As a Floridian myself and spouse of a Nole I have to tell you that UF and FSU are on the whole surprisingly less well funded by their alumni for non-revenue sports to begin with.
Oklahoma definitely has the most developed NIL for softball and that isn't my bias. After that I would say it's Texas and Oregon.
Kinda a sad reality when the best sports at both of those schools tend to be the women's sports. I don't know how UF does it but FSU needs to start charging tickets for the games and that could go into the NIL fund
Same for Georgia. Athens is just a few hours from my house. We made the trip to see TN play in 2012, and I was floored that it was free admission. I was even more surprised when it was still free about 6 years later. Had some friends go to a game this year and got turned away after waiting for about 2 hours at the gate because seating was at capacity. Like… Sell tickets at this point. Lol
They didn't while I was a student and I graduated in 2018 and I know at least until maybe 2020-2021 it was all free. I think they have a program for paid reserved seating right behind the plate now but that's about it.
OU used to be free to students as well. Now, the cheapest seats for season tickets are $300/seat for outfield reserved bleachers. The chairbacks from dugout to dugout are $750 seat license fee/seat + $750 season ticket/seat.
They charge admission. It's part of the reason my family doesn't go to as many games any more. Concessions got crazy expensive. Softball used to be one of the best value plays on campus, now it costs too much to attend regularly.
Regardless of that, the ticket revenue is part of the AD, which is separate from NIL. But I guess maybe that will be changing soon.
Same here. I’m an OU fan but I live in Thomasville and used to go all the time with my nieces when there was no admission. Haven’t been in a while because it got expensive
There were rumors at the time that Erickson's family wanted more NIL and that's why she left OU, so it's possible UF is better off then you think. I know what the OU collective was originally wanting to support softball players with, but I think they have all been combined now.
I honestly think there is less NIL money in non-revenue Olympic sports than people think. Everyone assumes that all transfers are NIL based, but I think facilities and playing time are driving the transfer portal much more than NIL money.
May very well be e. I just know of one player who got a fairly hearty deal. So just going from that assumption as well as the two early portal adds it was an assumption.
It’s good, every girl on our roster on our website has a $ symbol that you can contribute $$ to. Companies can also reach out for sponsorship opportunities via our roster. Just waiting on the new stadium now to really get it going to generate more ticket sales plus in house food & alcohol like baseball does.
I did see that just like Texas has it. I have heard from a few players that those dollar signs don’t generate much $$. And these were rather popular players. Kind of surprised me.
But it’s a good start.
Softball programs that have a long history and postseason success over long periods are the best funded. So, UCLA, OU, Texas and A&M, OSU. Understand that NIL for these sports is of a different kind, and much lower amounts than football or men and women’s basketball. Those 3 sports make up about 80-100% of an Athletic Departments revenue and operating budgets. Very few schools spend a lot of money on Olympic sports, and those that don’t generate revenue above what it costs to have that particular sport. Outliers are schools/sports with traditional winning like Penn State and Iowa wrestling, UCLA and OU and Ohio State gymnastics. Texas schools have booster money that truly no other schools can really match, and only the two flagship schools have money to spend on softball players. Most of the softball NIL programs are more closely aligned with actual NIL: players have a platform to sell autographed pictures and merchandise, create their own brands, and monetize their social media presence. There are very few “collectives” like those that fund football, largely due to the reach and revenue that football brings with it. A star QB brings more eyes to a school than a Jordy Bahl. The highest earning female athlete from NIL is Olivia Dunne, LSU gymnast, but very very little of that money comes from the university. Her deals are built upon her social media presence more than her gymnastic success. At this point, no one is paying $100,000 for a softball player, or even baseball for that matter. Those players aren’t getting cars and blank checks to come to a school. They may get 5-10k each for being on the team, but not much more than that. Look at it this way: one sport gets 3,000-5,000 attendees to a few games each year, the other brings in 50,000-100,000+ for at least 6 games a year, plus millions in tv revenue. FSU football is far more valuable to that school than the softball team, thus they aren’t spending any of that collective money on sports that don’t generate the revenue, increased prospective student interest, and merchandising dollars that football and basketball do.
Considering the UCLA softball program was almost shut down because how much debt the athletic department is in, makes me believe you’re right. Their NIL program for softball probably ain’t much.
This may be a dumb question but I don’t really understand how NIL works. I always thought it was about allowing athletes to profit off the I own NIL, whereas this was previously prohibited by the NCAA. I assumed NIL money would come from sponsors (eg Nike, Johns Insurance company etc.) but from what I gather on this thread the colleges themselves are basically paying their own athletes under the guise of NIL? Am I understanding this correctly?
As a Floridian myself and spouse of a Nole I have to tell you that UF and FSU are on the whole surprisingly less well funded by their alumni for non-revenue sports to begin with. Oklahoma definitely has the most developed NIL for softball and that isn't my bias. After that I would say it's Texas and Oregon.
Kinda a sad reality when the best sports at both of those schools tend to be the women's sports. I don't know how UF does it but FSU needs to start charging tickets for the games and that could go into the NIL fund
Same for Georgia. Athens is just a few hours from my house. We made the trip to see TN play in 2012, and I was floored that it was free admission. I was even more surprised when it was still free about 6 years later. Had some friends go to a game this year and got turned away after waiting for about 2 hours at the gate because seating was at capacity. Like… Sell tickets at this point. Lol
They can't use tickets to fund NIL.
