Really interesting article from CBS with quotes from Coach Martin and David Sayler and an anonymous source saying we have a 8-10 million dollar football roster. Also, we stole multiple portal guy from p4 programs.
This article feels like one of the first public statements of wanting to move into the P4-5 when conference realignment takes place again.
“Our goal is to be the best Group of Six program in the country across all of our sports,” Sayler said. “That’s what we want to be. And just, you know, keep an eye towards the future and whatever happens next in this crazy world of college athletics.” Mentions the ACC in 2030 right after.
Without explicitly saying so…this reads like Miami publicly campaigning to be at the top of whatever list a P4 conference looks at (ACC) when they need to make big decisions at the end of this decade
Who out there (others that are truly in the know) thought we had that kind of money?. While we’re not P5 big spenders, we’re not bottom feeding, ain’t got no money or poor boys either. I would have never imagined we have this kind of money to spend.
Puts the pressure on Coach Martin to perform in the MAC and a new leveo for out of conference games. Can’t sit there and claim poverty. We’re not playing the OSU’s and Georgia’s of the 5 college football world. To some degree resources are close or at least close enough to most or all the OOC teams we play. With the level of teams we’re playing the expectations should be to go out there and get a few ‘effin wins before we start our MAC season. No excuses.
This article is wild if the numbers are true. I was banging on the NIL drum years ago on this board and people said I was crazy. We were a few years late to the party, but it seems like we are fully embracing the power of NIL.
Miami alumni have money and they love Miami. We just need our wealthy alumni to love Miami athletics and it seems like we are heading in that direction.
If we are spending $8-10 million on our football roster, I hope we are spending $4-5 million on our basketball roster. Basketball is a smarter investment, IMO. We just need to be the best team in the MAC to make the Big Dance in hoops. In football, we have to be the best team in the entire G5 to make the CFP, which is way harder to do. Plus, we could win 1-2 games in the basketball tournament, but it would be nearly impossible to win a single CFP game.
Not so sure about football being a bust. Look at this year’s schedule. Going 12-0 and winning the MAC certainly isn’t impossible.
Now would that get us in the College Playoffs conversation??? Maybe. How do Usucks and Pitt do in their games? If they wind up having good seasons playoffs maybe not as far off as you might think. Think we’d certainly be in the discussion. How would we do against a 1 or 2 seed? Probably not all that great but we are in the big dance. How sweet would that be? Plus moving forward with our newfound NIL funds maybe/hopefully not that far out in future seasons.
Could see us in the same situation as the BBall team. Good teams don’t want to play us. Dangerous!
Would love to see some cash go to pay schools willing to come to Oxford. Oklahoma State, Tulane, Va Tech, Wake Forest, Pitt, NC State, Duke … Dare to dream.
I think it would be interesting if a law firm filed class action on behalf of all non athlete students on equal protection. A pretty good case could be made that non students should not have to pay student fees to support a different student class.
This would crush the MAC and all underwater conferences. I am a proud Miami Alum and sports are exciting, but this is not an impossible scenario.
You certainly could include any other student activity where participants get a significant cash salary in addition to free tuition. Sure.
FWIW, I don’t think an equal protection argument is the right framing, but the instinct is something we all should keep in mind. We already put a large burden on our current students (~$1000 per year) to underwrite intercollegiate athletics. If Miami is going to chase this dragon, it needs to do so with other sources of revenue. And, as excited as I am to see Miami athletics seeming to attract significant financial support, I do worry that it may tap out some of the donors we would want for the capital campaign.
I feel like the hook would be fundamentals of the financial arrangement and the intent/purpose of the institution. That is why this article prompted my post.
Tuition was a non tangible asset for student athlete benefit even if board was not or access to study tables and special support on campus. I think that NIL starts to prompt questions about the landscape of the arrangement relative to the disparity of experience of the athlete and non athlete and the university athletic funds allocated on the overall to support a special subset.
So it seems…. An extra burden to the non athlete class to absolutely be paying for the special services of others, not due to need or handicap, but surrounding activities not central to the university tenet. That’s one of the big factors that is driving the language of all of this- avoidance of losing non profit status and or having unions of players etc. gets murky down there.
To me there is a vise possibility with one side being title 9 and the other side being this kind of question about the $20MM makeup that the student body is forced to pay or not attend this university.
Do full or substantial pay students also underwrite/ fund non athletic student activities and/or help pay for scholarships for no pay or partial pay students? Although the ability to increase the number of applicants and increase applicant yield as a result of successful athletic programs is no doubt difficult to measure there does appear to be some positive correlation. In fact the ROI on using some student fees for athletics may be a prudent business decision and assist in reaching long range enrollment targets ( check out the recent Wall Street Journal article re the men’s BB team - how much would that type of ad space cost? How many people read it and what type of people read the article? ). I do not see any type of successful legal cause of action regarding use of student fees unless the fees were used to fund illegal activities.Further students contactually agree to Miami policies and requirements upon enrolling including agreeing to pay student fee obligations. That said alumni support and other non student financial support sources should be actively pursed for not only athletics but many other worthy University programs and activities.
I’m no lawyer, but this seems to leave out a big variable called “free choice”. No student has to come to MU. They chose to come. They or their parents know their payment supports this scheme. Put another way, “you’re no stranger to love. You know the rules and so do I.” The Rick Roll Defense.
"As many of you know, I haven’t been able to publicly share much about the work happening behind the scenes with Red Brick Legacy and Miami Athletics.
Today that changes.
We decided it was time to show the world what has been building, and CBS Sports just published a great article highlighting the impact.
I’ve scaled multiple businesses in my career, but going from $80K to $8M in support for Miami Athletics through Red Brick Legacy has been a wild and incredibly rewarding ride.
None of this happens alone. A huge thank you to the people who have been there from Day 1 behind the scenes, supporting the vision and helping make this possible:
• Kristin Decker
• Matt McKeown
•Zachary Haines
• Brad Okel
• Emily Godman
• Diane Dudley Bernhard
Proud of what we’ve built together and even more excited about where it’s going.
