Boogie

I agree you have to have many big money donors or several big corporate donors.. We have none of the above

A well established brand really helps, too.

I'm guessing FB brand is a key, which means P5 history. Excepting ND in FB and a few BB programs in the Big East, a big alumni fan base originated in FB and is a culture created over decades.

A MAC school just can't create that alumni link from scratch now. The rich get richer...

Well stated, Rob.

No, they still give titles for teams winning AAA and even AA baseball leagues. It's just once they do well, their players normally get called up to the major leagues where they pay real money. Coleman just got the call to the majors. 

Football is not being effected as much with highschool kids at our level. There are so many 2/3 Stars players no ones paying them. Now if you end up being good the payday when you leave us outrageous

Less players in B ball and almost all players are getting something. If you have even a couple schools battling and one can give you 5-10k what one are you picking

Let's take this to it's logical extension.

Every mid-major basketball program needs to align themselves with a high major program and become their farm team. Probably would work best if somewhat geographical. Say for the sake of argument, Ball State aligns itself with Purdue. Each year Purdue's head coach, Painter, would send over to Ball State 2 or 3 freshmen or sophomores who he realizes will not be in his rotation at Purdue, but could really improve if given steady minutes at Ball State. Since these would all be NIL quality athletes, they should be better than anything on BSU's roster. Ball State would provide the scholarships so there would be a lot of coordination needed between Painter and Lewis to ensure the correct number of open roster slots were available at BSU. The key would be Purdue continuing their NIL payments to these players even when playing at BSU.

At the end of the season, Painter could then decide which players had improved enough to bring back Purdue the following season. Which players still needed more time at BSU, or which players had been a waste of NIL and cut-off their payments. Lewis could then decided if he wanted to keep them, or kick them to the curb.

The real benefit here to the high major is the extra pool of players. Not only does a Purdue have 13 players in West Lafayette, but however many players they convince Lewis at BSU to take. Your real limitation might only be your NIL budget. If you can afford to park 13 players at BSU, your player pool could be 26 players instead of the NCAA allowed 13.

Of course like Parent organizations in major league baseball, the coaching staffs of farm teams are normally selected by the Parent Club. Purdue would want someone who they felt had the best chance of developing their players. If they felt Lewis wasn't up to the task, they would probably have BSU replace him with someone to their liking. So maybe for Lewis' sake, he should hope BSU pairs with Indiana University.

The real question is do you do this above board in plain view, or under the table. I would suggest under the table first. As with any breakout strategy, earlier adopters will have the advantage. Aligning your university with the strongest NIL "blessed" universities will be the key. Eventually the NCAA will figure things out such as Kentucky quality freshman and sophomores playing a season or two at Eastern Kentucky and then transferring to Kentucky, but by then Eastern Kentucky will have won their conference multiple times.

Problems with this system? What if the player doesn't want to go to the mid-major farm club? Too bad, you lose your NIL. Just like any kid out of college who signs on to a major corporation only to have the company transfer them 3 times in your first 7 years. Too bad kid, follow you paycheck. What about if the farm university doesn't have as strong a department in your major or even a program in your major? Once you start taking NIL you aren't students anymore. Rather, you're a mini professional athletes and should expect to be treated accordingly. 


P.S. Actually parking 13 players at one mid-major would destroy the entire playing time for development argument. Instead, making agreements with 2 or 3 university and sending each 2 or 3 players would have a better desired effect.