By my count I'm seeing 4 scholarship plus 2 walk on roster point guards. Also seeing Isaiah Stafford as our only 2 guard. Is having 1 number 2 maybe one too many? 
Well a couple things Powell is doing to try to turn us into a Gonzaga
1. The Fan Base
You build a fan base to support you financially and mentally. Back in he day, the ARC was a must see gym, not because of how nice it is, but because the fans were so passionate about the team. Until about 7-8 years ago, the ARC was considered one of the toughest places to play in the country. That fanbase has dwindled because of the lack of success and the various controversies, the donor base has dwindled as well for these reasons. I guarantee once the team proves they can win, and maybe get 1 or 2 tournament berths in the next 10 years, the support for the team could go back to the early days. Also, people will be willing to overlook some of the financial concerns if you have the facilities to support them. Valpo does sit inside the largest market in the MVC, and with the sox, Hawks, and Bulls, leavbing NBC Chicago in order to invest in their own channel (Much like the cubs did with Marquee). This opens the door for teams like Valpo and UIC to start getting TV deals that directly supports the NIL fund and the fanbase improvements.
2. Faith Based Talent
There is a reason the new guys in Paul's interviews put a big emphasis on their faith being a major talking point for Powell and why they chose this school. Faith based talent is more likely to overlook NIL and facility concerns to play at a school with a string sense of faith. Loyola, Gonzaga, Baylor, St. Mary's to name a few are all schools who put an emphasis on faith in order to attract their guys. Faith based athletes are also more likely to stay at a faith based institution and not care as much about money, as we have seen from Coop and Zai. Had they not been Christian athletes, they probably would have been long gone.
3. Community Outreach and Social Media
Powell and the athletic office have been making an effort to try to get back into the NWI and Valpo community. Zai and Coop both attended the 8th Grade Camp at VHS, a move that was previously unprecedented for the department. Powell also makes an effort to highlight local business with the "Powell Party of 6" series that the school puts out. Opening yourself up to the community will surely open the pocketbooks of the local residents, given that the program receives success of course. Valpo itself is full of some very affluent people. Valpo's elite as a community is comparable to Carmel's elite, but whereas Carmel's elite is known to open their pocketbooks to the community, Valpo's elite is very frugal. When these people see success and a strong sense of community, they are known to donate large sums. Some examples being the payment of the state champion rings for VHS football, which were paid for by donors, and Jeff Samardzija paying for not one, but 2 turf fields in town. His own Samardzija Field, and the new turf football field at the high school were all funded by him. If success is perceived and a good reputation is garnered with the community, we might be able to see the "Family Express Forum" built in a quicker amount of time. And NIL could be in our future.
ReZy, all great thoughts, however, in my mind only your #2 addresses the short-term ramifications of program longevity. Numbers 1 and 3 are incredible first steps by Roger in his first year that lay the foundation for local program support over the long run and will gradually pay increasing dividends. However, they do not address winning here and now, which is my conundrum — how do we retain recruiting gains over the next couple of years in the face of the new recruiting/transfer order? I noted that both #1 and #3 have a winning component as a qualifier. Without winning, they would likely lose momentum.
Back to #2. I think you nailed this one. Roger has a great advantage here and The Rev’s very good at it. The kind of player who responds to this appeal is more likely to display loyalty, commitment, and unselfishness and stand by these values. And there are some great players out there who are people of faith looking for the right home. Valpo can be that place — for longer than a season or two.
I agree that really only #2 addresses things in the short term, but it seems like the gutter the program, and the school is in has forced that issue. Unfortunately, in my mind, there can be nothing "long term" until the issues of public trust and facilities are addressed. The major, and likely only, difference between us and the Zags, is the fact that when the Zags saw success, they dove head first into athletics. Constructing the McCarthy Center, and keeping up with renovations. The ARC never really saw any renovations, or even major talks of replacement, until the Padilla era. The fact is there was a window of opportunity, but dwelling on the road not taken gets you nowhere.
Powell was hired to recruit, and he hit a home run in his first year, granted these are guys who have minimal proof of product on court, but they are proof of one thing, Powell has the capabilities to sell VU to athletes in its current condition. This is proven by the fact that we got a lot of guys to commit in the early days of the portal, and that a lot of our guys didnt enter until the last minute, after their playtime was going to be in jeopardy. I couldn't help but notice a fair share of the MVC was in the boat Valpo has been in for many years now. A lot of late additions motivated by athletes "settling" rather than "committing". There is a major difference between these 2 and Powell has proven he can get players to "Commit" rather than "Settle". Even our guys who arrived a little late, in comments from PO and other interviewers, where quoted as being "excited" to play for the school. While you could discount this as conjecture, I believe these guys are truly genuine given PO and Brandon stated that their interviews went on for a really long time with a lot of these guys. If someone is just spouting out buzz words and not being genuine, would they have spent as much time chatting it up with their interviewer?
