NIL and Minnesota

[MinnySunDevil]

Just a random thought from a guy who lives in MN but isn't a UMN alum. Is there any buzz that some of the large companies from the Twin Cities are going to start getting involved in NIL?

United, Cargill, 3M, Target, Best Buy, US Bank, whatever's left of Norwest in Wells Fargo, etc.?

Any of those companies could easily ante up program changing amounts of money for NIL sponsorships without any significant impact on their bottom line. I'm not sure how that market place is going to flesh it out, but I'd have to think UMN is in pretty good shape if they can harness some of the Fortune 500 types in its back yard. Anyone know if that's going on? There aren't many football programs in the country with more enormous companies in their backyard. Seems like it might be a big advantage going forward.

 

[hungan1]

Just a random thought from a guy who lives in MN but isn't a UMN alum. Is there any buzz that some of the large companies from the Twin Cities are going to start getting involved in NIL?

United, Cargill, 3M, Target, Best Buy, US Bank, whatever's left of Norwest in Wells Fargo, etc.?

Any of those companies could easily ante up program changing amounts of money for NIL sponsorships without any significant impact. I'm not sure how that market place is going to flesh it out, but I'd have to think UMN is in pretty good shape if they can harness some of the Fortune 500 types in its back yard. Anyone know if that's going on? There aren't many football programs in the country with more enormous companies in their backyard. Seems like it might be a big advantage going forward.

Somebody has to shake them down for their chum change. They should create a position for Peter Najarian. He will be a natural at that.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I don’t think most Fortune 500 companies not already tied to sports… care.

 

[MinnySunDevil]

Somebody has to shake them down for their chum change. They should create a position for Peter Najarian. He will be a natural at that.

You guys should start shaking. Cargill probably needs some good publicity. Didn't the Best Buy dude give UST like $50 mil a while back? I could see a narrative where Target wants to reinvest in Minneapolis and the University.

 

[WAGopher]

I don’t think most Fortune 500 companies not already tied to sports… care.

Agreed. I also think the big NIL money will come from rich individuals or privately held companies. Spending bucks on NIL will be an ego stroking for the large donors.

 

[GopherJack]

Speaking of fleecing money from rich individuals - Is Sweet Lou from the Sioux still involved in getting The Athlete's Village paid off? (where are we on that? Is the debt zeroed out?)

 

[disco]

You guys should start shaking. Cargill probably needs some good publicity. Didn't the Best Buy dude give UST like $50 mil a while back? I could see a narrative where Target wants to reinvest in Minneapolis and the University.

You clearly don't know much about Cargill. They are a private company that primarily sells commodity products. It would do nothing for them to spend money on this.

 

[60's Guy]

We have made very little progress raising money for athletics and Athletes Village under the watch of Mark Coyle.
We just eliminated several sports because of lack of funding.
The success stories I have read have been organized by players taking the initiative or their parents.

 

[disco]

We have made very little progress raising money for athletics and Athletes Village under the watch of Mark Coyle.
We just eliminated several sports because of lack of funding.
The success stories I have read have been organized by players taking the initiative or their parents.

Correct. We are at a disadvantage because we don't have a lot of (or a single) huge sugar daddy booster(s). I'd love it if we had a Phil Knight or T. Boone Pickens who pump hundreds of millions into the programs at the U. That's who bankrolls these programs and will be putting up NIL money. Major corporations exist to appease shareholders.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

We have made very little progress raising money for athletics and Athletes Village under the watch of Mark Coyle.
We just eliminated several sports because of lack of funding.
The success stories I have read have been organized by players taking the initiative or their parents.

Folks fascination with paying off the village is weird…

I could pay off my house but the rate is such that it makes 0 sense to focus on that.

I would guess paying off the village is not the main focus.

 

[disco]

Folks fascination with paying off the village is weird…

I could pay off my house but the rate is such that it makes 0 sense to focus on that.

I would guess paying off the village is not the main focus.

It is strange. As if someone is going to come and tear it down tomorrow or something.
I do think that it's important if the athletic program needs to make other upgrades, the most glaring being remodeling the Barn.

