Mark Coyle's Job Should Be On The Line

[short ornery norwegian]

tried to do a little research into the murky world of NIL to see if Coyle can directly solicit NIL contributions - and apparently he can but only as a middle-man.

in October of 2022, the NCAA Division 1 Board approved new guidance on NIL activities. I found this on a legal website. some excerpts:

Under the new guidelines, a member school can connect student-athletes and donors with NIL entities but cannot directly participate in NIL activity itself. For example, institutions can introduce student-athletes to representatives of NIL entities and provide space on campus for NIL entities and student-athletes to meet. They can also facilitate meetings between donors and NIL entities and may even request that donors provide funds to the NIL entity (without directing those funds to a specific sport or student-athlete).

NIL entities must be independent of member schools to prevent universities’ direct involvement in NIL activity. An institution cannot communicate with an NIL entity regarding a student-athlete’s compensation request, nor can it request that a donor direct funds through the NIL entity to a certain sport or student-athlete.

as I read this, Coyle could arrange a meeting between Donor X and Dinkytown Athletes. He can ask the donor to give money to Dinkytown Athletes - but he cannot say - "please donate to the Football team" or "make an NIL donation to our QB."

and I assume the same holds true for Fleck or any coach.

 

[Ski-U-Mahed]

The Gophers face a slaughter schedule next season. I keep saying that for a reason. It's a great schedule for seeing great football teams but brutal for wins. It's the new Big Ten coast to coast, millions of viewers.

The time to rethink the situation is after next season or after two season of slaughter-level Big Ten schedules. The world view may be different then.

So chill for now. Watch what unfolds over the next season -- like massive fireworks going off.

And set the program back 20 years with each 30 point blow out coming our way? Had pass. Blow it up now.

 

[Ski-U-Mahed]

1. Corporations aren't major NIL donors. Rabid fans with hundreds of millions of dollars who are willing to buy players for their favorite team are.

2. Pretty sure there's a little town called Chicago in the B1G.

Northwestern has stated multiple times sports is not a high priority to them thus why NIL is low there. Please research things before talking.

 

[disco]

Northwestern has stated multiple times sports is not a high priority to them thus why NIL is low there. Please research things before talking.

Your exact words were:

There are more fortune 500 companies in the metro area than any other big ten team.

I was responding to that. Maybe choose your words more carefully before acting smart newbie.

 

[jamiche]

@jamiche There's an enormous amount of money that gets raised in this town for all kinds of things.

This is such bunk, to propose that because Foundations for curing children's diseases can raise millions .... that people who donate to those also are just as willing give away that same amount of money for ........ paying college football players that are already getting full cost of attendance scholarships?????

Such bunk.

It is an anti-logical argument. One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other.


You can't be serious. You can't be. You're way too intelligent to actually believe this.

Of course foundations aren't going to provide NIL money. That's not their purpose. NIL money is going to come from private donors and businesses.

The point of my post was exactly what I said. This is an affluent metropolitan area with a lot of available capital for many causes. If the U is saying we can't raise much NIL money from boosters/businesses, the folks in the athletic dept are either lazy, incompetent or both.

 

[MplsGopher]

You’re smart enough to know that’s not what I said. So nice try. I said nothing of the sort that foundations were going to donate. That’s not even a valid thing to say.

I said people who donate to foundations like that are not people who are going to donate to college athlete NIL.


That’s the entire thing of why your proposal and accusation is such bunk, on its face.


Seriously.


WHO actually is willing to donate major (actual needle moving) dollars to Dinkytown Athletics???

Fans. Plain and simple.


WHY would any person who isn’t already a fan of at least one Gopher team ever donate to DA, let alone setup some custom, one-off personal sponsorship with a particular athlete???


Sheer fantasy that you’ll convince a non-fan of college sports to donate $100k, simply because they did donate that much to the Park Nicollet Foundation.

Sheer bunk.

 

[beavergopher]

If we had a heisman QB on the roster the last 2 years we may have won a national title last year

They were 4-8 like 3 years ago
.

No, Mr Elite would have him hand off seventy times a game.

 

[Some guy]

No, Mr Elite would have him hand off seventy times a game.

Mr elite is the only coach to have the top two yardage wideouts in the conference in the same season.
So maybe yeah. But also maybe no.

 

[jamiche]

You’re smart enough to know that’s not what I said. So nice try. I said nothing of the sort that foundations were going to donate. That’s not even a valid thing to say.

I said people who donate to foundations like that are not people who are going to donate to college athlete NIL.


That’s the entire thing of why your proposal and accusation is such bunk, on its face.


Seriously.


WHO actually is willing to donate major (actual needle moving) dollars to Dinkytown Athletics???

Fans. Plain and simple.


WHY would any person who isn’t already a fan of at least one Gopher team ever donate to DA, let alone setup some custom, one-off personal sponsorship with a particular athlete???


