The school cannot be involved with brokering a deal at all and Syracuse is taking a very conservative approach to this requirement. No one affiliated with the program at all is even at liberty to discuss NIL opportunities, so input from Dino or any of the coaches is out. Also, others have suggested financial need as a criterion and beyond anecdotal evidence I don’t think that is feasible.
The portal gives us the opportunity to reach out to any registered player. It looks like Syracuse has bulk loaded all current and recent players - we can work with Taj Harris if we want! Some players have been active by loading profiles and pictures, others obviously haven’t touched it. My thought is to filter on all redshirt sophomore class and younger athletes that are unlikely to score major NIL deals, reach out with our offer, then select from those who respond. The Fine Mess Executive Committee will convene to finalize approach and selection process, then meet again in July to make the ultimate selection. We may, at that point, canvass those who have made good on their pledge with a payment, and ask for input on a short list of candidates, or we may just go ahead and select based on these criteria. Really fluid at the moment, but I will continue to update here.
