Put (A Little) Money Where Your Mouth Is

[UCTitleTown]

Too bad we don't have former players who made a ton in the NFL like we do NBA players. The NBA players that earned $100-200 million in their careers could cover a $1.5 million need without blinking.

 

[Kowalski]

I get that NIL is where we are but I think this where the disconnect is. You wanna pay the players like coaches, just have the school pay them. They should become employees like other professionals. The whole NIL thing where it’s up to the fans to buy players just seems weird.

Agree and it’s a ridiculous stretch to call these students employees.

It’s a tired argument that college athletes need to get paid because coaches get paid. Coaches are professionals who are paid in the same way that faculty or other employees get paid. But college athletes participate in Amatuer athletics. If they want to get paid as employees, they should find a pro team that’ll pay them as employees out of high school. College sports isn’t that & doesn’t need to be transformed into something it never intended to be - a paid sports league.

And it’s worth noting most schools loose tens of $millions on their athletic programs The revenue generating sports only partially offset losses from other sports offered to students. The system worked & benefitted the athletes who took advantage of it.

I accept the argument that athlete’s should be able to benefit from use of their name, image & likeness. But NIL is clearly moving beyond that & effectively creating a free agency market for athletes

 

[Punkbo]

NIL with players allowed to make money based on their marketing ability makes sense. The rest is just a fool's errand for most of us. Maybe we'll see the Ivy League, Stanford, and Northwestern go out and hire the best players. I mean, if the likes of Georgetown and Notre Dame with their wealthy alumni can't figure out how to line up 5 star basketball recruits, then they're not even trying.

I don't see how UConn will continue to compete with these wealthy schools with the most wealthy alumni. I would think that all changes very soon.

Maybe I’m naive, but the Ivy League doesn’t need to do this. Alumni of these schools became rich because these schools provide a superior education. Donors would rather see an upgrade to the school of engineering than have the QB drive a Bentley. That’s why this whole Stanford to the ACC thing perplexes me. It contradicts everything that makes Stanford such a great school.

 

[UConnJim]

NIL with players allowed to make money based on their marketing ability makes sense. The rest is just a fool's errand for most of us. Maybe we'll see the Ivy League, Stanford, and Northwestern go out and hire the best players. I mean, if the likes of Georgetown and Notre Dame with their wealthy alumni can't figure out how to line up 5 star basketball recruits, then they're not even trying.

I don't see how UConn will continue to compete with these wealthy schools with the most wealthy alumni. I would think that all changes very soon.

I think schools will think about how they want to compete in the future. The Ivy League is content to compete against each other and play some other schools in other sports. Remember, you have to be academically oriented to play in the Ivies and the Ivies don't allow redshirts so they aren't going to upgrade to compete against the biggest schools.

Stanford is an interesting case. They pride themselves on playing a large number of sports like the Ivy League, but the collapse of the Pac 12 really threw their athletic department for a loop as there is no western conference in which they could compete. If they were an Eastern or Midwestern school, I think they would have considered applying to the Ivy League. For the future, I think they are hoping for a Big 10 invite or the formation of a high academic conference down the road.

I think UConn can compete financially with the top 50 athletic universities in the future.

 

[chalk1]

Just added 500.00, I want nothing more than to see UConn football succeed, if it takes some money I'll do what I can.

 

[shizzle787]

What are we up to?

 

[Woof 101]

Well if it wasnt already abundantly clear who we are concerned about losing

This is a keen sense of the obvious. But why not appreciation of the effort?

Don't start with the free education line because it's old and worn out. NIL is about sponsorship and getting paid to play the sport they risk their health on.

The free / scholarship line will never wear out soon. Any player can turn down any school at any time and move on to any school and pay tuition. No rocket science here.
As for risking health , many have done that simply by going to work every day of our lives for decades. The injury rate and sometimes death is much higher.
They are playing a game they love and getting a free education beyond the $$$ of non athletes.

 

[JMick]

I get that NIL is where we are but I think this where the disconnect is. You wanna pay the players like coaches, just have the school pay them. They should become employees like other professionals. The whole NIL thing where it’s up to the fans to buy players just seems weird.

It's really weird. I feel like I'm listening to a bunch of twitch streamers or YouTubers. "Please like and subscribe!"

Maybe we can stream practices and put a girl in a hot tub and a bikini on the 50 yard line asking people to subscribe using their twitch prime.

