Michigan partners with Learfield, Altius Sports to expand NIL operations
This seems like a good step in the right direction
February 14th, 2024 at 12:36 PM ^
While I'd like to believe this is the case, I'm gonna need to see us win some battles for 5-stars like Bryce Underwood first.
IF Michigan can get its NIL shit together there's no reason we can't land one or two 5-stars a cycle, consistently. I think any more than that is unreasonable for Michigan, but even one to two on a consistent basis will be HUGE for this program.
Until then, I'm firmly in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:55 PM ^
Underwood won’t do anything that makes him that much more valuable than Smith.
February 14th, 2024 at 3:05 PM ^
Who is Smith?
EDIT: Carter Smith may very well end up being good. My point was not that we have to have a guy like Bryce Underwood or bust, more that I'll believe Michigan has its NIL figured out when we can win a battle for a player for whom NIL is a major factor - with a guy like a Bryce Underwood, who is just a recent example and we likely lost him because of our shitty NIL package. When all else is equal for a recruit and NIL is the difference in landing him, I would not bet on Michigan.
MAYBE this new partnership will help things, and I hope it does, but I will believe it when I see us start landing one or two elite 5-stars every cycle with some consistency.
February 14th, 2024 at 3:52 PM ^
Carter Smith
The quarterback committed to Michigan for the class of 2025
February 14th, 2024 at 8:42 PM ^
Ah.. Everyone is always using one name or initials and it gets confusing sometimes. Especially with a generic name like Smith.
February 14th, 2024 at 11:59 AM ^
A lot of business-speak in there, but sounds good, I guess.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:01 PM ^
Are they going to help with pay for play? No? Ok, then it's just a marketing opportunity for the program. Which isn't bad in and of itself but it doesn't fix the real issue Michigan has in the NIL space.
February 14th, 2024 at 2:27 PM ^
Now the blog's rife with NIL experts. That I promise dk shit about the intricacies of the topic.
February 14th, 2024 at 2:44 PM ^
Warde specifically said today that they're going to work "within the rules" on NIL. Pay for play is against the rules... so what kind of expert do you need to be to just listen to what's being said?
February 14th, 2024 at 3:07 PM ^
Warde's stance that Michigan isn't doing pay4play is archaic and isn't even born in reality. All college athletes are now pay4play. Even 3 star recruits once they become good want to be compensated (as they should) if they aren't they are gone (rightfully so)
Warde needs to get off his horse and put something in place that compensates Michigan football players...(both recruits & current players)
February 14th, 2024 at 8:53 PM ^
Option 1: A benefactor donates to a collective which compensates a player for their Name, Image, or Likeness.
Option 2: A benefactor donates to the Michigan Athletic Department which cannot pay the players directly.
It's the same donor base.
So, the football influencers at Michigan need to see to it that more of Option 1 occurs. Everybody knows the desired end result. If that football influencer is someone in the athletic department (e.g. Warde), they need to effect Option 1 (with some indirection) to keep up with the arms race while staying within the laws and rules.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:03 PM ^
NIL for Michigan needs to be good enough to get 2-3 5Stars per class and retain talent. Feels like that’s attainable with proper leadership.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:29 PM ^
How much do you think it costs to attain 2-3 five stars, and continue to pay them through the end of their time at Michigan to fight off bidding wars every year?
Here's a list of teams with 8+ five stars on their roster in 2023.. Bama, OSU, UGA, TAMU, Texas. It's really hard to stack 5 star talent.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:58 PM ^
Didn't we just win a national championship without doing that?
February 14th, 2024 at 1:04 PM ^
With a lot of core players pre-NIL.
February 14th, 2024 at 3:44 PM ^
JJ, Will Johnson, and Donovan Edwards were all 5 star prospects. You need 5 stars. Not all of them hit, and you can occasionally find guys like Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham who are going to end up having 5 star production, but you need difference makers.
