Adam Weitsman announces NIL plans

[Scooch]

Here’s something interesting. I googled “Adam Weitsman interview” and this was the first clip that came up on YouTube:


The first thing in it is Weitsman saying that he was the first person in the United States to go to jail for check kiting.

That struck me as… odd. So I did a Bing search on people jailed for check kiting in the 90s. I got this, from 1982:

TV anchorman gets six months for check-kiting - UPI Archives

Ken Jones, a local television news anchorman, was sentenced Monday to six months in jail and seven years' probation for a check-kiting scheme that defrauded...

www.upi.com

So yeah, I’m not so sure about the “first person in the US” claim. Looks like a ton of people have, both before and after.

I don’t care at all about the guy’s jail time. But I think he may be prone to hyperbole when it suits him. Cue the “everything he did was 100% compliant” excuses.

 

[whobut03]

I would hope that the gentleman who has the 4 seats at the other end of the table gets first shot. From what I’ve witnessed, the fans in those 4 seats are actually into what is happening on the court during the game.

As for the box, I would think that they just revert it back to the Executive Club and invite the fans that were displaced back.

It’s our new sugar daddy and his companies new suite.

 

[Consigliere]

If he was in fact putting us at risk, then of course it matters. I'm going by the articles that have been published stating that he doesn't buy a slice of pizza for a kid without passing it by compliance.

I think things changed when the NCAA issued its statement in February that they were going to ramp up enforcement of NIL abuses. The reiterated that boosters CANNOT be involved in recruiting and that they would no longer require a smoking gun to launch investigations.

I have been a strong proponent of Adam on this forum from the beginning and have cited his philanthropic initiatives repeatedly. I respect and appreciate his efforts to own up to past failures and to support the community.

But no matter how much you squint and cite the letter of the law, Adam was recruiting for Syracuse and doing it in a very high profile manner.

 

[CuseCPT]

You want to argue Heitner is biased because he's got irons in the fire with NIL whales, no problem... I'd agree.

NIL is a contract business and the experts are the contract lawyers structuring the deals and ensuring the legal requirements are met... It's their business to be experts.
.
This guy is retained by whales for NIL contract writing as well as universities for NIL guidance and compliance.

Your statement "There are no NIL experts“ is simply preposterous and that's what I took issue with.

Here's the thing with new areas of law. New niche areas of law don't pop up all the time, but they do pop up from time to time. Often the "expert" is just whoever is able to recognize it and get their name out there first. In my experience some of the best lawyer are terrible at the business part of it, and some the best at the business part of it are terrible at actually being a lawyer. Not to say there aren't people out there good at both, but in my experience it's relatively rare. What you quoted is from his website so it's pretty much attorney advertising. Whether or not someone is an expert is pretty subjective, and attorneys can and do get in trouble with their bar associations for getting too cute with attorney advertising all the time. Is he actually an NIL expert attorney? I don't know. He could just be the first.

 

[kingtidge]

Here's the thing with new areas of law. New niche areas of law don't pop up all the time, but they do pop up from time to time. Often the "expert" is just whoever is able to recognize it and get their name out there first. In my experience some of the best lawyer are terrible at the business part of it, and some the best at the business part of it are terrible at actually being a lawyer. Not to say there aren't people out there good at both, but in my experience it's relatively rare. What you quoted is from his website so it's pretty much attorney advertising. Whether or not someone is an expert is pretty subjective, and attorneys can and do get in trouble with their bar associations for getting too cute with attorney advertising all the time. Is he actually an NIL expert attorney? I don't know. He could just be the first.

That's fine.

It was said he wasn't an expert and there are no experts with NIL, with no explanation as to why...and then that was walked back.

Seems like there's a lot of spin and competing narratives on Weitsman and people are dug in. I get it.

My point is Heitner probably knows more about NIL than most on this board with h0takes...

Biased? You bet.

Knowledgeable on NIL? Most probably.

Not a real expert in your eyes? Ok, but that is definitely subjective.

What I do know for sure is I am no expert and am not dug in on any narrative.

 

[Scooch]

That's fine.

It was said he wasn't an expert and there are no experts with NIL, with no explanation as to why...and then that was walked back.

Seems like there's a lot of spin and competing narratives on Weitsman and people are dug in. I get it.

My point is Heitner probably knows more about NIL than most on this board with h0takes...

Biased? You bet.

Knowledgeable on NIL? Most probably.

Not a real expert in your eyes? Ok, but that is definitely subjective.

What I do know for sure is I am no expert and am not dug in on any narrative.

My hunch is that the attorney was peddling a paid narrative to the blogger who’s a big Weitsman guy too.

