Hopefully Baumgartner can get some common sense into the NIL mess. The playing field needs to be leveled so large and small, wealthy and otherwise wise schools all have the same opportunity as before to recruit talented players.
Whether this current NIL situation continues or not is one question. But I'm curious--do you personally believe it's good for fans and college sports in general?
Do prefer what's happening now to how it all played out, say, five years ago?
Years before NIL became legal all throughout the late 2010 I had been saying repeatedly that as soon as it becomes legal, it will immediately turn into pay for play.
This was during the time when all the same sports media members were talking about how terrible NIL is now, were all pushing for it then.
I’m certainly in favor of players getting their fair share, but it was obvious to see ahead exactly what happened was going to happen
To answer your question no I hate the current system, but I also deal with reality and not fantasy and this particular bill is complete fantasy
If that’s what you took away from my comment, then you misinterpreted my intent.
I’m not calling the players greedy and I’m not saying they shouldn’t get their share.
All I’m saying is that NIL isn’t NIL, it’s pay for play and has been from the start. And was easy to predict.
There there’s no going back. There are only two end states for college football. The first is to become something like the NFL where you have employees and collective bargaining and a salary, recap, or the second is essentially what we have right now.
I completely agree Doug. That bill won't get a sniff. Every state with a major program would fight it for many reasons. I also completely agree with where this is heading. Either collective bargaining or where we are now. The House settlement is trying to fix that, but the NIL part of that will get shot down in a lawsuit so fast your head will spin. I am not sure why they think a third party can tell a player how much a company can pay them without that player agreeing to some form of collective bargaining. There are also a lot of state laws being added to the books as we speak to work around it. So back to where we are except the schools also get to pay the players.
"seven figures" for Michael Rataj, hardly a household name due to a "spiking market". NIL is going down exactly as I thought it would, with a race to the bottom among Div 1 teams and a race to the top for just better than average players. Would Rataj even make the bench of any NBA team? He will be making more than your deep bench NBA players. Why not just stay in college for 6 or 7 years? Why do we bother with "4 years of eligibility" since these job hoppers are never going to get a degree anyway?
"A Big Ten Conference head basketball coach told me this week that the biggest thing that matters to players is money." Last fall when I indicated that Jeanty was purchased to stay in Boise, I took a lot of heat from commenters who said that no, Jeanty stayed in Boise out of loyalty. BS. Cam Ward jumped from WSU in a heartbeat over bigger bucks. All kids will do that. Whoever offers the most money wins. Recruiting skill and coaching style don't matter a bit. Dan Lanning gets great players because he spends a lot of NIL money (the collective does it for him)
Those NIL numbers for OSU’s departing players … wow. Just wow. No disrespect whatsoever to those three — saw them in person … all talented. But if they’re worth mid to high six figures, I can’t fathom how mid-majors, writ large, ever will hold onto talent.
Agreed, he seems like a guy who could get drafted deep in the 2nd round, play G League a few years and maybe make it to a bench in the NBA someday, making less than $1M. One example for the Timberwolves I follow is: Josh Minott. But every team has 5 or 6 of these guys on their 15 man roster. Rataj will make more money in college.
How can you disrespect any kid who most likely did not have a lot growing up for going to where he / she is paid most? This has nothing to do with the kids. This is all about the NCAA completely losing control. I agree with the WA Congressman, dissolve the NCAA. It serves no purpose whatsoever and has been a dysfunctional anachronism for 50 years. Congress needs to take control of high level (D1) college sports and needs to take control away from ESPN and FSN who are pulling all the levers for their own profits without regard to schools, athletes and fans
Brian, I went out of my way to make clear my issue is with the system, not the players. And I agree — the NCAA is culpable. I’m unsure if politicians are capable of regulating this — or much of anything — in a way that helps. But something has to be done.
This market - overpaying for average talent - can't sustain itself.
