Article on Spyre/NIL: Target $25 million annually, or more

[Volprofch05]

Cars, apartments and 'six-figure packages': Inside the new, money-fueled frontier of the college football arms race

some excerpts:

“If you would have asked us four to five months ago, we might have said we want to try and raise $3 (million), $4 (million), $5 million annually. Now, the goal is $25 million annually. Or more. And we think that goal is absolutely attainable,” said Hunter Baddour, president and co-founder of Spyre Sports, a Tennessee-centric college sports collective. “We’ll have to work hard, which we will. If this is how the game is played, then game on.”

“We’re prepared to invest a substantial amount of resources into the 2023 recruiting class,” Baddour said. “When you add all that together, it’s well into the seven-figure category.”

Baddour and CEO James Clawson co-founded Spyre Sports in 2020 and quickly found fertile ground in name, image and likeness. It has become one of the sport’s most organized and advanced collectives, a new catch-all term in college sports for groups of fans with varying budgets set aside to help aid players in monetizing their name, image and likeness. Money is pooled from a variety of sources and distributed to players according to their value, while players are responsible for providing deliverables such as event appearances, social media posts or autographs.

While it’s impossible to quantify the precise impact of money from an NIL package in a recruit’s mind, Tennessee signed seven of the nine Class of 2022 prospects Spyre Sports had significant conversations with during the recruiting process, according to Spyre.

“We need to make sure he understands what his potential opportunities are available if he comes to Tennessee, whether it’s businesses that have done deals are have said they want to do them in Knoxville, Nashville or nationally. We show him, these are how many players are on six-figure deals,” Clawson said. “We feel like the quarterback at Tennessee can make as much money as anywhere in the country. If you go out and replicate the season Hendon Hooker just had, there’s no reason why at the end of the day in deals we do and other companies do or national brands, the quarterback at Tennessee shouldn’t make seven figures a year.”

 

[Vols1891]

I knew Hunter Baddour in high school; smart guy.

 

[Volprofch05]

I knew Hunter Baddour in high school; smart guy.

Good to know, because it sounds like he is going to be managing quite a bit of cash.

 

[Orange_Crush]

Cool. UT now has an "unassociated" college recruit agent service.

 

[TheVolsFrog]

Cool. UT now has an "unassociated" college recruit agent service.

Which is why the schools can't directly play NIL is dumb...
Just find you someone to handle it for you.
Welcome to the paid semi pro college era.

 

[Iam4utalways]

I’m guessing “or more” is needed.
$25 pays 1 Mil to each new recruit. It will cost more to close the portal each year.

JH runs a fun to watch style of football. It looks like it would be fun to play in it too. College football requires a lot of work, why not have fun on game day? Sometimes you win sometimes you lose.

 

[kcvols1]

Welcome to the paid semi pro college era.

Yeesh. We’re in about Year 100 of that era.

Trouble Along the Way https://g.co/kgs/Hv5riy



Things are finally starting to rise above board, thank God.

 

[Volfan76]

Sad to see the beginning of the end of college football.

 

[Iam4utalways]

Sad to see the beginning of the end of college football.

There will be an adjustment due to NIL, but the down fall will be when players start getting paid off the TV money.

Right the biggest threat to the game is officiating. There are so many bad calls, no calls, loop holes to rules and concerns of integrity issues with the refs. People make mistakes, but there has to better accountability. When it comes to reviews, the right call has to be made using all the rules. There are so many cameras that are watching. If a holding isn’t called then the coach should be able to throw a flag go to film and get that called. If there’s no film evidence then it costs a TO. There are 22 players on the field, there just aren’t enough refs to watch all of them all the time.

Our non TD against the boilermakers had all kinds of action to consider. Forward progress, pulling the RB to the TD(Whatever that’s called.), timing of a whistle, timing of when the ref is going to end the play.

I believe in a late whistle allowing a play to finish, review the play and make the right call. Undisputed evidence to over turn is silly, this isn’t a criminal trial, watch the film and make an honest call.

Pass interference no call is another one from the bowl game. JH throws the flag, they watch the hold and we get the call. If there is no TO to use if you don’t get the call have 10 second run off or 15 yard delay if game penalty. I don’t like ending games due to a time runoff, I understand the need but I don’t have to like it. Just to be clear, I wont mind if we’re to ever help the Vols. I can’t remember a late “game changing” call helping the Vols

 

[BabyvoI]

Sad to see the beginning of the end of college football.