 

[MinnySunDevil]

You clearly don't know much about Cargill. They are a private company that primarily sells commodity products. It would do nothing for them to spend money on this.

Admittedly my understanding of Cargill is limited. They're commodity traders, warehousers and in some case manufacturers with a relatively "rough" record recently. One I thought might benefit from a throwing a few million at something as forward facing as a football program.

I mean yeah, they're not retailers, but I'd have to think they still care about their impression on Minnesota. Maybe wishful thinking. A few million a year seems meaningless to them if they could tie themselves to a Minnesota organization doing well.

 

[WAGopher]

Remember, the (fill in the blank) Bank stadium was built in a large part because Glen Mason did a lot of handshaking with the politicians, companies and private donations, and their was a good group of people running the fund raiser. Many of the nice amenities were mostly from companies and private donors. For example, the brick field wall was a $500,000 donation by John and Nancy Lindahl.

The University just finished their 4 year campaign and raised $4.4 billion for the Endowment Fund. The money is there, Coyle just needs to find the right people to run a real campaign.

 

[matt]

I don’t think most Fortune 500 companies not already tied to sports… care.

Agreed. I don’t see what is in it for the F500 companies. It makes sense for regional companies, local companies, and boosters’ companies to get in on NIL, but I don’t think it makes sense for the Targets and General Mills of the world.

As far as good publicity goes, there is a risk of backlash. We can all imagine the Strib running an article about why Company X is paying Gopher athletes tens of thousands of dollars while other charities and social impact initiatives in the area are begging for money.

 

[MinnySunDevil]

Agreed. I don’t see what is in it for the F500 companies. It makes sense for regional companies, local companies, and boosters’ companies to get in on NIL, but I don’t think it makes sense for the Targets and General Mills of the world.

As far as good publicity goes, there is a risk of backlash. We can all imagine the Strib running an article about why Company X is paying Gopher athletes tens of thousands of dollars while other charities and social impact initiatives in the area are begging for money.

I don't disagree but "Giving money that could go to charity" is a very Minnesota line of thinking.

Nobody in the SEC, Ohio, Michigan or Texas would blink at it. And they aren't mutually exclusive. They could always donate. This is, presumably, advertising. They could probably use it as a cost on their balance sheet. They aren't just giving money to the players. They're paying to use their likeness. Who gives a shit if Mo Ibrahim is doing Andersen Windows or Cenex ads? It's pay for the ability to advertise.

I'd also note that football prominence over lasting periods of times has helped some universities in terms of overall donor activity and involvement. It gives people a reason to keep pulling for their alma mater or home town team. People want to pull for something they feel attached to. It makes them still feel apart of it versus it just being "that place they were when they were 21."

 

[Dances With Gophers]

Fortune 500 Executive C-level suite: Hmmmm....do we spend the corporate dollar on a 21-year old (who makes decisions typical of a 21-year-old) to represent my brand...or to go with something not as risky (eg TV/Radio/Internet ads)? Hmmmm...what to do, what to do?

Point: Unless it's tied to a sports-specific company (ie Scheels), I don't foresee many, if any, "Fortune 500" companies rushing to endorse college athletes. Publicly traded companies are usually risk-averse. Letting college students represent your brand out there in the wild? LOL riiiiiiight.

Small- to mid-size firms? Maybe...they're much more willing to take risks like that to get their name out there.

 

[60's Guy]

Folks fascination with paying off the village is weird…

I could pay off my house but the rate is such that it makes 0 sense to focus on that.

I would guess paying off the village is not the main focus.

It is weird to you and I. But it's not weird to the mentality of the administration. They weren't going to build it until they had all the money raised. Then they caved and said okay, we'll move forward but promise us you'll raise the money before construction is completed.

I doubt the reason the athletic department has not raised the money is because of lack of focus.
Again, the athletic department cut sports because of lack of money....Coyle is not good at raising
money.
He knocks down the easy opportunities like naming rights and calls it a day.

You seem to be unaware there is a pretty vocal segment of the people who say debt is bad and preach those beliefs. School administrations are typically among them.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

You clearly don't know much about Cargill. They are a private company that primarily sells commodity products. It would do nothing for them to spend money on this.

