Name, Image and Likeness

[Justafan]

I'm taking this from the Transfer Portal thread for a moment.

Based on the landscape given, in order to compete at the level the posters want to be at, we need to adopt the Gonzaga model. Gonzaga is a small private school (the size of Lehigh) which every year competes at the highest level on the biggest stage.

So what is their model? They only carry 15 low budget sports plus men's basketball. Think cross country, tennis, soccer etc. Basketball likely funds all those sports. There is a lot of money to be had in basketball.

But here is an interesting article I found on NIL and Gonzaga

https://gozags.com/news/2024/3/15/gonza ... parel.aspx

lehigh will never go for the Gonzaga model. Wrestling will never become a huge money maker but I'm never averse to learning about how other schools navigate the system. This may be an interesting entry point.

[HFO]

I'm taking this from the Transfer Portal thread for a moment.

Based on the landscape given, in order to compete at the level the posters want to be at, we need to adopt the Gonzaga model. Gonzaga is a small private school (the size of Lehigh) which every year competes at the highest level on the biggest stage.

So what is their model? They only carry 15 low budget sports plus men's basketball. Think cross country, tennis, soccer etc. Basketball likely funds all those sports. There is a lot of money to be had in basketball.

But here is an interesting article I found on NIL and Gonzaga

https://gozags.com/news/2024/3/15/gonza ... parel.aspx

lehigh will never go for the Gonzaga model. Wrestling will never become a huge money maker but I'm never averse to learning about how other schools navigate the system. This may be an interesting entry point.

In any successful NIL structures, it comes down to deep pocket alumni or local businesses who give a darn about the sport and typically only football and basketball where they as sponsors also get the bang for the buck whether in print, the talk about how much they fund and signage. The athlete typically does a local advertisement, but in some unique cases it could be a national ad.

At Lehigh, a Penske could do this, but what does Penske Automotive, Penske Racing, Penske Truck Rentals get out a Lehigh athlete for NIL? What is the carryover from athlete to that industry segment? Now if Sage Karam were on wrestling team and racing, then it would be a no brainer for Penske.

Scott Belair and Richard Hayne, of Urban Outfitters, there is a shot to do a national ad, say especially if NIL existed when McCollum was at Lehigh playing basketball. Could a star athlete in wrestling like Stanich or Crookham be the look for Urban Outfitters? Do print ads for them and get paid? Urban Outfitters the official clothier of Lehigh Athletics or Lehigh Wrestling team?

In the best of models, the student would have their own agents and that agent would be out there non-stop trying to put deals together. These collective models? Who knows how effective they will be in aggregating deals and whether for teams as a whole or individual athletes.

It is a brave new world of sports marketing whether it is even worth it. Zach Edey of Purdue was pulling in between $1-$2 million each year of his final two years, but the was 2x National Player of the Year.

Again, in wrestling, I have heard only a few instances where the aggregate value on any NIL deal for wrestling even approached $50,000 per year of which about $15,000 per year was a car lease deal that was renewable yearly by the sponsor. I have not heard from any in my universe of alumni friends from other programs of any wrestling athlete getting anything near even $100k.

Could $20k sway an athlete and family, probably, but it shouldn't be the overarching reason they should come to Lehigh. If you come to Lehigh, it should be because you want a coach who can give you a shot at an NCAA Title an All American and a quality education and a loyal alumni base. Whether this is an undergraduate degree or a stackable graduate degree to potentially accelerate your entry into your chosen profession. Again, a graduate degree in certain fields could be worth +$1 million. Last I checked, $1 million > $50k.

So how Lehigh sells the program has to remain much the same, but there is the option of the overlay of a "cash assistance" through NIL to sweeten the overall Lehigh proposition. But we ain't even in the game, of all the big name grad transfers that have already decided on school, not a bleep from any of them that they considered LEHIGH and that is NOT GOOD!

So Pat and team and AD need to sit down and work out a strategy going forward. Going forward it should no longer be Joe Sterrett. Lehigh's next AD should come from Big 10 who was an Associate AD who had oversight of wrestling in their responsibilities. Pay up the money to attract such a new AD.

[LUEngineer]

Interesting posts regarding Gonzaga & Lehigh future AD coming from Big 10 wrestling school.

Gonzaga clearly has identified their dominant sport & Lehigh needs to acknowledge that difference as well. There is no question that under the current AD that will never happen as Joe was a football guy & instrumental founder of forming the Patriot League. I give him great accolades for that pursuit & it will always be his legacy.

Fortunately he did not attempt to put wrestling under that umbrella which has allowed wrestling to be able to survive under different rules. However, we have always been behind our competition (Big 10/12) in adapting due to our general philosophy of student first which I cannot fault for Lehigh.

Now however we do have a wrestling only NIL collective due to the efforts of some engaged wrestling alums. We also have a stronger RTC with a great leader in Kerry McCoy. We need to credit Garry & Rich Paul for getting an RTC off the ground years ago & bringing it to this point with Mike Caruso & others carrying it forward.

