Justafan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:50 am
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.