Auburn’s NIL Future

[IronMan70 3,277]

37 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

Okay give me the specifics of "putting together a solid NIL program" besides being totally dependent on outside cash from private businesses? 

It's not up to Auburn whether or not Milo's wants to sponsor Bo Nix. Idk what you guys are even talking about other than how to use other people's money. 

Auburn can't use their own money in the NIL so it IS about other people's money. The point was about using intermediaries to accomplish this. A private entity is set up that provides the funds to the players for xyz services. The entity can consist of 100, 250, 500 private contributors or more and the administrative part of it can be done in several ways.

A lot of people would be willing to contribute to something like that including me. This should already be being done but I haven't heard about it. That's just ONE way of funding the NIL and keeping it funded. Some schools like Texas, as was mentioned in the thread, already have the funds available. Heck I think they even own oil wells. Other schools have to get creative to fund this. 

[SRBautigerfan 1,040]

Wait, wait… wait.  You mean “the good ole boys” are cool again?  I mean the same ones that people complained about meddling in coaching and coaching searches etc., that is who you’re talking about “investing” large sums of money into the football program. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

3 hours ago, AUght2win said:

Okay give me the specifics of "putting together a solid NIL program" besides being totally dependent on outside cash from private businesses? 

It's not up to Auburn whether or not Milo's wants to sponsor Bo Nix. Idk what you guys are even talking about other than how to use other people's money. 

Sp you're mad Auburn fans would like their ultra wealthy alumni to do the same thing other schools are doing bc we as posters here aren't worth 900mm like Yellawood??

FWIW, there there was some Auburn Recruiting LLC that paid players, I bet a lot more ppl besides Yellawood would contribute. s***, I'd throw a few hundred in there to buy an autograph from Tank so he stays a year.

Essentially a go fund me for players 

Edited December 2, 2021 by W.E.D

[Hank2020 3,232]

2 hours ago, W.E.D said:

Sp you're mad Auburn fans would like their ultra wealthy alumni to do the same thing other schools are doing bc we as posters here aren't worth 900mm like Yellawood??

FWIW, there there was some Auburn Recruiting LLC that paid players, I bet a lot more ppl besides Yellawood would contribute. s***, I'd throw a few hundred in there to buy an autograph from Tank so he stays a year.

Essentially a go fund me for players 

I think NIl deals should be made to pay out only after their senior year (I know that’s not possible, just starting another argument).

[W.E.D 11,070]

5 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

I think NIl deals should be made to pay out only after their senior year (I know that’s not possible, just starting another argument).

Why?  What job are you going to work that holds your money for 4 years?

This is a billion dollar industry.  People really need to stop looking at these kids as near free labor and being able to abuse them for entertainment and profit

[Hank2020 3,232]

3 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Why?  What job are you going to work that holds your money for 4 years?

This is a billion dollar industry.  People really need to stop looking at these kids as near free labor and being able to abuse them for entertainment and profit

Many jobs have bonuses that are meant to keep the person obliged for a set amount of time (happens in coaching all the time).

[W.E.D 11,070]

3 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

Many jobs have bonuses that are meant to keep the person obliged for a set amount of time (happens in coaching all the time).

lmao these aren't stock options with a vesting period.  No coaching bonus gets paid out 4-5 years later

That's a terrible example.  Absurd to hold money from kids who are the product while everyone else gets rich.

Edited December 2, 2021 by W.E.D

[Hank2020 3,232]

Just now, W.E.D said:

lmao these aren't stock options with a vesting period.  No coaching bonus gets paid out 4-5 years later

That's a terrible example

Sure they do (coaching bonuses). I’ve heard of coaching bonuses that are a set amount each year that they only get if they are still with the original employer. In the oil business, they are called retaining bonuses. They are meant to keep prized employees from jumping to a new employee. Happens all the time especially in an active hiring environment.

[woodford 3,688]

Pretty ironic that Auburn is having trouble paying players

[woodford 3,688]

Bowl sponsors should be paying out bonuses to teams who win the bowls. Then we’ll see teams show up. 

[Hank2020 3,232]

1 minute ago, woodford said:

Bowl sponsors should be paying out bonuses to teams who win the bowls. Then we’ll see teams show up. 

Should be paying out NIL deals to the players that show up and play, not the schools.

