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Visits in June


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21 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

So, these big recruiting weekends we're looking at this month with players the likes of which, collectively, we've never seen ...

 

Any chance it's connected to this?

 

 

If so, thank God for Blake Lawrence. Glad he was a Husker. Guess that means I'd have to thank God for Bill Callahan, too.

 

I believe there's already a partnership between his company and the university. So it's likely to be the case.

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43 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

So, these big recruiting weekends we're looking at this month with players the likes of which, collectively, we've never seen ...

 

Any chance it's connected to this?

 

 

If so, thank God for Blake Lawrence. Glad he was a Husker. Guess that means I'd have to thank God for Bill Callahan, too.

I suspect this is part of the reason Lexi Sun is sticking around another year. 

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NIL is potentially huge for NU in all sports. Not only are they already on the cutting edge with their partnership, but they're also ready to go, if the NCAA passes it for July 1 as expected.

 

For a school that doesn't have a rep for using bag men and that has a rabid and huge fan base, the ability for players to make significant money through NIL certainly has to turn the heads of recruits. I'm sure 99% of them would prefer to receive above board payments through NIL, rather than receiving slimy offers through bag men (even if they'll have to pay taxes on NIL earnings).

 

For a school that offers six figures and a good job to recruits under the table, the NIL is not good news. With all of these payments occurring out in the open and being above board, it evens the playing field.

 

I'm sure the NCAA is more than happy to step back from having to enforce this kind of stuff as well. Now they can sit back and do nothing like usual, and no one will care.

 

It's good to see our coaches taking full advantage of promoting it.

 

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20 minutes ago, throwback said:

For a school that offers six figures and a good job to recruits under the table, the NIL is not good news. With all of these payments occurring out in the open and being above board, it evens the playing field.

 

What's stopping them from continuing to do that?

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11 hours ago, HuskerFever said:

 

What's stopping them from continuing to do that?

Nothing - but isn't it easier to stay above board and have a car dealership booster offer the player 100K to sign autographs 4 Saturdays in a row or to appear in a commercial, rather than go through a bag man? 

 

Granted, promising a great job for dad is a little tougher to do, but the 100K should be no problem. Plus, now the booster can write it off as a legit business expense. Writing off the cash you give to a bag man is pretty difficult. Those guys don't generate IRS-approved receipts from what I hear.

 

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Really neither have anything to do with one another because either would happen without the other; that doesn't mean they can't enhance each other.

The dead period ended on Tuesday so we were always going to gear up to have visits in June.

The NIL era starts in July so opendorse was going to gear up for that.

 

Thus, Opendorse and Nebraska talking up their relationship this week makes a lot of sense.

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2 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

Really neither have anything to do with one another because either would happen without the other; that doesn't mean they can't enhance each other.

The dead period ended on Tuesday so we were always going to gear up to have visits in June.

The NIL era starts in July so opendorse was going to gear up for that.

 

Thus, Opendorse and Nebraska talking up their relationship this week makes a lot of sense.

I'm not sure you're right about that. Nebraska is on the leading edge of the Name Image Likeness curve and, from what I can gather, this is largely due to the entrepreneurial efforts of Blake Lawrence.

 

It's seems too much of a coincidence that we're landing visits from such high profile guys (the kinds of players we could never get our foot in the door with in years past) now that we're ready to roll with NIL opportunities.

 

Yesterday, basically all the head coaches of the major programs at Nebraska retweeted that tweet about NIL from Husker Athletics. It's clear they view this as a big deal. I think this will do more for recruiting than building PBA did. Or Hendricks. And it costs us basically nothing. We just had to have a program ready to roll out to help our student athletes monetize their NIL right off the bat, and thanks to Blake Lawrence, we've done that.

 

I'd be surprised if we were getting visits from all the top-level players we're getting if we hadn't been on the leading edge of that curve. And I'll bet that's going to be a big part of the sales pitch when they're here.

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7 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

I'm not sure you're right about that. Nebraska is on the leading edge of the Name Image Likeness curve and, from what I can gather, this is largely due to the entrepreneurial efforts of Blake Lawrence.

 

The SEC is very well prepared for this and even their states are about to pass some laws very quickly. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and New Mexico are all able to start accepting endorsement deals within those states on July 1.

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Not quoting just to save extra noise but @Bill Self's Toupee makes an excellent point that I intended but didn't explicitly say above. Our loyal fan following makes us a more valuable destination for players. Even though we haven't had great success on the basketball floor, we have unbelievable fan support. Our fans are active on social media. They follow players on Twitter.

 

Blue bloods in the SEC might also have NIL programs going into effect, but who else has Husker nation?

 

Because Husker nation will lead to eyeballs on their Twitter accounts or other social media, and that translates DIRECTLY into pay for the players. Directly! See what Blake Lawrence said above.

