I hope some of you will consider using this at least until the FOG is up and running.

BTW if you had made a monthly FOG donation this should have stopped. The existing donations will roll into the new entity once it is finalized.

Last edited by Florida Colonial (5/25/2023 9:15 am)

You've got it right Mayhem.  It's now basically the same as it always was with boosters dropping bags of cash to players, only now everyone can legally be a booster.  Kind of like sports betting in a way.

The NCAA at one time said that schools were not allowed to entice recruits to commit with NIL $ (I believe schools were supposed to only describe the types of "NIL Opportunities" available to student athletes). However, following any CBB accounts online you'll see that basically players and their "agents" are negotiating directly with coaches over the specific NIL $ it will take to get them to commit.  We saw that firsthand here with Ish Massoud.  Some states are even now allowing the school's fundraising arm to collect and distribute NIL payments. Inside the NIL battle that is splintering the SEC: ‘We’re all money laundering’ - Sports Illustrated.

I think the big fight soon will be with the Collectives that set up as non-profits.  Right now, most NIL money cannot be written off as a charitable donation.  This may end up limiting the crazy NIL payments down the road outside of the truly stupid rich schools like Texas as people generally don't like giving money away.

The Collectives that set up as non-profits may have a hard time justifying their charitable purpose if the IRS ever decides to investigate.  It also could be a backdoor way for Congress to regulate NIL without regulating the NCAA or NIL generally.

Last edited by GW0509 (6/02/2023 11:15 am)

The Athletic recently had an interesting article about whether the recent sportswashing efforts on the part of the Saudis could somehow make its way to college athletics.  The consensus appeared to be that while the schools themselves would likely turn away such an investment, athletic directors would be quick to provide the contact information of their affiliated NIL offices.  The schools stay clean this way, or at least their books do, while an influx of capital gets provided to further compensate college athletes.

So, let's say PIF (or is it The PIF) would like to target Washington, DC for this purpose and approach GW among others about providing enough NIL money that GW would be able to financially compete with most schools in the country for players.  How would you feel about GW's NIL office accepting a meaningful Saudi investment for this purpose?

I get to go first.  First, going back to arguments I heard and read regarding LIV golf, it is, in my mind,  a false equivalent to suggest hypocrisy given the fact that the Saudis have invested in many US companies who offer products or services that we consume daily.  This is quite different than starting a competitive golf league and poaching star players with enormous sums of money for the purpose of cleaning up past atrocities, knowing all the while that you can lose repeated lawsuits but still end up the winner because of your deep pockets. 

With this as background, I could never get past the human rights violations and heinous acts of the Saudi government.  While GW would likely have a far more successful program (no guarantee of this obviously but it does stand to reason that "buying" better players gets you a better team), the cost in doing so would be heavily tainted.  Like many of you, I desperately would like to see GW soar as a program and become a legitimate national contender.  If not that, then as close to this as they could get.  But unfortunately, not this way.

Some of you may have very different opinions about this, and am interested in reading your thoughts.  If nothing else, this has the potential for an interesting off-season discussion.
 

Great topic Gw.  After watching the senate hearing on the proposed partnership between PGA and PIF (+/- The) I was fascinated by Jimmy Dunne, a recently appointed CFO and PGA board member.  His story is fascinating in that on the morning of 9/11 he missed being in the World Trade Center because he was playing in a qualifying USGA golf tournament. Meanwhile his investment firm went down with the towers and he lost 66 employees and was devastated. He provided support for all the families and kid’s college tuitions.
He views PIF as the largest source of available funding, and was able to put Saudi atrocities aside.  He also saw LIV as a threat to PGA, which he dearly loves. So he wants certain guarantees in the new entity, whatever that is.
As for NIL and Saudi investment at GW, I’m still trying to figure out NIL alone.  I know how it came about but don’t know how it is administered.  I guess it replaces the brown bag filled with 100’s given by boosters back in my day, and makes it legal.  Is there a vetting process for all investors?  How much is needed to be competitive?  Does a donation go to the university or just to the basketball team / individual player.
I know Bronny James is getting 7 million at least as a freshman at USC. He could find that in his fathers couch.
Looking forward to getting educated on this topic.

Not really a new world, but definitely more transparent.  Actually evens the playing field by allowing the rule followers to compete with the "cheaters".

Article about football NIL from the Davidson board

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5_5DMjKOah4J:https://www.aol.com/amphtml/exclusive-nil-leaders-talk-usc-130000214.html&hl=en&gl=us

jf wrote:

Glad they changed (or hopefully just corrected) it from pre-submitted questions only to a Q and A box.
Though not sure screening questions in any manner from your most ardent supporters is a great
idea, as opposed to actual Q and A.

I can see both sides. I too hope this is not a North Korea-esque press briefing, but given we’re still a week out, if they’re getting a bunch of the same questions, maybe they can tweak the presentation to reflect the info people want to know. 

GW0509 wrote:

jf wrote:

Glad they changed (or hopefully just corrected) it from pre-submitted questions only to a Q and A box.
Though not sure screening questions in any manner from your most ardent supporters is a great
idea, as opposed to actual Q and A.

I can see both sides. I too hope this is not a North Korea-esque press briefing, but given we’re still a week out, if they’re getting a bunch of the same questions, maybe they can tweak the presentation to reflect the info people want to know. 

Advantage of Q&A box is to present actual question for a response and avoiding extraneous speechifying pre-question. Given nature of issue, have to believe moderators are not auditioning to play for Schoonmaker’s  softball team but looking to explain current state of NIL’s in general, possible impact of new school takeover supposedly under consideration by NCAA and situation specifically at GW.

Last edited by Poog (1/12/2024 9:02 pm)

The school has gone back to marketing the NIL event as only questions in advance.

https://twitter.com/GW_MBB/status/1747332895998648639?t=SuP51C-poV2BTw4moud2fg&s=19

GWRising wrote:

I am fine with the questions in advance. It's potentially a larger audience and zoom calls with many participants randomly asking questions can often become unwieldy. If you have additional questions I am sure there will be a forum to ask them. The idea behind advanced questions is to keep it moving (given the finite time) and to try to eliminate redundant or similar questions. This isn't some press conference with hard hitting journalism.

Then why wouldn't you take questions via say email during the event? You're still screening questions. Only accepting questions in advance prevents viewers from submitting questions as they arise from new information.