True, getting faith based athletes is only going to support the school in the short term, but getting people to say "I WANT to go to Valpo" rather than just "eh, I guess I'll play for Valpo" is going to keep the team at least competitive in the MVC rather than being delegated to being a bottom feeder, which should boost the school's rating in terms of talent pool.
Being young allows me to understand the power that social media can hold. Social Media is an extension of marketing at this point with how many brands advertise to socials. Some success can be seen in the short term just by being active on social media platforms. By being recognizable on social media, it allows for bigger and better brands to come and sponsor athletes in NIL. Being able to say, I can get you in contact with so and so, or I can get you this car on a one year lease is a huge +, but there needs to be a starting point for everyone. In my eyes, the approach to get local business involved is going to prove to be a massive short term bonus. If you get even a couple local businesses in on supporting the NIL, you can start to give kids signing bonuses, albeit very small signing bonuses. Some money is better than no money after all. Coupling this with faith based talent attraction would improve the bottom line.
The biggest short term benefit of all the 3 is an improvement to the bottom line. Sure 1 and 3 could take a while to see the ceiling raise, but if they can help raise the floor, which it seems #2 has already raised the talent floor, any little improvement is going to be huge for the school.
By my count I'm seeing 4 scholarship plus 2 walk on roster point guards. Also seeing Isaiah Stafford as our only 2 guard. Is having 1 number 2 maybe one too many?
Aren’t Shaw and Schmidt 2 / 3 hybrid players and both are considered shooters?
I’d love to see a 6’9”, 6’8”, 6’8”, [6’2”/6’8”/6’4”], [6’1” (had to keep DD in there, sorry) or 6’4”] lineup on the floor at times. Good grief. The combinations now are almost endless — provided they all can play freakin defense and pull down offensive rebounds as well!
Ya know, this is starting to look better and better.
Agree 62, we will have many more options to play big this year versus last. As for the "2" guard question, these guys are more of a combo guard rather than a true point--pass first kinda player. I'm thinking of a player like Justus McNair or De La Cruz Monegro.
Keep seeing size referenced and, while we can't run five 6'5" guys out there and hope to be successful, defense and rebounding is much more than size. I'd take a 6'6" guy who's "willing" over a 6'10" slowfooted "unwilling" any day.
In the way back machine, we need only look at Larry Owens from hated ORU as a great example that size is not everything in rebounding. Dude was a freak athlete that you had to account for on every board, and only at 6'7", even earning 19 games in the NBA in his professional career.
Caleb Green for that matter as well
If there's any trickle down affect from these numbers which apply to power 5 conferences, it could explain the lack of a big man signing at Valpo and elsewhere.
Just read an article on The Athletic about NIL salaries among college basketball player transfers. They interviewed several people "in the know" - no names given, but this is what they said:
“Starter should be $200,000-$250,000, all-conference $350,000, All-American $500,000-plus — but there are people paying double that across the board,” says one source.
“Starter: $200,000-$300,000. All-conference: $500,000-$750,000. High-end: $800,000-$2 million,” says another.
“Starter: $500,000. All-conference: $800,000-$1 million. Top guys: Well over $1 million. Some teams are getting wild as well with money in the portal,” says a third.
“Depends on position. An all-conference guard could be looking at $450,000-$600,000 and, as they’ve gotten more scarce, $600,000-$800,000. For bigs, what was $600,000-plus for an all-conference player is now over $1 million,” says a fourth.
“Starter: $200,000-$400,000. All-league potential: $600,000-$800,000. Top guys — over a milly!!!” says source No. 5
3.5 k was the average deal listed according to the Opendorse platform (and NBC new York). I fail to see any player making upwards of 100k let alone seeing money near 500k. At the end of the day these kids are still amateur athletes, no school at any ever is going to be willing to shell out millions to pay athletes. That just isn't feasible to ask that out of donors. These numbers must be including brand deals as well or they just seem plain off and whoever was interviewed is tying to stir the pot.
This is from CBS Sports' Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander, who surveyed coaches:
Some low-major and mid-major coaches politely declined to answer because they said they simply do not swim in those waters and don't have a good grasp for the market. We appreciated the honesty. But roughly 100 coaches did answer to the best of their ability, and we came away with the impression that transfers who project as high-major starters are typically looking for something between $200,000 and $300,000 -- and often getting promised around $200,000 in NIL deals to enroll at a new school.
Are some getting more? Yes. Are some getting less? Yes.
There are outliers on both ends.