Sheer fantasy that you’ll convince a non-fan of college sports to donate $100k, simply because they did donate that much to the Park Nicollet Foundation.

Sheer bunk.

There are fans out there with a lot of money who aren't being properly identified and personally approached. I wonder if the U is sending its NIL staff to the most successful schools to see how they do it.

 

[Some guy]

There are fans out there with a lot of money who aren't being properly identified and personally approached. I wonder if the U is sending its NIL staff to the most successful schools to see how they do it.

Are you one of those fans? Or did you just make this ip

 

[MplsGopher]

@jamiche man, I know you’re a really smart guy …. but I can’t tell if you really believe this or if you’re just trying to stir up some interesting discussion.

It seems like you believe it.

I just don’t get how.


Do you really think there’s some rich guy sitting out there going like this:

“I love Gopher basketball. I’ve been watching since Clem’s run. We got screwed over. But I’ve been faithfully following since then, hoping for a return to glory. Now, I have a s__t ton of disposable income burning a hole in my pocket. I donate big checks to all kinds of things.

I also know that if I made a big donation to Dinkytown Athletics, it would move the needle and get significant better talent into Williams.

But I won’t do it.

Because ….. Mark Coyle hasn’t come to my house to have dinner with my wife and I and ask me really, really nicely.”



I mean …. What???

 

[disco]

There are fans out there with a lot of money who aren't being properly identified and personally approached. I wonder if the U is sending its NIL staff to the most successful schools to see how they do it.

If they had big money boosters, those people would already have been donating big money.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

the rich people who give large donations to NIL have two things in common -
1. they are rich
2. they are ardent fans of a particular team

if you have rich oil money in Texas, and JR Ewing loves SMU football, he gives SMU football a butt-load of money - directly or indirectly.

the challenge is to identify the MN equivalent of JR and convince them to make a large donation to NIL. that takes a really good sales-person. I could be wrong - but I don't think Mark Coyle is that type of person. I remember hearing once that Lou Nanne was involved with some fund-raising for MN, but I don't recall if it was sports-related. but Louie is more the type of person that I think might to able to shake the money tree.

 

[kix4kix]

I am off of the Fleck train but I think it was a great hire at the time and place the program was in, he brought the program to new heights to where we expect winning records, how soon we forget being thrilled with 7 win seasons...

The Johnson hire is inexcusable though, the program was middling before Johnson arrived but the games were entertaining and we had a chance to win every game we played, now I won't even be watching a single game tbh

 

[disco]

the rich people who give large donations to NIL have two things in common -
1. they are rich
2. they are ardent fans of a particular team

if you have rich oil money in Texas, and JR Ewing loves SMU football, he gives SMU football a butt-load of money - directly or indirectly.

the challenge is to identify the MN equivalent of JR and convince them to make a large donation to NIL. that takes a really good sales-person. I could be wrong - but I don't think Mark Coyle is that type of person. I remember hearing once that Lou Nanne was involved with some fund-raising for MN, but I don't recall if it was sports-related. but Louie is more the type of person that I think might to able to shake the money tree.

I think Lou did a lot of glad-handing for the athlete's village.

 

[jamiche]

@jamiche man, I know you’re a really smart guy …. but I can’t tell if you really believe this or if you’re just trying to stir up some interesting discussion.

It seems like you believe it.

I just don’t get how.


Do you really think there’s some rich guy sitting out there going like this:

“I love Gopher basketball. I’ve been watching since Clem’s run. We got screwed over. But I’ve been faithfully following since then, hoping for a return to glory. Now, I have a s__t ton of disposable income burning a hole in my pocket. I donate big checks to all kinds of things.

I also know that if I made a big donation to Dinkytown Athletics, it would move the needle and get significant better talent into Williams.

But I won’t do it.

Because ….. Mark Coyle hasn’t come to my house to have dinner with my wife and I and ask me really, really nicely.”



I mean …. What???

You would be surprised. Big donors are cultivated. It takes time and effort to build a relationship before the donor writes the big check. People give to people and the big donations never happen overnight. I don't think Coyle spends much, if any, time cultivating big contributors.

 

[disco]

Posted this on the hoops board, but not everyone reads both.

Coyle isn't going anywhere. The U has an interim president that is contractually unable to be hired for the permanent position. Nothing will happen until we get a new president in place. Hopefully they don't hire some sports-hater.

 

[GoodasGold]

I was going to make big donation, but then I thought… nah!

 

[60's Guy]

Well when you roll out the red carpet for yourself when hired and bragged about it online as well as saying "I didn't come here to be .500" and hire Ben Johnson two days later..... EVERYTHING is on you.

If only we were 500...Ben is 5 and 32 in the Big Ten. He managed to negotiate the cancelation of the Michigan St game or it would be 5 and 33.
Not .500 but .156 at 5 and 32.
Will Ben break his record and get us to 4 Big Ten wins this year? If he does, it will be triumphed as progress. If he doesn't he certainly deserves the chance to try again....will be the AD's message.
We don't have $6 million to say goodbye.

