Spider Collective NIL
- Thread starter SpiderTrap
- Start date
yeah, a lot has changed. I know it's not good for the fans. we want undying loyalty from players, just like we're loyal fans until we die. but that's a lot to expect from others.
Chris Rock had a great saying: "A man is only as faithful as his options". it's easy for players who aren't in demand to be loyal. it's tougher when there's big money involved.
Chris Rock had a great saying: "A man is only as faithful as his options". it's easy for players who aren't in demand to be loyal. it's tougher when there's big money involved.
And I still say there are too many here who think “There is no difference between UR and any P6 TEAM”, or “UR has NOTHING in common with ANY P6 team”
I think there must be a middle ground…
If NIL continues as is - it will only be a matter of time before some school tries to BUY a championship. We see this in professional sports all the time, where a team will go on a 1-2 year spending binge, get all the best players they can - win a title, and then dump them after to try and recoup some of their over-spending.
All it will take is a school with good group of donors willing to put up 5-10 million (or more) for the men's hoop team, and go spend it on 5-7 players. Each player getting a million or more for 1 year, and making a run. And make it a school either on the mid-major level or who has not had much success lately in basketball. I would think with 10 million dollars, you could buy a good mix of 2-3 top HS players, and then maybe 2-3transfers. But you have to have the money to throw away at this venture, and the school involved has to be involved as well. Knowing - these are not students, these are million dollar athletes coming to do one thing - win a title, not go to class and get an education. And if they do win the title - guess what, the school wins a lot of money. Aside from the increased admissions and marketing, the NCAA units alone are worth about 2 million dollars. Win the title and thats 12 million dollars in return, usually to the conference, so even if distributed evenly (depends on conference) - you get a nice chunk of money straight from NCAA.
All it will take is a school with good group of donors willing to put up 5-10 million (or more) for the men's hoop team, and go spend it on 5-7 players. Each player getting a million or more for 1 year, and making a run. And make it a school either on the mid-major level or who has not had much success lately in basketball. I would think with 10 million dollars, you could buy a good mix of 2-3 top HS players, and then maybe 2-3transfers. But you have to have the money to throw away at this venture, and the school involved has to be involved as well. Knowing - these are not students, these are million dollar athletes coming to do one thing - win a title, not go to class and get an education. And if they do win the title - guess what, the school wins a lot of money. Aside from the increased admissions and marketing, the NCAA units alone are worth about 2 million dollars. Win the title and thats 12 million dollars in return, usually to the conference, so even if distributed evenly (depends on conference) - you get a nice chunk of money straight from NCAA.
Boosters have been trying to buy championships since forever. Now it is legal, which I think benefits the players and allows more players an opportunity for compensation.
Yes - but much more difficult to do it when it was illegal, cause you could probably pay 1 kid but the more you pay, the more you fear one of them talks. Now - its totally legal. Who cares if they talk and or what they say. Makes it much easier, and gives a smaller school or lesser known school - the opportunity to do it as well. Just have to get the money in place and the school on board.
Yep, this is what I suggested doing earlier in this thread or another one. We have the alumni resources to do something like it, I would think. Just a question of whether enough of them want to spend their money in that way.
Yeah, situations like this will continue to unfold into an arms race as others have put it. And UR won't play the game at a high enough level to truly be successful. Probably shouldn't because it's a stupid race to participate, but it effectively ends our chances at a big run. We will do enough to field a team and "compete", but that's it. Going forward as this progresses, the best we can hope for will be a duplicate of this past season. As I've stated before, we will land about where we generally have historically but with very limited upside. And then eventually Div 1 will be officially divided and we'll end up in the bottom half competing for top of the 2nd half landing around 128th place or something. I can't wrap myself around competing for a meaningless championship.
Many of you can see this foreshadowing, which is why it amazes me you support this new system.
Proposal on the verge of approval will allow schools to "assist" with connecting athletes to NIL opportunities. Says rules against schools paying NIL directly remain in place, but again, we'll see what happens when VA's law goes into effect.
