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Agree it's both a cap and a floor at the same time, depending how you look at it. It's a hard cap on the revenue share from the university (I'd still call this pure "pay for play"), but it's going to be the starting point with outside NIL for anyone that wants to be competitive (whether this is true NIL by definition or a different variation of pay for play will depend on enforcement).

Maxing out revenue share is going to be table stakes. Winners will emerge on the NIL side. The latter is also where we'll see the f**kery happen (namely different programs with different interpretations of the rules).
Having an in-department employee whose job is "coordinating external NIL endorsements" is the equivalent of keeping their booster collectives operative like last year and making any double dipping from the revenue share and collectives possible. That's how schools come up with a greater number than the $20.5M that the court settlement decided. At ISU, we need athletics donations just to get us to the $20.5M, so there isn't much point in having an employee hired fo that purpose.
 
I think it will be more of a floor than a ceiling in reality, price to pay as a P4. Not everyone will be able to afford it. I wouldn't want to know what that looks like in 5 years for those that can't. They will get absolutely gutted. I always try to remember that not all places are equal in this era. Quite a few schools have the media money alone to cover revenue share. ISU doesn't have the income to do that, but can make it work for awhile. They kinda have to.
So it seems like this House deal is going to end up hurting schools like ISU and others that do not have a lot of cash, because it forces us to come with at least $20 million each season, out of reserves right now to pay it. Then also come up with other moneys for NIL. What some were stated during the summer was a hard cap, now is nothing but a floor to get your school into the game, but does little to nothing to reign in spending of the schools that have money and want to spend it.
 
Having an in-department employee whose job is "coordinating external NIL endorsements" is the equivalent of keeping their booster collectives operative like last year and making any double dipping from the revenue share and collectives possible. That's how schools come up with a greater number than the $20.5M that the court settlement decided. At ISU, we need athletics donations just to get us to the $20.5M, so there isn't much point in having an employee hired fo that purpose.
Your last point is a very important one. And seems to be exactly the one Pollard is making (for better or for worse). Essentially "let's get to 20.5M before we start worrying about that".

On the surface, this is rational. If you're a coach that knows you need more than your share of the 20.5M to be competitive (think this is the biggest issue in football followed by MBB) I also think it's rational to want more support from the university here.

Pollard is threading this needle with a few convenient outliers (like Audi and Rocco) saying "there is nothing stopping anyone from seeking NIL deals on their own". He is factually correct in theory, but I think it is a little disingenuous in practice if other schools are doing this. It's classic "taking over each other".

The fact of the matter is a 4 or 5 star recruit probably doesn't give a $hit where the money comes from so long as it comes their way. Revenue share is probably easier because it's true pay for play.

With the outside NIL, you have to wonder if this limits what some of the big donors can do. Let's say I sold a business and came into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. I have no legitimate business reason to pay Milan $2M to come back to Iowa State next year. I could give that to the University and it could go into revenue sharing (potentially ear marked for just him), but (1) that's going to count towards the $20.5M cap and (2) potentially piss off the coaches. But if I run some business where I spend a lot of money on advertising already, I could legally sign a deal with him for appearances, social media campaigns, etc.

If I'm an AD I'm scouring my alumni base for rich donors with legitimate business reason to pay a player outside the revenue share.
 
So it seems like this House deal is going to end up hurting schools like ISU and others that do not have a lot of cash, because it forces us to come with at least $20 million each season, out of reserves right now to pay it. Then also come up with other moneys for NIL. What some were stated during the summer was a hard cap, now is nothing but a floor to get your school into the game, but does little to nothing to reign in spending of the schools that have money and want to spend it.
I think everyone was being counseled this was coming and it is what was really behind the push by SEC/B1G to grab teams and maximize football television revenue last cycle. They wanted as much cash as possible when this hit, even if it meant the ACC, PAC, and Big 12 had to take the hit. Life isn't easy enough, even at the top of the athletics food chain.
 
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So it seems like this House deal is going to end up hurting schools like ISU and others that do not have a lot of cash, because it forces us to come with at least $20 million each season, out of reserves right now to pay it. Then also come up with other moneys for NIL. What some were stated during the summer was a hard cap, now is nothing but a floor to get your school into the game, but does little to nothing to reign in spending of the schools that have money and want to spend it.
Now you're getting it. It's a feature, not a bug.

You increase the gini coefficient between the haves and have-nots, and it makes it easier to argue "we should have our own super league and get these plebes out of here (and keep all the money)".

It's right with the "G5 don't deserve a place in the CFP because they can't win (so we should keep all the money)".
 
I think everyone was being counseled this was coming and it is what was really behind the push by SEC/B1G to grab teams and maximize football television revenue last cycle. They wanted as much cash as possible when this hit, even if it meant the ACC, PAC, and Big 12 had to take the hit. Life isn't easy enough, even at the top of the athletics food chain.
To your point, I beleive even Ohio State - with over 1/4 of a billion in AD revenue - operated at a $37M loss last year.
 