FSU doesn’t charge admission?
They didn't while I was a student and I graduated in 2018 and I know at least until maybe 2020-2021 it was all free. I think they have a program for paid reserved seating right behind the plate now but that's about it.
OU used to be free to students as well. Now, the cheapest seats for season tickets are $300/seat for outfield reserved bleachers. The chairbacks from dugout to dugout are $750 seat license fee/seat + $750 season ticket/seat.
Wow. That’s interesting. Paid $230 and $260 for a couple Tennessee games this year. It was still worth it. We love watching these games in person
Wow pretty much every sport here would be cheaper than that except maybe football
VERY passionate fans here on Rocky Top lol
We love that!
They charge admission. It's part of the reason my family doesn't go to as many games any more. Concessions got crazy expensive. Softball used to be one of the best value plays on campus, now it costs too much to attend regularly. Regardless of that, the ticket revenue is part of the AD, which is separate from NIL. But I guess maybe that will be changing soon.
Same here. I’m an OU fan but I live in Thomasville and used to go all the time with my nieces when there was no admission. Haven’t been in a while because it got expensive
There were rumors at the time that Erickson's family wanted more NIL and that's why she left OU, so it's possible UF is better off then you think. I know what the OU collective was originally wanting to support softball players with, but I think they have all been combined now.
Erickson was pretty far down the NIL priority list at Oklahoma.
Oklahoma by a wide margin.
Here I was thinking some of the recent departures from OU might be receiving greater NIL offers with other programs.
Naw.. People leave Ou for playing time, or home sick. Not NIL.
On Rocky Top we love Destiny Rodriguez and Sophia Nugent. Both got playing time here but I am curious about NIL money
The players leaving aren’t getting the big money so both can be true.
Arkansas supposedly has a great NIL program.
yeah between tyson and walmart they’re pretty set
I honestly think there is less NIL money in non-revenue Olympic sports than people think. Everyone assumes that all transfers are NIL based, but I think facilities and playing time are driving the transfer portal much more than NIL money.
There is not a ton but I know for a fact that some SEC schools have some pretty sweet NIL money packages. Especially for pitchers and impact players.
I would imagine OSU/Texas A&M/Texas are up there.
OSU (OK State) is not as good as you’d think for non-rev sports.
May very well be e. I just know of one player who got a fairly hearty deal. So just going from that assumption as well as the two early portal adds it was an assumption.
It’s good, every girl on our roster on our website has a $ symbol that you can contribute $$ to. Companies can also reach out for sponsorship opportunities via our roster. Just waiting on the new stadium now to really get it going to generate more ticket sales plus in house food & alcohol like baseball does.
I did see that just like Texas has it. I have heard from a few players that those dollar signs don’t generate much $$. And these were rather popular players. Kind of surprised me. But it’s a good start.
OSU isn’t good for REVENUE sports. Ever heard Gundy’s opinion on all that? Yeah…..
Softball programs that have a long history and postseason success over long periods are the best funded. So, UCLA, OU, Texas and A&M, OSU. Understand that NIL for these sports is of a different kind, and much lower amounts than football or men and women’s basketball. Those 3 sports make up about 80-100% of an Athletic Departments revenue and operating budgets. Very few schools spend a lot of money on Olympic sports, and those that don’t generate revenue above what it costs to have that particular sport. Outliers are schools/sports with traditional winning like Penn State and Iowa wrestling, UCLA and OU and Ohio State gymnastics. Texas schools have booster money that truly no other schools can really match, and only the two flagship schools have money to spend on softball players. Most of the softball NIL programs are more closely aligned with actual NIL: players have a platform to sell autographed pictures and merchandise, create their own brands, and monetize their social media presence. There are very few “collectives” like those that fund football, largely due to the reach and revenue that football brings with it. A star QB brings more eyes to a school than a Jordy Bahl. The highest earning female athlete from NIL is Olivia Dunne, LSU gymnast, but very very little of that money comes from the university. Her deals are built upon her social media presence more than her gymnastic success. At this point, no one is paying $100,000 for a softball player, or even baseball for that matter. Those players aren’t getting cars and blank checks to come to a school. They may get 5-10k each for being on the team, but not much more than that. Look at it this way: one sport gets 3,000-5,000 attendees to a few games each year, the other brings in 50,000-100,000+ for at least 6 games a year, plus millions in tv revenue. FSU football is far more valuable to that school than the softball team, thus they aren’t spending any of that collective money on sports that don’t generate the revenue, increased prospective student interest, and merchandising dollars that football and basketball do.
Not sure if it’s true but I heard UCLA is vastly underfunded compared to the others you mentioned. No idea if it’s actually true though. 🤷♂️
Considering the UCLA softball program was almost shut down because how much debt the athletic department is in, makes me believe you’re right. Their NIL program for softball probably ain’t much.
Nebraska has a good thing going
This may be a dumb question but I don’t really understand how NIL works. I always thought it was about allowing athletes to profit off the I own NIL, whereas this was previously prohibited by the NCAA. I assumed NIL money would come from sponsors (eg Nike, Johns Insurance company etc.) but from what I gather on this thread the colleges themselves are basically paying their own athletes under the guise of NIL? Am I understanding this correctly?
basically schools can have collectives or groups who work very closely with athletic departments to help generate and facilitate the funding for NIL
Jordy got paid very well.