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Message: [QUOTE="Consigliere, post: 4788542, member: 559"] First, Dino was responding to a direct question about depth. While I don’t necessarily agree with his tone or timing, the message is valid and not Syracuse specific. And it’s not just Duce and Linton who were poached, but players like Courtney Jackson and Anthony Queeley and some of the developmental offensive linemen who were depth pieces that could contribute a bit in a pinch. This thread has certainly shown that Syracuse needs to make an effort to educate the ignorant masses. The average fan has no idea how NIL works, how to differentiate between the different channels available, what role the Athletic Department can take in supporting collectives and how an individual fan can get involved and make a difference, one player at a time. There was a town hall held for local small businesses very early in the NIL era that the AD and all major sports coaches attended that invited local businesses to come and learn about NIL. At that point, most couldn’t spell NIL let alone understand it and it was lightly attended. There were additional sessions that were supposed to be scheduled and never were. SU was among the first to launch INFLCR as part of their ACCELERATE platform but did little to publicize it until recently. While every student athlete is given overview training on NIL generally and SU’s programs specifically, few take advantage of deeper dives and support systems in place including a curriculum offered through Falk. More than half of the 26 student athletes that we have worked with as a part of our initiative fail to respond to initial transaction offers and have to be prompted via social media or other channels to sign on and review. When I talk to them they explain that they didn’t think anyone would be interested in offering a deal to someone of their stature. And this includes football and men’s basketball players, some starters. So my takeaways are that NIL is one piece of the holistic student athlete experience, more important to the upper crust talent, but facilities, amenities, and yes, educational opportunities matter as well. When Dino says that depth is impacted by the portal and NIL, it’s the nature of the beast now that top line players may have opportunities to move on to factories, but second line players at those factories have opportunities to move into programs where they can ascend to top line. Short of violating one of the few rules around use of NIL in the recruiting, increased transparency can show that a culture of support is in place where players beyond the level of QB1 can expect to have opportunities. There is a glaring need to educate the fan base, both businesses and individuals, on the process, channels to engage and impact of involvement. It’s not just Other People’s Money that is needed to build that culture of support. It’s every one of us. It’s an offhand joke in a text chain that can escalate into a crowd sourced venture that has raised over $35k in 17 months and has supported 26 student athletes across 6 sports ranging from $250 to an ROTC member walkon to $10,000 to an at the time under the radar redshirt freshman Offensive Lineman. And, by the way, that player regularly hosts recruits and his work with us is always a high point of their discussions. If everyone complaining that SU doesn’t have a competitive NIL program ponied up and became part of our SyraCRUZ program, that 26 player/$35k program could grow exponentially. It’s up to all of us. [/QUOTE]

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