I will never donate to NIL. Can't imagine spending my money to be a player-buying jock-sniffer. Not sure what those who do get out of the deal, except perhaps access to 18-22-year-old players to don't care about you and will take the next bag the second it becomes available.
Inclined to agree. Except: if you care about a college program and want to ensure it has a chance to be competitive, helping to fund a NIL collective is about the only way. Until this wretched system is reformed or blown up.
You are spot on Barry! Rataj is a nice player but he was playing against very average college competition this past year. He had one great game against the Zags in Corvallis and was frequently very average against better schools. Happy for him and the payday however.
I listened to the Baumgartner interview. He comes across as hopelessly behind the times. His ideas are odds with every court decision that’s been handed down on the subject. He also seems oblivious to the fact that the “antitrust exemptions” he says other leagues have are the result of collective bargaining.
All he wants is to turn back the clock to a time where the players who actually generate the revenue see no part of it. I can’t believe JC gave this crackpot any airtime at all.
Baumgartner's pipe dream is D.O.A. First, he will NEVER get the support of his peers from the the "Have" football states (think FL, TX, MI, OH, LA, CA) to agree to give up their schools' present advantages.
Even his legislation were to pass, the rush of attorneys filing restraint of trade and antitrust lawsuits on behalf of "wronged" players would make the NCAA's legal plight minimal in comparison.
I was absolutely gobsmacked to see the SIX-figure NIL bribes that are going to AVERAGE players and 18 year-old kids. Cannot imagine what five stars are pulling in. Oh, wait...maybe I can.
Who'll be the first SEVEN figure recipient? Has one already appeared? Absolutely out of control. Cong. Baumgartner is absolutely taking things in the right direction.
It seems like we’re starting to learn just how severely these athletes’ true market value and earning potential has been held back over the years. With the courts putting an end to the NCAA’s anticompetitive behavior, the market is now working as it should.
I think Baumgartner's plan is flawed on a practical level, but at some point Congress will become involved if only to save the Olympic sports.
Because right now what is holding up Olympic sports at some schools is the NCAA minimum. If the NCAA membership votes to lower that number or someone successfully challenges the limit legally, then Olympic sports outside of Title IX compliance will become threatened.
NIL isca factor but not the only factor at OSU. Who wants to play for Wayne Tinkle. The guy has been mediocre at best his entire career. No player other than his own kid and Steve Thompson's kids have gotten better under Tinkle. They stay.the dame or get worse. Tinkle is more of an albatross than NIL could ever be.
Shallow thinking. Ask yourself this question. Why are the players that are exiting via the transfer portal leaving the Beaver Basketball team? Is it because they Beavers are interior players entering teams with players that are less talented than the exiting Beaver players? Why would another team pay more NIL money to Beaver players that are less talented than their current rostered team? I'll make this simple for you. The Beaver players choosing to leave are doing so for $$$$$, plain and simple. How did these players catch the attention of agents and opposing coaches if they struggled and played poorly during the year? Did the coaching perhaps put them in a place where they improved enough to get the attention they have gotten? Michael Rataj had mailed it in at the WCC tournament. He knew that there was a pot of gold waiting for him, why even care? Parsa Fallqh will be a back bencher wherever he goes He likely would be backing up Logue next year with the improvement that Logue has shown under the coaching he's gotten this year. Kingz getting $700K to play at Syracuse was a no brainer that had nothing to do with the coaching or lack thereof. He was put in a position by the coaching to stand out and succeed. Finally, blaming coaching for the absolute mess that the NCAA/NIL and unregulated transfer portal free agency has taken a wrecking ball to college athletics as we knew them is simply wrong. So, your answer is to go get another coach for more $$$ and expect him overcome the same obstacles that face our current coaches? Just how can that happen in the current free for all that this has turned into. Please share that with all of us.