I’m an expert in my field. Seriously. But I’m also wrong a lot, because I’m a human.

I’m only “dug in” on the fact that only one side has been talking publicly. And those who know more of the story aren’t yapping to the press or posting stories on Insta.

 

[kirbivore]

 

[kingtidge]

My hunch is that the attorney was peddling a paid narrative to the blogger who’s a big Weitsman guy too.

I’m an expert in my field. Seriously. But I’m also wrong a lot, because I’m a human.

No fault in being wrong. I know I am a lot, as well.

My point is the lawyers writing the contracts for this new and evolving area of the law will be the most knowledgeable on it.

They also have whale clients that they need to protect and they want their cut... So, of course they are biased and they spin the narrative from that perspective.

So grain of salt, and all that, but because they're biased doesn't mean they aren't experts.

 

[Scooch]

No fault in being wrong. I know I am a lot, as well.

My point is the lawyers writing the contracts for this new and evolving area of the law will be the most knowledgeable on it.

They also have whale clients that they need to protect and they want their cut... So, of course they are biased and they spin the narrative from that perspective.

So grain of salt, and all that, but because they're biased doesn't mean they aren't experts.

My point is that the landscape changed radically a couple months ago. Everything his rich client was claiming was “100% compliant” changed. So the work he did 2-3 years ago isn’t nearly as relevant today. A lot has evolved since then.

Let’s meet in the middle, I’m willing to call him an “expert”.

 

[Jake]

I think things changed when the NCAA issued its statement in February that they were going to ramp up enforcement of NIL abuses. The reiterated that boosters CANNOT be involved in recruiting and that they would no longer require a smoking gun to launch investigations.

I have been a strong proponent of Adam on this forum from the beginning and have cited his philanthropic initiatives repeatedly. I respect and appreciate his efforts to own up to past failures and to support the community.

But no matter how much you squint and cite the letter of the law, Adam was recruiting for Syracuse and doing it in a very high profile manner.

Then they used the Miami women’s hoops team to show exactly what not to do and said they found everything they needed on a boosters social media page.

That all sounds very familiar!!

 

[samspann1]

All things considered, the SU/Weitsman entanglement ended much better for SU than I expected it would.

 

[kingtidge]

My point is that the landscape changed radically a couple months ago. Everything his rich client was claiming was “100% compliant” changed. So the work he did 2-3 years ago isn’t nearly as relevant today. A lot has evolved since then.

Let’s meet in the middle, I’m willing to call him an “expert”.

I think we are roundabouts at the same place.

An expert that wants as many NIL deals as possible that he can write the contracts on...

 

[Orangezoo]

I think we are roundabouts at the same place.

An expert that wants as many NIL deals as possible that he can write the contracts on...

And then transition to agent soon?...

 

[two3zone]

Neil - I appreciate your posts, your blog and the information you share. Thank you. Full disclosure, I knew Adam very casually back in the 90s when he owned the building I worked in and would visit us regularly. Always enjoyed talking with him then and think he is a better man today as that was prior to his legal issues and becoming a father. I have been one of the biggest supports of Adam on this forum from the beginning refuting claims of others who denigrated his motives and character.

I am also a proud alum, class of, well a few years before 2000, and appreciated his support of the University and its programs.

On the other hand I am very critical of the NCAA and it's failure to put any kind of reasonable guard rails around the whole NIL fiasco. I am the founder of the SyraCRUZ Tailgate NIL initiative (we are open for 2023 donations, btw. Jump on board!) We have seen the positive side of what NIL can do for our student athletes. We supported Enrique Cruz, Chris Elmore, Benny Williams, Joe Girard, Olivia Owens, Dyaisha Fair and Riley Figueiras last year and that project has only heightened our passion. However, the darker side more than counteracts all of those positives.

Here's what I know. Boosters CANNOT be involved in recruiting. NIL deals CANNOT be tied to a requirement that a student athlete attend a specific school. Public outrage is growing daily from the House Commerce committee hearings to the new head of the NCAA to the Charles Barkley interview on 60 Minutes. Something is coming to police the abuses of these givens and while Adam's deals complied with the letter of the law if you squint enough, he was obviously recruiting star high school players to come to Syracuse. I would like to be able to rationalize that everyone else is doing it, so we should too, but that's not me. I understand that Adam feels he cannot do things low key and I respect that and his decision to step away from using NIL as a recruiting tool.

What bothers me, though, is that he apparently will not be participating in any NIL opportunities for current and enrolled student athlets, either through the known collectives or on his own. This lower key level of support doesn't get the publicity of the six and seven figure offers to recruits but is argualbly more important to a broader number of student athletes and fosters a culture and perception that the Syracuse Orange community takes care of their players. Hopefully he can find a way through this.

