Jump to content

$9.95 worth every penny

futureman

By futureman
in 🤫$9.95🤫

 Share

Recommended Posts

SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7517

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

FBD

 

Spoiler

Texas athletes generated $2 million in first year of NIL, possible first drop in bucket

Sarkisian, Beard, Schaefer, Elliott all take various approaches in how they handle NIL within their own locker rooms

Bryan Davis
Austin American-Statesman
 
University of Texas athletes pulled in more than $2 million in name, image and likeness payments during the first athletic year since the rule change, according to school records.

Football athletes were the biggest beneficiaries with 94 NIL deals being reported to the school for a total of $879,447 from Aug. 1 to April 30. The biggest deal signed by any one UT football player was worth $60,000. Three other arrangements were worth $50,000 each.

But softball ($295,790) and women’s swimming athletes ($259,402) also did well. Men’s swimming athletes generated $245,100 in NIL deals, according to information obtained by the American-Statesman through requests made under the Texas Public Information Act.

At any given time, Texas has more than 500 athletes. The university is required to track all NIL deals, but according to state law, school officials are not allowed to get involved in brokering contracts. Essentially, the athletes must rely on family members, advisers or gut instincts on how to value their worth.

The American-Statesman requested information on every name, image and likeness agreement recorded by the UT athletic department over this past athletic year. Privacy laws prevent the university from disclosing who got what. But UT can release aggregate totals and individual line items.

University data shows that 154 different athletes received an NIL deal — 418 deals in all — for a total of $2,039,180 spanning the majority of the 2021-22 athletic year.

Theoretically, that number could grow every day as more NIL deals work through the UT compliance pipeline. One industry expert believes the first-year, $2-million figure will be just a drop in the bucket.

“I would say I think it’s a good start, frankly. It is not indicative at all about what’s coming,” said Wesley Haynes, founder of The Brandr Group.

Haynes’ company partnered with UT last August to maximize the school’s trademarks and brands with UT athletes. The Brandr Group now works with more than half the schools from Power Five conferences, Haynes said, and 55 universities total.

Haynes believes the amount of money that could flow into the NIL space next year and beyond “may be a 20x difference.” This is far more than athletes just getting paid to post on social media. “The difference is truly night and day,” he said.

Haynes spent time last week at the first INFLCR NIL Summit held at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Based on his private discussions, Haynes firmly believes major corporations will lean harder into NIL opportunities. Companies will look to sponsor groups of players or teams and avoid the gamble of signing individual athletes.

There are exceptions, of course. Champion sportswear featured UT volleyball star Logan Eggleston in a national ad campaign. Lamborghini Austin made waves by signing Longhorns running back Bijan Robinson. New quarterback Quinn Ewers is driving an Aston Martin around town, according to social media photos.

Meanwhile, Haynes was recently in Austin for a photo shoot for Wrangler jeans with several Texas athletes. It’s a promotional campaign planned for the fall, he said.

“It was so new, they just didn’t know who were going to be the industry players and how it was going to shake out,” Haynes said. “There was just a lot of uncertainty on the corporate side. And the product side, they just couldn’t react because of the supply chain issues.”

The top area for NIL revenue growth — a potential explosion, really — is jersey sales.

Texas athletics has already announced that personalized jerseys will be available this fall. Essentially, fans will be able to purchase a No. 5 Bijan Robinson or No. 0 DeMarvion Overshown football jersey, and those athletes will receive a portion of the revenue.

Other sports are expected to have customizable jerseys for sale. No longer are fans stuck buying only a No. 35 Kevin Durant basketball jersey.

Drew Martin, UT’s executive senior associate athletic director for external affairs, said the school is negotiating revenue splits with its suppliers and what the athletes would receive.

“I feel like the athletes should be getting a little more than what they’re proposing right now,” Martin said. “Well, we could raise the price of the jersey to get more to the athlete. But that’s not fair, either.”

Supply chain issues caused by the pandemic prevented sales from happening quicker, school administrators said. Nike simply couldn’t get enough blank jerseys from overseas manufacturers to sell, for example.

Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte is itching to celebrate the Longhorns’ second straight Directors’ Cup championship as the top overall college program in the country. The Longhorns are winning on the field, and the athletes are winning with NIL, it appears.

“For me personally, it’s uncharted,” Del Conte said. “I understand the concept of why we’re going to NIL, but at the end of the day, I still value education and helping young people get an education. When we went into it, it was new in how we were going to offer it. But I’m really proud of our student-athletes.”

Name, image and likeness rules went into effect last August as the NCAA bowed to pressure from state legislators and the threat of more litigation. Everything about this first year was new to everyone. 

“Back in the day, we used to go check the parking lot to look at people’s cars,” Del Conte added. “We used to have enforcement staff for that.”

Now, there’s a Lamborghini sitting in the players’ parking lot. “Yeah, don’t worry about that,” he joked.

The whole NIL concept is “weird,” Del Conte acknowledged. This is also the same person who ran track in college and left with two degrees and $57,000 in student debt. “Me and Sally Mae, I was married to her for 17 years,” Del Conte said.