[woodford 3,688]

2 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

Should be paying out NIL deals to the players that show up and play, not the schools.

Teams means players, not school. Should’ve been more clear. 

[Hank2020 3,232]

Just now, woodford said:

Teams means players, not school. Should’ve been more clear. 

Gotcha

[TigerHorn 1,357]

8 hours ago, AUreo said:

We should heavily invest in Basketball with NIL now, future NBA superstars might stick around longer in NCAA (lots of growth potential, especially with urban & global markets since Basketball is generally popular internationally…Australia, China, Europe, South America). There is no real growth potential in Football (demographics are changing). We should also recruit more internationally in Basketball & Olympic sports (France, GB, Australia, etc). Globally, NBA is not as popular as it used to be and NCAA teams could increase market shares in the future. I read that Bruce requested more resources for facility upgrades - but it was turned down(?). Basketball is the future, that’s why Bama is now investing so heavily in Basketball + they cannot grow in FB anymore. Suni’s IG (1.5M) has more followers than Alabama Crimson Tide FB IG (1M).

Football is still king but College Basketball has more longterm growth potential as mentioned (urban & global markets + significant demographic changes nationwide).

Olympic sports is also a good PR machine in some cases and can reach markets that FB cannot reach (esp. women, global markets, etc). Suni is a global brand and has many Int. followers. UGA will soon sign the biggest swim talent in the world who is from South Africa (next Michael Phelps). This should be approached as a complementary strategy. (AU Gymnastics season tickets sold out faster than AU Basketball season tickets this year. ABC will broadcast regular season meets for the first time ever).

We need to get into position for the next phase in NCAA’s evolution (next 10-15 yrs): 

Transfer portal -> NIL —> Full Streaming —>Global markets (Basketball)

When College teams will start negotiating individual streaming deals with Amazon, Apple, YT & co, we might not even need SEC $ anymore and should consider an ACC move (Basketball & Duke, UNC, and Notre Dame could be more attractive).

There's a lot of good vision in this. Unfortunately, the "We're just little ol' Auburn and we don't do things outside the box" mentality will likely prevent it from happening. This all begins with a new university President who has a vision that fits with Auburn values, and he/she will then need to rally the alumni and donors. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

17 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

Sure they do (coaching bonuses). I’ve heard of coaching bonuses that are a set amount each year that they only get if they are still with the original employer. In the oil business, they are called retaining bonuses. They are meant to keep prized employees from jumping to a new employee. Happens all the time especially in an active hiring environment.

Right, they get a bonus at year and or for performance.  not coaches are getting a bonus at year 4 or 5 for being there for the last 5 years.  That's absurd.

[Hank2020 3,232]

2 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Right, they get a bonus at year and or for performance.  not coaches are getting a bonus at year 4 or 5 for being there for the last 5 years.  That's absurd.

In my experience line roles retainment bonuses ARE usually paid out annually. Management retainment bonuses that I am familiar with were paid out only after at least a 3 year period. They were indeed longer to get the multiple year effect. I am confident I have heard of coaches getting paid out a sum (at the end of a contract) if they stayed. These weren’t paid out annually. I was really being facetious with applying this logic to a player though, which is why I added the comment of starting an argument. Enough said on my part. Probably getting boring for the other posters.

[TigerHorn 1,357]

18 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

Sure they do (coaching bonuses). I’ve heard of coaching bonuses that are a set amount each year that they only get if they are still with the original employer. In the oil business, they are called retaining bonuses. They are meant to keep prized employees from jumping to a new employee. Happens all the time especially in an active hiring environment.

Hank is right. Let me 'splain to you folks how a guy like Tim Cook gets paid. I'll use rounded off fictional numbers just to make things easy:

BigCo Exec has a comp package that the press breathlessly reports as "$50M last year". In reality its:

- $5M base salary

- $10M "Performance cash" that is paid out annually over the course of the next 3-5 years depending on a complex financial formula that measures performance of the company and it's stock

- $20M in "Restricted Stock Units" (RSU's) that vest in tranches over 3-5 years. These can only be sold legally to the public markets if the sales are filed for an planned out months in advance when the RSU holdings are "material" to the company share price, which Cook's would be because the SEC (Federal, not football) filing that he plans to sell would trigger a selloff in AAPL

- $15M in other performance bonuses, again paid out over a 3-5 year time period, that are set by the Board and can be anything from retention to dividend payouts. 