Also, transfers are now a free-for-all with immediate eligibility no matter how many times you transfer, as long as you meet academic requirements for good standing and progress-toward-degree.
Also, transfers are now a free-for-all with immediate eligibility no matter how many times you transfer, as long as you meet academic requirements for good standing and progress-toward-degree.
There is no guarantee. But I think if you ask any coach in the country - do you like your chances with 2 top 30 HS recruits and 3-4 of the top 30 available transfers in the portal - they would say YES.
Now - could a team possibly with lesser recruits and less portal players turn out to be better - of course. This is where upsets and underdogs, and mid-majors come into play. But more times than not - your first option is going to win more and succeed more.
On a lower level - would you rather have a the best recruiting class in the A10 each year? Or would you rather have a team of unknown recruits, who in time - may turn out to be very good players? Either one can win for you - but I rather take the top recruiting class cause over time - that is going to have more success on a routine basis. Its not guaranteed. But the probability is better.
Honestly, for me a "bought" championship would never feel anywhere close to the same. The joy of college sports is the pride in the school. It doesn't mean much to hire a bunch of non-loyal, non-students to win a championship.
You're all over the place...writing letters to the president and trustees telling them to pay up to compete but now buying a championship doesn't feel right. Which is it?
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
If we backed up the Brinks truck and bought a national title winning team I would feel pretty damn good
anyone here feel like we're above Dayton in the basketball world?
they can't keep their players. did you guys see Brea's list? 11 ppg ... granted on great shooting percentages. want to guess how much NIL it would take to keep him with that list?
they can't keep their players. did you guys see Brea's list? 11 ppg ... granted on great shooting percentages. want to guess how much NIL it would take to keep him with that list?
I don't harbor any illusions about outspending big P5 schools but I'd like to think we could be leading the way in the A10, at least.
Good point. This has definitely made me go mad. I guess what I'm saying is I absolutely hate this new era and winning this way will not be nearly as satisfying, but it's all we have now. So either play the new system and throw money at it or get out all together.
I'm trying to get a sense of our commitment level, and from what I hear, we will do just enough to stay level and match other schools at a level towards the upper middle of the competition as we always have. That level now, though, won't yield as good of results. There's a lower ceiling now which caps at or around the conference championship level as a goal with very little chance at higher achievements. And that's for now; eventually it will likely be worse when Div 1 splits.
I'm evaluating, asking questions, testing the waters, and deciding if it's worth my energy. If the above holds true, it isn't. I'm holding out a tiny bit of hope because this is a chance to upscale and play with the bigger boys. It wouldn't be as satisfying, though, since it's about money rather than pride and loyalty. I don't think we'll take the opportunity anyway.
Tyler level or moreanyone here feel like we're above Dayton in the basketball world?
they can't keep their players. did you guys see Brea's list? 11 ppg ... granted on great shooting percentages. want to guess how much NIL it would take to keep him with that list?
There are examples of teams with less than stellar players who, after playing together for 4/5 years, go on successful runs in tournaments. There is something to be said about experience, playing in the same system for years, and gelling as a team. That's our category, our opportunities to succeed.
Agreed that this is a true “team” and what UR hopes to be able to achieve in my opinion. The spend a bunch of money on a group of all stars is not going to work at UR with the current coaching, nor is it something that the administration is going to support.
Of course, the team development plan requires having a base to start with and that definitely isn’t the case for 2024-2025.
(Note - “same system for years” definitely doesn’t mean all 4 year players. It means 2-3 years for the core players to me).
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Good luck building a team of four-year guys in this day and age ever again...
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
It is amazing how many tangents some of you have taken this subject with little knowledge and often in a negative direction.
The U of R NIL collective is one of the top in our conference and continually growing. We have done a terrific job of getting very high quality players in the portal the last 2 years and just got a commitment from a potential future all-conference center. We are speaking to a number of other high quality recruits with many visiting over the next few weeks. I am confident we will add very strong talent, in addition to the 2 great freshman coming in next year.
