More trouble in ACC paradise?

[Exit 4]

UConn really needs a sugar daddy

Or an oil field.

 

[DFW HOYA]

No matter how hard SMU tries, and they do, there's a ceiling on what they can do competitively.

A LOT of SMU alumni think they're on a par with Duke or Vanderbilt. Tulane is a closer comparison.

 

[NE Football]

The whole concept of donating money to college athletics is just ridiculous. The schools make millions in revenue and yet they still get donations to their for profit business.

 

[Kolumbo]

The whole concept of donating money to college athletics is just ridiculous. The schools make millions in revenue and yet they still get donations to their for profit business.

Preach! The entire NIL bubble is going to burst very quickly. Fans of pro sports are paying the players' salaries. Now college players are pros but they are being paid by the big donors. Sooner or later these knuckleheads with more dollars than sense will realize they are just throwing their money down the drain, especially with the transfer portal. It will all come crashing down.

 

[microfich]

Preach! The entire NIL bubble is going to burst very quickly. Fans of pro sports are paying the players' salaries. Now college players are pros but they are being paid by the big donors. Sooner or later these knuckleheads with more dollars than sense will realize they are just throwing their money down the drain, especially with the transfer portal. It will all come crashing down.

This much is true. Are they handing money to kids with the expectation (requirement?) of more than one year? Or, does continuous outlay for a single year/single player fit into their wallets?

With zero regulation, I can imagine there are a multitude of 'arrangements' out there.

 

[Jetskies]

Preach! The entire NIL bubble is going to burst very quickly. Fans of pro sports are paying the players' salaries. Now college players are pros but they are being paid by the big donors. Sooner or later these knuckleheads with more dollars than sense will realize they are just throwing their money down the drain, especially with the transfer portal. It will all come crashing down.

if it is to come crashing down, i hope it crashes very very soon before UConn's next conference re-alignment window.

 

[CL82]

if it is to come crashing down, i hope it crashes very very soon before UConn's next conference re-alignment window.

The ACC losing teams is our next realignment window.

 

[LIUCHusky]

The whole concept of donating money to college athletics is just ridiculous. The schools make millions in revenue and yet they still get donations to their for profit business.

Very few schools are showing a profit in their athletic department.

 

[Rufus]

The whole concept of donating money to college athletics is just ridiculous. The schools make millions in revenue and yet they still get donations to their for profit business.

If you are a millionaire or billionaire, and one of your forms of entertainment is college sports, it makes all the sense in the world.

 

[jostar1]

DiMAURO: How did BC basketball(s) get so bad?

By MIKE DiMAURO Twenty years ago this week, the Associated Press men’s top 25 basketball poll, dated Feb. 15, 2006, showed the No. 13 team in the country to be the Boston College Eagles. That team, which would make the ACC championship game (lost by a bucket to Duke), would send three players to...

eaglesdaily.com

 

[uconndogs]

DiMAURO: How did BC basketball(s) get so bad?

By MIKE DiMAURO Twenty years ago this week, the Associated Press men’s top 25 basketball poll, dated Feb. 15, 2006, showed the No. 13 team in the country to be the Boston College Eagles. That team, which would make the ACC championship game (lost by a bucket to Duke), would send three players to...

eaglesdaily.com

I continue to wonder if the elite academics like BC, Stanford, Northwestern, etc. stay with big time athletics. The professional model does not fit with their academic mission. Financial demands are only going to increase in order to be competitive. The Ivies got it right years ago.

 

[LIUCHusky]

I continue to wonder if the elite academics like BC, Stanford, Northwestern, etc. stay with big time athletics. The professional model does not fit with their academic mission. Financial demands are only going to increase in order to be competitive. The Ivies got it right years ago.

Please, the academics at BC do not reside in the same realm as Stanford, Northwestern, etc.

 

[B1GEast]

The whole concept of donating money to college athletics is just ridiculous. The schools make millions in revenue and yet they still get donations to their for profit business.

Those donations are tax deductible and more importantly, they open doors.

When you're at that level of disposable income, it's not a lot.

It could lead to having your family name on a facility, or campus building wing.

It's just a different world that most of us don't understand

 

[freescooter]

Hey the Ohio State AD says it’s unsustainable. That makes me think it’s unsustainable😉

 

[Jetskies]

The ACC losing teams is our next realignment window.

i mean the entire model as it stands, not just the ACC crashing out.

I believe this NIL/pay-to-play system needs to reach a boiling point across alll of the schools who simply can no longer justify losing 10's of millions every year. i don't have hard $'s on me, but based on the numbers i see poeple throwing around social media, I suspect there are many P4's suffering silently, beyond Rutgers.

wondering if perhaps those are our partners in the making.

 

[uconndogs]

Hey the Ohio State AD says it’s unsustainable. That makes me think it’s unsustainable😉

Which is exactly the point!

 

[CL82]

i mean the entire model as it stands, not just the ACC crashing out.

