Honestly don't want to get dragged into this horribly derailed thread, but perhaps everyone who posted here what a terrible job SU is doing in supporting NIL initiatives would be willing to share how much they have contributed to NIL initiatives. I'll hang up and listen.
My take is that NIL is not something universities are doing. No university is opening up their endowment to pay athletes to come to their school. No school is allocating money from the general fund to get recruits to commit to them.
This is not legal and even schools like Miami and Texas A&M are not doing this.
Many schools are paying their players now for academic performance. This is now legal. Syracuse is do this as well. They are doing all they can given the rules the NCAA has in place.
If you have a beef with NIL and how it is affecting recruiting for the athletic Syracuse programs, it should be with the fan base. This is where NIL money comes from. Either directly out of fan's pockets or by fan's working with corporate sponsors and getting them to contribute to the collectives they have set up.
Some of you seem to think the athletic department should be giving BMWs to recruits and giving out $50K contracts to everyone on the football team to make the football program more attractive.
Again, this is illegal. If other athletic programs are doing it, it is against the NCAA rules. I don't know of any school who has even been accused of this. It is all done by boosters.
SUAD has set up a web site anyone can register on where you can see all the athletes on current SU teams that are interested in NIL opportunities. There are search functions to if you want to find a football player from your old HS, or a tennis player who likes pizza, or whatever, you can do it. There are mechanisms build into the site to contact athletes, propose deals and for the athletes to accept them. I think it handles payments too. One stop shopping and the best thing about it is that the boosters and the athletes are guided through the process and everything that happens is tracked. So when it comes tax time, the athletes have one place that holds all the money they have earned and how much tax they owe.
The site ensures NCAA regulations are met and the athletes do not break any laws. It is NIL for Idiots and right now, I have great confidence saying everyone dealing with NIL assuredly needs help understanding how it works.
Some schools have simply posted a list of athletes and their social media contact info. IMHO, that is not a good way to handle NIL and it will inevitably drive a lot of kooks to contact athletes and waste their time. Athletes will not track their earnings well and have big issues when they have to settle up with the IRS on tax day.
If SU athletes are not getting their 'fair share' of NIL money, it is not SUAD's fault. It is my fault. And your fault. And every other fan of SU athletics fault.
We are the ones we are going to make or break NIL for the SU athletes.
Consigliere has a good point. If you are not happy, get on the web site, get vetted by SUAD, find an athlete, make a proposal to give them some money and then write a check.
More than any other time in the history of college athletics, it is 'put up shut up' time. I hope a lot of the great passionate SU fans out there look to help SU sports and help some of the great athletes we have the pleasure of watching and rooting for.
