Mora is right

[PackTheRent]

Can we ask that our seat donation go to the NIL, or is this more money they want for this Mickey Mouse team? That's $800 for my upper seatbacks. What was that money used for? Like an earlier poster said, we don't have the alumni base or passion to compete with more prestigious schools in football. Paying money to get some kid to attend Uconn when they are already getting paid with a free education is so distasteful. Let him go to JMU or Syracuse. If we have kids who bleed blue and are in-state then we can defeat anyone!

 

[PackTheRent]

That’s fine as long as you don’t mind that UConn is never going to be competitive in football.

Fine. If they don't bleed blue then go to Rutgers and get more money

 

[UCMB88]

Did you read the article? Because it doesn't support what Mora has said at all besides the basic fact that NIL is a crap show.

He even said there's no use complaining about it because it is what it is

"Clawson's point is that Hartman left Wake Forest with a year of eligibility remaining to land a significant NIL deal at Notre Dame, mirroring a concern many smaller programs have about retaining top talent developed in-house... Clawson echoed concerns from many programs that the players they recruit and develop over years will depart for more money at bigger schools."

Mora, "two of our top running backs decided to go in the portal, and they thought, you know, find a better situation and make money elsewhere, so that hurt us."

Sounds to me they are saying the same thing. Now Clawson didn't come right out and say losing Hartman hurt WF this season, and Mora took it a step further by calling out the lack of NIL money at UConn, but the underlying message is the same.

 

[Waquoit]

That’s fine as long as you don’t mind that UConn is never going to be competitive in football.

I've already given thousands. Time for guys like you and JMIck to step up, Slick.

 

[JMick]

I've already given thousands. Time for guys like you and JMIck to step up, Slick.

It takes the average person in Connecticut 20-25 years to make one years worth of Jim Moras salary. Maybe he can step up too?

 

[UConnJim]

And then you have A&M which paid $75 million to have a guy not coach, spent millions on players, and still aren't anywhere close to being in the conversation for the playoff.

Money matters but coaching does too. You can't just throw money at a problem and fix it.

If we were sitting here with six wins again and Mora said that to get over the hump that we needed more support, I would fully understand where he's coming from. But a lack of money doesn't get you an offense this bad. Plenty of teams do more with less.

Last year, we would have had the lowest paid coach in the AAC. Not the ACC, the AAC. Yet, you expect UConn to compete with P5 schools and top G5 schools. That is madness. Now, should UConn have a 2-9 record. No and I am not going to make any excuses. That said, I wasn't expecting 6 wins this season, but I was hoping for 4 or 5 based on last year. I do think the losses of Carter, Marion, Turner, Brewton, and Houston really impacted the W/L this season.

 

[Rich]

"Clawson's point is that Hartman left Wake Forest with a year of eligibility remaining to land a significant NIL deal at Notre Dame, mirroring a concern many smaller programs have about retaining top talent developed in-house... Clawson echoed concerns from many programs that the players they recruit and develop over years will depart for more money at bigger schools."

Mora, "two of our top running backs decided to go in the portal, and they thought, you know, find a better situation and make money elsewhere, so that hurt us."

Sounds to me they are saying the same thing. Now Clawson didn't come right out and say losing Hartman hurt WF this season, and Mora took it a step further by calling out the lack of NIL money at UConn, but the underlying message is the same.

This is interesting because Wake's donor base is probably deeper and wealthier than UCONN's. I think I smell something funny coming from Clawson tho because when Hartman was deciding whether to declare for the draft last season the level of competition he'd faced came in for a lot of scrutiny. I thought his decision to 'up transfer' was as much about improving his draft stock-I think he thought he could make himself into a first round pick-as any NIL concerns because the contract that comes with that draft position dwarfs anything you can make endorsing whatever in college.

Hartman was also criticized for enjoying all of his success in Clawson's patented 'slow mesh' offense which is a gimmicky scheme that works at Wake because it's designed to maximize the abilities of smaller players in the face of premium skill competition.

 

[Rich]

Someone around here brought up the deals that the legislature has cut with the Casinos as a possible source of NIL funding.

This is not a completely crazy thought.

I mean, you'd have collegiate athletes shilling for sports books....but.....hell, why not?

What I'd do is, if I were in the legislature I'd get authority to approach the Mohegans and Mashantuckets and say something like, 'Hey listen, you know how we have a contract where you send us X per year of the top line slot proceeds? Well can you do us a favor and slice say 10 million off of that and instead of sending it to the General Fund bank account wire transfer it over here which is the home of our State University's NIL collective. You're not paying more you're just essentially cutting two separate checks. In exchange, the athletes will endorse your operations, perhaps even make live appearances on the casino sports book floor during perhaps NFL games or really any other time that doesn't conflict with their athletic or academic schedules.'

It's really not an awful idea.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Other coaches have stated similar to Mora beforehand in attempts to increase NIL revenue including Sabin.

 

[Gburyhusky]

Last year, we would have had the lowest paid coach in the AAC. Not the ACC, the AAC. Yet, you expect UConn to compete with P5 schools and top G5 schools. That is madness. Now, should UConn have a 2-9 record. No and I am not going to make any excuses. That said, I wasn't expecting 6 wins this season, but I was hoping for 4 or 5 based on last year. I do think the losses of Carter, Marion, Turner, Brewton, and Houston really impacted the W/L this season.

I just checked the On3 database for coaches salaries in 2023 and it shows that Mora would be the 6th highest paid coach in the AAC, and his current salary is higher than the coaches at Navy, UAB, North Texas, Charlotte, Rice and FAU. It appears you were referencing 2022 salaries, however to be fair I don't think Mora would be the lowest paid coach in the AAC today, looks more like middle of the pack-ish. Is that high enough given our current status and revenue issues? Hard to say but certainly one issue among many we are facing.

