All BYU Womens Athletes offered $6,000 NIL Deal including walkons...

This is a first for over the table money in xc. The money that football players are getting, however, absolutely dwarfs this. There's a prospectus #1 overall pick at Oregon who has signed many deals already, one of which includes his own cryptocurrency. The Alabama qb is getting 7 figures. This is a brave new world for college athletics. The money may even be big enough to keep some athletes from turning pro even in xc/track.

Stormin Mormon wrote:

former d1 coach wrote:

How in the world is this allowed?

There is no way te 10th walk on on xc is worth $6,000 individually in terms of an endorsement.

What happens if you get 15 companies to do this? Everyone makes $100,000?

Don't forget that the Mormon church scams people out of millions of $$ per year so they have plenty to use on whatever they want, this included

Yes. XC is a top priority for the Mormon church. That's why they send missionaries to Africa, to recruit the best talent.

Seriously though, this is a great experiment. Hopefully the full amount of money makes it into the bank accounts of each of these athletes. At that age, anything helps and this will help younger athletes in HS stay motivated and willing to sacrifice to continue in sports.

Stormin Mormon wrote:

former d1 coach wrote:

How in the world is this allowed?

There is no way te 10th walk on on xc is worth $6,000 individually in terms of an endorsement.

What happens if you get 15 companies to do this? Everyone makes $100,000?

Don't forget that the Mormon church scams people out of millions of $$ per year so they have plenty to use on whatever they want, this included

The mormons have that $100 billion slush fund that they dunned the membership out of through mandatory tithes. The decrepit old geezers in charge of the gang can and do do whatever they want with the loot. There is a good reason why the mormon money counting office is the biggest building in Utah, dwarfing the so called temple across the street.

they're filthy wrote:

Stormin Mormon wrote:

Don't forget that the Mormon church scams people out of millions of $$ per year so they have plenty to use on whatever they want, this included

The mormons have that $100 billion slush fund that they dunned the membership out of through mandatory tithes. The decrepit old geezers in charge of the gang can and do do whatever they want with the loot. There is a good reason why the mormon money counting office is the biggest building in Utah, dwarfing the so called temple across the street.

I think you need to talk with more people that belong to the LDS Church :)

Does NIL really apply to D3, when even scholarships aren't?

GuestUser2017 wrote:

they're filthy wrote:

The mormons have that $100 billion slush fund that they dunned the membership out of through mandatory tithes. The decrepit old geezers in charge of the gang can and do do whatever they want with the loot. There is a good reason why the mormon money counting office is the biggest building in Utah, dwarfing the so called temple across the street.

I think you need to talk with more people that belong to the LDS Church :)

I'd like to talk with a whole lot less of them. They are thick as thieves here. I'm practically surrounded by the polyg compounds, and have the little missionaries knocking on the door every week. Anyway, how many of them I talk to doesn't have any bearing on the $100 billion slush fund that my poor neighbors can't afford to pay into, or the filthy rich old white guys dipping into it. I wish that they were using some of that fortune to pay for those girls to go to BYU, but alas, that NIL is coming from private sources and not the 28 story 420 feet high LDS's Church Office Building which is locked down like a vault that rivals Scrooge McDuck's.

Sounds great. Running wise, will raise the bar. If no money is involved, better to run for a good club than school.

If any of us were still in college we’d happily take the money and say we earned it.

Anyways, obviously there’s going to be issues with the NIL rule but the reality is the top athletes were already being paid. You ever notice how top athletes from the poorest areas get $150k cars and their parents get $500k homes when they sign their commitment? This stuff has been going on forever. I think the good thing is now every athlete can get a piece of the pie. Like all the athletes at BYU getting $6k. Outside of the football team, not a single one of them would make any money. Now they all get $6k.

I have no ill feeling towards BYU (family members have attended, and graduated), but another coach at my school brought up this point.

1. The students at BYU are incredibly privileged already, and now a private company who likely very few of us have ever heard of, is bank rolling this privileged population.

2. Yes, great PR move by this company; now people know who they are.

3. However, could they have made a greater impact by taking that financial wealth and investing into rural and urban programs (i.e. youth opportunities) and individuals to give them a chance to catch up to the privileged?

I don't know exactly how I feel about this, but it was a good point this colleague made IMHO.

Info Seeker wrote:

I have no ill feeling towards BYU (family members have attended, and graduated), but another coach at my school brought up this point.

1. The students at BYU are incredibly privileged already, and now a private company who likely very few of us have ever heard of, is bank rolling this privileged population.

2. Yes, great PR move by this company; now people know who they are.

3. However, could they have made a greater impact by taking that financial wealth and investing into rural and urban programs (i.e. youth opportunities) and individuals to give them a chance to catch up to the privileged?

I don't know exactly how I feel about this, but it was a good point this colleague made IMHO.

No, it's kind of a stupid point. If you like something, you'll be glad to see it get more money. If you hate something, you'll think of other things that perhaps could have been a more effective use of the funds, because of course you have no ill will for the thing getting the money, but it just seems like the environment, clean energy, whales, fusion research, refugee resettlement....etc. would all be more impactful. Every time anyone spends or donates money, people will point to ways the money could have been used more effectively. Which is just a way of saying that other people have different priorities, and adults understand this.

