Imagine we had a millionaire donor who, instead of giving $10 million to the university for upgrades and academics, decided to put that towards the basketball team for a three or four year window on NIL dollars. If we were able to assemble the best team that money could buy for those three years, how would you feel about those years? Would you feel like they were OHIO student-athletes or just hired guns wearing our jerseys but with little affiliation to the college? Would it possibly pay itself back by getting our university's name out there in ways it hasn't been in the past?

https://y.yarn.co/7b00ad44-bfa3-4e43-954c-8310a3704c86_te...

Put me down for excited. $10m could get us a whole lot more, theoretically, than a Nate Oats Buffalo run.

For context, Hunter Dickinson left Michigan and tweeted that at Michigan he was making less than $100k. At Kansas, he's gotten ~$500k. That's a lot of money -- but he was also the highest rated player in the portal. Much of that's from true NIL endorsements with Adidas and others.

If that's the going rate for a top ranked transfer, $10m goes a long ways. Especially when you consider that NIL money is very, very likely top heavy.

I mean, every couple of weeks BTC posts here to talk about all the players being told they're going to make 100k who enter the portal and don't end up making a dime, or even finding a home. We know that's true, and it happens. But somehow we also think guys are getting showered in cash.

I have a feeling that spending 500k wisely each year would go a very, very long ways. That's a big payroll for an 8 or 9 man rotation.

The elephant in the room is not having adequate NIL money. Its whether or not Ohio is going to be competing in D1 within a few years.

https://wtop.com/ncaa-basketball/2024/03/march-madness-as... /

The new playoff deal in football could be a stop gap until the end of the decade until the top brands break away to form their own division. To me then the priority at Ohio should be to stay at the top level with institutional committment over pushing NIL cash infusions from individuals. Helping athletes develop NIL deals in the marketplace that should be taken seriously to promote recruiting.

Has anyone seen Ricardo Montalban? This sounds like an episode of Fantasy Island.

I listened this morning to the university update. JC was on and said that Preston's run with Ohio in the NCAAs provided 191 million in marketing value. In another segment though alumni giving has stayed consistent the past 4 years in the 40-45 million dollar range. The bumps that a Boise State or Gonzaga level university are pronounced for athletics when they didn't have anything for alumni to be excited about before. Marshall before they built up the football team as another example since prior they were at such a low baseline previously.

I saw a tweet from Jeff Goodman a couple days ago where he pointed out that the Big East had 5 teams with $2M of NIL. They only had three teams make the tournament and he questioned how good an investment in the NIL had been.

I wonder if folk's expectations of how much NIL is floating around are too high. I get the feeling that the NIL for mid-level players isn't as high as we think.

I think that NIL is just a ruse for boosters to grease palms as they always have.

I'm 100% in this boat.

There are two types of posts about the NIL that are extremely common on BA.com:

1) We can't afford players because of the NIL, and
2) the vast majority of portal entrants are being sold a bill of goods, never make a dime, and don't find a new school

It would not shock me at all if when there's finally transparency into NIL money, we find that it's pretty top heavy, and that for the vast, vast majority the result was a couple of grand in walking around money.

With the power conferences taking in 3-4 transfers a year that is pushing more talented players down to the mid-major level. In football Ohio had its 5th string RB score 5 TDs after the starters hit the portal. Its happened before where a 5th string skill player can have a great game walking in but in the past I've noticed it from a mid tier Big Ten program like Michigan State or Iowa pull a player out of the hat for a bowl. To see that at Ohio in part because of the portal/NIL is something new.

Personally the level of athlete in the arena is a main factor in wanting to watch and there is noticable difference as you move up the talent food chain. Watching a game with Top 40 college basketball talent in it feels like a NBA game. MAC semifinal with Akron who had a couple guys in there in Freeman and Ali that could be in the Big East and the defensive intensity in the first half. Its a different experience than a game against two MAC teams at the bottom. Ohio should strive to be built like a Sweet 16 team. Higher talent level is more exciting for the fans.

This. And, indeed, it is old school thinking but I like it.

+1. Back in my days we got to the Convo so early and sat directly behind the visitor's bench. Darrel Hendric, Miami's coach got more than an earful. Dick Parfitt of CMU, Bob Nichols of Toledo, the same. Seeing Indiana, OSU, Missouri, Cincinnati in the Convo was something I doubt we ever see again. Then, I doubt we see the crowds from back then. Living on West Green we spent hours daily in Grover and I'll not forget playing with Billy Brown, Chuck Seltzer, transfer from Lasalle, and others in pickup games.