Good post. There is little to no value for a B2B company to do this; companies who are retailers and therefore have consumers as their main customer focus can be a fit.
Additionally, major marketing campaigns don’t just pop out if a hat, but are usually planned far in advance, unless it’s an emergency ala BT and the gulf oil spill, as it requires marketing research which helps inform and formulate the ad campaign and the creative has to be done,i.e. shooting the commercials, doing the photo shoots. They are always planning ahead, so it will be interesting to see if anyone tries to launch some type of campaign for the 2022 season.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

It is weird to you and I. But it's not weird to the mentality of the administration. They weren't going to build it until they had all the money raised. Then they caved and said okay, we'll move forward but promise us you'll raise the money before construction is completed.

I doubt the reason the athletic department has not raised the money is because of lack of focus.
Again, the athletic department cut sports because of lack of money....Coyle is not good at raising
money.
He knocks down the easy opportunities like naming rights and calls it a day.

You seem to be unaware there is a pretty vocal segment of the people who say debt is bad and preach those beliefs. School administrations are typically among them.

You can not like debit and understand basic math.

 

[State of Football]

Speaking of fleecing money from rich individuals - Is Sweet Lou from the Sioux still involved in getting The Athlete's Village paid off? (where are we on that? Is the debt zeroed out?)

Lou is from Sault St. Marie.

 

[upnorthkid]

Agreed. I don’t see what is in it for the F500 companies. It makes sense for regional companies, local companies, and boosters’ companies to get in on NIL, but I don’t think it makes sense for the Targets and General Mills of the world.

As far as good publicity goes, there is a risk of backlash. We can all imagine the Strib running an article about why Company X is paying Gopher athletes tens of thousands of dollars while other charities and social impact initiatives in the area are begging for money.

this. international brands don't give a shit about a University market. they're looking to brand worldwide. Could they, in theory, run some "home grown" ads where they sign 50-100 college athletes and run a local spot ad? sure. Do you think the analysis is going to show that that boosts sales given the cost of signing them all and making all these ads? absolutely not. And that's all that matters to these companies. If for some odd reason they chose to get involved in sports, they're trying to sign a national brand (which means a pro sports player), not TM2 who 90% of Minnesotans wouldn't even recognize, much less the rest of the country/world

 

[hello-world]

It will be awhile before large companies get involved in something like this. More likely to see success with an alumnus that owns a car dealership or small business for the first few years.

 

[Dano564]

I guess I don't see how in today's climate a large company in Minnesota can decide to throw big $$$ at college football players.

The schools and teams that will gain the most from this is in the south where football is more important to 90% of the population than building a new hospital.

The type of companies I think that are most willing to throw money at football players would be the highly local / regional companies that are largely privately held where the CEO / President / Founder was a big football fan.

The type of company in our metro who would be most likely to be of that mindset would very likely be a transplanted Badger fan who lives in the metro who would send NIL money to Wisconsin.

To get Minnesota corporations to buy in at a high level, they would need to tie it in with the charities the football program helps promote so the Twin Cities media wouldn't rip it as a waste of money.

 

[MinnySunDevil]

I appreciate the input. I get some of the reasoning. On the other hand, how could some group like CHS/Land O Lakes at least not appreciate pushing a "For Minnesota, from Minnesota" campaign? Agribank, TCF, US Bank, etc. Those are regional groups.

I get the pessimism. I do. There just seems like there has to be something there. There should be anyway. It's a little discouraging/disappointing, and I'd like to think there are some large companies that must want to "claim" Minnesota as home turf. Maybe someone ought to convince 3M they've been staring at Austin a little too hard and remind them what the first M stands for?

There has to be something there.

 

[Gophers_4life]

How "bona fide" does a NIL deal have to be, to not violate the rules?

For example, I don't really see much difference between the following two scenarios:
a) Joe Big Donor walks up to player X, and puts $10,000 cash in his pocket, winks, and walks away
b) Joe Big Donor walks up to player X, says "I'm going to offer you $10,000 for your NIL rights, what do you say?", the deal is signed, and then JBD does literally nothing with those rights (just sits on them) and never had any intention of doing anything with them quite frankly.