You're being narrow minded with tunnel vision. You don't think if OSU had a coach worth a shit big donors would give more? Why would smart business people who accumulated a lot of wealth waste it on stupid bets of a coach going nowhere? Hire a decent coach and the NIL money will increase. Keep a loser behind the bench and nobody is going to fund that disaster. People need a reason to fork over their money with a reasonable chance it will be money well spent. Right now they know it won't be. It really is that simple.
A prudent business man wouldn’t touch this business model, let alone invest in it. The NIL and transfer portal system as it now exists will fail. In fact it is failing. Lute Olsen and Bobby Knight couldn’t navigate these troubled waters. This is no longer college athletics. Its unrestricted free agency being funded by well heeled donors. It won’t take long for even that crowd to tire of the system. The players and agents feeding at this trough will soon see the ties of athletics to a university fray, and soon fail completely. These aren’t student athletes any more. They are professional athletes (and their agents)selling their talent to the highest bidder. The “bidders” being affiliated with an institution of higher learning. Time to sit this out until there are some rational guidelines put in place to stop the mayhem.
Hopefully Baumgartner can get some common sense into the NIL mess. The playing field needs to be leveled so large and small, wealthy and otherwise wise schools all have the same opportunity as before to recruit talented players.
No chance his bill sees the light of day
Whether this current NIL situation continues or not is one question. But I'm curious--do you personally believe it's good for fans and college sports in general?
Do prefer what's happening now to how it all played out, say, five years ago?
Years before NIL became legal all throughout the late 2010 I had been saying repeatedly that as soon as it becomes legal, it will immediately turn into pay for play.
This was during the time when all the same sports media members were talking about how terrible NIL is now, were all pushing for it then.
I’m certainly in favor of players getting their fair share, but it was obvious to see ahead exactly what happened was going to happen
To answer your question no I hate the current system, but I also deal with reality and not fantasy and this particular bill is complete fantasy
The whole system is pay for play Doug. The players are the last to get their share and suddenly they are the greedy ones.
If that’s what you took away from my comment, then you misinterpreted my intent.
I’m not calling the players greedy and I’m not saying they shouldn’t get their share.
All I’m saying is that NIL isn’t NIL, it’s pay for play and has been from the start. And was easy to predict.
There there’s no going back. There are only two end states for college football. The first is to become something like the NFL where you have employees and collective bargaining and a salary, recap, or the second is essentially what we have right now.
I completely agree Doug. That bill won't get a sniff. Every state with a major program would fight it for many reasons. I also completely agree with where this is heading. Either collective bargaining or where we are now. The House settlement is trying to fix that, but the NIL part of that will get shot down in a lawsuit so fast your head will spin. I am not sure why they think a third party can tell a player how much a company can pay them without that player agreeing to some form of collective bargaining. There are also a lot of state laws being added to the books as we speak to work around it. So back to where we are except the schools also get to pay the players.
My bracket has Florida playing Duke on Monday Night for a national championship with Florida having their one shining moment as national champions
"seven figures" for Michael Rataj, hardly a household name due to a "spiking market". NIL is going down exactly as I thought it would, with a race to the bottom among Div 1 teams and a race to the top for just better than average players. Would Rataj even make the bench of any NBA team? He will be making more than your deep bench NBA players. Why not just stay in college for 6 or 7 years? Why do we bother with "4 years of eligibility" since these job hoppers are never going to get a degree anyway?
"A Big Ten Conference head basketball coach told me this week that the biggest thing that matters to players is money." Last fall when I indicated that Jeanty was purchased to stay in Boise, I took a lot of heat from commenters who said that no, Jeanty stayed in Boise out of loyalty. BS. Cam Ward jumped from WSU in a heartbeat over bigger bucks. All kids will do that. Whoever offers the most money wins. Recruiting skill and coaching style don't matter a bit. Dan Lanning gets great players because he spends a lot of NIL money (the collective does it for him)
Cheap beaver shot at Coach Lanning you do understand that the schools Oregon competes with for top recruits all have big Checkbooks.
“Back to god’s country” eh? People are getting waaaay too comfortable with the racism. That’s a HARD pass on Texas State.
