Question on NIL Money and Tuition/College Expenses

Yepper, the top twenty schools have professional athletes and half their games are against amateur student athletes. If this were boxing, it would be illegal to sanction the fight.

 

Seems to be working fine for the schools that we’re doing well before nil. Maybe because it’s nothing new to them.

 

Several years ago, a hs kid was given a 200k contract to endorse a certain golf ball. I doubt the company made a dime initially and he was on the pro tour for a while and never really took off. A couple of the other guys from pcola that he came up with did make it big. Sometimes 209k is peanuts if the company is thinking longterm. Emmitt has some problems with selling his autograph from something like that. I wonder how many of these deals have longterm effects that may help these companies down the road if a percentage of these athletes become successful.

 

Yes, that's right, in fact there are many things that we are overlooking, we really should be more organized, I've felt this for a long time but more and more people are noticing this so most likely this is right.

 

What will be new, once people get organized is that the "best" players will no longer get scholarships. For those people the scholarship value would be a proverbial drop in the bucket (o'cash) they get for playing somewhere. Meanwhile scholarships will be directed at drawing the desired prospects who are unable to get NIL deals. Sometimes it will be the kind of players who otherwise would have gone somewhere else (ie. a lesser program) in order to get a needed scholarship.

Once again meaning that those that have, get.

 

But the average student is not getting NLI money as a recruiting inducement. The amount of money being paid to some for virtually doing nothing is crazy. I hope the IRS is aggressively monitoring and taxing this.

 

The best players will still get scholarships. Why would they give that up? If you want me that much to play at your school, I will get both the scholarship and the NIL. I would not pay my own way if I'm seen as such a high value target.

 

It is not a question of them "giving it up." It will be schools deciding to give them to someone else. Or do you really think people looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in NIL money are going to risk it by holding out for a scholarship slot? That makes no sense for anyone involved.

If you still are having trouble wrapping your head around it, then look at it from the other angle - NIL money is way for a school's backers to effectively add scholarship slots at no expense to the school or the players. But only if NIL recipients don't demand a slot.

Again, look at it from the perspective of the people putting up the NIL money - once they are ponying up that sort of dough aren't they going to tell the kid the price includes him declining a scholly (which then allows the school to direct that money elsewhere.) If the kid balks how hard is it to cough up another $25k or so a year to tell him "here, this will cover your loss."

The only way this does not happen is if the NCAA makes a rule that says an NIL recipient counts against a school's scholarship limit.

 

Not all schools will stop giving scholly’s. As long as a few of the top schools are willing to give scholly’s and NIL money, they all will. There won’t be any risk involved in holding out for a scholly. There is, however, a ton of risk involved in taking a walk on or pwo slot, even with NIL money.

 

Sorry that just won't happen period.

There are only 3-5 guys on the top teams making big NIL. If I'm one of those guys, I'm wanting a scholarship as well. Tell me no and I go to the team that gives me both.

 

I would hope the agent in charge would at least make his client aware if Team A was offering more NIL $ after deducting cost of attendance than Team B was offering in NIL $ and a scholarship. Seems like it would be a pretty simple financial decision (since that is what its all about now anyway) to me.

 

Offering only NIL money to a top 200 player when everyone knows they would get a scholarship anywhere is pay to play.
Yes I lol'd typing that.

 

It’s not just tuition. Scholarship athletes receive a ton of other benefits that walk ons don’t. Housing, food, swag, stipends, more access to coaches during the offseason. They’re also guaranteed a spot on the roster at least for the duration of their scholarship, aside from a significant disciplinary issue.

Walk ons and pwo’s can be cut at any time for any reason, or no reason at all. They’re not allowed to participate in all of the offseason workouts and practices. They don’t get their housing paid for. They don’t get their books, tuition, labs, tutors, or a number of other things paid for.

Would you want to have to deduct all of those costs from your NIL money, and have to deal with paying all those bills yourself, when pretty much every other school out there is willing to take care of all of that for you, and give you a comparable NIL package? At that age, I would have taken slightly less money to have all of that stuff just handled for me.

This idea that anyone is going to stack up elite talent with walk on slots is a pipe dream.

 

Add in the tax implications as well

 

There are two possibilities.

Either that sort of common sense escapes the players, their representatives, and the schools involved.

Or there are some people who think that sort of common sense escapes all the people directly involved.

Sure, some people will try to be both greedy and stupid, but the overall incentives of the system say that is not how it is going to work out.

 

Yes. If they’re getting NIL deals, they’ll still have tax stuff to deal with, but there are SO MANY things handled for scholarship athletes that are not handled for non scholarship athletes. If the money is even remotely close, this is a no brainer. Even if they paid you enough extra to hire someone to handle all of this for you and cover all the extra expenses, you’re still taking a huge risk on the roster spot.

 

I don't subscribe to the idea that you can stack up "elite" talent that way, but you might be able to get a few in that manner.

The teams that can stack up cash for players could also provide virtually all of what you listed including people to "handle" all the bureaucratic stuff for you for non-scholarship players if they wished to. Additionally, the bulk of scholarships offered are renewable yearly, not the 4 year variety. I can understand choosing the one size fits all if the amounts were close, but if they weren't some might just take the money.

 

The pwo or walk on slot doesn’t even guarantee you a slot until the first game. I understand that the scholly’s are renewed on a yearly basis, but they are never just flat out not renewed for scholarship athletes. Not in football anyway. Some may be urged to look elsewhere after the season, but if they want to stay, we pretty much always figure it out. Not the case for walk ons. They get cut all the time. At least scholarship athletes know they have a home for a full season.

I guess you’re right that the boosters could setup something to take care of all the bureaucratic nonsense, but they already have all of that stuff handled for scholarship athletes. Seems like an awfully big headache to set all this up for the one or two kids every few years who may jump at this opportunity, when they could just give the kid a scholly and let it be handled the way it already is. It also doesn’t prevent the risk on the kids side. What happens if the kid gets hurt in the first practice and Coach decides he’d rather fill that spot with another body? Who’s taking care of the kid and all his bills now that he’s no longer on the team?

 

The scholarship guarantees you nothing more than to get to go to school (at least for a year anyway) not be on the team. Considering the limits placed by the NCAA, of course teams want to be careful with how the scholarships and athletes are managed, but Scholarship players get cut at the end of the season every year. How do you think Nick Saban can sign 25 new players every year?

 

No, it guarantees you a roster spot. At least for that first year. Players may be urged to look elsewhere after that first or second season, but if they want to stay, the teams generally figure it out. Even Saban. He gave out hardships like candy. Those kids got to stay if they wanted to. Now most hit the portal, because they want to play somewhere, but if they want to stay, they pretty much get to stay.

Walkons can be cut the first week of camp with nothing else for them after that. Who’s picking up the tab for the rest of their schooling if football isn’t going to work out?

There’s way less risk for the kid as a scholarship athlete. He’s guaranteed a roster spot for that first year, and he’s virtually guaranteed he’ll have all his schooling paid for even if football doesn’t work out.