift literally everyone up to roles they haven't done before as a first-time coach.
Yes, he's a really good coach and a great recruiter; it sucks to lose him. But this place seemingly hates when UM does promote from within and when they don't, so at this point nobody can win.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:55 PM ^
I think we’re further behind than you think. $750k in crowdfunding and $6.2M on a $10M goal on the other side of the border osu raised $10M in like a week and secured the top db in the county from Bama , who still has two years left of eligibility, along with the top running back in the $ec.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:06 PM ^
OSU did not raise $10M in a week I can promise you that. Also, Judkins said he left Ole Miss in no small part because they weren't willing to pay him the money he wanted, so I'm honestly not sure how much it cost to get a guy like that.
Yes, OSU is really good at spending money on football. This isn't brand new, and my guess is they are one of the tops in the country. But they also recruit immensely better than UM and yet UM has beaten them 3 times in a row and won a national title. Perhaps there's more to football than how much you can get some car dealership owners in Columbus to hand you a check.
February 10th, 2024 at 4:09 PM ^
I think it goes beyond just "some car dealership owners in Columbus". We can talk about the Michigan Difference, but the difference is the uncomfortable truth that their NIL leadership is just better, more experienced, and more accomplished than wangler.
1870 Society / The Foundation:
- Mark Stetson, MBA: founded a successful health-tech startup
- Aidin Aghamiri, MBA: his startup had $1B+ valuation when it sold
- Brain, MBA and Jeffrey Schottestein. Created a sportswear company. Over $1 billion in multi-family real estate development. benefactor of a program at osu.
Our NIL CEO graduated in 2017 and has no work experience outside of Michigan. Let's look at other top NIL Collective directors. We have an intern playing CEO while everyone else has legitimate executives with decades of experience leading companies.
- Texas One (Texas) : Patrick Smith - Attorney
- Texas Aggies United (Texas A&M): J.T. Higgins - National Championship Golf coach
- Spyre Sports Group (Tennessee): Hunter Baddour, MBA - 8 years as a chair w the nflpa. 12 years in marketing
- Division St. & Nike (Oregon): Rosemary St. Clair - former nike exec. Started with nike in 1983.
- Canes Connection (Miami ytm) : Zach Burr and Brian Goldmeier, MBA. Each has over 30 years in business leadership experience
- The Battle's End (Florida St.): Ingram Smith - their Brian
- House of Victory (USC): Spencer Harris - 10+ years in college athletics. USC’s Director of Player Personnel
- The Grove Collective (ole miss): David Nutt - Attorney, Walker Jones - sports agent (CAA) and Senior Director at Under Armour
February 10th, 2024 at 2:38 PM ^
Clink might be a DC one day, but if it's "soon," it will be at a program at a lower level than UM. If he was ready to be a DC at this level, he'd be a DC at this level. Look, he's a 46-year-old position coach who has never had any other responsibility than coaching DB's. There might be a reason for that. Just sayin'.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:41 AM ^
Warde would just spend your donation money at Zingermans.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:58 AM ^
Love your enthusiasm and effort, but this is all just so gross now.
Let's say you find a way to give $10,000 to Mason Graham. He thanks you, then leaves the next day for Miami. Ooopsies.
I already hate this era of college football, we won the last real championship.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:12 PM ^
Soon enough there will be revenue sharing with contracts and guys won’t be able to transfer so easily (in return for getting their share of the revenue).
This is just a period with a lot of transition in college football that will eventually be smoothed out.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:25 PM ^
Probably wishful thinking.
Revenue sharing will exist in addition to NIL. The courts have ruled that players have a right to earn money from third-party sources. Any attempt to put that genie back in the bottle will get quickly struck down.
Meanwhile, because football functions as a cash cow to fund a host of other sports, the amount available to the players in revenue sharing is unlikely to be very large. NIL income will probably always dwarf their salary from their teams.
Free transfers aren't going away. It may be clarified that you can't transfer during the season and be immediately eligible that same year, but that's probably it.
The pre-portal/NIL era of college sports is gone forever. What we see now is (with only small modifications) most likely the new normal.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:29 PM ^
Once revenue sharing exists it’s going to dwarf anything from NIL.
Look at the NFL. Players get their share of the revenue and they can get endorsement deals, but the endorsements aren’t the primary source of income. And the revenue sharing is going to end up ultimately close to 50-50 (where it is for basically every other professional sport).
Once you lock people into contracts you are probably going back to something like the old system. That’s the point if paying someone directly and having them sign a contract. Guys in the NFL don’t get to jump ship for any reason for instance.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:49 PM ^
The NFL doesn't have a Title IX concern with funding 14 women's varsity athletic teams and 12 other men's teams.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:52 PM ^
This isn't the NFL. These are college students playing sports in a context in which most athletic departments rely on football to fund dozens of other sports and even then, most end up in the red. There are also potential Title IX issues that could arise if athletes in certain sports are receiving larger salaries than others.
Universities have every incentive to keep costs down, while athletes have every incentive to maintain as much freedom of movement as possible. Any collective-bargaining agreement is most likely going to end up largely ratifying the status quo.
NIL won't go away or become less important, because it is the most cost-effective way for universities to compensate players. The portal won't go away because the players have it now (with the support of the courts) and have no reason to bargain it away. University administrators probably aren't too keen on restricting the ability of students to transfer, anyway.
What we see now in college sports is probably very similar to what we'll see in 2034 or 2044. The one significant difference I could see would be the emergence of professional minor league football, unaffiliated with universities, that emergence as an alternative option for players. The NFL would prefer not to go that route at the moment, but it could change its mind.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:58 PM ^
Title IX is a problem for Congress, it’s not a problem for the football players. And I don’t know that it’s clear that Title IX requires equal dollar amounts of revenue sharing.
Once you have collective bargaining there’s no way you are going to get away with shorting the players on their share of revenue. What’s going to happen is other sports are going to get cut.
We have plenty of examples of collective bargaining agreements from other sports. That’s almost certainly where things are going to end up ultimately.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:39 PM ^
"What’s going to happen is other sports are going to get cut."
So we're going to ruin college athletics so universities can run pro football teams?
February 10th, 2024 at 9:36 PM ^
"Title IX is a problem for Congress, it’s not a problem for the football players. And I don’t know that it’s clear that Title IX requires equal dollar amounts of revenue sharing."
How is that a Congressional problem? The moment that the University starts cutting checks for pay, there are 26 other varsity sport athletes, who have access to very good attorneys who are going to be asking for their cut.
"We have plenty of examples of collective bargaining agreements from other sports."
Really, list two, heck list one. Outside of the Olympics, I cannot think of an apples-to-apples comparison where you have an entity (university) sponsoring multiple separate sports (varsity sports). You can't pay student football players and ignore everyone else.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:37 PM ^
"And the revenue sharing is going to end up ultimately close to 50-50"
So... College football is going to get Congress to do away with Title IX?
February 10th, 2024 at 12:59 PM ^
Graham deserves that hypothetical $10,000 either way.
February 10th, 2024 at 5:36 PM ^
go right ahead then, and thank you ahead of time.