Is Bo Nix Worth a 1.5 Million NIL?

[FishDuck Article]

Talk about a topic I never saw coming a couple of years ago! The amount a college player will receive in a year to play football? Who saw that in the future, even five years ago? Nonetheless, I was surprised to be notified about this article that listed the table below for the projected NIL amounts the top ten college ...

 

Is Bo Nix Worth a 1.5 Million NIL?

FISHDUCK.COM

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Talk about a topic I never saw coming a couple of years ago! The amount a college player will receive in a year to play football? Who saw that...

[Tandaian]

I think we need to remember that USC is likely not doing much for Bronny James.  He signed his deals before even choosing USC.

 

USC (450K) and Washington (502K) need to stop whining about uncle Phil.  Oregon has 195K alumni.  I have no idea if I'm right in my thought process, but going to universities in big cities I tend to think the alumni would then eventually live in a big city.  Same goes for going to school in a smaller town, you would tend to lean living in a smaller town. 

 

Big city tends to mean bigger salaries, smaller towns tends to mean smaller salaries.  Of course, there isn't always a direct correlation, but I think on average UW and USC alumni are making more money than UO grads and there are way more than them.

 

I'm not paying Bo, but I think him being paid over a million dollars is probably about right for a known entity.

[Jon Joseph]

Terrific take Charles, thank you.

 

Man, has the college football world changed? As you so well noted Charles for Greybeards this is like living in a CFB alternate universe. Especially for those of us who remember one CFB game broadcast on Saturday on living black and white TV, one announcer in the booth, OL tackles who at 250 pounds were behemoths, one platoon football, no clock stoppage after 1st downs, and coaches routinely grabbing face masks.  

 

I was very interested and happy to see that it is not only football players and men's basketball players who are getting paid. It's great to see that non-revenue athletes of both genders are getting a piece of the pie.

 

And to think, USC would not have lost all of those scholarships and Reggie Bush would not have had to forfeit his Heisman Trophy. And Don James was run off because a QB was paid $50K. 

 

QBs are getting the most money as a position group. No surprise here. Peyton Manning makes far more money from advertising than any all-pro lineman. Jealousy in the locker room? You don't see it in the NFL and I doubt that we will see it in college sports. 

 

If people who excel are being paid do college athletes need to be employees? Even if they are all employees NIL is not going away and the market will award the athletes in all sports who are the most successful and have the best marketing presence. 

 

Is Bo worth $1.5M a year? If this is what his market value is then the answer is 'heck yes.' 

 

 

[Jon Joseph]

On 5/22/2023 at 10:47 AM, Tandaian said:

I think we need to remember that USC is likely not doing much for Bronny James.  He signed his deals before even choosing USC.

 

USC (450K) and Washington (502K) need to stop whining about uncle Phil.  Oregon has 195K alumni.  I have no idea if I'm right in my thought process, but going to universities in big cities I tend to think the alumni would then eventually live in a big city.  Same goes for going to school in a smaller town, you would tend to lean living in a smaller town. 

 

Big city tends to mean bigger salaries, smaller towns tends to mean smaller salaries.  Of course, there isn't always a direct correlation, but I think on average UW and USC alumni are making more money than UO grads and there are way more than them.

 

I'm not paying Bo, but I think him being paid over a million dollars is probably about right for a known entity.

Tan, spot on between the city and small town. But this does not affect the football-mad world of the SEC with communities such as Starkville, Oxford, Fayetteville, College Station, Columbia, Missouri, and Baton Rogue among others.  

 

Clearly, there is a difference between Pullman, Corvallis, and LA. In Eugene? Division Street has its act together far better than UCLA and USC. 

 

LOL. SC pays its football coach $10M a year and whines about Oregon paying players.

[Mudslide]

I expect that the NIL "salaries" will, just as with pro leagues, continue to competitively inflate until it's all beyond reason ... and ability of many schools to compete at all.  And thus, it's back to my prediction last year, that the majority of colleges and universities will eventually only compete in 'club' sporting contests.  These will be contests with no rewards other than maybe free ride scholarships for the players and bragging rights for the institutions.  For these schools there will be no bowl games, no tv deals, no influx of media money.  Think "D" League or minor league baseball, but without pay.

 

Like the National Debt, it can't continue to inflate without serious consequences.  And that's true of pro sports, as well.  The billionaire's sporting industry house of cards will either be made sane with regard to fans' ability to support it, or it will collapse.  And I don't trust any sanity being available here. 