 

[Dizzy21]

Well if it wasnt already abundantly clear who we are concerned about losing

Those athletes signed up with the collective before the season. Not to say that they aren't the ones we want to keep, but they were all part of it before the season and before Cam Edwards and TR really played much.

 

[husky8273]

Too bad we don't have former players who made a ton in the NFL like we do NBA players. The NBA players that earned $100-200 million in their careers could cover a $1.5 million need without blinking.

but they never have nor are they expected to

 

[uconnbill]

Um. No. I have my own real expenses to worry about. Not paying for the potential to have better sports teams. (As much as I want UCONN to do well).

Are they going to start having commercials saying, "For less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day..."

It's like a GoFundMe because of a broken healthcare system.

Start with asking corporate sponsors to pony up. Don't start here.

All the schools are doing this. This is not just UConn, but every other FBS is doing just this.

 

[pepband99]

They need to keep promoting these collectives big time me and all over. Before this weekend I hadn't heard a peep from any of these people. They start tweeting, or whatever it's called now, and all ok a sudden we have $41k. They need to continue to promote the heck out of this and they'll hit their goal or come.closer.

The AD needs to be asked about exactly this. At Tennessee, they literally had an in-game ad at the football game with the HC asking to donate to NIL. They can easily bump ad time to make this happen.

 

[BlueandOG]

Maybe I’m naive, but the Ivy League doesn’t need to do this. Alumni of these schools became rich because these schools provide a superior education. Donors would rather see an upgrade to the school of engineering than have the QB drive a Bentley. That’s why this whole Stanford to the ACC thing perplexes me. It contradicts everything that makes Stanford such a great school.

Disagree. The reason why alums of ivy league schools become rich is because they come from rich families in the first place. For most people in ivy league schools, it is much more who you know than what you know.

 

[AllHusky]

but they never have nor are they expected to

You are saying the NBA guys haven't and won't contribute, correct?

 

[AllHusky]

Disagree. The reason why alums of ivy league schools become rich is because they come from rich families in the first place. For most people in ivy league schools, it is much more who you know than what you know.

Ivy League degree is best Union card in the world

 

[uconndogs]

It's very generous of Mr. D'Amelio to make this offer and for those who choose to participate. My sense is that NIL will drive consideration paid to players at top programs well into the millions per team. Competing at the highest levels will be based largely on access to funding for these NIL programs. As a broken record, this is unfettered professional athletics with just about unrestricted free agency. It's probably worse than that, because as best I can tell there are little if any regulations that can be enforced - so the wild west analogy seems about right.

That all said, it's not for me. I don't begrudge the kids making some money, but NIL as it's presently structured is going to put some real money in kids hands (and probably none at all in others). In my opinion, the millions should be shelled out by the NFL and NBA. In the realm of the ridiculous - it used to be that a coach or booster could get a program in trouble for buying a kid a steak. Now here we are.....

Total and complete lack of leadership and vision by the schools, athletic departments, coaches and NCAA. They all lined their pockets and now they've lost control.

 

[Palatine]

Here's the problem.

On X it says go to click for the Demilio site to donate, and then click the one time donation link. I did that.

There is no "one time donation" link on the Demilio site. There is a "one time investment" link.

I clicked the "investment" link. That lead to a site with dollar amount boxes. I clicked on one of those.

But once I did there is no football specific fund nor is there is a football specific matching fund.

So basically I have no idea if I would be donating to football or having that donation matched. It's a blind hole.

 

[Palatine]

You are saying the NBA guys haven't and won't contribute, correct?

Jim Calhoun had the attitude that the NBA guys had already contributed enough by playing at UConn, so he never reached out to them to become donors. True.

 

[Bongo Fury]

I typically don’t tell people how to spend their money. It seems like former players still have pride in UConn especially BB. Wouldn’t be surprised if some are contributing.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Have previously donated most years to www.foundation.uconn.edu/fund/football/ and will continue to, but the times they are a changing.

Sent some to the NIL site, but am also interested in learning about other UConn NIL sites also supporting current and potential future Huskies' football, hoops, soccer and hockey athletes.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[AllHusky]

Jim Calhoun had the attitude that the NBA guys had already contributed enough by playing at UConn, so he never reached out to them to become donors. True.

Thats a shame. Assuming they invested wisely, 100k/year should be easy for those that played a few years.

