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Message: [QUOTE="UConnJim, post: 4644712, member: 1559"] I don't think you understand the Connecticut mindset. Look at UConn's endowment. UConn didn't aggressively ask for donations to the endowment until recent years as most alumni questioned why they should donate to a public school which is why the endowment is relatively low. Same with athletics. People didn't donate that much to the athletic department except for buildings. Think about this, the naming rights in perpetuity for Gampel Pavillion were sold for $1 million. Slowly, that is changing as well. NIL is being driven by private entities, not by the schools themselves so NIL is not being driven by how big a school's media contract is. UConn fans are starting to learn that if we want to have highly competitive teams, the fans are going to have to pony up to support NIL initiatives. I do think UConn fans got an early false understanding of NIL as the women's basketball players have gotten great deals from national brands due to the high visibility of UConn women's basketball and the players social media presence. But, that is not how NIL really works. Finally, on the athletic budget, excluding the Ollie payments, the deficit went down in Fiscal Year 2022 by ~$7 million to ~$40 million. And, FY 2022 ended in June 2022 and didn't include Mora's first football season and this past basketball season so I would anticipate that the budget gap narrowed again in FY 2023. And, it seems, the state is willing to finance a budget gap of $25 to $30 million per year which is close to the difference in being BE/Indy vs. being in a P5 conference. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach