At times, I feel like the conversation on the board is missing something these days. To me, there’s a feeling of futility when we’re talking about recruiting and the portal. How much does a coach’s personality, or our facilities, or personal connections, or anything besides money matter anymore?
I think we’re talking too little about NIL. Yes, it is mentioned - well, bemoaned - here often. But the reality is that there probably shouldn’t be a single thread about recruiting or transfers without also mentioning NIL. It’s pointless. Any four or five star recruit, any transfer that might be a starter, is going to cost something from now on.
So how is our NIL situation compared to our peers? Seems like it is pretty good for basketball and baseball. Is that because those coaches are better at using it, or does it have something to do with the amount available?
Less important, but I’m also curious - Do other fanbases talk about it more than we do? Or is there this weird hush-hush, don’t-ask-don’t-tell type of feeling everywhere?
I’ve seen some insiders speculate that Kiffin/Auburn largely didn’t work out because of NIL issues. Apparently Kiffin played both sides by asking Ole Miss to commit more to NIL, while also demanding Auburn commit to some level. Now I’m sure other issues were involved in that ordeal. But my point is that everything in college football, including coaching hires, now revolve around NIL.
Honestly it’s one of the last things, as a fan, that I want to come on here and read and talk about. But in the SEC, this is the new arms race.
I don’t know anything, but I try and pay attention and it seems I have read where the Grove Collection or some similar name which is a NIL fund at Ole Miss was said to have reached the ten million dollar level. Later I read that Auburn had ten million in NIL money for shopping in the transfer portal. Not sure that any of this is good information nor the inference that I draw, assuming if Auburn has the alleged amount for portal use, then surely the total resources for NIL would be higher.
Yeah we hear nothing about our NIL involvement to be honest. I know for sure Ole Miss has 10 million donated to help out the athletic program to use at their disposal. I know all the players had custom-made suits tailored for them recently.
We are going to have to get in the NIL game big time if we’re going to keep up with our competition sounds like. I really don’t know how well we are doing with it, we may be doing very well but just don’t hear about it.
There are several different NIL orgs affiliated with the Hogs. Now how we stack up against the competition, that is a great question. I do think we have to be incredibly aggressive with it because we don’t have the natural set of players close to here that some schools do, AND you never want to be under the “going rate” for the value of that position. It is a form of free agency and salary cap management now no matter how anyone looks at it.
Remember there have been several times this year where Sam has been asked the toughest part of this job… He always says “Roster Management”. Don’t you know it is not only being competitive with NIL it is then keeping players happy in a locker room when not all get the same amounts.
I would not want to be a head coach in today’s game with all the outside distractions like NIL and the transfer portal makes it incredibly hard for you to focus on what really matters.
IF Ole Miss is doing better than us in NIL, then it’s our own fault. There’s no way they should be beating us in that game.
And if we are doing as good or better than Ole Miss - I don’t understand why you wouldn’t leak that info to the public. At minimum, it would give fans confidence in the administration.
My family and I were discussing that Thursday after eating our Thanksgiving meal we were discussing the $10 million collaborative Ole Miss has and they were talking about Arkansas should never lose a NIL situation to anybody with Walmart, Hunt
Tyson money in the state. I told them I totally agree but I really don’t know how involved we are in NIL because I’ve never seen it printed anywhere.
Why does everyone think those three families should fund everything? The Hunt’s are funding the basketball team, I doubt either of the other two are doing as much.