Stanich

[LUEngineer]

I am speculating Chris Ayres is the ACC school courting McGonigle at Stanford!!

[martinsilvestri]

I am speculating Chris Ayres is the ACC school courting McGonigle at Stanford!!

First the EIWAs now McGonagle. Is there anything else Ayres would like to take from Lehigh while he is at it? And to think I used to cheer for this guy

[LUEngineer]

Florida guy makes sense regarding LVWC being the focal point for fundraising & funding distribution to target college talent in the room. The associated Olympic prospect to work out with this young recruit is then the RTC priority.

Instead of fielding an RTC at every weight it becomes targeted to the blue chip recruits we actually land with the LVWC funds.

[Oracle]

As you know, it’s not as easy as diverting LVWC funds to NIL. A ‘Collective’ has to be established. Then the wrestling program, at the behest of the head coach, directs money to prospective recruits whether they be out of high school or the transfer portal. I submit, the portal would be where I would target first. Going after a guy who has stood on the podium trumps an unproven recruit. The exception being an Uber blue chip from D11 like we’ve seen in recent years. There have been many who have signed elsewhere.

If you could raise $150K per year that would probably be sufficient. Not too tall a task, actually very doable.

[JAD77]

Florida guy makes sense regarding LVWC being the focal point for fundraising & funding distribution to target college talent in the room. The associated Olympic prospect to work out with this young recruit is then the RTC priority.

Instead of fielding an RTC at every weight it becomes targeted to the blue chip recruits we actually land with the LVWC funds.

Agreed - and I believe that LVWC actually already does this. For example, Chance Marsteller came to the LVWC for Jordan Kutler’s final year at Lehigh so that he would have a quality training partner after Ryan Preisch graduated. Was a win-win for both Jordan and Marsteller.
But I’m not sure how redirecting funds donated to the LVWC directly to an NIL for a Lehigh wrestler would work, ie, would that even be allowed. I think a more appropriate venue to raise and pool NIL funds would be a group such as the Lehigh Wrestling Club. The fact that this hasn’t already happened speaks volumes to the difficulty of fundraising.
Fl Guy refers to the recent “Giving Day”. Yes, about $175,000 was raised for wrestling, but that still fell short of their $200,000 goal. Meanwhile, multiple other sports achieved their fundraising goal, and wrestling was even “out-fundraised” by football.
The main point I was making is that fundraising ain’t easy, and that talk is cheap.
And I don’t mean to pick on FlGuy - I actually like his optimism and 100% support of all things Lehigh Wrestling - a welcome viewpoint, especially since the departure of the late, and much missed, Denny Diehl.

[Justafan]

Can someone explain the basic mechanics of NIL. On paper, at least, athletes were allowed to be paid for a business to use their name, image and likeness in their promotions. The agreement was to be between the businessman/booster and the athlete. In theory, the University is to stay uninvolved.

That is all on paper, I suppose. As I understand cooperatives were formed outside the Universities for which the money can be targeted for athletes across all sports. Where does the actual name, image or likeness fit in under that umbrella?

Under that scenario, what recourse does the Lehigh wrestling community have to generate funds? Does the actual NIL have anything to do with promotion anymore?

[Oracle]

You just described it.

The Collective collects the funds, but the head coach has the final say how they are targeted. Hazy at best, but that's the way it is. The school's athletic dept doesn't do the collecting.

One coach I know says his Collective raised $500K and that "he" intended to spend it. Again, as I posted earlier, the smart money will be directed to experienced guys in the portal first. Which is why Michigan, Iowa, PSU and Ok St have had such success in the portal. If Lehigh raises the funds, they can play in the same pool. Maybe not like Michigan who seems to have deep pockets, but enough for 1-2 guys per year. Wouldn't that be nice?

[JAD77]

Methinks Oracle has something here. I like it.

[Justafan]

I understand.. but where does the concept of "name, image and likeness" come in under this arrangement?

It was my understanding that this ruling came about because "amateurs" were not allowed to be paid for memorabilia, autographs etc. They couldn't get paid to have their name associated with a video game etc.

This just seems to be bastardized version of peeling back the band-aid of booster interference and bringing it into the open.

I guess this is the new reality and Lehigh just has to adjust but it will just widen the gap between the big state schools and the smaller academic institutions.

[LUEngineer]

Do the “Collectives” require the athlete to perform any duties in return for the funding directed by the head coach?

Seems like the LVWC as an outside separate entity from the University would have the ability to do an NIL? The Hotel B works directly with the athlete so why wouldn’t the LVWC be able to do the same thing.

The beauty of LVWC doing this vs a “Lehigh Collective” would presumably not require the funds to be used for all sports.

Perhaps Oracle or Florida Guy could provide insight on this?