- This all creates what is called a "bow wave" by compensation people that ties the executive to the company, and remember, you get a new one every year, so these are overlapping bow waves. Some performance goals may be opposed to prior performance goals just to make things interesting. 

- This also incentivizes the company to not be so quick on replacing them because you're still paying out that bow wave 3-5 years after they leave. 

Tim Cook is richer than any of us, but he does not have the financial flexibility of a Michael Dell, Jimmy Rayne, or any of the other people who built companies from scratch. Furthermore, you keep talking about Tim, but you need to realize Tim's socio-political leanings are far away from Auburn. Any major donation from him wouldn't just have strings attached, they would be ropes and chains. Some of you would celebrate that. Most AU alums would not. 

WRT to players and NIL, I think universities should look to these comp models as examples. These kids need some incentive to stay in one place long enough to get an education. Remember that NIL or not, MOST OF THEM WILL NEVER PLAY A SNAP IN THE NFL. If NIL creates a system that just burns through players in exchange for a few years of some nominal payday with no degree at the end, then how is NIL any better than the system we had before for the player or the university? It's not. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

29 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

Hank is right. Let me 'splain to you folks how a guy like Tim Cook gets paid. I'll use rounded off fictional numbers just to make things easy:

BigCo Exec has a comp package that the press breathlessly reports as "$50M last year". In reality its:

- $5M base salary

- $10M "Performance cash" that is paid out annually over the course of the next 3-5 years depending on a complex financial formula that measures performance of the company and it's stock

- $20M in "Restricted Stock Units" (RSU's) that vest in tranches over 3-5 years. These can only be sold legally to the public markets if the sales are filed for an planned out months in advance when the RSU holdings are "material" to the company share price, which Cook's would be because the SEC (Federal, not football) filing that he plans to sell would trigger a selloff in AAPL

- $15M in other performance bonuses, again paid out over a 3-5 year time period, that are set by the Board and can be anything from retention to dividend payouts. 

- This all creates what is called a "bow wave" by compensation people that ties the executive to the company, and remember, you get a new one every year, so these are overlapping bow waves. Some performance goals may be opposed to prior performance goals just to make things interesting. 

- This also incentivizes the company to not be so quick on replacing them because you're still paying out that bow wave 3-5 years after they leave. 

Tim Cook is richer than any of us, but he does not have the financial flexibility of a Michael Dell, Jimmy Rayne, or any of the other people who built companies from scratch. Furthermore, you keep talking about Tim, but you need to realize Tim's socio-political leanings are far away from Auburn. Any major donation from him wouldn't just have strings attached, they would be ropes and chains. Some of you would celebrate that. Most AU alums would not. 

WRT to players and NIL, I think universities should look to these comp models as examples. These kids need some incentive to stay in one place long enough to get an education. Remember that NIL or not, MOST OF THEM WILL NEVER PLAY A SNAP IN THE NFL. If NIL creates a system that just burns through players in exchange for a few years of some nominal payday with no degree at the end, then how is NIL any better than the system we had before for the player or the university? It's not. 

NIL isn't stock bonuses or performance bonuses.  The players aren't the executives or the coaches.

It's literally their base pay.  Holding their earnings until year 5 is asinine.

I have shares in my current company.  It vests over years as incentive for me to help grow the company, make it more valuable, and it keeps me around.  There is absolutely nothing applicable between college players who will 100% leave in 3-4 years and someone at a company helping grow it.

Edited December 2, 2021 by W.E.D

[TigerHorn 1,357]

8 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

NIL isn't stock bonuses or performance bonuses.

It's literally their base pay.  Holding their earnings until year 5 is asinine 

I never said anything about holding a player's earnings to year 5. But, if you want asinine, paying Joe Stud $100k to come for year 1, he gets injured, lazy, isn't a fit for the program, or just was overrated, then he transfers for year two, gets maybe $75k at the new school, maybe a lot less, then year three he's buried on the depth chart and down to $50k, or worse yet cut. Year 4 he probably gets cut anyway. Classes didn't all transfer. Kid has no degree and likely a broken down body. Used up by "the system" he helped create for maybe $200k? That's asinine. 

