I'm trying to understand if Michigan's issues with NIL (essentially losing Walter Nolen due to it) are just if we are slow but might eventually get there, or if there is some lingering philosophical issues from the university higher-ups (whether that's the president, regents, AD, etc. - whoever that matter) about getting kids paid to play sports. EVEN THOUGH IT'S LEGAL. If it's the second one, I'm not sure how we'll ever compete given that we are intentionally handcuffing ourselves, shooting ourselves in the foot, etc.
From what I pieced together from insiders such as @Section_6 and @Jim__S , the Michigan booster money cannon is ready to fire. Intuitively, this makes sense - we are essentially the richest university playing that's playing big boy football (not counting Stanford here as I don't think they really care about being nationally relevant), and even if our fanbase as a whole isn't as passionate about football as say Alabama's, even a limited subset of our rich boosters that do care would blow Alabama's out of the water in terms of money. Jim_S has mentioned hearing ~$30M+ being available for football per year, and a figure like an average of $300K per player. Naturally, the best offensive player / QB might be $1M+ and the 3rd string long-snapper might only be $20K. That's an average.
Now, I understand that it's technically "illegal" to induce a player to sign with a school by guaranteeing NIL payments. In other words, Tennessee can't say "hey Walter Nolen if you sign with us we will give you $2M guaranteed in NIL." Of course that's not going to stop anyone from doing it, and clearly that's being done already, but let's just assume that Michigan (being the high and mighty sanctimonious sons of bitches we seemingly are) won't ever do that... even if it's all implicit, behind the scenes, utterly unprovable, etc. Ok, sure, we won't do that.
But what stops us from saying "hey Walter Nolen, we have the richest alumni base for a big boy football school, and they are prepared to pay >$30M per year in NIL to players, and the average player could make $300K, and you are a 5-star DT that we desperately, desperately need, and you are a #1 overall recruit, so players of your stature could certainly expect to make many, many times the average player in NIL." There is zero guarantee there, there is no agreement, no contract, nothing. There is the simple sharing of cold, hard facts, and the recruit piecing together what is POTENTIALLY available to him at our school. This is not crossing line or breaking the "rules" (lol, as if they are somehow "real" in the first place) in any way.
My question is, why are we seemingly not doing this today? With Walter Nolen? With Keon Sabb? Is it just because we are super, super slow, and so maybe we can start doing this in 2024 or something (Jim_S alluded to this)? Or is it because many of those in "charge" at the university are philosophically bent against players getting paid even when it's been EXPLICITLY LEGAL by the sham organization that is the NCAA that they somehow desperately want to grovel to, despite OSU Bama Clemson LSU Georgia etc. basically being implicitly encouraged to cheat by that same organization?
If it's the first option, ok maybe we can be competitive again eventually. If it's the second, well, time for me to hang up my diehard fandom, cancel all my subscriptions, stop following recruiting, and just watch and appreciate the games as a casual fan without a truly vested interest. Very hard to fully support a team (including financially) that doesn't actually want to win.
And just to be clear, I will always appreciate the players and coaches who are working their asses off for Michigan. I don't think they are the problem here at all. Go Blue.
From what I pieced together from insiders such as @Section_6 and @Jim__S , the Michigan booster money cannon is ready to fire. Intuitively, this makes sense - we are essentially the richest university playing that's playing big boy football (not counting Stanford here as I don't think they really care about being nationally relevant), and even if our fanbase as a whole isn't as passionate about football as say Alabama's, even a limited subset of our rich boosters that do care would blow Alabama's out of the water in terms of money. Jim_S has mentioned hearing ~$30M+ being available for football per year, and a figure like an average of $300K per player. Naturally, the best offensive player / QB might be $1M+ and the 3rd string long-snapper might only be $20K. That's an average.
Now, I understand that it's technically "illegal" to induce a player to sign with a school by guaranteeing NIL payments. In other words, Tennessee can't say "hey Walter Nolen if you sign with us we will give you $2M guaranteed in NIL." Of course that's not going to stop anyone from doing it, and clearly that's being done already, but let's just assume that Michigan (being the high and mighty sanctimonious sons of bitches we seemingly are) won't ever do that... even if it's all implicit, behind the scenes, utterly unprovable, etc. Ok, sure, we won't do that.
But what stops us from saying "hey Walter Nolen, we have the richest alumni base for a big boy football school, and they are prepared to pay >$30M per year in NIL to players, and the average player could make $300K, and you are a 5-star DT that we desperately, desperately need, and you are a #1 overall recruit, so players of your stature could certainly expect to make many, many times the average player in NIL." There is zero guarantee there, there is no agreement, no contract, nothing. There is the simple sharing of cold, hard facts, and the recruit piecing together what is POTENTIALLY available to him at our school. This is not crossing line or breaking the "rules" (lol, as if they are somehow "real" in the first place) in any way.
My question is, why are we seemingly not doing this today? With Walter Nolen? With Keon Sabb? Is it just because we are super, super slow, and so maybe we can start doing this in 2024 or something (Jim_S alluded to this)? Or is it because many of those in "charge" at the university are philosophically bent against players getting paid even when it's been EXPLICITLY LEGAL by the sham organization that is the NCAA that they somehow desperately want to grovel to, despite OSU Bama Clemson LSU Georgia etc. basically being implicitly encouraged to cheat by that same organization?
If it's the first option, ok maybe we can be competitive again eventually. If it's the second, well, time for me to hang up my diehard fandom, cancel all my subscriptions, stop following recruiting, and just watch and appreciate the games as a casual fan without a truly vested interest. Very hard to fully support a team (including financially) that doesn't actually want to win.
And just to be clear, I will always appreciate the players and coaches who are working their asses off for Michigan. I don't think they are the problem here at all. Go Blue.