And next time you talk to him, tell him his old Endicott Johnson buddy says hello and thank you for everything you do for the community,

If you shoot him a message on Instagram or Facebook he responds.

I commented on a Syr.com post about him last year and he actually messaged me out of the blue. I was critical of Adam when he first came in the public scene because it didn’t make sense to me, my question was mainly why is this man doing this with zero ties to the university. After messaging with him a bunch over a week I really did change my opinion of him, while he is incredibly flashy (he’s a billionaire for Christ sake) the man does so so so so so so so much good around the community, brought buzz to our games, and was friends with the coach and also with the new coach.

I feel bad for Adam, never thought I’d feel bad for a billionaire but I think the university booted a guy who I think had zero ill intentions towards SU. If he wanted attention or to gain more notoriety who cares, people pay to have their names on buildings, what are they doing?

 

[jgeorge322]

If you shoot him a message on Instagram or Facebook he responds.

I commented on a Syr.com post about him last year and he actually messaged me out of the blue. I was critical of Adam when he first came in the public scene because it didn’t make sense to me, my question was mainly why is this man doing this with zero ties to the university. After messaging with him a bunch over a week I really did change my opinion of him, while he is incredibly flashy (he’s a billionaire for Christ sake) the man does so so so so so so so much good around the community, brought buzz to our games, and was friends with the coach and also with the new coach.

I feel bad for Adam, never thought I’d feel bad for a billionaire but I think the university booted a guy who I think had zero ill intentions towards SU. If he wanted attention or to gain more notoriety who cares, people pay to have their names on buildings, what are they doing?

Adam seems like a nice guy but if the university was skeptical of the way he was operating and thought it could harm the university in the long run then it is possible the university did the right thing, even though it may be tough to stomach as fans.

At the end of the day, you and I can say “hey, everyone is breaking the rules, so we should too.” But its more difficult for the people who face real life consequences when the hammer drops.

 

[Scooch]

This is how competitive and powerful people react when acting magnanimously for years and years going above and beyond to support a cause/university they didn’t even go to, developing relationships and a love for the people and institution along the way only to be rudely (emphasis on rudely without ANY respect), rudely be thrown to the curb and disrespected only because you don’t fit the institutional profile and “look” of whom you want supporting you.

And then after a lifetime of trying to do the opposite and being successful doing it the right way, giving back etc., have so many say well they must know he’s still dirty or something suggesting dark nefarious ill begotten gain as the excuse when they know full well that’s bs but still do nothing to counter the narrative, in fact continuing to say nothing at all.

Don’t blame the guy, I hope he goes scorched earth and it results in new leadership that gets it that guys like this don’t grow on trees and they should be coddled and supported.

I certainly would do this if I were in his position and treated this way. Now that I know with CERTAINTY that the guys above board in his dealing and they don’t like his style of flying too close to the sun as he brings attention to his own causes too, it’s unconscionable what syracuse is doing to this guy.

Not that they’ve chosen to push him aside but no the manner af how they’ve done it (not returning his calls emails to have a meeting of the minds, not letting him bid on dome naming rights, etc - all of which I know with CERTAINTY to be true), not giving a modicum of respect in the process to allow people like you - not you specifically - but his critics to say he’s dirty or must be dirty.

Very nice school. I didn’t go to syracuse but have been a 50+ townie fan fanatically devoted my whole life. I went to a different school in part for the purity of the place re sports (could’ve played at SU), avoiding this type thing, so I look at them and the level of sport transactionally as a business.

The business of sport at the high level they inhabit, what they’ve done to this guy is simply bad business (again the manner of which, not the decision), and simply wrong ethically and morally.

I get it his reaction, syracuse is reaping what they sow, expect more for a while until, like me and others like me certainly I’m sure, the slow ugly mess of a separation occurs and mellows with time.

I missed your post yesterday, so at the risk of dredging up old news… this is a bonkers take.

Your pal is acting like a spoiled brat. It’s his right to act that way, but at least own it.

How many times does it need to be pointed out that this situation has zero to do with his business, his charitable efforts, etc.

It’s about him running afoul of what the NCAA said a couple months ago. And he steadfastly refuses to act differently in any way.

 

[Scooch]

If you shoot him a message on Instagram or Facebook he responds.

I commented on a Syr.com post about him last year and he actually messaged me out of the blue. I was critical of Adam when he first came in the public scene because it didn’t make sense to me, my question was mainly why is this man doing this with zero ties to the university. After messaging with him a bunch over a week I really did change my opinion of him, while he is incredibly flashy (he’s a billionaire for Christ sake) the man does so so so so so so so much good around the community, brought buzz to our games, and was friends with the coach and also with the new coach.