There needs to be an incentive baked in somewhere that encourages both the kid and the university to keep working towards a meaningful degree. Universities are there for the public good, and funded by taxpayers for that reason. Turning out kids with degrees so that they can become contributing members of society has to be their core mission. They do not exist for entertainment of the masses. A compensation "bow wave" incentivizes both the university and the player for the greater good of all, if done right. 

 

[W.E.D 11,070]

7 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

I never said anything about holding a player's earnings to year 5.

That's been the whole premise of the discussion.

7 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

But, if you want asinine, paying Joe Stud $100k to come for year 1, he gets injured, lazy, isn't a fit for the program, or just was overrated, then he transfers for year two, gets maybe $75k at the new school, maybe a lot less, then year three he's buried on the depth chart and down to $50k, or worse yet cut. Year 4 he probably gets cut anyway. Classes didn't all transfer. Kid has no degree and likely a broken down body. Used up by "the system" he helped create for maybe $200k? That's asinine.

That's life.  Kid got paid and didn't work out.  The better solution is that exact thing happens to a lot of kids, they wash out after 4 years, don't have a degree and have $0 money.

They're better off having been paid.

7 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

Universities are there for the public good, and funded by taxpayers for that reason.  Turning out kids with degrees so that they can become contributing members of society has to be their core mission. They do not exist for entertainment of the masses. A compensation "bow wave" incentivizes both the university and the player for the greater good of all, if done right. 

The AD isn't funded by tax payers.  They are their own entity will 100s of millions of dollars of revenue.  Let's not conflate AD's and universities.  There is a reason they have their own budget.  They have a completely separate mission

Edited December 2, 2021 by W.E.D

[TigerHorn 1,357]

17 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

That's been the whole premise of the discussion.

That's life.  Kid got paid and didn't work out.  The better solution is that exact thing happens to a lot of kids, they wash out after 4 years, don't have a degree and have $0 money.

They're better off having been paid.

The AD isn't funded by tax payers.  They are their own entity will 100s of millions of dollars of revenue.  Let's not conflate AD's and universities.  There is a reason they have their own budget.  They have a completely separate mission

Wrong. Alan Green is a university employee. So are the coaches, and they all get a base salary from the university. The Athletic Department most certainly does derive a portion of its funding from the university and the public coffers. If that were not the case, then the AD would be paying rent on the land that JHS and the Arena sit on at minimum, if not on the facilities themselves. In-kind contributions are still money. Ask the IRS about that. Start charging the AD for those in-kind contributions, and that "profit" turns into a loss right now. 

Yes, the AD brings in a lot of revenue, but without the university and its underlying funding, NONE of the AD exists. Something like only 25 of the 120 D-1 AD's turn a "profit", and it's not the same 25 every year. NONE of the non-P5 schools reported a profit. Where do you think those losses are made up from?

WRT to the kids, most who have come through AU left with degrees, or got them via the follow-on programs that AU runs. In the new normal, where is there any incentive to keep a kid who's doing everything right, but just not making it on the field? If you create a bow wave, kid gets a degree AND doesn't get to blow all of his $ while in school. They get out with a shot at life and a nest egg that most students would kill for. The NIL with no bow wave combined with the Portal is a path to making most student athletes the next "Best That Never Was". I think that dude is a truck driver now. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by TigerHorn

[McLoofus 35,182]

30 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

The NIL with no bow wave combined with the Portal is a path to making most student athletes the next "Best That Never Was".

And that is different from what has been going on for decades how, exactly? Just that it actually benefits some kids now?

[W.E.D 11,070]

36 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

If you create a bow wave, kid gets a degree AND doesn't get to blow all of his $ while in school. They get out with a shot at life and a nest egg that most students would kill for.

I think it's pretty funny that in a thread where ppl are getting mad at others for demanding how our rich alumni spend their money are also demanding to control how student athletes spend their money...or at a minimum restrict when they can access it.

[ToomersRevenge 284]

Auburn I’m this discussion clearly means Auburn the school, boosters, fans, businesses, etc that could in any way impact NIL.

If you think other schools aren’t back door involved then idk what to tell you guys. 

[AUApostle 7,663]

I don’t understand why AU doesn’t have an announcement within a week showing a similar commitment as any other big school.  Hopefully we have bright and aggressive staff devoted towards putting deals together and getting buy-in from major donors.  If I’m a recruit, this is a major factor.

 

This is the new arms race and probably more important than facilities.

Edited December 2, 2021 by AUDevil