Texas football athletes cashing in

Name, image and likeness money was at the core of the recent dust-up between Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher. Saban implied that A&M simply bought its highly-regarded incoming recruiting class, a charge Fisher took as fighting words.

An A&M compliance official later told the Houston Chronicle that only two members of the Aggies’ freshman class had NIL deals. The Aggies also tried to get the SEC to suspend Saban.

Currently, as Texas state law is written, signing high school athletes to NIL deals is illegal. That could change in 2023 when the Texas Legislature reconvenes. NCAA rules are such that signing an athlete to an NIL deal as a form of recruiting inducement is illegal as well.

Once an athlete crosses the threshold from high school to college, that person is fair game for NIL opportunities. The NCAA has begun initial inquiries into Miami’s name, image and likeness arrangements with a major booster, according to Sports Illustrated. But the NCAA itself has said no athlete’s eligibility will be in question; only the schools that break the rules will be punished.

And that’s the issue with NIL. So far, there aren’t many rules at all. Or they’re blurry.

NIL was supposed to be about helping athletes get paid for autograph signings, camps or personal appearances. Case in point: Roots Volleyball, an Austin-based private club, hosted new Texas transfer Madi Skinner for a two-hour, outside hitter clinic for all ages on Saturday. The club is also bringing in Texas middle blocker Molly Phillips for a camp this week.

Several Texas football players have done paid autograph signings, too. 

But what many fear — and what terrifies the NCAA — is that NIL is becoming a way to stockpile teams via recruiting. And the horse may already be out of the barn.

Texas football athletes received 109 individual NIL payments averaging $8,868.72 each during the 2021-22 athletic year, according to UT’s data.

Twenty-nine payments were from $1,000 to 3,000. Fourteen payments were for $5,000. There were 34 payments from $10,000 to $20,000. There were also single payments to athletes of $24,000, $25,000, $27,000 and $29,000 before it jumped to the top four ranging from $50,000 to $60,000.

Two football line items had redacted totals, too. When asked why, the university said, “It's often easiest to identify students by their names, but there are other ways to identify students without their names. For that reason, we often redact information that does not have students' names.

The sources of these payments were not disclosed. However, any legitimate NIL payment to a Texas athlete must go through the university’s compliance office first. Thus, information collected by the school itself passes NCAA muster.

Has ‘collective’ become a dirty word?

In December, a new group called the Clark Field Collective announced a $10-million commitment designed to help every UT athletic team. Another non-profit entity called Horns with Heart announced that every UT offensive lineman would get $50,000.

Every member of the UT men’s basketball team received at least $10,000 last season, according to the UT data. Coach Chris Beard confirmed to the Statesman that money came from Clark Field Collective. But the data released by UT does not support the idea that every lineman received $50,000 — at least not in the first year.

“I know there are outside organizations that are working with our student-athletes that have been NCAA approved to work on NIL opportunities,” Del Conte said. “From what I’m hearing, those are going great.

“Everything that we’ve done,” Del Conte added, “we’ve run by the NCAA to let them know what’s taken place.”

National media outlets have started using the word “collective” in almost a colloquial tone. It’s become a catch-all word for the outside groups influencing NIL at each school.

“If I’m already a four-letter word, it may be time for a rebrand,” Clark Field Collective founder Nick Shuley said. His group was one of the first nationwide.

Shuley is monitoring everything possible. The Athletic recently published an in-depth report about NIL money being raised at Texas A&M. In College Station, major donors contribute to what’s being called “The Fund.” But Fisher balked at the idea, first floated by an Oklahoma message board poster named “slicedbread,” that A&M-related groups paid $30 million for its stellar 2022 recruiting class.

“That would have been the dumbest business deal in the history of ball,” Fisher told A&M fans, according to The Athletic.

So obviously, people now affiliated with collectives are cautious of outside perceptions.

“I don’t want to play those games,” Shuley said. “We’re not a slush fund. It’s more of an opportunity creator sport by sport.”

Shuley said no Texas coach has contacted Clark Field Collective and asked for NIL money to land a recruit. Shuley said he first checks the roster pages on UT websites to make sure a specific athlete is already on the team. Then, all of Clark Field Collective’s deals are uploaded to Opendorse, a partner with UT athletics, and all contracts are sent straight to UT compliance.

Opendorse has become an industry leader in the NIL space for creating frameworks that give transparency to school officials.

“If you’re a 7-foot-5 person, you’re probably not going to be a bank robber. I mean, you can. But you’ll have a hard time getting away with it,” Shuley said. “(Texas) is such a big entity, we’re held to a higher standard. People are looking to us.”

Steve Sarkisian on if Texas football can be bought

Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian always speaks in big-picture terms with reporters when asked about NIL.

“What is your name? What is your image? What is your likeness?” Sarkisian said in May. “A lot of that is who you are as a person, right? Your character, what you do in your community, who you are as a student, who you are as a player, and ultimately it's your opportunity to perform, how you conduct yourself. Then, how you represent the University of Texas or whatever other university along with yourself.