I have trouble knowing how I feel about this. In some ways, it has always been a dirty game. But now that it's officially semi professional, it feels different. It seems like this is heading to a haves and have-nots. which means big time match-ups every week (like the NFL) - but will we miss the old leagues and match-ups? It would certainly take some adjusting to...

 

[Iam4utalways]

I have trouble knowing how I feel about this. In some ways, it has always been a dirty game. But now that it's officially semi professional, it feels different. It seems like this is heading to a haves and have-nots. which means big time match-ups every week (like the NFL) - but will we miss the old leagues and match-ups? It would certainly take some adjusting to...

If it means more P5 matchups then I’m fine with that. I took a friend to a cupcake game at Neyland, they were not impressed. I could have been because they had previously won a NC in tennis. After winning a tennis game I was told it would never happen again. I didn’t know that we would never play tennis again.

 

[Notorious NIC]

Can someone post the Stewart Mandel hit piece? Jay Bilas quote-tweeted it and made the post below in response. I find it hilarious that Mandel and Forde only mention Tennessee in a negative manner. They have nothing good to say about anything going on in Knoxville.

 

[butchna]

Can someone post the Stewart Mandel hit piece? Jay Bilas quote-tweeted it and made the post below in response. I find it hilarious that Mandel and Forde only mention Tennessee in a negative manner. They have nothing good to say about anything going on in Knoxville.

The only parts of the actual article that qualifies as a “hit piece” are a direct quote including the term and a mild aside. Not surprised Forde lowered his pants in anticipation with the material.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff: “What you have now is like legalized cheating that’s going on, and we have to fix that.”



Of course, NIL was always intended to benefit current athletes like Henderson. What makes Ubben’s story so shocking is how the Spyre folks talk so openly about using NIL funds to woo future athletes. As fans, a recruit picking our school serves as validation that our school is special, our coaching staff unrivaled, our campus pristine. The only time money enters the equation is when someone else is cheating.

But that’s because all of us walking on this planet grew up in a world that frowned on college athletes making money of any kind. News flash: The world has changed. In 2006, Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar got kicked off the team for holding a no-show job at a Norman car dealership. In 2021, Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler received a full-on endorsement deal from a Norman car dealership and later left the Sooners on his own accord.

 

[GulfCoasterVol]

Can someone post the Stewart Mandel hit piece? Jay Bilas quote-tweeted it and made the post below in response. I find it hilarious that Mandel and Forde only mention Tennessee in a negative manner. They have nothing good to say about anything going on in Knoxville.

We always get 10 MPH above leeway ..... Right ???

 

[JRich]

Makes me want to throw up.

 

[tim]

Rich will have no issues. Wonder what women sports is getting…. College football, as we remember it, will not be played in the P5. Instead, I believe, we will begin seeking Mac/Ovc style of football to regain the purity of the sport played by a student athlete. That is, until it’s polluted also.

 

[Hulavol]

I’m glad it’s finally above board and all the shady shenanigans will mainly disappear - like it would suck having a good buddy booster raising money at cocktail parties for a running back and it has to be quiet off the books cash .. and lots of it. those days are finally over.

 

[VolPack22]

I really don’t care if the players get paid now. I was a little more old school thinking at the beginning of all this but I have grown to accept it. Also, I am in the camp that wants the SEC to disband from the NCAA and create its own league. I didn’t like that all the other conferences got their panties in a wad and banded together to form an alliance on all major decisions because of the Texas-Oklahoma situation. The SEC doesn’t need the other conferences to survive, even before Texas and Oklahoma decided to join. I hope those conferences realize that sooner than later.

 

[LSU-SIU]

But now that it's officially semi professional, it feels different.

There really is no such thing as semi-pro, and there was no such thing as "amateur". That was the lie so that they could try and justify the criminal scam.

 

[irish1485]

There really is no such thing as semi-pro, and there was no such thing as "amateur". That was the lie so that they could try and justify the criminal scam.

This.. people are being way too dramatic about this.

