During the Derby run up, I read where Mike Repole, billionaire owner of Fierceness, has also committed seven figures to St. Johns basketball to help build a team through NIL.
As I have stated many times, I think NIL as currently exists is flat crazy and unsustainable in the long run, almost every average Joe will get tired of "ponying up" year after year with no real ROI other than to see your favorite team maybe win a few more games. Or maybe not . . . it is certain that early NCAA upsets will continue to happen, and well paid football teams will underperform (looking at you, Tex A&M). Donor fatigue for even the well heeled fan will set in sooner or later.
But maybe I am being short sighted, and not everyone will get tired. Is it possible that college sports becomes a lot like horse racing, where outside of a few operations, none of the owners really make money, and don't really expect to. It is the "Sport of Kings" where billionaires compete on the race track. Maybe my thoughts above are too narrow, and maybe there really is a small, but exceedingly rich, pool of boosters who have stupid money they are willing to put in year after year, to pretty much obtain the best team money can buy. That has been the financial model for horse racing ever since the sport was invented. Think Jerry Jones and the Tyson heir supporting Arkansas, the Crafts here in Kentucky, Phil Knight at Oregon, and quite a few others who can basically throw millions into a program without missing it too much.
One could easily see the problems inherent in letting a handful of boosters essentially run your program by funding NIL, without which your team has no chance of competing. But if the current NIL system is to continue, I can at least envision a scenario where billionaire alumni just decide to go all in every year, like they do to win the Derby.
Thoughts?
As I have stated many times, I think NIL as currently exists is flat crazy and unsustainable in the long run, almost every average Joe will get tired of "ponying up" year after year with no real ROI other than to see your favorite team maybe win a few more games. Or maybe not . . . it is certain that early NCAA upsets will continue to happen, and well paid football teams will underperform (looking at you, Tex A&M). Donor fatigue for even the well heeled fan will set in sooner or later.
But maybe I am being short sighted, and not everyone will get tired. Is it possible that college sports becomes a lot like horse racing, where outside of a few operations, none of the owners really make money, and don't really expect to. It is the "Sport of Kings" where billionaires compete on the race track. Maybe my thoughts above are too narrow, and maybe there really is a small, but exceedingly rich, pool of boosters who have stupid money they are willing to put in year after year, to pretty much obtain the best team money can buy. That has been the financial model for horse racing ever since the sport was invented. Think Jerry Jones and the Tyson heir supporting Arkansas, the Crafts here in Kentucky, Phil Knight at Oregon, and quite a few others who can basically throw millions into a program without missing it too much.
One could easily see the problems inherent in letting a handful of boosters essentially run your program by funding NIL, without which your team has no chance of competing. But if the current NIL system is to continue, I can at least envision a scenario where billionaire alumni just decide to go all in every year, like they do to win the Derby.
Thoughts?