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Except he hasn't put Malcolm Watkins on the incoming.

As I stated before I have a feeling that Jimmy and gang are going to keep things close to their vest. And it's a natural thing since they are new here and don't have a repour with the "insiders" yet.

Technically, Malcolm isn't a Transfer Portal guy. He's incoming 2026 recruit.
 
Now you're getting it. It's a feature, not a bug.

You increase the gini coefficient between the haves and have-nots, and it makes it easier to argue "we should have our own super league and get these plebes out of here (and keep all the money)".

It's right with the "G5 don't deserve a place in the CFP because they can't win (so we should keep all the money)".
I really doubt ISU is going to be one of the schools in a super league when it does occur unless the number is around 60 or so teams, this legislation does nothing but bleed out schools like ISU to slow death, before they break away.
 
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I really doubt ISU is going to be one of the schools in a super league when it does occur unless the number is around 60 or so teams, this legislation does nothing but bleed out schools like ISU to slow death, before they break away.
Yeah probably not. ISU is solidly in the Top 40, but if a smaller "blue bloods only" type Super League happens (say 24 or 32 teams), its highly unlikely they get in. What's galling is that Iowa would probably get in.

I think we all need to hope that if a seismic shift happens, its a 64 team thing, with the others (G5 and low rent P4 like Wake, Rutgers, BC) getting relegated sort of like the current FBS vs FCS bifurcation.
 
Yeah probably not. ISU is solidly in the Top 40, but if a smaller "blue bloods only" type Super League happens (say 24 or 32 teams), its highly unlikely they get in. What's galling is that Iowa would probably get in.

I think we all need to hope that if a seismic shift happens, its a 64 team thing, with the others (G5 and low rent P4 like Wake, Rutgers, BC) getting relegated sort of like the current FBS vs FCS bifurcation.
If they don't go to 64 teams I'm not sure how a Super League would survive long-term. You need as many people watching as possible and even the biggest regular season college football don't hold a candle to the worst NFL TV numbers...even the London games get better ratings.
 
I still don’t understand how the B10 gets the media money they reportedly get. Who’s paying for UCLA / Rutgers or NW / Maryland?

Outside of 4-5 key matchups most of it is garbage FB. And we’re told FB is what drives money. Who’s paying $70+ million a year for those games?

This can’t be profitable or sustainable for the media either.
 
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I still don’t understand how the B10 gets the media money they reportedly get. Who’s paying for UCLA / Rutgers or NW / Maryland?

Outside of 4-5 key matchups most of it is garbage FB. And we’re told FB is what drives money. Who’s paying $70+ million a year for those games?

This can’t be profitable or sustainable for the media either.
They make their money off Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. If it were up to the networks, the Big 10 and SEC would drop the dead weight.
 
I still don’t understand how the B10 gets the media money they reportedly get. Who’s paying for UCLA / Rutgers or NW / Maryland?

Outside of 4-5 key matchups most of it is garbage FB. And we’re told FB is what drives money. Who’s paying $70+ million a year for those games?

This can’t be profitable or sustainable for the media either.
It's in the way they price BTN, the difference between a state that has a conference team and those that do not. Look at Iowa, they have deals set up that allows them to charge the consumer more if you have a team than if your state does not. So everyone that has cable or is streaming the service pays money to the B10 whether they are a fan or not, everyone pays. Its the genius of the system, if you do not have a team in your state, like Kansas, it costs very little to add BTN to your bill, something like a dime, but in Iowa its a dollar or two per home. That is where the real money is at, Rutgers brings nothing to the table sports wise, but they bring in a lot of TV money because they can charge everyone the state the conference price not the non conference price to see the games. Does not matter if they watch, they all pay.
 
It's in the way they price BTN, the difference between a state that has a conference team and those that do not. Look at Iowa, they have deals set up that allows them to charge the consumer more if you have a team than if your state does not. So everyone that has cable or is streaming the service pays money to the B10 whether they are a fan or not, everyone pays. Its the genius of the system, if you do not have a team in your state, like Kansas, it costs very little to add BTN to your bill, something like a dime, but in Iowa its a dollar or two per home. That is where the real money is at, Rutgers brings nothing to the table sports wise, but they bring in a lot of TV money because they can charge everyone the state the conference price not the non conference price to see the games. Does not matter if they watch, they all pay.
 

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Yeah probably not. ISU is solidly in the Top 40, but if a smaller "blue bloods only" type Super League happens (say 24 or 32 teams), its highly unlikely they get in. What's galling is that Iowa would probably get in.

I think we all need to hope that if a seismic shift happens, its a 64 team thing, with the others (G5 and low rent P4 like Wake, Rutgers, BC) getting relegated sort of like the current FBS vs FCS bifurcation.
If it’s 32 it may be best to be the second level. Iowa may get in but they would be the whipping post for 90% of the teams.
 

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