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- 🏅BYU just paid $7 million for a single player
🏅BYU just paid $7 million for a single player
Also, data shows most transfer decisions don't work out as planned...
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Hey there,
How we feeling? Aside from the Army-Navy game, which I personally expect to be awesome, there’s a pretty chill slate of college sports this week. The postseason approaches rapidly though.
Today’s edition is so jam-packed, it’ll make up for the lack of on-field action.
First, BYU just doled out what’s reported to be one of the biggest NIL contracts in college sports history. Also, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko is worried about how NIL disparities can rip teams apart. Oh, and there’s some new data about where transfer portal players actually end up – it’s all coming up right now!
— Cole, Justin and Collin
The Big 3
BYU Lands NIL Record-Breaking Basketball Star
AJ Dybantsa shocked the basketball community when he committed to BYU earlier this week. He chose the school – which has never made it to the Final Four – over storied programs like North Carolina and Kansas.
Why? Because, according to reports, he’s about to become the highest paid NIL basketball player of all time – the number we’re hearing now is $7 million in NIL compensation. Heck, if that’s a per-year figure, that’d be #1 on the NIL valuation charts right now, regardless of sport.
AJ Dybantsa’s NIL deal from BYU is close to $7 Million, via @AdamZagoria 🤯
He’s almost certainly a one and done.
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport)
5:06 PM • Dec 10, 2024
You may be wondering if Dybantsa is Mormon himself, and whether BYU’s religious affiliation had anything to do with his commitment. The answer to that is no – he’s not Mormon, although he did play some high school basketball in Utah, so he’s familiar with the area. (More)
New Data Says Transfer Athletes Rarely Move Up
A new study shows that the grass may not always be greener in the transfer portal. A collegiate consulting firm called AD Advising sifted through recent data and found that 60% of all sports transfers actually transferred down. Crazier, 10% of transfers never found another school at all.
The numbers in this study were pretty staggering. Nearly one third of the study’s data set entered the transfer portal two or more times. 30% of the participants played for three or more teams over the course of their collegiate career.
This is perhaps the most damning piece of stat in the entire study: less than 32% of Power 5 portal entrants remain in the Power Five after transferring. The risk of entering the transfer portal is much more substantial than the common fan understands. (More)
NIL Disparities Create Tension, Per Elko
Texas A&M’s Mike Elko was very clear about how NIL affected his team at a recent presser. No, NIL limitations didn’t stop the Aggies from landing big-time talent… but the distribution of funds certainly hampered the team’s comradery at points.
Mike Elko not overlooking how NIL could create locker room issues:
"You see some insane freshmen deals.
"I would like to know how the upperclassmen in their program feel when these freshmen come in making five times more than the returning starter."
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton)
4:59 PM • Dec 5, 2024
“I think you have to be really intelligent when you manage this thing, how you manage it for the culture of your program,” he explained, alluding to locker-room challenges connected to NIL price tags.
The Aggies are encountering one of the problems in the NIL era. It’s not just acquiring NIL money… it’s distributing it in ways that make sense. Sometimes that could even mean overpaying certain players just to keep the team’s morale in synch. (More)
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ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT
Hunter Dickinson
School: Kansas
Position: Center
Sport: Basketball
Class: Graduate Student
Accolades:
Big 12 Player of the Week (11.11.24)
Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List [2025]
NABC Player of the Year Preseason Watch List (1 of 20) [2025]
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Watch List (1 of 20) [2025]
Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Watch List [2025]
NIL: With an NIL valuation of approximately $843K, Dickinson is landing NIL deals with brands like Minsky's, CVS, Adidas Basketball, Postgame Official, and the Mass St. Collective.
NIL BLITZ
♦️ ASU quarterback vows to give 100% of his merchandise royalties back to the school’s NIL collective
♦️ The Players Era tournament has transferred $8 million in NIL compensation
♦️ Here’s how four Virginia football players ended up doing ballet for NIL
♦️ CSU’s Jay Norvell is irritated at the portal. This NIL professor isn’t having it.
♦️ Some state lawmakers think the House Settlement could be illegal
♦️ Because of her NIL earnings from college, Caitlin Clark’s WNBA salary is only 1% of her 2024 earnings
♦️ Adrian Wojnarowski is getting a former Bonnies hooper his NIL money… 20 years later
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BATTER UP
Today’s Poll Question:
Will AJ Dybantsa be worth the reported $7 million NIL price tag for BYU? |
Last Edition’s Poll Results:
Overall, did the CFP committee do a good job?
Yes, it’s not perfect but it’s more or less fine - 54%
No, they screwed up big time - 46%
“I think you have to be really intelligent when you manage this thing, how you manage it for the culture of your program.”