I believe this NIL/pay-to-play system needs to reach a boiling point across alll of the schools who simply can no longer justify losing 10's of millions every year. i don't have hard $'s on me, but based on the numbers i see poeple throwing around social media, I suspect there are many P4's suffering silently, beyond Rutgers.

wondering if perhaps those are our partners in the making.

That's always been the dream, right? That common sense would eventually prevail, and we'd return to a system that better preserved the myth of the student athlete. I don't think it will happen, at least at the highest level of the money sports. I do think there will be an opportunity for those not electing to continue to buy into that system, but the schools that take it will soon be forgotten in the national consciousness. Perhaps the more interesting question is how long will power conferences be tolerant of schools like Boston College that don't invest in their athletics and instead are a parasite off their more successful conference mates.

I don't see schools opting out of receiving tens of millions of dollars annually. I do think there's a chance that some of them will get "voted off the island" though.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Anyone expecting common sense to prevail hasn't been paying attention

 

[ZooCougar]

Anyone expecting common sense to prevail hasn't been paying attention

 

[Jetskies]

unless every. single. P4 school not named bama/michigan/OSU (or maybe even them), finds a sugar daddy or sugar-daddies (eg. SMU Oil, Oregon/Phil Knight, etc.) to bankroll this thing, I can't see 50+ teams staying afloat (or watever the number is, idk how many p4's there are in total as of feb 2026).

unless schools are just ok with endlessly coming out in the red and accepting it as a "marketing cost" of advertising their university to the american public via big-time college football..... rly?

 

[ecasadoSBU]

The whole concept of donating money to college athletics is just ridiculous. The schools make millions in revenue and yet they still get donations to their for profit business.

I love collegiate athletics. But I never donated for the athletic programs.

We routinely donate to UConn/Stony Brook academic funds, however.

For as much as I love sports. It feels wrong for me to send money to athletics. It would make me feel super guilty.


Tickets and Merch is my way to support athletics.

EDIT: Part of the reason is that both my Wife and I received a ton of academic grants/aid so we are very supportive of programs that help students get through college.

 

[uconnbill]

No one will make money in the future if things are not brought in sooner rather than later. Look at Duke and what they give to basketball players

 

[UConnJim]

i mean the entire model as it stands, not just the ACC crashing out.

I believe this NIL/pay-to-play system needs to reach a boiling point across alll of the schools who simply can no longer justify losing 10's of millions every year. i don't have hard $'s on me, but based on the numbers i see poeple throwing around social media, I suspect there are many P4's suffering silently, beyond Rutgers.

wondering if perhaps those are our partners in the making.

Let's break it down into revenue sharing and NIL. First revenue sharing.

If you look at the typical P4 athletic department, there is tons of fat that can be cut, but there was little incentive to do it before as long as you broke even or came close. I think what we are seeing is a reordering of where the money is being spent, shifting from administrators to athletes which is a painful restructuring. Spending 20% of revenues or less on athletes does not seem unreasonable to me.

As for NIL, that has gotten out of control as many schools are taking money from donors and giving it to athletes and calliing it NIL when it is really pay for play. I think that will calm down over time as schools/conferences will try to reign it in. Do you think the traditional powers want to see the Indianas, Dukes, Vanderbilts, SMUs,... compete with them year in and year out? Real NIL, like what Strong and Demary are doing with Jordan's Furniture will still be allowed.

Finally, donors directing money to athletes will ultimately crimp spending on facilities. Hopefully, your school's facilities were updated in the past few years.

 

[JwittersPAC]

Let's break it down into revenue sharing and NIL. First revenue sharing.

If you look at the typical P4 athletic department, there is tons of fat that can be cut, but there was little incentive to do it before as long as you broke even or came close. I think what we are seeing is a reordering of where the money is being spent, shifting from administrators to athletes which is a painful restructuring. Spending 20% of revenues or less on athletes does not seem unreasonable to me.

As for NIL, that has gotten out of control as many schools are taking money from donors and giving it to athletes and calliing it NIL when it is really pay for play. I think that will calm down over time as schools/conferences will try to reign it in. Do you think the traditional powers want to see the Indianas, Dukes, Vanderbilts, SMUs,... compete with them year in and year out? Real NIL, like what Strong and Demary are doing with Jordan's Furniture will still be allowed.

Finally, donors directing money to athletes will ultimately crimp spending on facilities. Hopefully, your school's facilities were updated in the past few years.

Curious how you know Demarcus and Strong are getting “real” NIL from Jordan’s furniture? I am sure there are multiple SEC teams that can make same argument over providing “real” NIL as well. I think NIL enforcement will be impossible to enforce. It will be attacked in the courts and not be able to stand up to judicial rulings.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Curious how you know Demarcus and Strong are getting “real” NIL from Jordan’s furniture?

I took "real" to mean they were getting paid for services rendered that we all have seen vs just giving them money for nothing in return.