Instead of complaining that the endowment fund , Mooney or large donors should give, why don't you give? Every dollar is helpful and we need to expand the base.
The U of R NIL collective is one of the top in our conference and continually growing. We have done a terrific job of getting very high quality players in the portal the last 2 years and just got a commitment from a potential future all-conference center. We are speaking to a number of other high quality recruits with many visiting over the next few weeks. I am confident we will add very strong talent, in addition to the 2 great freshman coming in next year.
Instead of complaining that the endowment fund , Mooney or large donors should give, why don't you give? Every dollar is helpful and we need to expand the base.
I’m just glad we have more tradition than the first three…anyone here feel like we're above Dayton in the basketball world?
they can't keep their players. did you guys see Brea's list? 11 ppg ... granted on great shooting percentages. want to guess how much NIL it would take to keep him with that list?
I totally missed this opportunity. Glad I went back and saw it. I've decided to win the lottery. How much should I win? 500M should work. I'll keep 5M for myself and live off the interest forever and donate the rest to the Spider Collective!
we've done very well in the NIL era so far. we've retained all of our top talent except 2 guys that had graduated. not many schools can say that. credit goes to Mooney, to the university itself, and to the NIL team. we've also attracted some very strong transfers, and you can't do that these days without a strong NIL.
Very well would be making the NCAA tournament. That should ALWAYS be the goal. Until CM proves he can do that more than 1 time in 12 seasons, I wouldn't describe anything about the on-court performance of the program as very well. That said, I do think CM has brought in better players in theblast couple of years. Unfortunately it hasn't led to NCAA appearances.
I'm not saying I hate that we aren't going to see a bunch of four-year guys anymore -- I actually like the portal for us. I just meant that for a variety of reasons, I am not expecting us ever to have a situation like we did with the Gilly-Golden team.
I wasn't talking about results. I'm talking about our ability to retain and attract talent to the roster in the NIL era. Imagine being a SLU or URI fan.
this year we lost Dji (graduated) and TSmith
last year we lost Burton (graduated), Dread, Nelson ... (edit) and Randolph
this year alone, A10 players in the portal:
Davidson: 6
Dayton: 4
Duquesne: 2
Fordham: 3
GMU: 7
GW: 2
LaSalle: 7
LIC: 2
UMass: 7
URI: 9
St Joes: 4
SLU: 10
SBU: 5
VCU: 2
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I agree we have done very well in portal recruiting.
Only comments to add would be don’t forget Randolph. And for SLU some of the 10 may be because of the coaching change.
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Youngkin today signed the NIL bill, so I guess Virginia schools now have a potential advantage over schools in other states, at least in some ways. Let's make the most of it when it takes effect July 1!
I really appreciate that the UR Collective NIL is near the top in the conference. Do you think that is sustainable against schools in our conference with much bigger student populations?
And more importantly can we fund the NIL at a level above the A10? We have an advantage it appears in family culture and do I dare say loyalty department AS LONG AS our NIL dollars are close to offers from bigger schools from other conferences. If we can't compete dollar for dollar against those schools, we will eventually see our loyalty take a bigger hit. If we can't match, we will find ourselves in the all too familiar "competing" level for A10 championships and nothing more. We need to have visions and stated goals of deep runs in the NCAAs, not just A10 championship level goals.
????? There are 15 teams in the A-10.....so not only should we fund NIL above all of these, but we should compete dollar to dollar with the big schools??? And, even if this unrealistic take came true, why would guys who are offered by Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, etc. play in the A-10?
A bunch of 4 and 5 stars are hanging out at their AAU tourney. " Where are you guys going?". "Kansas". "Duke".. "Looking like Kentucky for me:...."UCONN or UNC for me....what about you?". "I'm going to Richmond".
A bunch of 4 and 5 stars are hanging out at their AAU tourney. " Where are you guys going?". "Kansas". "Duke".. "Looking like Kentucky for me:...."UCONN or UNC for me....what about you?". "I'm going to Richmond".
How do we know we have one of the top collectives in the A10? How is that being measured and can you share the data? And then how is that money being spent?
