Hi everyone,
Does anyone know whether we have (or at least started the process of creating) NIL collectives? If not, how challenging would it be for us in this forum to create one? I believe getting it started shouldn’t be too hard (talk to the athletics folks, look for partnerships with the development/alumni people, obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS, etc.). You know, “If you build it, he [the money] will [hopefully] come.” Thoughts?
Beyond my pay grade…
This is a first, finally found a topic that stumps Nescadad 
There are at least some MAC NIL collectives already, though none for Miami afaik. The ones that do exist are all run by parent companies that manage NIL collectives as a service. Not sure if that means it’s particularly difficult to do on your own, or just an easy way for those companies to grab some cash as the middle man.
I’d be very dubious of any collective that claimed it was a 501(c)(3). That seemed like BS from the beginning, and the IRS this summer said essentially that as well: IRS throws a chill into collectives paying college athletes while claiming nonprofit status | AP News
I’m not convinced that spending money on an NIL collective is a better use of funds vs direct donations to Miami at our level
I am a Liberal Arts grad. I didn’t major in business or finance at the Farmer School. Let’s hear ideas from the self-proclaimed experts in that area.
I get it. I have mixed feelings about it. But say there is a donor who is willing to give, say, 10K to keep an outstanding player like Ivan Pace Jr. at Miami. Which mechanisms are there in place to help that donor streamline the process? The university cannot help donors or student-athletes in any way, well at least not legally. My understanding is that there is only Icon Suite now working with Miami, which is a “middleman” serving primarily as a marketplace and monitoring tool, i.e., it has no strong connections with alumni or supporters, it is not creating charitable events that pay for the work done by student-athletes, etc.
Ideally, a group of former, trusted student-athletes or alumni could create an LLC or a non-profit to help with the above.
By the way, there are quite a few collectives that are 501(c)3, see Risign Spear, Matador Club, The Swarm Collective, The Panther Collective, among others.
There are, yes. But it’s pretty clear that they aren’t actually charities that should be exempt, and I think long term the IRS will be cracking down on those that don’t self regulate.
I look at it through the lens of who would this really help. NILs directly help the athletes….sure it’s a recruiting advantage too. But endowments help the institutions, which seem longer lasting. And thus certainly helps Miami longer term offset expenses
NIL might help the athlete and the recruiting, endowments help the budget. We’re doing ok on the recruiting front….we’re paying our coach 129th out of 133……
About this time last year I reached out to the Athletic Development department and they confirmed we had not established any collective as of then. Earlier this summer when I was in Oxford I spoke to some basketball staffers and they again said no collective had been set up, but most other MAC schools had some form of a collective.
I think it would take a little bit of effort and a lot of organization (which is more complicated because the school can’t technically do much), but it could be done. Would be happy to help if someone wants to get the ball rolling.
I would wait a couple weeks…
I agree with you on endowments. But those are substantial amounts of money. As Mr. NESCACDAD said, that is beyond my pay grade. If memory serves me well, it costs 1.5 to 2 million to create a named faculty position at Miami. For a head coach position, that value is likely higher since the generated interest on the donated money must be enough to cover a big chunk of the coach’s salary. Collectives would help with smaller donations focusing on students.
Yes! That was what I was hoping for. Maybe 5 to 10 committed folks can make it happen.
Miami announced an NIL partnership with Icon Source on October 11. My understanding is that Icon is software that helps match athletes with businesses/donors. Icon is not a collective, but hopefully someone can get the ball rolling on the HawkTalk Collective.
I dunno Prof
Agree that endowments can be more painful….but what problem are we trying to fix here? Paying a handful of athletes, who will leave in a year or two, $50k a year……so that we can attract that one borderline 4 star athlete?
So the break even is what 10 years? And if the NIL stays intact….the endowment (if managed appropriately) lives in perpetuity.
Say what you will about chucks ability to recruit and develop QBs, but more broadly I don’t think we have a recruiting problem to fix, including the portal
The problem we will have is when the program takes a massive step backwards when there is coaching turnover, because there will be and we’ve got no money to be competitive.
JMU offered Cignetti $1.2M to stay….right now, we couldn’t come close to that….
Toward the end of the signing day show this morning, Chuck alluded to an upcoming push to build Miami’s NIL collective. Said they’ll be reaching out to donors soon to help keep some of these guys who are getting offers to leave.
The Miami players ought to produce some shirts next year to sell for about $50 to create another pool of NIL $.
Here’s my design:
“Yeah, No!”
M (Logo)
Love and Honor
MU does have a few SA’s with NIL deals but not many. There is no collective and I would strongly recommend NOT forming a 501(c)3 as the IRS is most likely to swat down (already gave prelim opinion its not good).
It would not be difficult to create a collective (1-2 wks) however it would need to be done ideally with DS and coaches approval. I don’t think DS has an appetite for it at this time but things change. Most if not all other MAC schools have a collective and MU is at a disadvantage not having a true NIL program. And their marketplace (Iconsource) is not driving deals to kids.
What happened today explains why we need an NIL collective. We (likely) lost our top 2 offensive players in a single day. Can we hit the portal and find suitable replacements? Hopefully. Assuming they are successful, will the replacements stay at Miami for more than one year without receiving money? Unlikely. What is happening with college sports is just sad.
Let’s see where Rashad goes….
Why does it matter where he goes? If he’s not playing for us he’s dead to me.
Because he’s not committed anywhere yet
Brett went in last year and didn’t leave….lets see what happens