Will NIL continue or collapse,?

[HelmutVII]

Will NIL money flowing into college athletics eventually blow up or will the madness continue?

[SlickRick]

As long as any school has an avid alum sports fan with FU money, it will continue.

[cjr3888]

Madness will continue until there is framework to regulate NIL. Right now you have NCAA rules, state laws, & court cases all saying different things. Only way this ever gets controlled is with the athletes being employees and a CBA. Neither side wants that to happen though.

[60swerethebest]

It will continue as long as wealthy fans are so immature that they need the rush of being number one to validate their existence. That’s what my barber told me. Or was it my neighbors yard man. I forget.

[Cajunrunner]

As long as any school has an avid alum sports fan with FU money, it will continue.

This.

[Bankruptcyman]

I heard an interesting take driving back from Arkansas. If you want to own a professional sports team but cannot afford the billions that would take, you can "buy" a college sports team and become like an "owner." Many athletic directors would gladly act as general managers and after you set the budget, you and the coaches can evaluate and acquire players. It would be like Welcome to Wrexham but on a collegiate level.

[MarlinMan3]

I see almost as many retired pros on commercials than active and hardly ever see college NIL recipients. If retired pros garner more NIL moolah, hard to believe there is a valid ROI on college NIL sustaining itself

[Turbine]

Will NIL money flowing into college athletics eventually blow up or will the madness continue?

Every time a school bats 1000 on NIL many others will be incentivized.

Every time someone wiffs, many will drop out.

The current stream is endless in both directions.

[Cajun Forever]

Sorry for this rant or analysis however you want to take it. I am a frequent follower, but obviously not a lot of postings.

In today’s NIL and portal world, I feel like we are destined to be where we are now. I feel like we have felt this twice. First was football and men’s basketball. And I feel like it took a little while to trickle down to our level for diamond sports but you finally felt the result of it this year in both baseball and softball. While I get all the sides of it and how it can be life changing money as seen by the fallouts of Napier and Glasco, it is just “mucky waters”. And really, I can’t blame the players or the coaches. I mean if I was 18-24 year old athlete, some of this would be life changing. Heck, some would be life changing now with the deals being made.

Unless there can be changes to the portal with free transfers (because I don’t see the NIL getting addressed any time soon), we will keep being where we are. And I don’t know if that can change with how much power the athletes have and the supreme courts.

So that leads me to believe that we are where we are. Your better athletes are going to be one and done at a school on our level. And we will look at lower tier schools to bring athletes up. I feel this really hurts development of athletes as they do not get consistency anymore in coaching and just change schools. It also means that the school on our level probably won’t take that high school athlete that can develop over 3 or 4 years, because our level will be constantly having to reload. The only ones staying around now are the middle of the pack ones who are not great, or the ones who just really have a tie to the school and are willing to bypass the money.

And as much as I dislike it, we live in an area that gives more to TSAB. Even a number of those that give to us/our NIL, give more to TSAB. And the realization is that as much as we want that to change, it has been that way for at least my 40 years. And with the state politics (which is a whole other topic), TSAB will always be pushed to the top.

So that means in this current NIL/portal environment, then what do we do. To me the only way is getting new money. How is that done? Because I feel like 80/90% of our donors are giving what they can. So when we are asked to give to other things, it is not creating new money in most cases. It is just redistribution of what we are currently giving, meaning something else is getting less. So unless we can get new donors and new money, I feel this is where we are.

In the current landscape, the days of liking athletes and watching them develop as the years go on is likely done. And it is what it is. And coaches on our level will always be looking for the who can win now…every year because your better athletes are one and done.

So while the Napier and Glasco situations sting and I essentially just give up my time invested in following them after they leave as well as the athletes leaving, I am viewing it for how it is. I like the sport and my family time while there and just enjoy that. Because the athletes are most of the time looking out for themselves monetarily. So I will enjoy the ride when it happens, not get mad when an athlete or coach leaves, and enjoy being with my family at the games.

[Turbine]

That's a pretty balanced take Cajun Forever.