 

[matt]

I appreciate the input. I get some of the reasoning. On the other hand, how could some group like CHS/Land O Lakes at least not appreciate pushing a "For Minnesota, from Minnesota" campaign? Agribank, TCF, US Bank, etc. Those are regional groups.

I get the pessimism. I do. There just seems like there has to be something there. There should be anyway. It's a little discouraging/disappointing, and I'd like to think there are some large companies that must want to "claim" Minnesota as home turf. Maybe someone ought to convince 3M they've been staring at Austin a little too hard and remind them what the first M stands for?

There has to be something there.

I think there are better ways than NIL for large companies with local HQs to achieve that effect. Like others said though, this market could look very different in a couple years.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Maybe someone ought to convince 3M they've been staring at Austin a little too hard

3M is looking at moving the HQ to Austin?

 

[MaxyJR1]

NIL's is about appearances and small local marketing opportunities. Most MN fortune 500 companies don't have to do a ton of local marketing.

Still early but I'm sure it will evolve.

 

[upnorthkid]

I appreciate the input. I get some of the reasoning. On the other hand, how could some group like CHS/Land O Lakes at least not appreciate pushing a "For Minnesota, from Minnesota" campaign? Agribank, TCF, US Bank, etc. Those are regional groups.

I get the pessimism. I do. There just seems like there has to be something there. There should be anyway. It's a little discouraging/disappointing, and I'd like to think there are some large companies that must want to "claim" Minnesota as home turf. Maybe someone ought to convince 3M they've been staring at Austin a little too hard and remind them what the first M stands for?

There has to be something there.

A few things. NIL endorsements are them paying a player for advertisements so it loses the "charity" or donation type of thing. why not just give to the general scholarship fund then as I'm sure they already do? Then on top of it, they have to navigate the ads, how paying them/money goes, the taxes, etc. versus just donating ends up being a tax writeoff. i'm sure they're looking at it and realizing it isn't going to positively impact their bottom line (is the common person going to reach for LoL because Mo did an ad, or are they going to look at costs versus buying local as it is either way?). I think that's why many people are onto something by citing who the most likely are to do this and it's going to be rich boosters/CEOs of companies who think they can benefit such as the local auto dealer who can donate, use the kids to do their ads, have them talk about it to kids on campus, etc and be seen as the one who has a link to the U locally to inspire people to come buy from them or use their product that is more niche (ie the Miami MMA gym deal). Once they're too large and the name is out there, they don't gain anything and no one is going to change if they buy something from 3M based on if TM advertises for them and they can "give charitably" through the scholarship fund and not have to deal with the NIL headache plus get the tax writeoff.

 

[Hates Monikers]

I appreciate the input. I get some of the reasoning. On the other hand, how could some group like CHS/Land O Lakes at least not appreciate pushing a "For Minnesota, from Minnesota" campaign? Agribank, TCF, US Bank, etc. Those are regional groups.

I get the pessimism. I do. There just seems like there has to be something there. There should be anyway. It's a little discouraging/disappointing, and I'd like to think there are some large companies that must want to "claim" Minnesota as home turf. Maybe someone ought to convince 3M they've been staring at Austin a little too hard and remind them what the first M stands for?

There has to be something there.

There could be some opportunity with a local company that does most of its sales locally. As other have said, the national or multi-national Fortune 500 companies have no reason to do so. There seems to be two kinds of NIL spending going on:

1) Local business has a player or a few come out to do appearances or appear in an ad. Lots of small businesses could do that, but it's unlikely to be Target or Best Buy -- at least not their corporate marketing department. I don't know that the U has any more or less of an advantage than other programs for that. Maybe less due to the saturated sports market.

2) Local business gives every offensive lineman $50,000, each walk-on $10,000, or simply buy good players -- bigger dollar spending we've seen in some places that can change the direction of the program. Again, it won't be a Fortune 500 company. Maybe there's a local business like Cub, which already donates to the athletic department, willing to do something like that. If it were to happen, I think it would require the leader of that organization to be a devoted Gopher fan or a business that thinks they can make a big PR splash locally. Or a rich individual. We seem to have fewer of those than other programs. In other words, we need to get lucky.