“And I think some of that has been lost in this process,” he added. “Hopefully we can get ourselves back to that so that everybody kind of operates the what was the idea and the premise behind all of this.”

Sarkisian said he hasn’t changed his recruiting approach because of NIL. “I haven’t,” he said. “I think we are building something uniquely special here at Texas that is going to withstand the test of time.”

There is nothing to prevent a popular athlete from going into the transfer portal just to test his or her value on the open market. What kind of NIL opportunities await if a player leaves Texas for another school in another market or another conference?

There is only one real risk of going into the transfer portal. Your current coach has the right to revoke your scholarship. Star players know they can test the market and keep their current spot, though.

Recruiting websites reported this spring that Texas receiver Xavier Worthy, the Big 12 freshman of the year, was offered a six-figure NIL deal to jump into the portal and leave UT. It was never officially verified, but Sarkisian didn’t outright deny it, either.

Asked point blank if he’s worried about Texas players being bought by someone else, Sarkisian said, “I don’t know. So much of this is out of our control.”

“We can control the kids in our locker room,” Sarkisian said. “We can treat them really well. We can coach them hard. We can be demanding. We can give them a sense of feeling that they’re getting better, and then they’re improving as players and we’re improving as a team.

“And if somebody tries to buy our players or do certain things, hopefully we forge good enough relationships that they want to connect with us and talk to us about what’s going on in their world,” he continued. “That’s the key, right? But if I don’t have great relationships, they’re not going to come to me. And the next thing, they just pop up in the portal and now what?  I think we’ve done that and continue to do that.”

Sarkisian also downplayed the role that collectives play in recruiting. “At the end of the day, I'm gonna sign who I think we need to sign,” he said. “No one is going to tell us who to recruit.”

Texas coaches take different NIL approaches

Other Texas coaches had differing views on NIL’s influence on their programs and locker rooms.

Beard said he believes the jump from year one to year two “will be tremendous” in NIL potential.

“With our best players, we’re talking about professional basketball,” Beard said. “This name, image and likeness is great, but you know the real payday is can you get into the NBA draft?”

Beard said not one player missed practice because of NIL commitments. “Not one time,” he said.

Women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer said of NIL, “I’m going to get out of the way of that. I’m going to let somebody handle that for them.”

Schaefer told a group of Texas fans in Houston in May that his team signs autographs and poses for pictures after games to generate fan interest. That, in turn, leads to NIL possibilities.

“(Texas guard) Rori Harmon’s got the biggest smile, she plays with passion, she plays with her hair on fire. That’s the kind of kid you want representing your company,” Schaefer told the crowd. “Our kids have to have that personality piece, because that’s what people want with their companies.”

Volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott pointed to the school’s Leverage program for helping athletes navigate areas in which the school has legal boundaries where it cannot go. NIL is so important, Texas athletics put a link to its Leverage program above its individual team pages on the UT athletics website.

“When it comes actually to the monetary value, that’s their privacy,” Elliott said. “It’s more about what are you doing with it. There are a lot of things this world doesn’t teach you sometimes, like what mortgage rates are, what interest rates are, compound factoring. What’s the difference between investments, finding investments, financial advisors, those types of things we try to look in for them.”

Yes, NIL is there in women’s sports

Sure, Texas football athletes benefitted from NIL in this first year. But women’s athletes are making money, too. On this there is no question.

Volleyball athletes made anywhere from $2,000 to $6,500 for various NIL deals. The one-line payment of $60,000 jumps out. Nobody at UT will confirm the payment’s origin, but Eggleston’s appearance in Champion’s national TV ad campaign wasn’t done for free.

Nine softball payments ranged from $10,000 to $27,000. Another softball athlete received $68,500, according to UT’s data. Softball’s overall total ($295,790) was eye-popping compared to the baseball NIL total ($16,788).

ESPN announced that 1.3 and 1.26 million viewers watched the two Texas-Oklahoma State semifinal games played in Oklahoma City. The two-game championship finale series against Oklahoma averaged 1.6 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2.

“Someone who's never watched the sport ever, you turned it on once and you're hooked,” Texas catcher Mary Iakopo said during the Women’s College World Series. “To know that our sport is just as entertaining — it’s a faster version of baseball — I think makes it the better version and why NIL works for us.”

Name, image and likeness opportunities are out there for women. “When it comes to corporate clients, they’ve all said we want half male, half female,” Haynes said. “Many of these corporate clients actually enjoy and prefer working with some of the female athletes.”

Name, image and likeness opportunities at Texas have only just begun.

“We're not going to be the followers. We’ll be the leaders,” Beard said. “I think it takes some time to get to that point, because there are so many unknowns, especially year one. I think this year, we’re going see where players are when the dust settles. It’s going to be really good.”

Contact Brian Davis by phone or text at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com or follow on Twitter via @BDavisAAS.

