How does this program get meaningfully more NIL money for Medved?

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GopherGrit said:
I'm not sure what you mean by the biggest point you seem to be harping on, the enforceable bit. You're saying because the Duke player got out of his deal in order to go play for Miami? If that's what you're talking about, that chapped my ass too. So if so, then we're on the same page there.

I probably want most all the same things you want. And to get them we need collective bargaining.

What I don't want to have happen is for players to be wage-earning, full-time employees of the schools. That would shutter most athletic departments across the nation (talking about the lower levels of college sports).


There has to be, and I think is room inbetween: think about something like the Writers Guild of America. I don't think writers are full-time employees on payrolls. And yet they can and did unionize and collectively bargain some guaranteed benefits and standards.


NIL vs House settlement money "revenue sharing", OK you're right. If we're saying NIL and you mean only 3rd party NIL, then you are correct.


Lastly, personally for me, it's a red line to cross about allowing college players to play and don't have to go to school.

I'll stop watching. Hard no. I will never ever watch a minute again if they let the players stop being students. F that. We already have pro, I'll just watch that.
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NIL is already killing college hoops. Just look at the viewership numbers. College hoops is going the way of baseball, boxing & bowling.

I haven't watched a college hoops game unless the Gophers were playing or it was a late round MM game in over five years. There's no continuity, no watching players or teams progress/grow, no one to root for, Etc.

I think it all has to get worse before it can better. Much worse.

I think the players are now working for the University they play at. If that's the case why do they have to attend class at all? We don't make professors, janitors or grounds keepers at the U attend classes to work there.

Ready for more? Why shouldn't a 30 y/o who's NBA career is over be denied employment? We don't ban any other employee who worked at a different company, how can we discriminate against an ex-NBA player who wants to make some more money playing at a lower level (college)?

Because the NCAA says so? Why does the B1G or SEC even need the NCAA anymore? Feels like the NCAA works for the B1G & SEC these days rather than the other way around doesn't it?

So....if the future is a minor-league system full of 30 y/o employees who don't even attend class, the Universities could start a new league for amateur players who attend classes on scholarship, and are given room & board in exchange for playing on the college team. 😀
 
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GopherGrit said:
If they can pull it off, great. I know there have been many discussions and arguments about whether it is feasible.
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Agreed. Its a looooong shot, but it's the only shot I've seen or heard. Everyone said it was impossible. Corporations are only beholden to shareholders. Then Fed Ex blew up that argument. It's the only hope I have & I'm clinging to it!!!
 

Viewership numbers are better than they have been in 11 years.

  • The 2025–2026 Resurgence: Viewership has bounced back significantly in the current season.
    • ESPN: Reported its most-watched men's regular season in 11 years, up 25% year-over-year.
    • Fox: Recorded its most-watched men’s regular season ever, with a 38% increase.
    • CBS: Averaged 1.42 million viewers, a 10% increase and its best mark in seven years.
  • Tournament Rebound (2025): The 2025 championship (Florida vs. Houston) averaged 18.1 million viewers, a 22% increase from the 2024 final.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
NIL is already killing college hoops. Just look at the viewership numbers. College hoops is going the way of baseball, boxing & bowling.

I haven't watched a college hoops game unless the Gophers were playing or it was a late round MM game in over five years. There's no continuity, no watching players or teams progress/grow, no one to root for, Etc.

I think it all has to get worse before it can better. Much worse.

I think the players are now working for the University they play at. If that's the case why do they have to attend class at all? We don't make professors, janitors or grounds keepers at the U attend classes to work there.

Ready for more? Why shouldn't a 30 y/o who's NBA career is over be denied employment? We don't ban any other employee who worked at a different company, how can we discriminate against an ex-NBA player who wants to make some more money playing at a lower level (college)?

Because the NCAA says so? Why does the B1G or SEC even need the NCAA anymore? Feels like the NCAA works for the B1G & SEC these days rather than the other way around doesn't it?