 

More followers, more views, more money for those kids from advertising.

 

So, the BEST thing we can do for recruiting right now is to start following our players and our potential recruits on Twitter.

 

I wish I was kidding.

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From that article linked above:

 

"We do this analysis to see which schools are providing value or which schools produce highly engaged audiences on social media," Opendorse owner  Blake Lawrence told AL.com.

 

The Tide holds the two top spots.

 

"It tells us winning at all level of sports has a tremendous impact on engagement with their audience and the size of their audience," Lawrence said. When you combine winning with a traditional powerhouse like Alabama, and an Alabama fan base, which engages at a rate that is higher than most fan bases in the country, Alabama’s in position to attract this new generation of recruit."

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Think about how, almost without justification, our fans have loyally followed and shown up for this Husker basketball team. Posting attendance numbers that consistently place us in the top 15 teams in the nation. And now that loyalty might be rewarded BECAUSE OF that loyalty. The number of eyeballs we can put onto social media translate into $$$$ for players' NIL. Which makes us an attractive destination for recruits.

 

Guys, get on Twitter and start following players and recruits.

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On 6/4/2021 at 4:10 PM, Norm Peterson said:

I'm not sure you're right about that. Nebraska is on the leading edge of the Name Image Likeness curve and, from what I can gather, this is largely due to the entrepreneurial efforts of Blake Lawrence.

 

It's seems too much of a coincidence that we're landing visits from such high profile guys (the kinds of players we could never get our foot in the door with in years past) now that we're ready to roll with NIL opportunities.

 

Yesterday, basically all the head coaches of the major programs at Nebraska retweeted that tweet about NIL from Husker Athletics. It's clear they view this as a big deal. I think this will do more for recruiting than building PBA did. Or Hendricks. And it costs us basically nothing. We just had to have a program ready to roll out to help our student athletes monetize their NIL right off the bat, and thanks to Blake Lawrence, we've done that.

 

I'd be surprised if we were getting visits from all the top-level players we're getting if we hadn't been on the leading edge of that curve. And I'll bet that's going to be a big part of the sales pitch when they're here.

 

Opendorse has 20+ college clients and counting. Lot of other schools are doing their own thing.  At the end of the day, NIL is a selling point like the arena or the fanbase...it's something that the coaching staff has at its disposal for selling a kid on why they should come here. The NIL stuff is nice but at the end of the day It's the combination of Fred and Matt that has all these kids here.

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3 hours ago, hhcmatt said:

 

Opendorse has 20+ college clients and counting. Lot of other schools are doing their own thing.  At the end of the day, NIL is a selling point like the arena or the fanbase...it's something that the coaching staff has at its disposal for selling a kid on why they should come here. The NIL stuff is nice but at the end of the day It's the combination of Fred and Matt that has all these kids here.

 

I understand that. But we seem to be somewhat uniquely situated in that our fanbase is rabid on social media. They show up live and in-person for games but they also follow the team on social media more than most. Like the Kirk Herbstreit example mentioned upthread. If there's any school that can just about guarantee eyeballs on the players' social media accounts, it's us.

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You'll find that if you go to the verbal commits page on a guy it will often link his twitter account.

It doesn't seem like a great idea to focus on that sort of stuff here though as we've all have seen the bad side of social media.

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1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

You'll find that if you go to the verbal commits page on a guy it will often link his twitter account.

It doesn't seem like a great idea to focus on that sort of stuff here though as we've all have seen the bad side of social media.

 

I get that about social media having a bad side. My thought is just let's make sure that potential recruits see that we have eyeballs on their social media. And more eyeballs translate directly into more $$$ for their name, image and likeness on social media. I don't care if you read what they post. Just give 'em a follow and make sure your profile says you're a Husker fan.

 

It's like we're becoming the modern-day bag men and we can do it totally legally and with no personal cost to us. But it takes a concerted effort. At least that's how I'm seeing it. Can anyone clarify if I'm wrong in this?

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54 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

I get that about social media having a bad side. My thought is just let's make sure that potential recruits see that we have eyeballs on their social media. And more eyeballs translate directly into more $$$ for their name, image and likeness on social media. I don't care if you read what they post. Just give 'em a follow and make sure your profile says you're a Husker fan.

 

It's like we're becoming the modern-day bag men and we can do it totally legally and with no personal cost to us. But it takes a concerted effort. At least that's how I'm seeing it. Can anyone clarify if I'm wrong in this?

 

Do what you want, but be sure to unfollow them after they commit to a different team so they aren't getting paid by having Husker followers.  😁

 

My policy has always been to follow a player after he signs his LOI and unfollow when they transfer/graduate (except Roby...I will likely continue to follow Huskers in the NBA)

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