Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

2021 USC Team

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Originally posted by Chase in Arizona View Post

    Yeah, I just disagree with you on this one.

    First, unless we’re talking about a vehicle lease or use of high end apparel, I don’t free product as much of anything. Even Ethan is getting NIL cash.

    Also, a major aspect of these NIL deals is that they aren’t widely known by the public. Caleb Williams’s major NIL deal is with a private equity firm; it’s not something being pitched to the general public.

    The TV deal aspect of this is a red herring. SC plays the lion’s share of its Pac-12 games on an ESPN channel or FS1. All told, SC played on an ESPN, Fox or CBS/Turner station 21 times this season. That’s no different than your average SEC or Big XII team.
    I just don’t believe EA and boogie are getting anything of significance that would make a recruit come to USC. Evan Mobley would have cleaned up with NIL deals from being a surefire top 5 pick. But outside of that, I just don’t see anyone coming to USC to play basketball help their brand and make major NIL money.

    Caleb Williams is probably most widely recognized for his deal with beats. That’s something recruits will want. No one has even heard of Hawkins way capital.

    As far as TV goes, aside from the games on pac-12 network that nobody can watch, I should have also mentioned that most of our tip off times were less than ideal as well. Tennis Larry decided to spread us around instead of finding one key partner for the league. Even our games vs UCLA were relegated to 7:00pm PST because ESPN has the pac-12 as a low priority. The game @ McKale was the one time fox treated us like a main event with a 2:00pm tip off.
    Last edited by PxPxTrojan; 04-03-2022, 08:30 PM.

    Comment


    • #17
      Originally posted by PxPxTrojan View Post

      I just don’t believe EA and boogie are getting anything of significance that would make a recruit come to USC. Evan Mobley would have cleaned up with NIL deals from being a surefire top 5 pick. But outside of that, I just don’t see anyone coming to USC to play basketball help their brand and make major NIL money.
      Boogie declined to leave the program. Without getting into too many details on this board (the podcast goes into more detail), this was not the coach’s first choice. It is almost certain that a significant contributing factor in Boogie’s decision to stay at SC was the loss of income he faced if he left.

      Also note that Tre White’s final list was USC or the NBL. He had eliminated all other college programs. I have also heard from the most reliable of sources that NIL was a major focal point of Bohn and Sosna, which is where the Boulevard campaign came from. For many, obvious reasons, SC has tried to keep this info more opaque. The circumstantial evidence of players generating substantial NIL is pretty clear.

      Originally posted by PxPxTrojan View Post

      Caleb Williams is probably most widely recognized for his deal with beats. That’s something recruits will want. No one has even heard of Hawkins way capital.
      I don’t think NIL is primarily about players enhancing their brand, but rather about profiting off their brand. Both Evan Mobley and Caleb Williams have NIL deals with financial services institutions. These firms are flush with cash. These type NIL deals are more akin to celebrity music artists performing special gigs.

      Originally posted by PxPxTrojan View Post

      As far as TV goes, aside from the games on pac-12 network that nobody can watch, I should have also mentioned that most of our tip off times were less than ideal as well. Tennis Larry decided to spread us around instead of finding one key partner for the league. Even our games vs UCLA were relegated to 7:00pm PST because ESPN has the pac-12 as a low priority. The game @ McKale was the one time fox treated us like a main event with a 2:00pm tip off.
      Pretty much every NIL deal for all student-athletes across the country are targeted at local publicity, not National publicity. When are games are aired in New York matters very little when it comes to NIL. Keep in mind that the football team has the same unattractive kickoff times on the east coast, and yet the football players haven’t had any issues generating NIL money.

      Also, I wouldn’t count on any new TV deal giving SC more exposure. It’s just, if not more, likely that the new deal will mean fewer games on ESPN and FS1. Certainly when it comes to basketball, viewership on the conference only networks (SEC Network, Big Ten Network) is puny. So simply placing the Pac-12 Network on DirecTV isn’t going to make a meaningful difference for viewership.

      Comment


      • #18
        I should add that all across the country the most lucrative NIL deals aren’t with famous commercial brands like Beats, but with local, often financially-associated entities.

        Comment


        • #19
          Originally posted by Chase in Arizona View Post
          I should add that all across the country the most lucrative NIL deals aren’t with famous commercial brands like Beats, but with local, often financially-associated entities.
          Right. Boosters giving now legal kickbacks to players. It’s pretty clear USC basketball lacks big booster support like football, unless you know of something changing in that regard.

          If our players were making significant amounts in NIL money, someone would leak it (think it’s an accident we know Bryce Young has $1 mil in NIL deals?) for the PR it would generate.

          Is it also possible Boogie decided to stay because he had nowhere else to go? Leaving two programs in back to back years isn’t the best look, and wouldn’t he also have to sit absent a waiver because it’s his second transfer? not sure how he’s doing academically, but playing this season out could theoretically allow him to grad transfer the following year as well vs. sitting out somewhere for a year?

          Pretty much every NIL deal for all student-athletes across the country are targeted at local publicity, not National publicity. When are games are aired in New York matters very little when it comes to NIL. Keep in mind that the football team has the same unattractive kickoff times on the east coast, and yet the football players haven’t had any issues generating NIL money.
          Football under Lincoln Riley is a whole lot different than what we had prior to that. We’re back as the premier west coast football program.

