Wyovanian wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 1:49 am
flyfishwyo wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 7:24 pm
Who's the "we?" If you're talking about UW athletics leading a change, that's not likely to happen. One school doesn't have the pull to make it happen. Even a conference would struggle to correct the system.
If you're talking about individuals stepping up to create an NIL collective, count me out. I'm not contributing to a corrupted system. I'll keep my tickets and contribute to CJC at my current middle class level. Pay-for-play is a bad idea.
Bingo..
Opting out of a system that's destroying college sports (NIL) is not a failure of "collective vision and courage of conviction to basically lead the re-invention of the NCAA..." I would say contributing money to an NIL collective is actively supporting a system that is harming the sport.
I thought about this the other day. How much would I be willing to personally contribute to keep Ike at Wyoming? If I gave, say, $10/month, would that help? How about $100? The problem is that giving any sum less than thousands doesn't really do anything to guarantee a player like Ike would stay. Would I get any say in which players get my money? Probably not unless it was in the thousands range.
And, contributions that go to an NIL collective are likely to compete with gifts to CJC. I'm not the biggest fan of how CJC operates, but it is how we fund scholarships. At the end of the day, the amount I'm willing (and able) to give to NIL isn't enough to move the needle at all. It likely won't get distributed the way I'd want it to. It's very likley to fund salaries for people to run the collective, which I'm not willing to do. And it supports a system where athletes play for the name on the back of the jersey, not the front.
The upside is that I don't think this NIL/transfer portal system will last. I don't have a good sense of what's going to happen, but it's not sustainable. If I were the NCAA, the first thing I'd do is add a price tag to transfers. The school a player transfers to is required to reimburse his/her former school for tuition/costs of educating them up to that point. At least the former school gets something back for their investment. It won't stop big schools from poaching high-level talent, but it will make them pause for a second. Gonzaga would be writing a $75,000 to $100,000 check to UW right now. And it would put a number in front of players so they realize that they aren't playing for free.