Yup....big money boosters and alums fund collectives or a large portion of it.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Ultimately, that's a good thing for us. Means the market's less relevant.

Backing this discussion up at the top the best NIL deals go to 5 star skill players signing with top schools already with 1 million social media followers. Role players that are signing with top schools often don't have any social media presence and NIL money to go with it.

What it says to me is NIL valuation has to be developed. Top programs in basketball are now not only subject to 1 and done concerns but also transferring in upper classmen which leaves more quality underclassmen to find their way to a mid major. The pitch at a job like Ohio need to be the staff will develop NIL value then as an upperclassmen the can go to Alabama like Sears did. The offer of playing time looms more imporant since the driver is big NIL money. Players can get 20k here, 20k there on an endorsement but the lotto ticket is becoming all conference in a power conference.

NIL expectations are tied to conferences. I don't anticipate Akron or EMU if you can call themselves an urban school having an edge. Sponsorships are regional rather than local. A player can also walk into the MAC with their own NIL deals. Rules around direct university support are changing and those with better finances are going to be able to stay in the game. Its worth noting Akron and EMU do not have large enrollments or endowments given their location in population centers.

Individual money in a collective is more where Ohio is and its different than a business sponsorship. Business sponsorships require appearance fees. The question then is how many sponsorship appearances can one guy service when they are requiring 20 appearances a piece? When I'm looking at the databases I'm seeing players with maybe 3. Thus if you are a player with a lot of value you don't have the bandwidth for the smaller paying NIL deals. That creates a second tier market for the 3 star players.

We know that recruiting wasn't as much of an exact science in the 70s as it is today. NIL for the mid-major in 2024 is still an experiment. Rules are still evolving and universites may pay direct as employees.

If the players are walking into OU with their sponsorships the university community may not even be relevant.

NIL is more complex than fundraising for facilities which is helped tremendously when you have a local Fortune 500 employer that can step in. Its not a benefactor giving 50 million its often marketing deal for a player. Donor collectives are going to take a backseat to university compensation at mid majors it this is where it ends up.

This is a bit disingenuous. Boals cannot create money and sources where they don’t exist. Look at this board. These are some of the most committed fans. If we/they are not ponying up money, it’s hard to imagine where it comes from. Boals can do all he wants, but if we aren’t willing to open the wallets to big money, it doesn’t matter how hard he sells a recruit.

Recruits at our level are not getting the big money anyways. 1804 could try to pay 2 million to a player but he will still play at a blueblood basketball school. Further its not an approach the university should be encouraging when that donation could go to something more valuable than athletics. The answer for the mid major is having the university pick up the tab since there is no realism to be able to get 10 millon a year off of donors at the mid major level.

sigh

At least you tried.

Just curious if anyone knows........

For the companies that do sponsor Ohio Athletics with logos around the Convo or say Par Mar Stores with the media backdrop-what's the going rate for some of these opportunities? What all is being offered to a sponsor in exchange for cash? I would guess there are different tiers? A Google search didn't offer up anything definitive.

Is Labatt Blue allowed to pony up for NIL?

I was paying $8 per can of their product at the Hardwood whatever it's called over there before games. It's good beer imho but out of that 8 bucks, some of it could benefit the reason people are actually in the building.