If you aren't going to pay for talent, you are putting yourself at a big disadvantage.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:08 PM ^
NIL version 10. Why can't the announcement ever be that we signed a player in our backyard like Bryce Underwood? That's when we know the NIL program is actually working.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:11 PM ^
I think this is huge. I put this list of other collective CEOs in a thread a few days ago. Wangler just didn't have the experience to compete. He graduated in 2017 and didn't have any work experience outside Michigan. While you have heavy hitters with decades of business experience at other schools. This allows cc to leverage their relationships and connections while having a real executive step in and bring in the necessary industry experience and knowledge.
1870 Society / The Foundation:
- Mark Stetson, MBA: founded a successful health-tech startup
- Aidin Aghamiri, MBA: his startup had $1B+ valuation when it sold
- Brain, MBA and Jeffrey Schottestein. Created a sportswear company. Over $1 billion in multi-family real estate development. benefactor of a program at osu.
- Texas One (Texas) : Patrick Smith - Attorney
- Texas Aggies United (Texas A&M): J.T. Higgins - National Championship Golf coach
- Spyre Sports Group (Tennessee): Hunter Baddour, MBA - 8 years as a chair w the nflpa. 12 years in marketing
- Division St. & Nike (Oregon): Rosemary St. Clair - former nike exec. Started with nike in 1983.
- Canes Connection (Miami ytm) : Zach Burr and Brian Goldmeier, MBA. Each has over 30 years in business leadership experience
- The Battle's End (Florida St.): Ingram Smith - their Brian
- House of Victory (USC): Spencer Harris - 10+ years in college athletics. USC’s Director of Player Personnel
- The Grove Collective (ole miss): David Nutt - Attorney, Walker Jones - sports agent (CAA) and Senior Director at Under Armour
The other benefit with Altius could be cleaning up the Valint (Agency) - CC (Collective) situation. I think having the collective and agency under the same umbrella may have been an issue at times.
February 14th, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
This seems like a big deal and a great move. Working on these deals through professionals gives it some stability and legality. It's not like some one-off promise from a booster that, in some high profile cases, haven't materialized like the players thought they would.
My only concern is where is Learfield's/Altius's cut coming from? Will they get a commission as a percentage of the money from the NIL deal (i.e., from the players) or will they get paid from somewhere else?
February 14th, 2024 at 12:52 PM ^
Sounds good, I think? The press release definitely scores high on the ratio of corporate buzzword bingo.
I guess I just don't know how to evaluate NIL relative to other programs when none of this stuff is public. We hear rumors and second hand accounts of what OSU is spending, and I'm 99% certain they're spending more than Michigan but until this stuff is out in the open and we can see that they're spending $1.2 million on RBs while we're only spending $600k for example it's just such an opaque and (probably) uneven playing field.
February 14th, 2024 at 1:02 PM ^
Is this another "Game Changer" in Michigan's NIL approach?
February 14th, 2024 at 1:06 PM ^
I think it actually is this time. You have legit professionals involved now. It’s like a little league or high school team going from a volunteer parent coach to an actual paid coach.
February 14th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^
Yep, throw it on the pile of game changing NIL changes.
February 14th, 2024 at 4:17 PM ^
In a media roundtable, Altius CEO Case Schwab made it clear their role is to enhance Michigan's existing structure.
"We’re going to be business partners with all the collectives that support Michigan," Schwab said.
That is pretty big. Champions Circle and Valiant management have had no competition. Opening it up to more collectives and agencies like CAA is the biggest move so far.
The tin foil hat on me makes me wonder if this goes back to the Stalions situation and all of the recent NIL ncaa investigations.
Stalions and Partridge were part of MPower. MPower was a NIL program run by both coaches and the collective.
FSU got punished for having a coach drive a recruit to meet with a collective rep.
Michigan had a situation where the collective, agency, and on-field coaches were all under one umbrella.
February 14th, 2024 at 9:24 PM ^
One of many that does nothing to improve NIL