NIL

[Keenan Henderson]

Here is a chance to discuss the NIL in a little more detail.  Has Max or any other ORU player signed any deals?  How will this effect the team if say Max is making 40-50 thousand a year and no one else signs a NIL?  Would it hurt the team chemistry? What are your thoughts on players making money before they turn pro?

[theeagleman5]

This has disaster written all over it.....the NCAA is a joke.....let's face it....they have been for 30 years now.....TheEagleman is all for the kids making a few dollars especially for use of their likeness....but the other stuff could just be a real nightmare and you will see all kinds of issues popping up that nobody ever contemplated....more ways to cheat.....it's just not good....

[eagle88]

Here are a few thought I have on the NIL. I wouldn't be surprised if high profile players like Max make $50,000+K next year because they will be sought after and hot commodities.  The vast majority of players will most likely struggle to make much $ because making $ is a business and players that desire to make good $ will have to learn the business side of things. The NIL has to be a win -win for the businesses as well as the players. Very few young athletes will come to college with the skill set developed enough to know what to do. It would be great for those of us with business knowledge and experience to help guide  these young athletes that are teachable. I personally don't have a problem with athletes making $ but I do think coaches will have to work harder to keep unity amongst the ranks. As the old saying goes whenever you get a lot of $ into the equation it complicates things. Like I teach my 3 grandsons, life is not fair so get used to it, keep a great attitude, work hard and good things will come your way. I believe this lesson will have to be taught to the players.

[Keenan Henderson]

Dick Vitale is even saying that now college athletes can sign with an agent.  That will be interesting.  I always thought that student athletes should get some kind of stipend per month, since they cannot work a part time job. Of course smaller schools, like an ORU, may not be able to afford that.

 We probaly all remember what it is like in college, unless you come from a weathly background, just trying to survive financially.  If you wanted to go out with some friends to dinner, or take a date out, it was often very challenging.  (make out a few i.o.u.'s)

It seems like the rich will get richer, meaning the stars will make money and everybody else will be eating at a McD's dollar menu!  Hopefully if Max does get paid some $$$, he will remember to take his teammates out for a steak dinner (that might help with the jealously/team chemistry).

[ORU40]

There have been several good points made about this topic. The NCAA thought they could just say no and that would be that, but they lost in court so of course the horse was already out of the barn and they were playing catch up right from the start as opposed to being pro-active and getting some reasonable controls in place up front. Now it's the wild west out there and we will continue to see crazy stories of money and cheating and NIL will come to dominate college sports and not for the better, particularly football and basketball. 

I think Keenan's point about teams chemistry is very interesting. Every team has it's own hierarchy; and the best players and leading scorers are usually the leaders, but not always. You have alpha personalities and older guys that are often more of the true leaders then the best player. That is where the NIL will play an interesting dynamic, especially at small schools like ORU where Max may be the only player to get any NIL deals or any that pay good $. I just saw that Bryce Thompson's dad announced to the media that Bryce had signed an NIL deal with a large auto dealership group, how does that play in the locker room for a new guy that hasn't played a game getting NIL $ over guys like Avery Anderson,  Likekele  or the Boone brothers that had great seasons last year?

NIL deals will become a significant factor in college sports and coach's will have their hands full with this new multi-pronged dynamic to navigate. My guess is like every other change, the good coaches will use this as a positive and maximize it and the bad coaches will allow it to become a negative in several areas like recruiting and team chemistry.

From what I've seen of Coach Mills, I have every confidence that he will be able to use the NIL rule to our benefit and not allow it to have negative effects on the Eagles as they pursue their goals as a TEAM!!    

[Keenan Henderson]

ESPN ran an article today about the Name Image and Likeness (NIL) and basically said that players who have a strong social media following are most likely to get the contracts/deals.  It would be interesting to know that if by the end of the year they did a survey to see how many college basketball players benefited from this new NIL.  Guessing it would be maybe 3 percent of all D1 guys and that is being generous.

Here is another question to talk about concerning this subject: is Max the most marketable athlete in the city of Tulsa?  I would say he is the face of ORU sports (not just basketball but of the whole athletic department).  Maybe TU has some football guys that are higher up then Max but that would be somewhat surprising.  With Tulsa having basically no pro team except minor league baseball, that should give Midcourt Max plenty of opportunites for NIL deals.