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Boots, Ball State, and Bargaining

Boots, Ball State, and Bargaining

Hey there,

Welcome back. What a weekend in college sports. Big names went down swinging (I’m looking at you, USC), while others barely squeaked by (Washington, Texas, and OU). But what may be even more interesting is what’s been happening off the field in the NIL world. Ready to catch up on the weekend’s biggest NIL news? Just keep scrolling.

Oh, but we’ve got a surprise for you, too. There’s a new section in today’s edition: Video of the week. This will be your chance to catch up on the most important video from last week — that could be an NIL-tilting play, podcast conversation, or even some of our original content. We want to throw this at you every Tuesday — Let us know how you like it!

Speaking of, we’d love to hear feedback on anything and everything about our newsletter. Hit reply or send us an email at [email protected].

— Cole, Justin and Collin

Banking on Bargaining

One of the most respected athletic directors in the country just suggested a radical solution to the current era of NIL madness. After the Senate hearing on NIL last week, Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick insisted that in order to solve the issues currently plaguing college sports, players need to be able to collectively bargain.

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick, in written testimony, offers an alternative to employment by suggesting Congress pass legislation to permit athletes to negotiate with conferences over “terms” of participation. Interesting.
He also describes college athletics as being “in crisis.”
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger)
12:07 PM • Oct 17, 2023

“It’s a fairly radical notion, but if we could find a way to reach binding agreements with our student-athletes, most of this goes away,” he explained, “It would require a new mechanism that would recognize the rights of student-athletes to negotiate for the terms and conditions of their participation as athletes without being employees.”

The proposal isn’t without challenges, which the former attorney recognizes. “Are they bargaining with the NCAA or the conference? It can’t be school by school. You need some competitive equity. You couldn’t have one group of student-athletes negotiate for a 10-game season and another a 12-game season.” (More)

Transfer Portal Powerhouse

Ever since the Cavinder twins started posting on social media, Haley Cavinder has built one of the most powerful brands in college basketball. She and her sister mastered the art of NIL early on, accruing over $2M cash since their college careers started. They were also at the center of the NCAA’s first NIL violation ruling at Miami. You can’t tell the story of NIL without Haley Cavinder.

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Well, she’s back for more. One half of the sisterhood sensation is entering the transfer portal to play college basketball for another season, with Miami still looming as a return possibility.

On the business side of things, the sisters are still “in a partnership together,” their agent Jeff Hoffman clarified, “Haley can present opportunities and then on the truly professional entrepreneurial side, Hannah could do some things that Haley couldn’t do.” (More)

Is NIL Good for Mental Health?

You may think it’s ridiculous to say that NIL helps athletes with their mental health, but it sure seems that way to Azalea Prince of Jessup University. The NAIA runner talked about how NIL helped her and other student athletes feel better on a recent podcast appearance.

“The whole NIL deal opened up a big avenue for student athlete mental health,” she said, citing the downward mental health spiral many athletes felt during Covid, “It gave a voice to people, and made you feel a lot more important.”

According to Prince, NIL makes people feel special when they get a partnership. Getting an NIL deal doesn’t just get an athlete money – it also helps with self-esteem, because the company is saying that they think you’re important enough to spend resources on. (More)

Sione Vaki snatches ankles

Click the link below to watch the Utah star’s game-changing play that likely earned him thousands of dollars in NIL value.

Pac-12 Player Spotlight:
Utah RB/ DB Sione Vaki totaled 217 yards on 14 touches against USC while contributing 2 tackles
— WestCoastCFB (@WestCoastCFB)
7:01 PM • Oct 22, 2023

CBB’s Recruiting Dillema

The NBA has traditionally drafted talent from one source: college basketball. As the game evolves, though, so do the opportunities. Enter Overtime Elite (OTE), a basketball league set up to send talent to the NBA. They’ve got generous salaries, player development opportunities, and a direct pipeline to tons of NBA front offices.

Here’s why that matters for NIL. If college basketball wants to stay competitive in recruiting, they’re going to need to find ways to combat other leagues like OTE attracting top talent. Last draft, only one of the top five picks came from college basketball – meanwhile, two OTE players were picked in the top five. These trends aren’t going to change unless college basketball finds a more convincing financial pitch. (More)

Next Level NIL

Miami University of Ohio just announced a tool that’s going to connect college athletes with NIL resources seamlessly. It’s Icon Suite – a tool developed by Icon Source – which promises to streamline every part of the NIL process.

“Icon Suite is a full-service system that makes it easy for athletes to disclose NIL deals through the student login,” the press release stated, “[allowing] compliance officers to access contracts and review analytics across demographic breakdowns and other key metrics in the compliance section.”

Icon Suite is already used by tons of premiere NIL programs around the country, so Miami University taking this step represents a rather serious upgrade. Most schools are looking to add smoothing tools as the NIL marketplace becomes increasingly intricate. (More)

NIL or Pay for Play?

Ball State’s basketball coach Michael Lewis is not a fan of NIL, to put it lightly. “It’s pay for play,” he said during the university’s media day, “They want to hide behind (the name NIL).”

He made sure to clarify that he is indeed in favor of “guys making money,” but that there needs to be more safeguards in place to regulate the market. For him it has less to do with the rules themselves, and more about their enforcement. “There’s rules, but they’re not really enforced,” he reiterated.

The question is, of course, who will regulate NIL? With Congress more-or-less reluctant to this point, and the NCAA feeling powerless, one can’t help but sympathize with his take. (More)

Boot Scootin’ Wolverines

Michigan is one of the biggest brands in college sports, so it makes sense that they’d be pretty innovative on NIL. Their newest venture into fashion is another example of precisely that. They just announced a partnership with the century-old Wolverine Boots company on a product directly benefitting their NIL efforts.

For every limited-edition pair of boots sold, a portion of the proceeds feed directly into Michigan’s Champion’s Circle collective. A spokesperson from Wolverine Boots described the partnership as a success because of each party’s “shared values of integrity and blue-collar work ethic.” (More)

Beats by Caleb

USC quarterback Caleb Williams has hit a bit of a rough patch as of late, losing back-to-back games against ranked opponents. However, that hasn’t stopped the NIL money from coming through for the fifth most valuable athlete in college sports.

As part of a partnership with Beats, Williams gifted brand-new headphones to the entire women’s soccer team at USC. The whole thing was caught on video for a Tik-Tok, and the reactions are absolutely priceless. (More)