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NIL act passed - NCAA allows athletes to monetise their name, image, likeness

Honestly, the only issue I have with anything going on is that I think boosters should not be able to collectively work to create NIL programs. You as a booster own a car dealership and want to have a player be your marketing focus, by all means. But when you have places like Texas collectively grouping together and creating massive NIL programs, that’s where the real inequity comes into play. Yes the inequalities will still exist but I think it’s magnified when they create collectives. Otherwise, I have zero issue with any NIL money going to players no matter how much it is.

Creating these booster funded NIL programs makes it a recruiting tool and that’s what opens the floodgates
Really gonna be interesting to see how long the big money lasts. There's no ROI for these boosters other than as fans.
 
Really gonna be interesting to see how long the big money lasts. There's no ROI for these boosters other than as fans.
Money has been flowing to the top 1-2% of earners for several years. The last two years have seen this trend continue with an even greater pace. Feeling important and wanting to be a part of their favorite college team’s success has always been big motivator for rich dudes and dudettes giving money to talented athletes and their families. Being able to write it off as a legitimate advertising expense only raises the stakes.
 
Money has been flowing to the top 1-2% of earners for several years. The last two years have seen this trend continue with an even greater pace. Feeling important and wanting to be a part of their favorite college team’s success has always been big motivator for rich dudes and dudettes giving money to talented athletes and their families. Being able to write it off as a legitimate advertising expense only raises the stakes.

I would say that the chance to be legally publicly associated with it is an even bigger factor.
 
Money has been flowing to the top 1-2% of earners for several years. The last two years have seen this trend continue with an even greater pace. Feeling important and wanting to be a part of their favorite college team’s success has always been big motivator for rich dudes and dudettes giving money to talented athletes and their families. Being able to write it off as a legitimate advertising expense only raises the stakes.
This is where I think the government, IRS, will put the kibosh on this as they start to audit the transactions of the businesses and players to determine if these are legitimate expenditures and not simply trying to hide payments.
 
This is where I think the government, IRS, will put the kibosh on this as they start to audit the transactions of the businesses and players to determine if these are legitimate expenditures and not simply trying to hide payments.

So State Farm can pay Aaron Rodgers to do commercials but Joey Car Dealership in Butt****, Texas can't pay Star Texas WR to do the same?
 
Yeah, the government is not going to get in the way of players making a buck. In fact, the Supreme Court has already weighed in on the Alston case, where Justice Kavanaugh wrote:

“The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”

Kavanaugh took direct aim against the logic that the schools and fans have always had an amateur, unpaid system, writing that “all of the restaurants in a region cannot come together to cut cooks’ wages on the theory that ‘customers prefer’ to eat food from low-paid cooks. ... Hospitals cannot agree to cap nurses’ income in order to create a ‘purer’ form of helping the sick. ... Price-fixing labor is price-fixing labor.” He added that “it is not clear how the NCAA can legally defend its remaining compensation rules,” and concludes thusly: “The NCAA is not above the law.”

In other words, players are going to get their money, and I think it’s a reasonable leap that the courts are going to view players as paid employees of the universities.

Everything is on the table and college football is over as everyone knew it. If schools have to give up most of the cash to coaches and players, yet face all the downside risks, there will be little incentive to keep playing the college football game. Many will exit.
🤔 Imagine if players signed 4 year contracts and were paid for their work? Thats probably next. And it probably really makes eyeballs pop out of heads. My guess is rosters shrink in order to save money.
 
So State Farm can pay Aaron Rodgers to do commercials but Joey Car Dealership in Butt****, Texas can't pay Star Texas WR to do the same?
Didn't say that. With all these NIL deals, how many ads or commercials have you seen so far featuring those players? Also if they are paying inflated rates and not fair market value that can be an issue as well. Never said that NIL deals are illegal but I do believe the IRS will look into these transactions in the next few years.
 
Didn't say that. With all these NIL deals, how many ads or commercials have you seen so far featuring those players? Also if they are paying inflated rates and not fair market value that can be an issue as well. Never said that NIL deals are illegal but I do believe the IRS will look into these transactions in the next few years.

Who determines what's "fair market value"? The IRS? lol
 
This is where I think the government, IRS, will put the kibosh on this as they start to audit the transactions of the businesses and players to determine if these are legitimate expenditures and not simply trying to hide payments.
The payments are not illegal.
 
Didn't say that. With all these NIL deals, how many ads or commercials have you seen so far featuring those players? Also if they are paying inflated rates and not fair market value that can be an issue as well. Never said that NIL deals are illegal but I do believe the IRS will look into these transactions in the next few years.
I don’t know where you’re going with this. If someone wants to pay someone to do virtually nothing, that is not a crime. Hell, I’ve got three or four coworkers that make a couple hundred grand each year that do absolutely nothing as far as I can tell. The most likely manner in which the IRS ever gets involved is if one of these athletes doesn’t report the income.

However, I do think you could see congress potentially get involved to legislate some kind of antitrust exclusion down the line if a super league developed.