 

[J187Money]

Have previously donated most years to www.foundation.uconn.edu/fund/football/ and will continue to, but the times they are a changing.

Sent some to the NIL site, but am also interested in learning about other UConn NIL sites also supporting current and potential future Huskies' football, hoops, soccer and hockey athletes.

So let me understand the options...

Bleeding Blue for Good - is a 501c3 because money will go to the players for services they perform for charities
D'Amelio collective - is NOT a 501c3 because they are just going to give money to players.

So as a fan - where do I get the most bang for my buck? What moves the needle in terms of making the football team better? Clearly the tax deduction angle on Bleeding Blue means I can put more $ in the hands of athletes for the same OOP cost - but what is actually going to be able to change the game? I imagine that D'Amelio's collective might have more weight over time?

I think like many here I want to help - but not sure what the best option is? Especially since I'm primarily concerned about football - doesn't feel like there is need to worry about hoops at this point.

 

[J187Money]

On another note - what is the expectation for the guys that quit to go in the portal earlier in the year - what are they expecting in NIL money elsewhere? $5K? $10K? $20K? Do we know? How far behind are we? None of those guys are elite players so they aren't getting big deals.

Understanding that the price of a 5* QB is something that UCONN isn't in the market for - but what do we need in order to be competitive for the type of player that UCONN would/should have been able to recruit with a good coach pre-NIL?

 

[LBird33]

Great question

 

[ZooCougar]

Here's the problem.

On X it says go to click for the Demilio site to donate, and then click the one time donation link. I did that.

There is no "one time donation" link on the Demilio site. There is a "one time investment" link.

I clicked the "investment" link. That lead to a site with dollar amount boxes. I clicked on one of those.

But once I did there is no football specific fund nor is there is a football specific matching fund.

So basically I have no idea if I would be donating to football or having that donation matched. It's a blind hole.

Someone just needs to get them this feedback.

But we really just need a Football only collective.

 

[LBird33]

On another note - what is the expectation for the guys that quit to go in the portal earlier in the year - what are they expecting in NIL money elsewhere? $5K? $10K? $20K? Do we know? How far behind are we? None of those guys are elite players so they aren't getting big deals.

Understanding that the price of a 5* QB is something that UCONN isn't in the market for - but what do we need in order to be competitive for the type of player that UCONN would/should have been able to recruit with a good coach pre-NIL?

 

[ynm99]

So let me understand the options...

Bleeding Blue for Good - is a 501c3 because money will go to the players for services they perform for charities
D'Amelio collective - is NOT a 501c3 because they are just going to give money to players.

So as a fan - where do I get the most bang for my buck? What moves the needle in terms of making the football team better? Clearly the tax deduction angle on Bleeding Blue means I can put more $ in the hands of athletes for the same OOP cost - but what is actually going to be able to change the game? I imagine that D'Amelio's collective might have more weight over time?

I think like many here I want to help - but not sure what the best option is? Especially since I'm primarily concerned about football - doesn't feel like there is need to worry about hoops at this point.

I would like to understand how money gets to a recruit? For example, a transfer wants 10k to come play for us. Does Moras then reach out to the collective to get them involved?

 

[temery]

Interesting site. Does show how much some players are make, but not necessarily the source.

Sort by position or sport.

College Basketball NIL Rankings

A ranking of College Basketball recruits. These rankings are based on the potential influence they have as an individual.

www.on3.com

 

[UConnJim]

So let me understand the options...

Bleeding Blue for Good - is a 501c3 because money will go to the players for services they perform for charities
D'Amelio collective - is NOT a 501c3 because they are just going to give money to players.

So as a fan - where do I get the most bang for my buck? What moves the needle in terms of making the football team better? Clearly the tax deduction angle on Bleeding Blue means I can put more $ in the hands of athletes for the same OOP cost - but what is actually going to be able to change the game? I imagine that D'Amelio's collective might have more weight over time?

I think like many here I want to help - but not sure what the best option is? Especially since I'm primarily concerned about football - doesn't feel like there is need to worry about hoops at this point.

I agree with you. I have struggled with both collectives (donated to both) and I'm not sure either is the best for UConn football. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that both collectives were formed and I support them, but I think we need a collective on a larger scale. I think a UConn booster club needs to be formed that fundraises for both the athletic department as well as NIL