 
 
 
 

Too much in here to unpack at the moment. The key thing I'd say is I don't believe all numbers are getting reported. Still, it's very illuminating, and I'm grateful for Bryan Davis for writing the article. This is one of the better data driven articles around NIL that I've seen, encompassing a variety of sports. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 4.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Bad Host
Bad Host

There is a guy who frequently hosts named Erin Hogan who’s been an Austin radio personality for a really long time. I don’t know him, but Rod Babers speaks highly of him. His lighting situation can ge

BobbyB
BobbyB

I’ll take any help/suggestions I can get. Seriously, I know I need them.

immamac
immamac

Well I guess it’s time to spill the beans if Monroe already did in his stream. We were going to wait till tomorrow. Yes I’m involved and yes it’s something you should definitely support.  There a

Posted Images

NorLa Horns

NorLa Horns 1458

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, SL Xpress said:
  Reveal hidden contents

Texas athletes generated $2 million in first year of NIL, possible first drop in bucket

Sarkisian, Beard, Schaefer, Elliott all take various approaches in how they handle NIL within their own locker rooms

Bryan Davis
Austin American-Statesman
 
University of Texas athletes pulled in more than $2 million in name, image and likeness payments during the first athletic year since the rule change, according to school records.

Football athletes were the biggest beneficiaries with 94 NIL deals being reported to the school for a total of $879,447 from Aug. 1 to April 30. The biggest deal signed by any one UT football player was worth $60,000. Three other arrangements were worth $50,000 each.

But softball ($295,790) and women’s swimming athletes ($259,402) also did well. Men’s swimming athletes generated $245,100 in NIL deals, according to information obtained by the American-Statesman through requests made under the Texas Public Information Act.

At any given time, Texas has more than 500 athletes. The university is required to track all NIL deals, but according to state law, school officials are not allowed to get involved in brokering contracts. Essentially, the athletes must rely on family members, advisers or gut instincts on how to value their worth.

The American-Statesman requested information on every name, image and likeness agreement recorded by the UT athletic department over this past athletic year. Privacy laws prevent the university from disclosing who got what. But UT can release aggregate totals and individual line items.

University data shows that 154 different athletes received an NIL deal — 418 deals in all — for a total of $2,039,180 spanning the majority of the 2021-22 athletic year.

Theoretically, that number could grow every day as more NIL deals work through the UT compliance pipeline. One industry expert believes the first-year, $2-million figure will be just a drop in the bucket.

“I would say I think it’s a good start, frankly. It is not indicative at all about what’s coming,” said Wesley Haynes, founder of The Brandr Group.

Haynes’ company partnered with UT last August to maximize the school’s trademarks and brands with UT athletes. The Brandr Group now works with more than half the schools from Power Five conferences, Haynes said, and 55 universities total.

Haynes believes the amount of money that could flow into the NIL space next year and beyond “may be a 20x difference.” This is far more than athletes just getting paid to post on social media. “The difference is truly night and day,” he said.

Haynes spent time last week at the first INFLCR NIL Summit held at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Based on his private discussions, Haynes firmly believes major corporations will lean harder into NIL opportunities. Companies will look to sponsor groups of players or teams and avoid the gamble of signing individual athletes.

There are exceptions, of course. Champion sportswear featured UT volleyball star Logan Eggleston in a national ad campaign. Lamborghini Austin made waves by signing Longhorns running back Bijan Robinson. New quarterback Quinn Ewers is driving an Aston Martin around town, according to social media photos.

Meanwhile, Haynes was recently in Austin for a photo shoot for Wrangler jeans with several Texas athletes. It’s a promotional campaign planned for the fall, he said.

“It was so new, they just didn’t know who were going to be the industry players and how it was going to shake out,” Haynes said. “There was just a lot of uncertainty on the corporate side. And the product side, they just couldn’t react because of the supply chain issues.”

The top area for NIL revenue growth — a potential explosion, really — is jersey sales.

Texas athletics has already announced that personalized jerseys will be available this fall. Essentially, fans will be able to purchase a No. 5 Bijan Robinson or No. 0 DeMarvion Overshown football jersey, and those athletes will receive a portion of the revenue.

Other sports are expected to have customizable jerseys for sale. No longer are fans stuck buying only a No. 35 Kevin Durant basketball jersey.

Drew Martin, UT’s executive senior associate athletic director for external affairs, said the school is negotiating revenue splits with its suppliers and what the athletes would receive.

“I feel like the athletes should be getting a little more than what they’re proposing right now,” Martin said. “Well, we could raise the price of the jersey to get more to the athlete. But that’s not fair, either.”

Supply chain issues caused by the pandemic prevented sales from happening quicker, school administrators said. Nike simply couldn’t get enough blank jerseys from overseas manufacturers to sell, for example.

Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte is itching to celebrate the Longhorns’ second straight Directors’ Cup championship as the top overall college program in the country. The Longhorns are winning on the field, and the athletes are winning with NIL, it appears.