But most coaches told us the floor for transfers who project as high-major starters is around $150,000 -- and then what amounts to a bidding war can and will take things much higher.
I need a refresher. NIL stands for a player’s:
Name
Image
Likeness
If used in any way, the player deserves some compensation because the university benefits. OK, I think I get that. But…………………………….
Yet, as currently practiced, even if the Name or Image or Likeness is never used for financial gain by a university athletic program to earn $$$, just the possibility of NIL use generates “retainers” worth thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars in advanced, non-returnable fees paid to still growing 20ish male (cuz with maybe an exception or two, this doesn’t apply to women) human beings who have some particular skills.
Do I have this straight?
BTW, I have a followup to this, but that can wait till after anybody joins the discussion.
I need a refresher. NIL stands for a player’s:
Name
Image
LikenessIf used in any way, the player deserves some compensation because the university benefits. OK, I think I get that. But…………………………….
Yet, as currently practiced, even if the Name or Image or Likeness is never used for financial gain by a university athletic program to earn $$$, just the possibility of NIL use generates “retainers” worth thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars in advanced, non-returnable fees paid to still growing 20ish male (cuz with maybe an exception or two, this doesn’t apply to women) human beings who have some particular skills.
Do I have this straight?
BTW, I have a followup to this, but that can wait till after anybody joins the discussion.
I'd think of it as how the pros work considering there isn't much separation anymore. While you cannot be paid directly by the school for play, they get around this with alumni networks.
There are signing bonuses. While not always money, they do exist. The famous one I like to use is Utah gave all of their scholarship athletes a 2024 Ramm 1500.
You are correct in saying that the possibility of NIL is a bonus. A lot of these talks seem to go "I can get you in contact with so and so" and, "our media department gets this many ratings". Part of the reason that the PAC-12 imploded was because their tv deal was going to be streaming only on Apple TV. Friday night baseball already doesn't get much in terms of viewership because of Apple tv, imagine all of your football games being in the same boat. It would certainly turn away brands.
It is my firm belief, however, that a 20 year old, being a 20 year old myself, is going to do something extremely stupid with his NIL money, or we are going to see bad stories in the coming years that will open people's eyes to letting the league place a "salary cap" or other regulations to stop NIL from going crazy. People are already having doubts after an Iowa native transferred to Iowa from Bama, picked up his check from the alumni fund, then re entered the portal in order to transfer back to Alabama.
Paying athletes isn't new, athletes have always been asking for money and getting money for even just visiting a school, but now with NIL, they have access to more money and on the book money rather than just everything being under the table
So it just comes down to 20ish kids actually being de facto employees, no matter how you cut it, of their respective schools and making, in many cases, more than their professors and college presidents.
OK, that sounds perfectly logical, reasonable and consistent with … nothing.
But wait. What about that outstanding biology student who is paying their own way (a walk-on?) and just got his/her name and picture plastered all over national media for discovering a new treatment for cancer? Are they due an NIL payment? Nah. Helping to cure cancer doesn't put paying butts in seats. Yet, the university will obviously benefit.
This is such a cluster.
So it just comes down to 20ish kids actually being de facto employees, no matter how you cut it, of their respective schools and making, in many cases, more than their professors and college presidents.
OK, that sounds perfectly logical, reasonable and consistent with … nothing.
But wait. What about that outstanding biology student who just got his/her name and picture plastered all over national media for discovering a new treatment for cancer? Are they due an NIL payment? Nah. Helping to cure cancer doesn't put paying butts in seats. Yet, the university will obviously benefit.
This is such a cluster.
I dont blame the NCAA for not being prepared to handle this. Considering the only reason this boat exists is because some kids sued to make it happen. Eventually, and already happening, schools are going to draft contracts to keep kids at their campuses. The transfer portal will also most likely see some form of reigning in. The current suit keeping the portal open is the claim that limiting your ability to transfer "Inhibits the academic success of the athletes". That's all Horse Hockey legalese to garner sympathy from outsiders. Student may come before athlete, but being a student does not negate your status as an athlete.
While I have no problem with students pursuing partnerships with brands and being paid for those partnerships, I do take issue with the alumni networks paying for students to come to the school and giving kids Ram 1500s just because they play for a team. In my mind the perfect world is you either opt for the alumni payment plan, or a scholarship to pay for your school.
We can bang our heads against the wall about whether NIL is proper or not or the fairness of it all but it's going to be around in some form moving forward. As far as being fair, it's never been fair...scholarships for athletic ability or NIL....it just may seem moreso currently and that's going to be in part because Valpo isn't in a great position to compete in the current environment in my opinion.
There is the major lawsuit which is coming to a settlement over the next few months which may help clarify and control the entire situation but, no matter the solution, the big guns are going to always overshadow those with the water pistols.