 

[Kolumbo]

Last time I checked all of us taxpayers are funding this program. NIL is just another way for the big boys to further distance themselves. You have so many people in the northeast who are alumni of private schools. Telling them they can't criticize the program unless they donate is really not the best strategy to build a fan base.

 

[Patman]

Can we ask that our seat donation go to the NIL, or is this more money they want for this Mickey Mouse team? That's $800 for my upper seatbacks. What was that money used for? Like an earlier poster said, we don't have the alumni base or passion to compete with more prestigious schools in football. Paying money to get some kid to attend Uconn when they are already getting paid with a free education is so distasteful. Let him go to JMU or Syracuse. If we have kids who bleed blue and are in-state then we can defeat anyone!

NIL money can't come from the school

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I just checked the On3 database for coaches salaries in 2023 and it shows that Mora would be the 6th highest paid coach in the AAC, and his current salary is higher than the coaches at Navy, UAB, North Texas, Charlotte, Rice and FAU. It appears you were referencing 2022 salaries, however to be fair I don't think Mora would be the lowest paid coach in the AAC today, looks more like middle of the pack-ish. Is that high enough given our current status and revenue issues? Hard to say but certainly one issue among many we are facing.

Half the AAC came from the CUSA this year.

 

[DoctorWho85]

I've said it in another thread. I believe NIL is great for the kids, but overall needs to be regulated. The kids deserved to get paid, but schools like Houston and Texas who have billionaire donors, can throw as much money into a sludge fund to buy up all the talent. There should be a maximum limit on how much anyone can earn on NIL through the school. Getting money off of things like podcasts, youtube channels, twitch streams should be outside of the realm of this obviously, but NIL for players by the school should be limited to say 50k per year (just a number I'm throwing out).

 

[Get a Job]

I've said it in another thread. I believe NIL is great for the kids, but overall needs to be regulated. The kids deserved to get paid, but schools like Houston and Texas who have billionaire donors, can throw as much money into a sludge fund to buy up all the talent. There should be a maximum limit on how much anyone can earn on NIL through the school. Getting money off of things like podcasts, youtube channels, twitch streams should be outside of the realm of this obviously, but NIL for players by the school should be limited to say 50k per year (just a number I'm throwing out).

NIL for players by the school is already limited to $0.00

 

[Stinger92860]

They have someone:

can I donate and ask for the money to be used for football only?

 

[huskymedic]

can I donate and ask for the money to be used for football only?

It would appear so:

Here’s an existing option:



Since Coach Mora has been banging the drum they have seen a significant uptick in UConn Football donations in two weeks.

Jared Guy Thomas is the Executive Director for the BleedingBlueNIL Collective.

 

[UConnJim]

I just checked the On3 database for coaches salaries in 2023 and it shows that Mora would be the 6th highest paid coach in the AAC, and his current salary is higher than the coaches at Navy, UAB, North Texas, Charlotte, Rice and FAU. It appears you were referencing 2022 salaries, however to be fair I don't think Mora would be the lowest paid coach in the AAC today, looks more like middle of the pack-ish. Is that high enough given our current status and revenue issues? Hard to say but certainly one issue among many we are facing.

I wrote in last year's AAC. This year, the AAC took a big step back in football with the loss of Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. And, don't you think all of the new AAC schools are going to increase their investment in football to compete? Of course they are. And, are we trying to get into a P5 conference? Yes, so we need to be spending at the top of the G5.

People don't seem to recognize is how UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati lapped UConn in football. The donor base was mobilized and they invested in football. All schools were getting the same media dollars.

 

[Punkbo]

If Mora is right (as the title of this thread suggests), we’re better off taking whatever NIL money we raise and using it to pay the players on the basketball team. We’ll never have enough money to support a full football roster and be competitive with the southern schools.

 

[UConnJim]

If Mora is right (as the title of this thread suggests), we’re better off taking whatever NIL money we raise and using it to pay the players on the basketball team. We’ll never have enough money to support a full football roster and be competitive with the southern schools.

And if the football schools break off and form their own basketball tournament, what does UConn do?

 

[uconnfan68]

And if the football schools break off and form their own basketball tournament, what does UConn do?

Join the other 200+ schools.

 

[Blades]

 

[Scoe]

There’s no question the state has the money, there are just far too many excuses, and no one wants to speak up. Of course the NIL is a challenge but is doable.

 

[SwingDog]

I can help out. Generally, there are 2 types of NIL. There is NIL money for top stars from brands like Nike, Gatorade,… that is going to top players based on the star’s ability to market the brand. Think Paige Bueckers or Caleb Williams. That is not what Mora is talking about as that only impacts a very few players. Then, there is NIL cash that is being being paid by collectives, small and medium businesses, individuals,… that is basically paying the players for some “use” of NIL but is basically a payout. I don’t think large corporations are a big part of this. That is what Mora means when he says NIL.

At most large universities, they have a well developed booster club outside of university oversight that has been raising money for years for things like facilities, athletic scholarships, coaching salaries, … Many are now involved in NIL. To my knowledge, I don’t think UConn has a booster club, as historically the AD has been the fundraiser. With NIL it has to be an outside organization that is raising the money.

Thank you for such an informative explanation!

 

[Rdkid]

If Mora is right (as the title of this thread suggests), we’re better off taking whatever NIL money we raise and using it to pay the players on the basketball team. We’ll never have enough money to support a full football roster and be competitive with the southern schools.

I’m sure our bball players are doing just fine.