So....if the future is a minor-league system full of 30 y/o employees who don't even attend class, the Universities could start a new league for amateur players who attend classes on scholarship, and are given room & board in exchange for playing on the college team. 😀
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I'm fine with the Big Ten and SEC leaving the NCAA, if that helps.

It would bolster the legal arguments for being able to enforce rules, too. They couldn't be sued under the context of antitrust ... those two leagues don't constitute a monopoly on the market!

Professors, janitors, and grounds keepers are employees, not students. Athletes are students, not employees. That's how I want it. And the student athletes can still get paid, quite well, by selling the rights to their NIL. That's just fine for me.

If they go to a full employment model with athletes who don't go to school and maybe never went to school, and worse of all are past the usual age of being in school and were even formerly pros ... I'm all the way out. I'm gone. Hope most people follow suit.

Then it's just minor league baseball.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
NIL is already killing college hoops. Just look at the viewership numbers. College hoops is going the way of baseball, boxing & bowling.

I haven't watched a college hoops game unless the Gophers were playing or it was a late round MM game in over five years. There's no continuity, no watching players or teams progress/grow, no one to root for, Etc.

I think it all has to get worse before it can better. Much worse.

I think the players are now working for the University they play at. If that's the case why do they have to attend class at all? We don't make professors, janitors or grounds keepers at the U attend classes to work there.

Ready for more? Why shouldn't a 30 y/o who's NBA career is over be denied employment? We don't ban any other employee who worked at a different company, how can we discriminate against an ex-NBA player who wants to make some more money playing at a lower level (college)?

Because the NCAA says so? Why does the B1G or SEC even need the NCAA anymore? Feels like the NCAA works for the B1G & SEC these days rather than the other way around doesn't it?

So....if the future is a minor-league system full of 30 y/o employees who don't even attend class, the Universities could start a new league for amateur players who attend classes on scholarship, and are given room & board in exchange for playing on the college team. 😀
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There's a lot of truth here...but I'm pretty sure viewership has been up this year, and big time.
 


Gold Vision said:
Viewership numbers are better than they have been in 11 years.

  • The 2025–2026 Resurgence:Viewership has bounced back significantly in the current season.
    • ESPN: Reported its most-watched men's regular season in 11 years, up 25% year-over-year.
    • Fox: Recorded its most-watched men’s regular season ever, with a 38% increase.
    • CBS: Averaged 1.42 million viewers, a 10% increase and its best mark in seven years.
  • Tournament Rebound (2025): The 2025 championship (Florida vs. Houston) averaged 18.1 million viewers, a 22% increase from the 2024 final.
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A spike in 2025 UP to 18.1 million is nice!

For context though, ten years prior In 2015 is was 28.3 million.

The trend is pretty clear.
 

GopherGrit said:
I'm fine with the Big Ten and SEC leaving the NCAA, if that helps.

It would bolster the legal arguments for being able to enforce rules, too. They couldn't be sued under the context of antitrust ... those two leagues don't constitute a monopoly on the market!

Professors, janitors, and grounds keepers are employees, not students. Athletes are students, not employees. That's how I want it. And the student athletes can still get paid, quite well, by selling the rights to their NIL. That's just fine for me.

If they go to a full employment model with athletes who don't go to school and maybe never went to school, and worse of all are past the usual age of being in school and were even formerly pros ... I'm all the way out. I'm gone. Hope most people follow suit.

Then it's just minor league baseball.
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Have Jan Ganglehoff pay for it; I feel like she might owe us a banner or something.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
A spike in 2025 UP to 18.1 million is nice!

For context though, ten years prior In 2015 is was 28.3 million.

The trend is pretty clear.
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Wouldn't you agree that only looking at the championship game is misleading, because it highly depends on how the pool of likely viewers feels about that particular match-up?

I'd be more curious on stats regarding total March Madness viewership over the last ten years, if they exist.


One other thing though, in the NIL + open transfer era, more top talent that was hidden at small schools have an opportunity now, and take advantage of it, to transfer up to larger schools.

That is removing some of the Cinderella aspect to it, which I feel like contributes to viewership during at least that first Thur-Sun rounds of 64 and 32.
 