Those NIL numbers for OSU’s departing players … wow. Just wow. No disrespect whatsoever to those three — saw them in person … all talented. But if they’re worth mid to high six figures, I can’t fathom how mid-majors, writ large, ever will hold onto talent.
I think Rataj is a borderline NBA player, so his deal isn’t shocking to me. The Kingz and Fallah deals seem insane, but it’s not my money.
Agreed, he seems like a guy who could get drafted deep in the 2nd round, play G League a few years and maybe make it to a bench in the NBA someday, making less than $1M. One example for the Timberwolves I follow is: Josh Minott. But every team has 5 or 6 of these guys on their 15 man roster. Rataj will make more money in college.
How can you disrespect any kid who most likely did not have a lot growing up for going to where he / she is paid most? This has nothing to do with the kids. This is all about the NCAA completely losing control. I agree with the WA Congressman, dissolve the NCAA. It serves no purpose whatsoever and has been a dysfunctional anachronism for 50 years. Congress needs to take control of high level (D1) college sports and needs to take control away from ESPN and FSN who are pulling all the levers for their own profits without regard to schools, athletes and fans
Yeah, Congress is doing a great job. Are you freaking crazy?
Brian, I went out of my way to make clear my issue is with the system, not the players. And I agree — the NCAA is culpable. I’m unsure if politicians are capable of regulating this — or much of anything — in a way that helps. But something has to be done.
"....creating a new entity led by a Presidential appointee."
Well, Teddy Roosevelt got involved in the early 1900's so it wouldn't be without precedent, I guess.
God help us if the President gets to name a college commissioner (or other title).
Congress has been involved for over 2 years already. That they can't get anything done is typical of modern Congresses where partisan infighting seems much more important to the players than needed policy. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4133853-congress-looks-to-rein-in-college-sports-what-to-know-about-the-legislation/
This market - overpaying for average talent - can't sustain itself.
I will never donate to NIL. Can't imagine spending my money to be a player-buying jock-sniffer. Not sure what those who do get out of the deal, except perhaps access to 18-22-year-old players to don't care about you and will take the next bag the second it becomes available.
Inclined to agree. Except: if you care about a college program and want to ensure it has a chance to be competitive, helping to fund a NIL collective is about the only way. Until this wretched system is reformed or blown up.
I will donate for facilities improvement and other program enhancements. A locker room or batting cage can't transfer!
Amen to that
You are spot on Barry! Rataj is a nice player but he was playing against very average college competition this past year. He had one great game against the Zags in Corvallis and was frequently very average against better schools. Happy for him and the payday however.
Baumgartners plan is DOA. Wont even get a serious conversation on the hill
I listened to the Baumgartner interview. He comes across as hopelessly behind the times. His ideas are odds with every court decision that’s been handed down on the subject. He also seems oblivious to the fact that the “antitrust exemptions” he says other leagues have are the result of collective bargaining.
All he wants is to turn back the clock to a time where the players who actually generate the revenue see no part of it. I can’t believe JC gave this crackpot any airtime at all.
Baumgartner's pipe dream is D.O.A. First, he will NEVER get the support of his peers from the the "Have" football states (think FL, TX, MI, OH, LA, CA) to agree to give up their schools' present advantages.
Even his legislation were to pass, the rush of attorneys filing restraint of trade and antitrust lawsuits on behalf of "wronged" players would make the NCAA's legal plight minimal in comparison.
Will Graves also played a year for SOU. We liked him a lot.
NIL = WTF
I wish Baumgartner luck…not holding my breath
Damphousse is having lobster bisque on a chicken broth budget.
And if this is the new PAC 12, forget it!
Good luck Baumgartner. That isn’t happening
Auburn v Duke. Duke wins it all.
I was absolutely gobsmacked to see the SIX-figure NIL bribes that are going to AVERAGE players and 18 year-old kids. Cannot imagine what five stars are pulling in. Oh, wait...maybe I can.