“For me personally, it’s uncharted,” Del Conte said. “I understand the concept of why we’re going to NIL, but at the end of the day, I still value education and helping young people get an education. When we went into it, it was new in how we were going to offer it. But I’m really proud of our student-athletes.”

Name, image and likeness rules went into effect last August as the NCAA bowed to pressure from state legislators and the threat of more litigation. Everything about this first year was new to everyone. 

“Back in the day, we used to go check the parking lot to look at people’s cars,” Del Conte added. “We used to have enforcement staff for that.”

Now, there’s a Lamborghini sitting in the players’ parking lot. “Yeah, don’t worry about that,” he joked.

The whole NIL concept is “weird,” Del Conte acknowledged. This is also the same person who ran track in college and left with two degrees and $57,000 in student debt. “Me and Sally Mae, I was married to her for 17 years,” Del Conte said.

Texas football athletes cashing in

Name, image and likeness money was at the core of the recent dust-up between Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher. Saban implied that A&M simply bought its highly-regarded incoming recruiting class, a charge Fisher took as fighting words.

An A&M compliance official later told the Houston Chronicle that only two members of the Aggies’ freshman class had NIL deals. The Aggies also tried to get the SEC to suspend Saban.

Currently, as Texas state law is written, signing high school athletes to NIL deals is illegal. That could change in 2023 when the Texas Legislature reconvenes. NCAA rules are such that signing an athlete to an NIL deal as a form of recruiting inducement is illegal as well.

Once an athlete crosses the threshold from high school to college, that person is fair game for NIL opportunities. The NCAA has begun initial inquiries into Miami’s name, image and likeness arrangements with a major booster, according to Sports Illustrated. But the NCAA itself has said no athlete’s eligibility will be in question; only the schools that break the rules will be punished.

And that’s the issue with NIL. So far, there aren’t many rules at all. Or they’re blurry.

NIL was supposed to be about helping athletes get paid for autograph signings, camps or personal appearances. Case in point: Roots Volleyball, an Austin-based private club, hosted new Texas transfer Madi Skinner for a two-hour, outside hitter clinic for all ages on Saturday. The club is also bringing in Texas middle blocker Molly Phillips for a camp this week.

Several Texas football players have done paid autograph signings, too. 

But what many fear — and what terrifies the NCAA — is that NIL is becoming a way to stockpile teams via recruiting. And the horse may already be out of the barn.

Texas football athletes received 109 individual NIL payments averaging $8,868.72 each during the 2021-22 athletic year, according to UT’s data.

Twenty-nine payments were from $1,000 to 3,000. Fourteen payments were for $5,000. There were 34 payments from $10,000 to $20,000. There were also single payments to athletes of $24,000, $25,000, $27,000 and $29,000 before it jumped to the top four ranging from $50,000 to $60,000.

Two football line items had redacted totals, too. When asked why, the university said, “It's often easiest to identify students by their names, but there are other ways to identify students without their names. For that reason, we often redact information that does not have students' names.

The sources of these payments were not disclosed. However, any legitimate NIL payment to a Texas athlete must go through the university’s compliance office first. Thus, information collected by the school itself passes NCAA muster.

Has ‘collective’ become a dirty word?

In December, a new group called the Clark Field Collective announced a $10-million commitment designed to help every UT athletic team. Another non-profit entity called Horns with Heart announced that every UT offensive lineman would get $50,000.

Every member of the UT men’s basketball team received at least $10,000 last season, according to the UT data. Coach Chris Beard confirmed to the Statesman that money came from Clark Field Collective. But the data released by UT does not support the idea that every lineman received $50,000 — at least not in the first year.

“I know there are outside organizations that are working with our student-athletes that have been NCAA approved to work on NIL opportunities,” Del Conte said. “From what I’m hearing, those are going great.

“Everything that we’ve done,” Del Conte added, “we’ve run by the NCAA to let them know what’s taken place.”

National media outlets have started using the word “collective” in almost a colloquial tone. It’s become a catch-all word for the outside groups influencing NIL at each school.

“If I’m already a four-letter word, it may be time for a rebrand,” Clark Field Collective founder Nick Shuley said. His group was one of the first nationwide.

Shuley is monitoring everything possible. The Athletic recently published an in-depth report about NIL money being raised at Texas A&M. In College Station, major donors contribute to what’s being called “The Fund.” But Fisher balked at the idea, first floated by an Oklahoma message board poster named “slicedbread,” that A&M-related groups paid $30 million for its stellar 2022 recruiting class.

“That would have been the dumbest business deal in the history of ball,” Fisher told A&M fans, according to The Athletic.

So obviously, people now affiliated with collectives are cautious of outside perceptions.

“I don’t want to play those games,” Shuley said. “We’re not a slush fund. It’s more of an opportunity creator sport by sport.”

Shuley said no Texas coach has contacted Clark Field Collective and asked for NIL money to land a recruit. Shuley said he first checks the roster pages on UT websites to make sure a specific athlete is already on the team. Then, all of Clark Field Collective’s deals are uploaded to Opendorse, a partner with UT athletics, and all contracts are sent straight to UT compliance.

