PalmTreeSpidUR
Bench player
That is ridiculous. Just because someone is a good coach does not mean they are capable (or want to) run a business focused on money and have to worry about budgeting and forecasting. Or vice versa.
Jim Merritt - new associate AD for basketball development
- Thread starter SFspidur
- Start date
Spider17
All A-10 player
What the NIL value a player garners and what they actually get might be two different things. I agreed with Mooney’s point that there’s no way of determining it and part of spending more is to keep up with the Jones’s.
I was the furthest thing from a b-school major but I imagine someone’s value is whatever people are willing to offer. So if a kid is getting let’s say $500K offers but one school comes in and says we’ll give you $2 million. Then that’s what their NIL value is ultimately.
So the tricky part in all this is when we are looking for transfers, we may think a player is good but aren’t willing to pay X amount of money for him good. Then you factor in our conference affiliation as well and if every other A10 team is playing a player a minimum to come here, we have to match that minimum too so we’re not the odd team out.
The other end of the equation though is once a player is at UR. If a player comes to UR and we had given them a higher NIL than what the actual value they bring to the table is, then we cannot be afraid to decrease the value for next year. This isn’t a participation trophy. I just don’t know if our staff has that cut throat mentality where not everyone is a winner, and can make those tough decisions. Otherwise, this goes back to my point about spending our NIL unwisely. If we can A) Have a talent of identifying impactful players who can be successful at A10 level B) Distribute our NIL wisely among current players based on performance where we aren’t afraid to hurt someone’s feelings and also wisely among impact transfers, then there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t have considerably better results with a $2 million roster.
Spiders4ever
Starter
If Argabright is only worth $200K to the Spiders, he's as good as gone.
sman
Starter
I believe you're low on these, but it's a reasonable breakdown. numbers have gone up since schools can contribute.
the above proposals where half the team just gets a scholarship are ridiculous.
everyone we recruit, we believe will contribute. and everyone recruited into the A10 is getting NIL money.
offer nothing and you've got a bench full of D3 players.
*23*
Assistant coach
Right, the issue is - even if some have doubts that he could step into a starting role in the SEC or at St Johns per se, those teams would easily pay $500k to bring in a guy just as a 4th guard / insurance policy.
Spider17
All A-10 player
If we need to pay Argabright $500K to stay then maybe PQ had a point about $2 million not being enough.
sman
Starter
they're absolute hypocrites. first impose a $1M salary cap for coaches, then we can talk about a cap for players.
they're absolutely fine with getting every dollar the market is willing to pay them as coaches, but it's not right for the players because it makes a coach's job tougher? boohoo.
Spider17
All A-10 player
Thanks. Totally pulling this out of thin air just to make it clear that I have no inside info. I just reasoned through how we would go about allocating $2 million to our guys.
Maybe we need to pay more to get guys into the program, but I think it’s a lot easier to negotiate once they’re here and we can tangibly see the results they produce. I don’t mean to be hard on the guys, but if players like Harper, McGlothin, Robinson, Tyne, and Tanner are making collectively over $500-600K, then we are not doing a good job of spending our money wisely.
*23*
Assistant coach
OK, quick google search says that schools can pay $20 million in NIL now? But even with boosters we only spent $2 million? And yes, I get it ONLY $2 million seeems crazy. But hey, we are paying an unispiring barely over .500 coach 1.5 million - so no I don't think its crazy. So really this is on Hardt and Mooney because they don't want to go knocking on doors and say we need more money to be spen on NIL to fund the one sport that would get eyes nationally if it were to be sucessful? WHat am I missing?
*23*
Assistant coach
Oops sorry Sman, this may not have been clear. They are asking for a spending FLOOR, not a cap or ceiling. I did re-read the article and this was reported somewhere else I saw it. They basically are now complaining that the BE is draggin them down b/c the other schools are not spending enought to be competitive.
Spider17
All A-10 player
Was this the first year that allowed the house settlement fund for schools to be allowed to pay players directly? If so, there’s absolutely no excuse why UR has not made that investment and we’re relying solely on NIL donor money.
sman
Starter
ok, that's crazy.
he's really changed his story. in 2024 he proposed a $1.5–$2 million salary cap per team and advocated for 2-year binding contracts.
Spider17
All A-10 player
Here’s another way I think about the NIL era. Would these players have come to UR otherwise if NIL no longer existed? If the answer is yes, then we aren’t doing the best job in elevating our program. The whole idea of NIL helping us out is that as an affluent school with affluent donors, it will help us punch above our weight class in getting recruits higher caliber recruits that may not have previously considered us. Seems like we’re using the money to just keep our head above water. We’ve seen schools like Liberty and plenty of other mid major examples that have used NIL to their benefit to get recruits they probably would have never gotten before. Why haven’t we capitalized on that?
*23*
Assistant coach
I seem to recall that. Yep, depends on the way the wind is blowing I guess
On the other hand, our coach is always two years behing the trend.
I remember Dutcher at SDSU when NIL came out, basically saying every player would get the same and it would be monthlyh payments etc. As soon as SEC and ACC started raiding his players tune changed immediately. That is problem with Mooney, when he speaks he sounds like he needs more an more time to figure out, unfortunately everything is changing so fast you need to adapt quickly
*23*
Assistant coach
Exactly. And in the cases of those top 150 recruits going to mid majors, I don't know if it is the NIL - but yes by over paying these guys a little - that the high majors won't even look at now - you have great opportunities right now. Which we have whiffed on last two offseasons.
$20 million is the institutional piece of revenue sharing, but for most schools that includes football players who take most of it given they generate most of the revenue. The Big East and other schools like VCU without big-time football have viewed it as an opportunity to go above and beyond what football schools are able to pay their basketball players. Of course, they also don't have the revenue generation that the football schools have, but if they're committed they'll still spend significantly.
And of course the school's revenue share can be supplemented by outside funding.
Eight Legger
Starter
We're just burning $1.5M a year on a dinosaur coach who has proven he's not going to "coach up" players, so we need to do one of two things:
• Fire Mooney, hire a young and hungry guy for $500k a year and use the $1M we saved to buy better players for him. Tell him we are setting him up with a better chance to win fast, and build in raises to his contract if he does -- and remind him that with success, he has a chance to move to a bigger job for more money.
• Fire Mooney, keep paying players the same amount we do now, and hire a coach at his salary who can actually coach up the players he has, in a way that Mooney has shown he cannot.
• Fire Mooney, hire a young and hungry guy for $500k a year and use the $1M we saved to buy better players for him. Tell him we are setting him up with a better chance to win fast, and build in raises to his contract if he does -- and remind him that with success, he has a chance to move to a bigger job for more money.
• Fire Mooney, keep paying players the same amount we do now, and hire a coach at his salary who can actually coach up the players he has, in a way that Mooney has shown he cannot.
97spiderfan
Starter
Tanner should get zero. He's been here 3 years is not an A-10 player, we should do everything in our power to incentivize him finding some where else to play in the transfer portal. If he does want to stay here and get his degree, that is fine, keep him on scholarship but pay him nothing. Any sliver of money that we give to him, we should throw on Aiden's plate.
Although, I'm still of the opinion that Aiden is playing in black and gold next year.