Who'll be the first SEVEN figure recipient? Has one already appeared? Absolutely out of control. Cong. Baumgartner is absolutely taking things in the right direction.
It seems like we’re starting to learn just how severely these athletes’ true market value and earning potential has been held back over the years. With the courts putting an end to the NCAA’s anticompetitive behavior, the market is now working as it should.
I think Baumgartner's plan is flawed on a practical level, but at some point Congress will become involved if only to save the Olympic sports.
Because right now what is holding up Olympic sports at some schools is the NCAA minimum. If the NCAA membership votes to lower that number or someone successfully challenges the limit legally, then Olympic sports outside of Title IX compliance will become threatened.
NIL isca factor but not the only factor at OSU. Who wants to play for Wayne Tinkle. The guy has been mediocre at best his entire career. No player other than his own kid and Steve Thompson's kids have gotten better under Tinkle. They stay.the dame or get worse. Tinkle is more of an albatross than NIL could ever be.
Shallow thinking. Ask yourself this question. Why are the players that are exiting via the transfer portal leaving the Beaver Basketball team? Is it because they Beavers are interior players entering teams with players that are less talented than the exiting Beaver players? Why would another team pay more NIL money to Beaver players that are less talented than their current rostered team? I'll make this simple for you. The Beaver players choosing to leave are doing so for $$$$$, plain and simple. How did these players catch the attention of agents and opposing coaches if they struggled and played poorly during the year? Did the coaching perhaps put them in a place where they improved enough to get the attention they have gotten? Michael Rataj had mailed it in at the WCC tournament. He knew that there was a pot of gold waiting for him, why even care? Parsa Fallqh will be a back bencher wherever he goes He likely would be backing up Logue next year with the improvement that Logue has shown under the coaching he's gotten this year. Kingz getting $700K to play at Syracuse was a no brainer that had nothing to do with the coaching or lack thereof. He was put in a position by the coaching to stand out and succeed. Finally, blaming coaching for the absolute mess that the NCAA/NIL and unregulated transfer portal free agency has taken a wrecking ball to college athletics as we knew them is simply wrong. So, your answer is to go get another coach for more $$$ and expect him overcome the same obstacles that face our current coaches? Just how can that happen in the current free for all that this has turned into. Please share that with all of us.
You're being narrow minded with tunnel vision. You don't think if OSU had a coach worth a shit big donors would give more? Why would smart business people who accumulated a lot of wealth waste it on stupid bets of a coach going nowhere? Hire a decent coach and the NIL money will increase. Keep a loser behind the bench and nobody is going to fund that disaster. People need a reason to fork over their money with a reasonable chance it will be money well spent. Right now they know it won't be. It really is that simple.
A prudent business man wouldn’t touch this business model, let alone invest in it. The NIL and transfer portal system as it now exists will fail. In fact it is failing. Lute Olsen and Bobby Knight couldn’t navigate these troubled waters. This is no longer college athletics. Its unrestricted free agency being funded by well heeled donors. It won’t take long for even that crowd to tire of the system. The players and agents feeding at this trough will soon see the ties of athletics to a university fray, and soon fail completely. These aren’t student athletes any more. They are professional athletes (and their agents)selling their talent to the highest bidder. The “bidders” being affiliated with an institution of higher learning. Time to sit this out until there are some rational guidelines put in place to stop the mayhem.
On that I agree completely. But it wouldn't matter what model you're playing under, Tinkle would fail no matter what.
If Kingz is worth $700k on the open market, why shouldn’t somebody be allowed to pay him his worth? Isn’t it unethical to prevent that?
Syracuse is welcome to overpay for a good shooter who doesn't play a lick of defense. He'll be a role player there, albeit a very expensive one.
Apparently Syracuse did, or will, pay him $700k. Who is preventing him from grabbing that cash?
The crackpot politician that JC had on the show laid out an entire crazy plan for preventing it.