Opendorse has become an industry leader in the NIL space for creating frameworks that give transparency to school officials.

“If you’re a 7-foot-5 person, you’re probably not going to be a bank robber. I mean, you can. But you’ll have a hard time getting away with it,” Shuley said. “(Texas) is such a big entity, we’re held to a higher standard. People are looking to us.”

Steve Sarkisian on if Texas football can be bought

Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian always speaks in big-picture terms with reporters when asked about NIL.

“What is your name? What is your image? What is your likeness?” Sarkisian said in May. “A lot of that is who you are as a person, right? Your character, what you do in your community, who you are as a student, who you are as a player, and ultimately it's your opportunity to perform, how you conduct yourself. Then, how you represent the University of Texas or whatever other university along with yourself.

“And I think some of that has been lost in this process,” he added. “Hopefully we can get ourselves back to that so that everybody kind of operates the what was the idea and the premise behind all of this.”

Sarkisian said he hasn’t changed his recruiting approach because of NIL. “I haven’t,” he said. “I think we are building something uniquely special here at Texas that is going to withstand the test of time.”

There is nothing to prevent a popular athlete from going into the transfer portal just to test his or her value on the open market. What kind of NIL opportunities await if a player leaves Texas for another school in another market or another conference?

There is only one real risk of going into the transfer portal. Your current coach has the right to revoke your scholarship. Star players know they can test the market and keep their current spot, though.

Recruiting websites reported this spring that Texas receiver Xavier Worthy, the Big 12 freshman of the year, was offered a six-figure NIL deal to jump into the portal and leave UT. It was never officially verified, but Sarkisian didn’t outright deny it, either.

Asked point blank if he’s worried about Texas players being bought by someone else, Sarkisian said, “I don’t know. So much of this is out of our control.”

“We can control the kids in our locker room,” Sarkisian said. “We can treat them really well. We can coach them hard. We can be demanding. We can give them a sense of feeling that they’re getting better, and then they’re improving as players and we’re improving as a team.

“And if somebody tries to buy our players or do certain things, hopefully we forge good enough relationships that they want to connect with us and talk to us about what’s going on in their world,” he continued. “That’s the key, right? But if I don’t have great relationships, they’re not going to come to me. And the next thing, they just pop up in the portal and now what?  I think we’ve done that and continue to do that.”

Sarkisian also downplayed the role that collectives play in recruiting. “At the end of the day, I'm gonna sign who I think we need to sign,” he said. “No one is going to tell us who to recruit.”

Texas coaches take different NIL approaches

Other Texas coaches had differing views on NIL’s influence on their programs and locker rooms.

Beard said he believes the jump from year one to year two “will be tremendous” in NIL potential.

“With our best players, we’re talking about professional basketball,” Beard said. “This name, image and likeness is great, but you know the real payday is can you get into the NBA draft?”

Beard said not one player missed practice because of NIL commitments. “Not one time,” he said.

Women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer said of NIL, “I’m going to get out of the way of that. I’m going to let somebody handle that for them.”

Schaefer told a group of Texas fans in Houston in May that his team signs autographs and poses for pictures after games to generate fan interest. That, in turn, leads to NIL possibilities.

“(Texas guard) Rori Harmon’s got the biggest smile, she plays with passion, she plays with her hair on fire. That’s the kind of kid you want representing your company,” Schaefer told the crowd. “Our kids have to have that personality piece, because that’s what people want with their companies.”

Volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott pointed to the school’s Leverage program for helping athletes navigate areas in which the school has legal boundaries where it cannot go. NIL is so important, Texas athletics put a link to its Leverage program above its individual team pages on the UT athletics website.

“When it comes actually to the monetary value, that’s their privacy,” Elliott said. “It’s more about what are you doing with it. There are a lot of things this world doesn’t teach you sometimes, like what mortgage rates are, what interest rates are, compound factoring. What’s the difference between investments, finding investments, financial advisors, those types of things we try to look in for them.”

Yes, NIL is there in women’s sports

Sure, Texas football athletes benefitted from NIL in this first year. But women’s athletes are making money, too. On this there is no question.

Volleyball athletes made anywhere from $2,000 to $6,500 for various NIL deals. The one-line payment of $60,000 jumps out. Nobody at UT will confirm the payment’s origin, but Eggleston’s appearance in Champion’s national TV ad campaign wasn’t done for free.

Nine softball payments ranged from $10,000 to $27,000. Another softball athlete received $68,500, according to UT’s data. Softball’s overall total ($295,790) was eye-popping compared to the baseball NIL total ($16,788).

ESPN announced that 1.3 and 1.26 million viewers watched the two Texas-Oklahoma State semifinal games played in Oklahoma City. The two-game championship finale series against Oklahoma averaged 1.6 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2.

“Someone who's never watched the sport ever, you turned it on once and you're hooked,” Texas catcher Mary Iakopo said during the Women’s College World Series. “To know that our sport is just as entertaining — it’s a faster version of baseball — I think makes it the better version and why NIL works for us.”

