NIL Newsletter #95 | Minnesota is 11th state to pass HS NIL, NY NIL discussion, Duke MBB hires Rachel Baker, OSU's Ryan Day's NIL $ figures are 'spot on,' Sonny Vacarro on NIL + ICYMI Ticker
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting - providing valuable, actionable NIL resources for student athletes, administrators, agents and other sport professionals.
Recapping NIL This Week:
Minnesota State High School League board approves NIL policy
The Minnesota State High School League board has approved an NIL policy for student athletes, it was announced Tuesday afternoon. For the full report, see HERE. States (11) that now allow for HS NIL include: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and Utah.
The MSHSL policy allows student athletes to make money from teaching and coaching, advertising and autographs. It also allows athletes to hire representation.
There are several caveats to the policy. Compensation can’t be tied to certain achievements or performance thresholds, athletes cannot be compensated by a school or a person or group representing the school and NIL activities cannot interfere with academic obligations. The policy also forbids financial recruiting.
Prohibited NIL activities include promoting activities associated with gambling, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, weapons and “adult entertainment products.” Students cannot sell items they were given by the school until their eligibility is exhausted. Use of MSHSL or school logos in NIL activities is not allowed.
New York state lawmakers push through NIL bill
New York’s NIL law has passed both chambers, but the discussion by legislators this week brought up some concerning issues. Primarily, several sports law experts noted that the legislators did not have a grasp on the definition of collectives and if they were subject to provisions in the proposed bill.
The bill also discusses a “student assistant program,” though the details remain unclear. This could shed some light as to what Democratic lawmakers are considering at the federal level - focusing beyond NIL into other areas of student athlete rights.
Twitter 🧵’s from Dan Greene and Maddie Salamone below:
Duke Men’s Basketball hires Rachel Baker, formerly of Nike and the NBA
Duke men's basketball head coach Jon Scheyer has announced the addition of Rachel Baker to the program as general manager. In this exclusive position, Baker will specialize in helping players enhance their personal and professional skill sets, capitalize on strategic partnerships, including NIL opportunities, and work to support players in navigating the opportunities and challenges that come with being a student-athlete at the highest level, according to the University’s announcement.
Across eight years at Nike and a year working in the NBA, Baker led initiatives for sports marketing with a focus on transforming the culture of basketball and the athlete development journey. At Nike, she led grassroots partnerships and event strategy for Nike's Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL), a staple program in the grassroots landscape focused on maximizing athlete potential. Her time at Nike also included the management of strategic initiatives between the footwear giant and NBA All-Star Kevin Durant, one of Nike's six signature athletes that fuel the brand's 80-percent share of the performance basketball market and WNBA and NBA athlete integration.
“I could not be more excited to join Jon Scheyer and the entire Duke Basketball family,” said Baker. “We're in the middle of such a transformative moment - not only for Duke, but for the college basketball landscape - and the chance to be part of it is the opportunity of a lifetime. Duke Basketball has remained rooted in honoring our storied history while writing the future of the game. I am humbled and honored to join this tradition and can't wait to get started.”
“Rachel is a one-of-a-kind talent with unique experience that will provide our players and their families with an unparalleled resource and partner as we navigate new frontiers of college basketball together.”
From Monday’s NIL Newsletter: Day’s $13 million NIL figure was ‘spot on’
Last Thursday morning in front of 100 members of the Columbus business community and potential NIL donors, Ohio State Football HC Ryan Day put a price tag on how much it will take to keep the Buckeyes competitive- $13 million. That number comes out to roughly $550,000 annually for the top 25 recruits. Day added that the price points are $2 million for premier quarterbacks and $1 million for top offensive tackles and pass rushers. Jeremy Crabtree of On3 spoke to some FBS sources to hear their thoughts on Day’s estimates.
“I’d still like to think that NIL is behind things like NFL development, coaching style, fit and location,” an SEC assistant coach said. “But it’s not anymore. If you want to land some of the best of the best, it’s going to take millions of dollars. That’s a fact. It pains me that we’re even talking about this. But in the SEC that $13 million figure is spot on. Heck, it’s probably too low.”
“I feel filthy… At least $13 million,” a Pac 12 coordinator said. “It’s all dictated by the quarterback. We’re finding out it’s taking at least $1.5 million, but maybe even $2 or $2.5 million for the best quarterbacks. They might not have their hands out, but many in their circle do.” // “You start there, and the numbers just keep piling up and up with receivers, cornerbacks, defensive linemen and offensive tackles. You better have a war chest now if you want to win in recruiting. This isn’t what it’s supposed to be like. It makes me sick.”
“It’s this weird gray area that we’re living in now, and every coach hates it,” a Big 12 recruiter said. “We’ve not as a staff talked about it taking this much or that much to land a guy or a group of guys. But we all know it’s a reality. 13 million. 20 million. 5 million. It doesn’t matter. The NIL market is real and anybody that says it isn’t is naïve.” // “I give a lot of credit to Ryan for finally putting it out there. Now maybe people will finally start paying attention to what we’ve been dealing with for months now. Pay-for-play is a real thing and it’s killing recruiting.”