I think this will have a huge effect all the way down to the bottom age of athletes, in every college sport.

Think through this scenario:

Let's say that at an average decent sized school, athletes - including walk-ons - earned $10,000/year. I'm using this amount because we have no idea how far reaching this will become once the market adjusts to the new reality. It's not impossible to imagine that with good fundraising and deal making, a college team could get a couple dozen sponsors and be able to pay a team of 20 people this kind of money, maybe a lot more. I don't know the limitations, but what is stopping Oregon from paying their men's cross country team members $100k a year? What kind of team will they have if they can raise those kinds of funds from sponsors?

Now let's say you're a parent of a high school athlete, who had previously thought it might be worth your time to encourage/push your child into a sport for a scholarship. I know a woman who has her son homeschooling and training like a pro swimmer with the expectation that he will get a scholarship. My kids do gymnastics with young children who are training 20-30 hours a week for future gymnastics scholarships. I think (before the NIL came around) that this is insane when you consider the cost of coaching; if they just put that money into an account there would be more money than the scholarship will end up being worth, and there's a huge risk the kid never gets a scholarship. This changes if the child is also getting some more money through sponsorship.

Some kids, like mine, have parents who are more on the bubble. I know the value of a scholarship but also the time commitment of running (I was a D1 recruited walk-on). I don't encourage my kids to aim for a scholarship because I can already pay for their school and I'm not sure the lifetime time commitment is worth the return of a scholarship. I'd rather my kids focus their time on academics so they can set up their future careers. I still encourage them to achieve their best in sports as long as they remain interested, but that's something on the side that's just a bonus, not the main focus.

Now, with kids, even walk-ons, potentially being paid to perform in college, as a parent I have to rethink to what level I encourage my kids to commit to sports in middle school/high school. I have a daughter who is just starting running but who appears to have a lot of potential. I'm almost certain with quality training that she can be a better athlete than I was, and with more scholarships on the women's side, she can probably get a scholarship somewhere. She wants to go to Stanford, so I look at that as a long-shot where she'd have to be a top 10 in the US talent (say 4:45 for the mile). Who could plan for something like that as though it were automatic? You'd have to be a fool.

With the NIL money coming into the picture, if walk-ons are getting paid significant enough money, doesn't that start to incentivize the girls who are more in the 5:10-5:15 mile range to stay committed and try to walk on somewhere (or take a scholarship at a lesser school)? I think so. And if this is the case, every parent who has a B-level talented child is going to push them just a little bit harder. They are going to put pressure on their kids' coach to make them that much better. Now it becomes economical to consider hiring a professional coach at the high school level because the payoff may be there for the child...you no longer have to be a top 50-100 in the US talent, you can be a top 200-500 talent and still get some decent money. There will be more professional coaches hired. Those coaches will feel the pressure to develop these kids faster (more mileage at an earlier age).

All of this will increase the level of high school competition. In turn, parents will begin starting their children into professional coaching sooner, like middle school, because high school became so competitive. The level of competition from top to bottom will increase. More talent will be identified. Times will get better.

There is a buttload of money out there and if teams begin learning how to fundraise, the pay for these athletes could get pretty significant.

SmartyStreets sells their address verification app to other companies like Netflix and Zillow. This isn't about marketing. This is a rich alumnus and athletic booster supporting his college teams and writing it off as a business expense. Of course this will be happening everywhere.

www.ksl.com/article/50247317/why-provo-based-smartystreets-and-its-girldad-ceo-entered-into-2m-agreement-with-every-byu-female-athlete

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This is all going to backfire for the majority of athletes. They'll be so focused on making NIL money that their grades will suffer. When they don't get the pro contract, they will not be able to find a job or a real career.

sad fall wrote:

This is all going to backfire for the majority of athletes. They'll be so focused on making NIL money that their grades will suffer. When they don't get the pro contract, they will not be able to find a job or a real career.

Yes, the NIL money will distract the kids - not dating, parties, greek life... ha.

Get paid while you can!

Students at any university with a division 1 cross country program would probably be considered "incredibly privileged." Don't know that it's fair to paint things with such a broad brush. Why not just be happy that women's sports are getting some extra financial support? Maybe the company or people that work there do donate to other causes. I have to agree with colder and wiser that every donation could be criticized, but that takes a lot of emotional capital.

Tiresome little bigot. Sad really. Probably has a good “formal” education but still as dumb as a rock.

former d1 coach wrote:

wejo wrote:

NIL is going to be good for athletes.

How in the world is this allowed?

There is no way te 10th walk on on xc is worth $6,000 individually in terms of an endorsement.

What happens if you get 15 companies to do this? Everyone makes $100,000?

This is the issue that no one either realizes or is willing to say.

What a great thing. A BYU alum paying athletes to compete for BYU. What could possibly be wrong here? ... especially with the new transfer portal.

I sure every school will easily be able to find some alum to support every sports program at their school like this and all will be equal. (And for those of you who say it's already not equal... yes, great, lets solve that problem by making it worse.)

NIL will be wonderful for some of the athletes but it will be uncontrollable and will ruin college sports. Or shall I say, change college sports (in a bad way ) forever.