Name, image and likeness opportunities are out there for women. “When it comes to corporate clients, they’ve all said we want half male, half female,” Haynes said. “Many of these corporate clients actually enjoy and prefer working with some of the female athletes.”

Name, image and likeness opportunities at Texas have only just begun.

“We're not going to be the followers. We’ll be the leaders,” Beard said. “I think it takes some time to get to that point, because there are so many unknowns, especially year one. I think this year, we’re going see where players are when the dust settles. It’s going to be really good.”

Contact Brian Davis by phone or text at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com or follow on Twitter via @BDavisAAS.

 
 
 
 

Too much in here to unpack at the moment. The key thing I'd say is I don't believe all numbers are getting reported. Still, it's very illuminating, and I'm grateful for Bryan Davis for writing the article. This is one of the better data driven articles around NIL that I've seen, encompassing a variety of sports. 

Uh, you don't know how to Brian Davis, do you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
texifornia

texifornia 57036

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

We’re about to break out into a foodie debate on the recruiting board, aren’t we. 

Well this is the thread about 9.95ers, and given how tragic the rest of their lives are, their food opinions are the only way to make this fun. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49326

Posted
Posted

Like I've Been Saying...  😂😂😂😂😂😂

image.png.18b38529065481f4eaa4571b200c5347.png

 

This from @Hornius Emeritus  

Mike Farrell on Arch two weeks ago:
"I expected this. UGA is now the team to beat for Manning according to my sources after a strong visit to Athens. He has always liked the college feel there, he was a heavy UGA lean at the end of last season and now they have the edge. Alabama is up next and then Texas, but the roadmap for success laid out by Kirby Smart and his staff was “very clear” I’ve been told and the path to playing time and on field success and winning is there."

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Harvdog

Harvdog 2300

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Like I've Been Saying...  😂😂😂😂😂😂

image.png.18b38529065481f4eaa4571b200c5347.png

 

This from @Hornius Emeritus  

Mike Farrell on Arch two weeks ago:
"I expected this. UGA is now the team to beat for Manning according to my sources after a strong visit to Athens. He has always liked the college feel there, he was a heavy UGA lean at the end of last season and now they have the edge. Alabama is up next and then Texas, but the roadmap for success laid out by Kirby Smart and his staff was “very clear” I’ve been told and the path to playing time and on field success and winning is there."

Fuck Farrell and Fuck the Brocks

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
NorLa Horns

NorLa Horns 1458

Posted
Posted
On 6/23/2022 at 9:18 PM, blacklab said:

 

I was looking for Arch content on youtube after the commitment Thursday. 

Got down to OB. And i couldnt get past 10 minutes of it. 

Almost everything they were saying was them clapping back at their subscribers for various insults. 

I wanted to hear Arch talk. Not Jabba and Anwar crying cus people were mean to them for their shit takes. 

Thats why i cant do OB anymore. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49326

Posted
Posted

Saturday Down South article...

Why Arch Manning spurning the SEC (for now) and picking Texas makes a whole lot of sense

Connor O'Gara | 2 days ago

Quote

Arch Manning isn’t coming to the SEC after all.

Well, let’s rephrase that.

Manning isn’t coming to the SEC until Texas does. The latest that’ll happen is in 2025, which would be the No. 1 recruit’s pre-draft season.

And the plot thickens.

Manning’s commitment to Texas on Thursday was a tough pill to swallow for the likes of Alabama and Georgia, both of which just hosted the ultimate SEC legacy recruit. Arch’s announcement unofficially means that he won’t follow in the footsteps of his dad (Cooper), his uncles (Peyton and Eli) or his grandpa (Archie) by picking an SEC school.

To some, Manning picking a program that went 5-7 last year is head-scratching. Then you factor in Texas not having a first-round offensive player since Vince Young and it’s even more perplexing.

But look beyond that and you’ll see that Manning’s commitment to the Longhorns made a whole lot of sense.

Let’s start with the obvious. Was this a “Texas vs. the SEC” thing? Probably not. If Manning’s main motivator for picking a college was simply avoiding a certain conference, why then would the majority of his 3 finalists have been from said conference?

That doesn’t make sense. What does make sense is the logic behind picking Steve Sarkisian’s program instead of Alabama or Georgia.

The timing is everything. I’ve maintained from the jump that no matter where Manning ends up, he’s likely going to enter a quarterback room wherein he has to beat out at least 1 older, former blue-chip quarterback recruit.

Remember what that would’ve looked like at Georgia.

Brock Vandagriff and Carson Beck aren’t going anywhere. They’re set to battle for the starting job next year when Stetson Bennett IV finally graduates (allegedly). Beck still has 4 years of eligibility left heading into 2022 because 2020 didn’t count against anyone and in 2021, he only appeared in 3 games. Vandagriff also has 4 years of eligibility left entering 2022.