 

I do trust in Charles' POV that we should at least have a couple of years to enjoy the PAC and our Ducks.  But it also sounds like he may be thinking about shortening the 'joy' period ... just a little.  

 

Signed,

Grumpy

[Charles Fischer]

On 5/22/2023 at 7:47 AM, Tandaian said:

USC (450K) and Washington (502K) need to stop whining about uncle Phil.  Oregon has 195K alumni. 

Fantastic observation and stat--thank you.

 

There is the largest concentration of billionaires in the Seattle-Metro area of anywhere in the world.  There are no excuses, as the prospects are there and instead getting mad at Oregon--they should get mad at their own Tyee Club, NIL organization or UW Development Dept.

 

But wait!  That is not our culture anymore....to attach blame where deserved.

[SeattleDuck]

UO median earnings (4 year degree) $50,391

UW $74,063

USC $89,884

median annual earnings of individuals that received federal student aid and began college at the indicated institution 10 years ago, regardless of their completion status

per U.S. Dept of Education 

[DanLduck]

IIs Bo worth the 1.5M?

 

An analogy:

Many years ago my son worked at a little kiosk in the mall selling sports memorabilia and mostly sport cards.

 

He was often asked, "how much is that Jordan rookie card really worth?"

Or some such similar question. 

 

His answer, "how much are you willing to pay?"

 

Bo is worth exactly what the NIL collective is willing to pay.

And for us to have any real legitimate chance of a stellar season, we need Bo Nix.

 

Like the rest of y'all greybeards, I'm sad to see college sports come to this pay for play...but if we want to compete, I guess we need to get on board.

All abooaarrrd!

 

Let's go Ducks!

[spartan2785]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:53 AM, SeattleDuck said:

UO median earnings (4 year degree) $50,391

UW $74,063

USC $89,884

median annual earnings of individuals that received federal student aid and began college at the indicated institution 10 years ago, regardless of their completion status

per U.S. Dept of Education 

I really don't think there is any argument that UW or USC are the more prestigious universities, some of this is due to the fact that UW has a medical school and USC is a private university which attracts a lot of legacy students, they are both in big cities where the cost of living is substantially higher than Eugene, it's just one of those things. 

 

The UO is a good school, it is a solid state school that has some really good departments, you can succeed if you go to school here, and there are some doors that are open due to the connections that Oregon has.  I'm not going to ignore though that if you stack it up it's not surprising to see those numbers considering the reputations of those schools and where they are in the world.

 

When it comes to Nix being worth 1.5 million, I have mixed thoughts, he probably is worth that much since he's able to attract that much, do I think college players should be making that much...that's another matter.  I certainly don't begrudge him making the money since he hasn't done anything wrong.

[SeattleDuck]

Difference is also related to those Universities have robust engineering programs. (Oregon State is over $60k a year using same source of info)

 

Not dissing UO, still the school I love! Glad we have Bo for this season. Go Ducks!

[Cacker Guy]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:04 AM, Jon Joseph said:

Is Bo worth $1.5M a year? If this is what his market value is then the answer is 'heck yes.'

I agree.  Plus I think that Bo is an excellent ambassador for the university.  He is not just a fine football player, but also a thoughtful young man of high character.  To me, this adds value.  In some ways he is a walking, talking advertisement for the university -- and the football program.

[Charles Fischer]

Another component I did not think of until now is...what is the value of Bo as a recruiter for Oregon?  I'll bet that has added a ton of value to our roster with transfers between last year and this year...

 

Bo and Noah Whittington doing the mesh...

[2002duck]

If the Ducks are paying (not likely to have been drafted in the top-4 rounds in 2022) Bo Nix $1.5M for a one year "veteran's contract", that means the Ducks have that number in their range going forward for a good QB.

 

So...what is Dante Moore getting at UCLA? What did we offer Moore for his first season, or his projected payouts for subsequent seasons? 

 

I ask, because if we're giving Bo Nix $1.5M for one season, we should have just offered a lot more for a "#1 overall draft pick" in Dante Moore. It's rare a "#1 overall draft pick" would want to come to Eugene. 

 

Just saying. I still like Bo Nix, though. I would have made it publicly known that if we got Moore, that it would be "an open battle for the starting spot come Fall." Maybe we could have got Moore in that case.

