Scream wrote:
Nate, one way I imagine this all playing out: The city of Lexington, Ky spins off a nonprofit firm, Wildkyats, Inc. to work exclusively with local college athletes who want to market their NILs. In addition to brokering deals between local wealthy business owners and UK players, it pays athletes for their NILs and assists in marketing them. Wildkyats' funds come from donations from friends of the program and from fundraising events. The organization's finances are transparent, and anyone with a computer (including recruits, of course) can see the financial details for all the deals it brokered for the UK athletes. No one will be in the dark about how much profit a UK athlete can expect to make one s/he signs.
I suppose it's poor etiquette to quote yourself, but I want to make the point that things are already worse than I imagined last July. They are certainly much worse than 01grad imagined in the same string when he referenced Steve Watson saying that "boosters cannot enter into NIL contracts". Here's what's going on according to an article in that former Chicago newspaper, the Tribune:
https://digitaledition.chicagotribune.c ... 94e99fb9fc (Sorry I can't link directly to the article. It's on page 1 of Sports)
It's about rich U of I boosters banding together to get as much as 6-figure payouts for athletes in order to keep up with the competition such as Indiana and Kansas. It's laughable that they are dressing it up by including contracts to do "work" with kids for respectable non-profits. (When you are transferring money from boosters to players, always do whatever makes you sleep better at night). They contrast this with programs that are simply trying to shower athletes with money. The difference escapes me. Just one other thing about the article, but for me the most jarring: the lawyer organizing this at U of I says it's a "shinning example" of what universities should be.
Disclaimer: I am not against compensating players. I do not think it should be a recruiting tool. Even the NBA tries to maintain competitive balance.