          Our basketball team has a lot of untapped potential in the NIL world with continued success, but I’m really just not buying that we are a player in that field yet. USC is clearly at the bottom of the LA basketball totem pole below the lakers, clippers, and UCLA. We’re a blip on the radar on the national level too. A rotational player going off at Duke would generate more headlines, sports center highlights, etc. than anything our players could do to rightfully be featured.

          My personal opinion is the NIL dollars being generated now by our players is that they are more the product of the initial frenzy of everyone wanting a piece of the NIL action without actually knowing or understanding their investment and potential ROI. Good for our kids for getting what they can, but I really don’t believe it’s that much to make us players.
          Last edited by PxPxTrojan; 04-03-2022, 09:35 PM.

          Comment


          • #20
            Sure, there are places for Boogie to go. He could go to the G League. He could go overseas. He could try to transfer to SDSU and seek a hardship waiver, which he’d almost surely get.

            Just because you’re not hearing about something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It is 100% false that there is some big incentive to leak NIL deals, particularly if they are with firms that would prefer to keep a low profile. The SEC is flush with NIL cash in football, but almost none of that has leaked.

            What’s interesting is that the rest of the conference basically thinks SC and Oregon are the only two schools that can properly take advantage of NIL. Note Oregon is about to pull two Top 5 overall recruits for 2023 after pulling a Top 10 recruit for 2022.

            Comment


            • #21
              I’m sure there is lots of under the radar action going on throughout college football and basketball—-just not seeing how USC is in on it. Sorry, just not buying it.

              And it’s definitely not an accident we’re hearing about Caleb Williams NIL deals, Bryce Young’s NIL deals, the Texas linemen fund, the “rumored” amount Texas A&M recruits received and so on. Ohio State put out a press release bragging their athletes were #1 on opendorse last year. Anything not made public is surely being shared with recruits, so nothing is really going to stay secret if it’s significant

              Do I think Bohn and Sosna realize NIL is super important? Absolutely. I just don’t think they can sell USC basketball like football when it comes to that for the obvious reasons.

              Would love if I am wrong and the NIL money flows in to get us continued top recruiting classes with first round draft picks, the PG we desperately need, and so on. But I’m just not seeing how a program that can’t even sell out it’s own arena, can’t sell all the founders seats at founders club donation prices (they’ve been allowing any season ticket holder to fill most of them…), has an unfinished suite level, arena that hasn’t been upgraded in the nearly 20 years, and so on suddenly found a bunch of people interested in big NIL deals with our players.

              Opendorse reports the average compensation is $561/player at the division 1 level. They also note 70% of the NIL money is from sponsored posts. Boogie has no Instagram posts and no sponsored tweets, which is why I’m inclined to believe his deal with Brady is more about free product (it does seem cool to be one of the few selected to be part of Tom Brady’s brand…)than massive amounts of money.

              Oregon has had Nike forever—not the least bit shocking people think they can utilize NIL, since now Nike can start doing stuff for individual players legally and not having to disguise things as team exclusives.

              USC has football as an obvious NIL advantage, but Im really not sure where basketball fits into that? One cool thing I’m hoping for is with Kobe’s daughter at SC, would be neat if SC became a “flagship” school for the future of the Kobe/mamba/mambacita brand.
              Last edited by PxPxTrojan; 04-03-2022, 10:37 PM.

              Comment


              • #22
                Originally posted by PxPxTrojan View Post

                Opendorse reports the average compensation is $561/player at the division 1 level. They also note 70% of the NIL money is from sponsored posts. Boogie has no Instagram posts and no sponsored tweets, which is why I’m inclined to believe his deal with Brady is more about free product (it does seem cool to be one of the few selected to be part of Tom Brady’s brand…)than massive amounts of money.
                .
                There are 176,000 Division athletes.

                Of those 176,000 athletes, fewer than 3.5% of them play for a revenue sport at the Power Conference level. So, putting aside “average,” we’re already into the top 3.5% of Division 1 athletes.

                Of those 3.5%, fewer than 1/3 play for a university with an endowment of over $2B. So if you play a revenue sport at a Power Conference school with a $2B+ endowment, you’re already talking about around the top 1% of all Division 1 athletes. And that’s before you start looking into narrow donor bases.

                I understand that you’re not going to believe in SC hoops NIL power unless you specifically see public evidence. It’s a good approach. But these things often aren’t very public. The most prominent collegiate athlete in Southern California, Johnny Juzang, apparently has NIL deals with about $400-600K, but very little is known about them outside of one apparel deal and the same bobble head deal Isaiah Mobley has.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by PxPxTrojan View Post
                  One cool thing I’m hoping for is with Kobe’s daughter at SC, would be neat if SC became a “flagship” school for the future of the Kobe/mamba/mambacita brand.
                  I think you may be a little overly focused on the glitzy/Kardashian side of NIL. Kentucky’s only OAD basketball player this year has his most prominent NIL deal with a local car dealership. It’s Porsche, but it’s still a local car dealership. And that’s for the most prominent NIL eligible player on the top revenue generating program in the country.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Chase in Arizona View Post

                    Juzang got insanely hot. He didn’t stay hot this year. But UCLA is in the Final Four again (even with Jaime dinged up) if Mick doesn’t completely give the game away.
                    Quite likely, but that's more a tribute to their draw than their consistency. Nonetheless, they still took a title contenting team down to the wire in UNC, even while Jaime was banged up, so they were playing good ball at the end, just didn't get so lucky this year.

                    I was referring more to their season as a whole: they looked shaky all year, despite Campbell's significant improvement. Just expected them to be more of a juggernaut.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X