[Jon Joseph]

On 5/22/2023 at 7:46 PM, 2002duck said:

If the Ducks are paying (not likely to have been drafted in the top-4 rounds in 2022) Bo Nix $1.5M for a one year "veteran's contract", that means the Ducks have that number in their range going forward for a good QB.

 

So...what is Dante Moore getting at UCLA? What did we offer Moore for his first season, or his projected payouts for subsequent seasons? 

 

I ask, because if we're giving Bo Nix $1.5M for one season, we should have just offered a lot more for a "#1 overall draft pick" in Dante Moore. It's rare a "#1 overall draft pick" would want to come to Eugene. 

 

Just saying. I still like Bo Nix, though. I would have made it publicly known that if we got Moore, that it would be "an open battle for the starting spot come Fall." Maybe we could have got Moore in that case.

Every draft prognostication I read before Nix decided to stay in Eugene had Nix going not later than the 2nd round and many had him in the 1st round.

 

And there is a big difference between paying $1.5M to a guy straight out of high school and to a guy who has started in college ball for 4 seasons and had his best season in 2022.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Jon Joseph

[2002duck]

On 5/22/2023 at 5:26 PM, Jon Joseph said:

Every draft prognostication I read before Nix decided to stay in Eugene had Nix going not later than the 2nd round and many had him in the 1st round.

Hmm. I guess I was looking at different sites. That said, I see he's projected to go in the late first round or the early second round after this year, so I suppose you are right. I still think losing Dante Moore was a big deal, though.

[Jon Sousa]

If you were holding the NIL purse strings last year, What would you offer Nix to stay for one more?

 

If it was available, I'm sure most of us would think 1.5 is a deal... especially if we knew all the roster changes that DL would be able to put in place before summer.

[Haywarduck]

I guess I am a little confused here. NIL allows a player to get paid for endorsements, like DJ Uiagalelei did with Dr. Pepper. It doesn't allow anyone to pay someone for how well they play, or their impact on the field, directly. So I suppose the question we are pondering is about what we think he is worth on the field, but doesn't really answer the question about his NIL value.

 

I suppose we leave that question to Division Street? I think this is a fascinating question and, if I was a parent, or student athlete, it puts Oregon heads and shoulders above other universities. 

 

What other NIL group has somebody on it who made an athlete a billionaire? It is estimated Michael Jordon has made close to 2 billion from Nike if we are really counting.

 

This braintrust has not only built the greatest football facilities, and one of the best college athletics programs, they are now going to build the greatest NIL initiative college sports has ever seen. 

 

Just like in building facilities it isn't just about the money. There are programs who have been spending big dollars on athletes for a long time, with little to show.

 

It think the big story is how Oregon's Division Street is going to build a NIL juggernaut, and it will be legit. It isn't going to be what Miami is doing, or Texas ATM either. It will be based on NIL, and it will rock college athletics. 

 

Back to the question, Nix will make as much as legitimately possible through NIL. This will bring in more athletes, and it will lead Oregon to the next level, along with Coach Lanning!

[WiseKwacker]

I'm not focused much on what Nix is getting; as far as that's concerned, I think he earned it with the amazing season he put up for the Ducks last year. By all rights, he should have moved on to the pros after completing his fourth year of college play, but got that free extra COVID year. We're the beneficiary of that fluke.

 

What really jumps out at me on the list is Bronny James at the top. While many of the comments here are focusing on the disparity between the "rich" schools and the "not-so-rich" schools, I'm looking at the disparity between "student athletes." 

 

When this whole NIL deal was brewing, I think a majority of college sports fans were calling for student athletes to get a chance to get some financial benefit from their part in making college sports the big money-making machine that it's become. And, I think, many of us imagined a system where the money (NIL) would be spread around liberally to many "needy" student athletes. 

 

But, as things have developed with NIL, we're seeing that the vast majority of the money is going to a select few "top athletes," while most of the other athletes divide up the scraps. The example of Bronny James jumps out at me as how the system has developed in a not-necessarily-unexpected way, but certainly in a disappointing way:

• Is there a question of financial need in this case? Nope.
• Is Bronny James an established college star? Nope.
• Is Bronny James projected to be one of the top college stars next year? Nope.
• Is Bronny James projected to be a top NBA talent some day? Nope.

Oh well, Go Ducks!