On top of that, by next spring, Beck will have had 3 years in Todd Monken’s offense while Vandagriff will have had 2. That’s not even including Gunner Stockton, who just arrived in Athens in the spring. That’s an extremely daunting situation to walk into for a true freshman. That’s much different from just having to wait out a QB like Quinn Ewers, who will be entering his pre-draft season at Texas when Manning is a freshman in 2023.

Then when you remember that Kirby Smart has had more 5-star quarterbacks leave his program than anybody else has had join their program since 2016 and yeah, it’s fair to say nothing is guaranteed. Go ask Justin Fields, Jacob Eason and JT Daniels about that.

Speaking of guarantees, think about this angle. We heard throughout Manning’s recruitment that joining the right system and play-caller was going to be critical, and understandably so. Hence, which one of these scenarios seems most likely:

  • Option A) Bill O’Brien is still Alabama’s OC through 2025
  • Option B) Todd Monken is still Georgia’s OC through 2025
  • Option C) Steve Sarkisian is still Texas’ head coach through 2025

If we’re being honest, Option C is the most likely scenario.

Yes, again, I realize that Texas is 5-7 and the words “we’re baaaaaaaack” were said after a 4-loss season in 2018. But even in 2021, Texas put up a top-20 offense in Year 1 with Sarkisian. It wasn’t like he suddenly failed the second he stepped out of the friendly confines of Tuscaloosa.

That’s the other part worth remembering here. Yes, Alabama and Georgia can sell the idea of playing for a national title. But also think about what the Tide can pitch in terms of quarterback development. How many of those things could be credited to Sarkisian? Most of them. It was Sarkisian who left Alabama after leaving the 2 most prolific offenses in program history in 2019-20. That was with Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones. Also remember that while O’Brien was the one calling plays for Bryce Young, it was Sarkisian who recruited the 5-star phenom and developed him as a true freshman.

Alabama’s depth chart doesn’t look as stacked as Georgia’s, but the timing wasn’t ideal there, either. Jalen Milroe, who has been getting rave reviews as a redshirt freshman, also enters 2022 with 4 years of eligibility remaining. That’s assuming Young is off to the NFL at season’s end. Milroe would’ve had a 2-year leg up on Manning in O’Brien’s offense. While I didn’t necessarily think the commitment of 2023 classmate Eli Holstein was a reason for Manning to not pursue Alabama (and vice versa), I do wonder about Milroe’s timeline and whether him potentially sticking around through 2024 could’ve impacted the Tide’s chances.

If Manning’s goal is to start in Year 2, he picked the perfect place. That opportunity is most likely at Texas with the way things set up with Ewers. Manning can theoretically start against Big 12 defenses in his first season as a starter — he’ll have a different reception playing against TCU than he would playing at Tennessee — and then move on to the big, bad SEC in his pre-draft season of 2025.

Get your popcorn ready for that. Texas in Year 1 in the SEC with Arch Manning as its starting quarterback listed as the No. 1 overall pick in every single way-too-early 2026 mock draft is … well, it’s something, alright.

Is it crazy to talk about a pre-draft season for someone who theoretically couldn’t sign an NFL contract for another 4 years? Probably. But not when you’re the No. 1 recruit with the last name “Manning.”

That’s why the Louisiana native was trending nationally on Twitter within minutes of his commitment. His announcement was his first and only tweet. He doesn’t follow anyone, he has never liked a tweet and he didn’t offer up anything more than the words “Committed to the University of Texas. #HookEm.”

Texas hooked perhaps its biggest recruit since Vince Young committed 20 years ago. Within 20 minutes, Young fired off a “HookEm!!” tweet that didn’t need any context. Manning will be welcomed with open arms to his new home in Austin.

As for the SEC?

Something tells me that’ll be a touch different.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sports/why-arch-manning-spurning-sec-for-now-picking-texas-makes-whole-lot-sense-2022/

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SL Xpress

SL Xpress 7517

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Saturday Down South article...

Why Arch Manning spurning the SEC (for now) and picking Texas makes a whole lot of sense

Connor O'Gara | 2 days ago

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sports/why-arch-manning-spurning-sec-for-now-picking-texas-makes-whole-lot-sense-2022/

Just more SEC bullshit. I can hardly wait to be the most hated school in that conference because we don’t give a shit about the SEC cult worship. More than that, we despise it. 

And Texas will be in the SEC in 2024, when ESPN takes over the SEC rights. That’s Manning’s sophomore season. Redshirt freshman if he redshirts (unlikely).

I really hate these fuckheads. 

  • Hook 'Em 6
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
BurntOrangeCrush

BurntOrangeCrush 1011

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, SL Xpress said:

Just more SEC bullshit. I can hardly wait to be the most hated school in that conference because we don’t give a shit about the SEC cult worship. More than that, we despise it. 

And Texas will be in the SEC in 2024, when ESPN takes over the SEC rights. That’s Manning’s sophomore season. Redshirt freshman if he redshirts (unlikely).

I really hate these fuckheads. 

Word

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...