 

[Remy]

There's really only one way to get better, accountable, and consistent officiating and that is through scoring them and transparency. Every SEC official should be scored week in and week out, shown where their weaknesses are expectations to correct those weaknesses. Anyone can blow a call, but we have way too many consistently bad calls and no calls in the SEC. Also if we call defensive players for targeting and using the crown of the helmet we need to also charge offensive players for lowering the head and using the crown to make contact with defenders. Just make it a personal foul and two in a game gets you ejected not ejected for the first one. How many times have we seen defenders victimized for really bad targeting calls? It needs to end, it hurts the game.

 

[Volfan1000]

Very interesting discussion on the Sports Source show today about the NIL and Spyre Sports which you can watch on You Tube.

 

[Elhanan]

Oh thank the good lord. We need to dominate with NIL deals. Having rivals competing for national titles means we got to fish in those ponds. And that will cost millions every year.

 

[GAVol]

There really is no such thing as semi-pro, and there was no such thing as "amateur". That was the lie so that they could try and justify the criminal scam.

100% accurate. Those are terms people use as a defense mechanism for all the years they either spent in denial or when they winked at each other and pretended that money wasn't changing hands under the table.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Very interesting discussion on the Sports Source show today about the NIL and Spyre Sports which you can watch on You Tube.

They, like lots of other talking heads kept playing the NCAA was stupid and living in denial and should have done something proactive in getting the players paid to avoid the big ole Supreme Court from schooling them. I am not so sure, if they had initiated some kind of pay for play through the NCAA and schools directly, can you imagine the noise forthcoming in regards to Title IX? Keeping the money channels out of the direct revenue streams that the schools get/generate eliminates a lot of issues. Can the courts force outside entities involved in defining market value for each INDIVIDUAL athlete to also kick in to minor sports or women's sports? I don't. Could the NCAA have avoided it? I don't see how. They may have been ahead of the curve and dumb like a fox.

In the end I bet they are HOPING and expecting that Congress will get involved to provide some structure. Could be counting on the Senators and members of the House to become protective of their own favored institutions. Bama and Ohio might vote one way, but even Texas could be radically split by those affiliated with TTU, Baylor, TCU, Houston, et. al. wanting to protect the competitive landscape and insure that their schools have a better shot to avoid greater dominance by the big boys and the way to limit that is to create a cap on schools NIL dollars allowed while insuring zero limitations on the amount each player can receive. While UT may be helped by limiting the super high end NIL dealers, think how the votes from Nashville and Memphis would go. They get protection from the BAMA's OSU's, TAM's and UT. How do you think our leaders from OKLA, Nebraska, New Mexico, Miss., N.C. and others vote. How about FL.? Not sure but I think the distribution of alums and fans will help fairness and equitability win out.

So in the end they end up with a structure that allows anybody to pay any player whatever they want to play, but each institution will get an NIL cap, just like they get a Schollie cap, and a PWO cap. For all divisons of each sport. They simply require each athlete to report their deal and amount to the compliance department of the school they wish to play for, which can be established by a copy of a legal document from the money source and validated by a 1040 or 1099 that I am sure will be required by Uncle Sam. They will want their tax cut anyway. Paying a player outside an agreement is a federal tax evasion offense. NCAA won't have to worry about cheating the numbers, the IRS will insure that. Just one more data point for the schools and NCAA to track. Might have to add one admin to the staff. The amount of the cap will only have to be increased when no school in the division an athlete wishes to compete in does has any cap space left. Then a school/player waiver process might be needed. Not likely. Schools will have to be careful about who they accept and decide if they want one or two biggies, lots of small deals, or a mix. Guessing 2 to 3 mil as a cap number. But that will eliminate some big players from stacking up 5 million dollar deals. Burn up your dollars with big contracts and you have no smaller deal slots to accept.

Right or wrong I really believe the NCAA could not come up with a functional and economically feasible way FOR THEM to control this new process they wanted to avoid for these very reasons when the feds could do it with a vote or two. Timelines for deals will have to be established, and if new deal exceeds a teams cap the player simply goes into the portal with maybe some new rules, handy huh. Probably be easier if they simply employ each sports and divisions earliest signing dates for deal completion each year.

I have been wrong before, but this is STILL my STORY and I am sticking to it. Might not work, but think it was their plan to get everybody stirred up with zero controls on a new process and the feds to meddle in the process. Can't think of a way they can make it worse than what the courts handed them. Congress always wants the last say.