What I do know is that the current system will lead to worsening chaos, and college football is at the beginning of the storm. Ultimately, I expect to see collective bargaining by the players where they get a much larger share of the pie. At the same time, the negotiations will probably lead to a new era of stability. How CU fares in this looks pretty bleak right now, but you never know how things shake out. In a few years, the new college football ecosystem may benefit CU. Stranger things have happened.
 
I don’t know where you’re going with this. If someone wants to pay someone to do virtually nothing, that is not a crime. Hell, I’ve got three or four coworkers that make a couple hundred grand each year that do absolutely nothing as far as I can tell. The most likely manner in which the IRS ever gets involved is if one of these athletes doesn’t report the income.

However, I do think you could see congress potentially get involved to legislate some kind of antitrust exclusion down the line if a super league developed.

What I do know is that the current system will lead to worsening chaos, and college football is at the beginning of the storm. Ultimately, I expect to see collective bargaining by the players where they get a much larger share of the pie. At the same time, the negotiations will probably lead to a new era of stability. How CU fares in this looks pretty bleak right now, but you never know how things shake out. In a few years, the new college football ecosystem may benefit CU. Stranger things have happened.
Super League would probably be a blessing in disguise. Assuming its mostly the SEC blue bloods and the best of ACC and B1G we’d probably be playing right under that level with a more even opponent on game day.

If the SL did relegation promotion system then Im not so sure.

There would likely be a lot less TV money than there is now.
 
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Super League would probably be a blessing in disguise. Assuming its mostly the SEC blue bloods and the best of ACC and B1G we’d probably be playing right under that level with a more even opponent on game day.

If the SL did relegation promotion system then Im not so sure.

There would likely be a lot less TV money than there is now.
CU is playing under that level right now unless you consider Minnesota to be a future B1G blue blood. Separating the Eastern and Central Time Zone blue bloods into their own upper tier does not mean the CU automatically starts beating Oregon State, Cal, Wazzu, and ASU. Unless your envisioning a set-up in which CU joins kind of a Mountain Westish conference made up of G5 over-achievers and P5 problem children.
 
CU is playing under that level right now unless you consider Minnesota to be a future B1G blue blood. Separating the Eastern and Central Time Zone blue bloods into their own upper tier does not mean the CU automatically starts beating Oregon State, Cal, Wazzu, and ASU. Unless your envisioning a set-up in which CU joins kind of a Mountain Westish conference made up of G5 over-achievers and P5 problem children.

...Unless your envisioning a set-up in which CU joins kind of a Mountain Westish conference made up of G5 over-achievers and P5 problem children... I predict this is exactly where CU will be in five years.
 
This is where I think the government, IRS, will put the kibosh on this as they start to audit the transactions of the businesses and players to determine if these are legitimate expenditures and not simply trying to hide payments.
What does "hide payments" mean?

On a practical level it means paying someone money without anyone reporting it.

Yes, some kids aren't going to pay taxes on the income, but you better believe the millionaire who is making that payment is reporting it. Some of these kids are going to screw that part up, but the payors almost certainly will not screw that up.

But that's not what you're insinuating. You're insinuating money laundering.

The rich people making these payments are going to have their phalanx of tax lawyers making sure it's all reported.

Yes, the payors are going to try and deduct these payments from their business or personal income as a business expense or somehow a charitable donation. And...

Newsflash: they're likely going to "get away" with it. Because their lawyers will have the technicalities covered.

All that's going to happen on that end are a few cautiounary tale style of stories about some poor kid who gets a 100k payment and doesn't know he needs to send the IRS a quarterly check.

Nothing about the current situation is inherently illegal.
 
Yeah, the government is not going to get in the way of players making a buck. In fact, the Supreme Court has already weighed in on the Alston case, where Justice Kavanaugh wrote:

“The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”

Kavanaugh took direct aim against the logic that the schools and fans have always had an amateur, unpaid system, writing that “all of the restaurants in a region cannot come together to cut cooks’ wages on the theory that ‘customers prefer’ to eat food from low-paid cooks. ... Hospitals cannot agree to cap nurses’ income in order to create a ‘purer’ form of helping the sick. ... Price-fixing labor is price-fixing labor.” He added that “it is not clear how the NCAA can legally defend its remaining compensation rules,” and concludes thusly: “The NCAA is not above the law.”

In other words, players are going to get their money, and I think it’s a reasonable leap that the courts are going to view players as paid employees of the universities.

Everything is on the table and college football is over as everyone knew it. If schools have to give up most of the cash to coaches and players, yet face all the downside risks, there will be little incentive to keep playing the college football game. Many will exit.
You could very well be right.

It is very possible that at some point the courts could say that the education is actually just a fringe benefit of the players employment. They are actually paid entertainers like professional athletes are.

At that point the schools could be required to pay at least minimum wage and pay for all hours of team activity including games, practice, travel, conditioning, film study, and any other team activity.

They would of course have to pay the employer share of SSI and Medicare taxes as well as payroll taxes. They would also have to pay for workmen's compensation including disability payments for long term losses due to injury, get a player with a blown knee, pay him $15,000 a year for life plus the cost of future medical treatment on that knee.