Former Nike executive Sonny Vacarro talks NIL
The 83-year-old Vaccaro, who is most famous for signing Michael Jordan to Nike (as well implementing coach shoe deals and leading the charge for SA rights in the O’Bannon litigation), spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the phone from his home in California:
On NIL expectations: “My expectations were vastly, vastly exceeded with what could be done with the rights of the athlete. They have greatly exceeded them. As I associated with the lawyers and the people on the financial end, I learned. I was a student myself during O’Bannon. I never dreamed the kids could make zillions of dollars in one lump. That was the absolute truth. I couldn’t have possibly thought of what was going to happen today. But I wanted something like that to happen.”
On criticism from coaches/administrators: “I call them hypocrites. I call them sad individuals. What they don’t talk about and they’ll never talk about — none of these presidents of the universities or coaches — is no one really stuck up for the athlete until they were forced to stick up for the athlete. Let’s understand that right now. None of them. Guys I helped with business deals — and I was paid for doing it — guys I helped become very, very wealthy with shoe endorsements and schools that saved millions of dollars through shoe endorsements, these are the very people that only greed and self-preservation allow them to get away with what they were doing because the only voters were the same people running the schools — the athletic directors, the coaches. I blame them for what’s happening … When you ask me what the administrators did that I’m mad about today and will be tomorrow if I’m still living is I think they need to pay back. They need to pay back the thousands and thousands of athletes they denied by their own greed of ever giving them anything. It’s very similar to what some companies and some universities are doing with [restitution] for slavery.”
On student athletes: “O’Bannon brought them right there, and Alston knocked them out. Nine-nothing [the United States Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Alston] killed them. That’s the only reason [NCAA president Mark] Emmert’s not working today even though they gave him a five-year contract. There’s nowhere for them to go now. All the things the kids are asking for, right now, I don’t care how it’s given to them. If they’re doing a deed for something, they’re earning money. It never stopped anyone in the world, especially in America. They’re entertainers. No one bitches about entertainers. But in college, we call them something they’re not. They’re not, by identification, ‘student-athletes’. They’re not, by identification, anything other than they were hired to come in and perform for the masses. Nobody says that. That’s why they were given a scholarship. The athlete is coming and performing before a crowd that charges admission.”
ICYMI Ticker
Former NFL Quarterback Michael Vick is joining Levels Sports Group to work with its athletes on NIL. Vick will be providing mentorship to quarterbacks who work with the company, from USC’s Malachi Nelson - who wears No. 7 because of Vick - to Clemson’s DJ Uiagalelei. With this program, he “wants to ensure our athletes are making the best business decisions currently while simultaneously setting them up for long-term success,” Levels Co-Founder and Managing Partner Justin Giangrande said in a statement.
Minnesota AD Mark Coyle: “It's every hour. It is a conversation that I have almost every hour with every coach. I am so grateful that the coaches we have in place now have been awesome. The NIL, there's so much uncertainty around it.” // Coyle also chose his words carefully, saying the U of M will continue to make “value-based decisions” and educate athletes about NIL amid a "clunky" early implementation that has some schools moving fast to capitalize on its power to lure star players. // “People are going 75 right now and the speed limit is 55. We want to make sure we stay within the guardrails and that we do things the right way so that when we get more guidance nationally with what NIL is going to look like, we're in a good position We have 22 sports and we have SAs in every sport who have agreements right now.”
Dozens of Michigan State Football SAs on Tuesday shared a message via Twitter, saying the Spartans are creating the East Lansing NIL Club. It will allow fans to purchase passes for access to in-person events with players, with proceeds split equally among the participating players.
Learfield is looking to add staff that will work specifically on NIL deals for athletes. Ohio State, Oklahoma and UAB have opted into the program so far. Learfield and the schools would share the cost of adding NIL-specific execs. Learfield Exec VP/Business Development Solly Fulp is leading the program, which is an extension of Learfield Allied - called Allied+. More from Sports Business Journal HERE.
Bradley Braves supporters announced the launch of what is believed to be the first NIL collective in the Missouri Valley Conference. Home of the Brave is a member-driven organization that connects Bradley Braves men’s basketball players to NIL opportunities.
Northwestern’s Combe Family Vice President for Athletics & Recreation Derrick Gragg is teaching an elective class in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences called “The Business of College Sport.” The class is part of the minor in business institutions offered by the Harvey Kapnick Center for Business Institutions and open to all undergraduates regardless of their major or school. The class provides an overview of the major issues related to intercollegiate administration. And there is plenty to discuss for three hours each week, including integrity and institutional control; student-athletes as employees; Name, Image and Likeness legislation and policy; social justice consciousness related to racial equity and opportunity; and transgender student-athletes. More HERE.
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