I feel bad for Adam, never thought I’d feel bad for a billionaire but I think the university booted a guy who I think had zero ill intentions towards SU. If he wanted attention or to gain more notoriety who cares, people pay to have their names on buildings, what are they doing?

Real simple solution: he can not be as Adam-first in his SU NIL dealings. He can toss some money towards facilities, endowed positions, and NIL collectives.

But where’s the glory in that?

And for the 1,000th time, the thing you’re saying “who cares” about is specifically why SU felt the need to distance themselves from him.

Side note: the guy employs a large social media team. So consider that when “he” is messaging you.

 

[two3zone]

Real simple solution: he can not be as Adam-first in his SU NIL dealings. He can toss some money towards facilities, endowed positions, and NIL collectives.

But where’s the glory in that?

If I’m pumping Adam money into this you damn right I’m getting my something in return. Drive by the athletic complex and on the outside there are names in the buildings that you can’t miss for a half mile on them. Adam brings his celebs and posts on social media, Im not saying I’m right, just my opinion, but I don’t see a big difference.

 

[Scooch]

If I’m pumping Adam money into this you damn right I’m getting my something in return. Drive by the athletic complex and on the outside there are names in the buildings that you can’t miss for a half mile on them. Adam brings his celebs and posts on social media, Im not saying I’m right, just my opinion, but I don’t see a big difference.

It’s a big difference. The names on buildings aren’t promoting someone hocking NFTs or crypto to bros on Insta. They’re about a legacy.

But find me one building that he threw money at anyway. Or an endowed coaching position or scholarship.

That’s the difference too. The vast majority of people who donate big money to SU aren’t doing it for ROI. They’re doing it because they believe in the mission of the university.

 

[two3zone]

It’s a big difference. The names on buildings aren’t promoting someone hocking NFTs or crypto to bros on Insta. They’re about a legacy.

But find me one building that he threw money at anyway. Or an endowed coaching position or scholarship.

That’s the difference too. The vast majority of people who donate big money to SU aren’t doing it for ROI. They’re doing it because they believe in the mission of the university.

But if it’s so selfless then decline to put your name and put some Syracuse Legends names on the building.

 

[Scooch]

But if it’s so selfless then decline to put your name and put some Syracuse Legends names on the building.

I mean, that’s literally been done.

But again, I didn’t say “selfless”. I said legacy. People like having their family name attached to a physical thing on campus.

Again though, those people aren’t attaching the name of the business they own, are they?

If Weitsman wants a “return” in the form of publicity, that’s his right. The issue is that return was the subject of very aggressive NCAA guidance recently.

He could dial that back. He declined. So here we are.

Lastly, it’s pretty telling that almost no one here who’s a meaningful donor to SU is defending Weitsman.

 

[two3zone]

I mean, that’s literally been done.

But again, I didn’t say “selfless”. I said legacy. People like having their family name attached to a physical thing on campus.

Again though, those people aren’t attaching the name of the business they own, are they?

If Weitsman wants a “return” in the form of publicity, that’s his right. The issue is that return was the subject of very aggressive NCAA guidance recently.

He could dial that back. He declined. So here we are.

Lastly, it’s pretty telling that almost no one here who’s a meaningful donor to SU is defending Weitsman.

And that’s probably a lot of ego and jealousy.

 

[Scooch]

And that’s probably a lot of ego and jealousy.

Or, and just hear me out, it’s because they know what’s been going on. And they don’t want SU to get in trouble because of his antics.

 

[two3zone]

Or, and just hear me out, it’s because they know what’s been going on. And they don’t want SU to get in trouble because of his antics.

Over the past few years and more if you add football in, I give zero benefit of the doubt to the university at this point. When I see positive actions being done I’ll change my opinion, as of right now there are so many questions that we don’t have answers to, sometime I’m sure we’ll get some answers but not all of them.

All I know is that this is the beginning, when the super conferences happen we could be standing on the outside looking in. There is so much going on in college sports and we seem to be not very proactive in any changes happening.

 

[Scooch]

Over the past few years and more if you add football in, I give zero benefit of the doubt to the university at this point. When I see positive actions being done I’ll change my opinion, as of right now there are so many questions that we don’t have answers to, sometime I’m sure we’ll get some answers but not all of them.

All I know is that this is the beginning, when the super conferences happen we could be standing on the outside looking in. There is so much going on in college sports and we seem to be not very proactive in any changes happening.

So not only is everyone employed by SU an idiot, but all of their donors are too? Except Saint Adam?

Got it.