This money could get prohibitive for a lot of current G5 schools and even some P5 schools. Then add in title nine saying if you are paying football players then you pay women's soccer and tennis players as well.

It may be that we are in the final years of college sports as we know them.

Balancing this is the fact that enough states in this country are strongly culturally tied to their college programs. The states that aren't don't care enough to block legislation so specific legislation could be passed that regulates college sports allowing for a return to "amateur" athletes and even allowing more restrictions on NIL and other disruptive influences.
 

I've seen a few different Buffs players post this recently. Is this something Allbuffs could help with in some way? Especially since the school itself can not help.

Many sites have a for sale/want to buy section and we have something similar for tickets. Could we have a sort of NIL market place? It's not going to get kids $1M deals, but maybe a few perks.

Maybe some of the lawyers on here could draw up some contracts to take sure the players aren't getting taken advantage of. They are on here all the time, so assuming they have extra time.

Bonus is it would drive some traffic/new users to the site.
 
Looked into GameAbove. Basically all the principals and board members are EMU alumni, including the founder. Charlie Batch recently signed on as a VP. They are a venture capital and real estate investment company. One portion of their business is dedicated to promoting and giving back to EMU. Looks like they are trying to leverage that to promote their football program and university by trying to lure a top QB.

Why don't the moneyed CU alums care this much?
 
Looked into GameAbove. Basically all the principals and board members are EMU alumni, including the founder. Charlie Batch recently signed on as a VP. They are a venture capital and real estate investment company. One portion of their business is dedicated to promoting and giving back to EMU. Looks like they are trying to leverage that to promote their football program and university by trying to lure a top QB.

Why don't the moneyed CU alums care this much?
I can understand how EMU's alumni are more pumped than ours to help the program. They're enthused because their program has gone to 4 bowl games in the past 6 years.
 
Looked into GameAbove. Basically all the principals and board members are EMU alumni, including the founder. Charlie Batch recently signed on as a VP. They are a venture capital and real estate investment company. One portion of their business is dedicated to promoting and giving back to EMU. Looks like they are trying to leverage that to promote their football program and university by trying to lure a top QB.

Why don't the moneyed CU alums care this much?
The AD at Colorado is a liar.
 
Looked into GameAbove. Basically all the principals and board members are EMU alumni, including the founder. Charlie Batch recently signed on as a VP. They are a venture capital and real estate investment company. One portion of their business is dedicated to promoting and giving back to EMU. Looks like they are trying to leverage that to promote their football program and university by trying to lure a top QB.

Why don't the moneyed CU alums care this much?

I can understand how EMU's alumni are more pumped than ours to help the program. They're enthused because their program has gone to 4 bowl games in the past 6 years.
I would venture to guess that most of EMU's alumni are all from Michigan and very close surrounding areas. They grew up around the university and have the passion for it. Contrast that to CU where at least 50% of its alumni base are from outside of Colorado and they don't really come to CU with much passion for the program, along with the in-state kids who grew up with transplant parents rooting for other programs.
 
Looked into GameAbove. Basically all the principals and board members are EMU alumni, including the founder. Charlie Batch recently signed on as a VP. They are a venture capital and real estate investment company. One portion of their business is dedicated to promoting and giving back to EMU. Looks like they are trying to leverage that to promote their football program and university by trying to lure a top QB.

Why don't the moneyed CU alums care this much?
CU alums don’t care because making an investment in the program is burning money. Smart people invest in projects where there will be a return on the investment. Not happening with any investment in CU football because of the administration. Stupid investment.
 
CU alums don’t care because making an investment in the program is burning money. Smart people invest in projects where there will be a return on the investment. Not happening with any investment in CU football because of the administration. Stupid investment.
Well said. CU boosters band together to land the kid, and then get to spend the next few years watching him hand off to a RB for 3 yards between the tackles.
 
It’s gonna take more than $1 million for Caleb Williams.

Williams dad has been explicit in their view, Caleb is going to play for the team/coaches that best set him up to develop and become the #1 pick in the 2023 NFL draft. Williams will get paid wherever he transfers too, but he and his dad are smart enough to play the long game and earn the massive wealth that goes along with the contracts that come after the rookie deal. ECU isn't going to offer him the path to #1 pick and neither are any more than a handful of schools.
 
another factor, even if the probability of EMU attracting Williams with the $1m NIL deal is very low, the school's AD is getting some free publicity just from throwing that out there. We're discussing Eastern Michigan athletics on CU (and a plethora of other schools) message boards.
 
another factor, even if the probability of EMU attracting Williams with the $1m NIL deal is very low, the school's AD is getting some free publicity just from throwing that out there. We're discussing Eastern Michigan athletics on CU (and a plethora of other schools) message boards.
Think of it as free advertising. Except their intended audience isn't college football fans. Their intended audience is college football players in the portal for whom and additional $75-100k moves the needle. Why wouldn't you reach to EMU's staff to see if they want to make an offer?
 
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