 

[MplsGopher]

@disco they literally hired a person from the SEC last time, and that person hired Ben Johnson.

 

[Mr. 131]

With the U's presidency being in flux, nothing is going to change with Coyle anytime soon. He effectively has all the cover he needs for the short term.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

Washington just went to 11-0. They play in a very similar sized metro area with a campus in the largest city in the state. They have extremely popular NFL, MLB, and NHL teams. They have one of the two highest drawing MLS and WNBA teams as well. Not only that, their head coach is from a small town in South Dakota just a few miles from the Minnesota border.

Stop making excuses.

There is some legitimacy to that excuse. I believe that if the Vikings had left town a dozen years ago that Gopher football would have way more support.

 

[LaXGoph]

I never understood how NIL got to where it is. I think we could compete if we got past the concept of free $ for playing sports.

I think our companies and our citizens could get behind the concept of paying these kids good $ if their name image and likeness was actually used for something.

Our midwestern sensibilities just don’t compute when it comes to free money for playing, but if mauer chevrolet put Mo in a commercial last year it would get attention and he’d get paid. I’d love to see gophers name, image, and likeness used to promote our great MN businesses.

“Toro snowblowers pack as much punch as the gopher offensive line”. Dairy Queen pays everyone $5,000 to eat a dilly bar while hoisting the axe durring the victory lap. General Mills hires the team to run a kids football clinic to promote their latest project…the possibilities are literally endless and it’s a win for all parties involved, including the U.

You’d think every business in Duluth would be falling over themselves to have Koi Persch in a commercial or on a billboard promoting their business.

I think a reframing of the concept is needed if it is going to succeed in Minnesota.

 

[howeda7]

There is some legitimacy to that excuse. I believe that if the Vikings had left town a dozen years ago that Gopher football would have way more support.

If the Vikings had left town 12 years ago they'd have already been replaced by the Jags/Chargers/Rams by now. The NFL was never going to leave the #13 media market that's sold out every game for 25 years sit vacant.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

If the Vikings had left town 12 years ago they'd have already been replaced by the Jags/Chargers/Rams by now. The NFL was never going to leave the #13 media market that's sold out every game for 25 years sit vacant.

So then the Gophers football team would have had support for a few years then, I'd guess.

 

[howeda7]

So then the Gophers football team would have had support for a few years then, I'd guess.

Theoretically they might sell a few more tickets. But the people who hate the Vikings and think Gopher football would be super popular if the Vikings would just move away are delusional.

I rarely see the same thing said about the Wolves and Gopher basketball and I think there's way more cross over competition for ticket sales between them and many times their games actually conflict etc.

 

[disco]

Theoretically they might sell a few more tickets. But the people who hate the Vikings and think Gopher football would be super popular if the Vikings would just move away are delusional.

I rarely see the same thing said about the Wolves and Gopher basketball and I think there's way more cross over competition for ticket sales between them and many times their games actually conflict etc.

I would guess that if the Wolves left, Gopher and Tommie basketball would pick up a lot of the basketball fans in the market left behind.

But the Vikings? No way. A lot (not all) of the Vikings fan base are people who base their entire fall schedule around the team. They buy season tickets, merch etc. instead of going on vacations. Every Sunday is a drunken party revolving around the Vikings. That doesn't even get into the really hard cores that paint their faces and cosplay as neanderthals. That wouldn't translate over to the Gophers.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I would guess that if the Wolves left, Gopher and Tommie basketball would pick up a lot of the basketball fans in the market left behind.

But the Vikings? No way. A lot (not all) of the Vikings fan base are people who base their entire fall schedule around the team. They buy season tickets, merch etc. instead of going on vacations. Every Sunday is a drunken party revolving around the Vikings. That doesn't even get into the really hard cores that paint their faces and cosplay as neanderthals. That wouldn't translate over to the Gophers.

Fandom is weird,

But fandom is also based on geography and happenstance ... it seems solid as a rock, until happenstance happens again.

 

[disco]

Fandom is weird,

But fandom is also based on geography and happenstance ... it seems solid as a rock, until happenstance happens again.

It seems like NFL fandom is a whole different animal though than most sports.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

I would guess that if the Wolves left, Gopher and Tommie basketball would pick up a lot of the basketball fans in the market left behind.

But the Vikings? No way. A lot (not all) of the Vikings fan base are people who base their entire fall schedule around the team. They buy season tickets, merch etc. instead of going on vacations. Every Sunday is a drunken party revolving around the Vikings. That doesn't even get into the really hard cores that paint their faces and cosplay as neanderthals. That wouldn't translate over to the Gophers.

Going back, my original opinion was that if the Vikings had left town, Gopher football would have more support. Never said they'd have NFL-type crowds...just more support.
Hard to deny that.