For context, the 4 million that Niko has to spend is a bit more then the 700k that Ben had. Not great but provides for a little bit of continuity.
 



Costa Rican Gopher said:
A spike in 2025 UP to 18.1 million is nice!

For context though, ten years prior In 2015 is was 28.3 million.

The trend is pretty clear.
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This story says this is the best year...
Story Best in 33 Years
I dunno...might be measuring different things?
 


jovs said:
For context, the 4 million that Niko has to spend is a bit more then the 700k that Ben had. Not great but provides for a little bit of continuity.
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There was a comment recently that was supposedly from a B1G coach that stated that anything less than 10 mil and you are in trouble. If true just go along for the ride because you are never going to be able to compete.
 

mplarson7 said:
You misunderstand. NIL is not salary. Jobs that pay out bonuses, such as sign-on bonuses or moving expenses, there is typically a window of time that if the employee leaves before that, they owe back a percentage of those sign-on bonuses.
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This is nearly impossible to enforce (FYI).
 










The ink has pretty much dried on the portal for this year, with a few players still to choose, but my take is that Niko did very well with "limited" resources.
With all the players opting in (don't know final count), everyone is not good enough, nor are there enough spots, for everyone to hit the jackpot.
After the top 20 or 30 guys, there are still a ton of excellent players that can be had for reasonable NIL. You just have to have a system and a coach to recruit to that system to be effective and competitive. I think that is, and will be, Niko's method of operation.
We will never be a top 20 school in NIL budget, but that doesn't mean we won't have very good teams.
 

TNGophfan said:
The ink has pretty much dried on the portal for this year, with a few players still to choose, but my take is that Niko did very well with "limited" resources.
With all the players opting in (don't know final count), everyone is not good enough, nor are there enough spots, for everyone to hit the jackpot.
After the top 20 or 30 guys, there are still a ton of excellent players that can be had for reasonable NIL. You just have to have a system and a coach to recruit to that system to be effective and competitive. I think that is, and will be, Niko's method of operation.
We will never be a top 20 school in NIL budget, but that doesn't mean we won't have very good teams.
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I would not say never. If Niko can build success- I recall this town being on fire for the 96-97 team and others in the more distant past. If we start making the tournament and advancing- the NIL will grow. I agree with your post, though!
 

pharmacygopher said:
I just had to sign a new restrictive covenant in order to get my employee stock I was awarded. I'm curious how often these are actually enforced.
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If they are reasonable in scope and duration and accompanied by consideration- they can be enforced.
 

bga1 said:
I would not say never. If Niko can build success- I recall this town being on fire for the 96-97 team and others in the more distant past. If we start making the tournament and advancing- the NIL will grow. I agree with your post, though!
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That would be fun to experience again!
 

bga1 said:
I would not say never. If Niko can build success- I recall this town being on fire for the 96-97 team and others in the more distant past. If we start making the tournament and advancing- the NIL will grow. I agree with your post, though!
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Yes but that was 30 years ago. A full generation. Things change. At least in my opinion you need full university administration backing athletics 100% to have big success
 



I think there's a little chicken/egg thing with it. If Niko gets things rolling, crowds increase, more money is generated, more fans contribute to NIL, admin sees need to throw more money to keep it rolling, etc.
We don't have a Mark Cuban, so its going to take a little more work and time, but winning and a fun experience for the fans can do a lot.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Yes but that was 30 years ago. A full generation. Things change. At least in my opinion you need full university administration backing athletics 100% to have big success
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I'm curious... what does the "full university administration backing athletics 100%" mean to you? What specifically do you know other administrations do that you would like to see the U administration replicate?
 

ecoperson said:
I'm curious... what does the "full university administration backing athletics 100%" mean to you? What specifically do you know other administrations do that you would like to see the U administration replicate?
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I have the same question. I think that line of thinking is a bit outdated. New football stadium, practice facilities are in line with most other programs. As we've seen across the country, NIL is the #1 factor. Indiana just won a National Championship in football with a crappy stadium and crappy practice facility. Their coach was originally hired at a below average salary.
 

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