The NIL store is interesting indeed & perhaps why we have lost some very good recruits to Virginia Tech offering NIL dollar amounts in the $25+ range to unproven high school kids with promises of more if they perform.

I think the South Mountain wrestling NIL initiative is really the beginning to separate wrestling at Lehigh & the university can’t stop it. So encourage everyone to make contributions to this initiative to allow Pat to compete whether it be at the high school or portal level. I have a feeling you will hear about a portal success soon.

[JAD77]

Interesting post by Justafan. One thing grabbed my attention - the vast majority of the schools listed that participate in that program sponsor Div I wrestling, whereas the vast majority of Div I schools do not sponsor wrestling. In other words, teams we both compete against and wish to be successful against in wrestling, find this to be a useful tool. Definitely not a cure-all, but a tool in their toolbox.
Crookham, Stanich, Taylor, Beard, et al merch? Interesting.

[JAD77]

A quick comment on HFO’s post. While finding someone with deep pockets wanting some advertising value in return is probably the “traditional” route for an NIL, it now appears to be an open season that that approaches straight payouts or subsidies with little expected in return other than performing for the university. In that aspect, crowdfunding could be every bit as effective as big money donors.

[Justafan]

"I think the South Mountain wrestling NIL initiative is really the beginning to separate wrestling at Lehigh & the university can’t stop it. So encourage everyone to make contributions to this initiative to allow Pat to compete whether it be at the high school or portal level."

I think LUEngineer is spot on with this comment.

Although I am in no way connected to the Lehigh decision makers, I do make the effort to ask a lot of questions. From everything I heard Lehigh has never viewed athletics as an end-all but simply as a conduit to attract the best and brightest to the Institution. Even in our "heyday" of wrestling, financial aid was solely on a need basis and academic standards were not modified significantly to attract high caliber athletes. The University provided the infrastructure and majority of the funding for athletics. The rest would need to be generated through fundraising.

If alumni desired to provide the financing to advance the cause of any sport, they won't turn it down but their primary concern is running an academic institution. That is how many sports endowed their coaching and wrestling is funding their scholarships and their state of the art facilities. Such is the plight of most small, private institutions.

Where we differ from schools like Gonzaga and Villanova is that hey put their emphasis behind a relatively low cost (about 15 athletes) high yield sport in basketball. Wrestling attracts a niche audience nationally which provides relatively little exposure or revenue. Cornell just finished #2 in the NCAA tournament which I'm sure excited their wrestling fan base but won't raise the stature of the University which is the goal of every University President (or should be.)

Once again, just my opinion. Don't shoot the messenger

[1/2NELSON]

Have really given NIL minimal attention, thus I find the imput from ALL you guys pretty informative.

Initially my thinking was more narrow-minded, and somewhat negative, believing the NCAA by their condoning of such a process, was in essence opening PANDORA'S-BOX!

[FloridaGuy]

>>>>>> Supreme Court opened the NIL Pandora’s box———NCAA fought against it and lost.

There are multiple reasons beside pure financial considerations to choose a college, but programs have always competed for athletes via scholarship levels——- with few wrestlers receiving full rides given the 9.9 max.

NIL opens the door to increase the financial aspect of a wrestler’s college decision and, at the same time, opens the door for alums & boosters to direct funds toward specific athletes.

Whereas Lehigh, or any other school, would ‘ buy’ recruits in the past with a sizable scholarship/financial aid offer——— we can now increase the monetary inducement by also offering NiL money separate from the school.

The recruiting ‘game’ hasn’t changed———it just has an add’l layer via NIL.

[Justafan]

>>>>>> Supreme Court opened the NIL Pandora’s box———NCAA fought against it and lost.

There are multiple reasons beside pure financial considerations to choose a college, but programs have always competed for athletes via scholarship levels——- with few wrestlers receiving full rides given the 9.9 max.

NIL opens the door to increase the financial aspect of a wrestler’s college decision and, at the same time, opens the door for alums & boosters to direct funds toward specific athletes.

Whereas Lehigh, or any other school, would ‘ buy’ recruits in the past with a sizable scholarship/financial aid offer——— we can now increase the monetary inducement by also offering NiL money separate from the school.

The recruiting ‘game’ hasn’t changed———it just has an add’l layer via NIL.

I don't disagree with anything you posted except perhaps the conclusion.

Small private, highly academic school like Lehigh are already at a significant disadvantage in recruiting competing against much, much larger publicly funded institutions with football and basketball underwriting many of the traditional "Olympic" sports. They also have much smaller tuitions, lower academic standards (mostly), higher exposure etc. NIL just accelerates that disadvantage by allowing supporters from schools with 5 X the alumni base to add to the disparity. Lehigh's wrestling fans are passionate but primarily also long in the tooth .

The legendary Jay Wright voiced his concern when he stepped down as the basketball coach at Villanova.

I've never been a pessimist but consider myself to be a realist at times. The time to act is now as LUEngineer noted earlier.

[gimpeltf]

Have really given NIL minimal attention, thus I find the imput from ALL you guys pretty informative.

So, you think nil of NIL?