NIL thoughts
Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2023 4:24 pm
I agree that NIL is having detrimental effects on college sports but I don't see what can be done to fix it.
Making it all go away is a fantasy. The courts have ruled - correctly I believe - that you can't arbitrarily prohibit the value producing talent of a mega -jillion$ industry from being paid their market value. And don't try to snow me with talk about the value of a scholarship. If a booster is willing to pay six or seven figures to ensure a top talent plays for their school, that is irrefutable evidence that the player's market value vastly exceeds the value of the scholarship.
The pro sports leagues have all decided that unrestricted bidding for players is bad for their product (the entertainment value of their sport). Ultimately if all the money is concentrated in the Yankees and they win every game all season long, NLB as a whole loses value as a product. So they all have salary caps and mechanisms to help the lower teams get better.
In theory college sports could try something like this. But the root problem is - and always has been - that Alabama and UT etc have wealthy alums who are rabid fans willing to spend big money to get recruits to come to their schools. Used to be illegal but obviously big money will always find a way to get where it wants to go. Now it's out in the open and unregulated. But if you try to impose a salary cap, that money will still be there and it will find its way into the pockets of 5 star recruits to ensure they go to the school the money wants them to go to.
Nor do I think Vanderbilt can compete in the NIL market. Yes we have a lot of wealthy alums, but they are scattered all over the world and they have varied interests. The Alabama grad who's a senior partner of the biggest law firm in Birmingham is steeped in Bama football. He's got a motor coach painted Crimson with elephant graphics. He's very likely to put his disposable income into the Bama NIL collective. All the wealthiest grads in his class fit the same basic profile.
The equivalent Vanderbilt grad owns a shipping company in Antwerp and donates to the Belgian national ballet. He vaguely remembers going to an American football match when he was in college and all he remembers is that Vanderbilt got stomped by a some school from Alabama.
I don't see any value in bemoaning the changes. The former order was built on extremely shaky legal grounds and it isn't coming back.
I don't see any workable way to regulate NIL and I don't see any way Vanderbilt can compete with the sports obsessed alums of the rest of the SEC.
Ultimately I think the big boys will wind up in a professional sports league branded under the names of colleges and everyone else will be in conferences more akin to the Ivy League.
And honestly that could be better.
I am not sure Vanderbilt will want to give up the big league TV revenues. But I'm pretty sure we will be even more of a doormat if we try to stay in with the big boys.
Please convince me I'm wrong.
It will take some convincing.
Making it all go away is a fantasy. The courts have ruled - correctly I believe - that you can't arbitrarily prohibit the value producing talent of a mega -jillion$ industry from being paid their market value. And don't try to snow me with talk about the value of a scholarship. If a booster is willing to pay six or seven figures to ensure a top talent plays for their school, that is irrefutable evidence that the player's market value vastly exceeds the value of the scholarship.
The pro sports leagues have all decided that unrestricted bidding for players is bad for their product (the entertainment value of their sport). Ultimately if all the money is concentrated in the Yankees and they win every game all season long, NLB as a whole loses value as a product. So they all have salary caps and mechanisms to help the lower teams get better.
In theory college sports could try something like this. But the root problem is - and always has been - that Alabama and UT etc have wealthy alums who are rabid fans willing to spend big money to get recruits to come to their schools. Used to be illegal but obviously big money will always find a way to get where it wants to go. Now it's out in the open and unregulated. But if you try to impose a salary cap, that money will still be there and it will find its way into the pockets of 5 star recruits to ensure they go to the school the money wants them to go to.
Nor do I think Vanderbilt can compete in the NIL market. Yes we have a lot of wealthy alums, but they are scattered all over the world and they have varied interests. The Alabama grad who's a senior partner of the biggest law firm in Birmingham is steeped in Bama football. He's got a motor coach painted Crimson with elephant graphics. He's very likely to put his disposable income into the Bama NIL collective. All the wealthiest grads in his class fit the same basic profile.
The equivalent Vanderbilt grad owns a shipping company in Antwerp and donates to the Belgian national ballet. He vaguely remembers going to an American football match when he was in college and all he remembers is that Vanderbilt got stomped by a some school from Alabama.
I don't see any value in bemoaning the changes. The former order was built on extremely shaky legal grounds and it isn't coming back.
I don't see any workable way to regulate NIL and I don't see any way Vanderbilt can compete with the sports obsessed alums of the rest of the SEC.
Ultimately I think the big boys will wind up in a professional sports league branded under the names of colleges and everyone else will be in conferences more akin to the Ivy League.
And honestly that could be better.
I am not sure Vanderbilt will want to give up the big league TV revenues. But I'm pretty sure we will be even more of a doormat if we try to stay in with the big boys.
Please convince me I'm wrong.
It will take some convincing.