Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

My impression of a collective is that it comprises an assortment of car dealers, roofers, restaurants, law firms, etc. in or near the college town.  I'm sure some feature national brands as well, but they probably can be by themselves, not a collective.  I could be wrong.

Why would you think this?

The car dealers, roofers, restaurants, and law firms, are capable of setting up specific, individual NIL deals by themselves.  They use specific players that they think will reach their target audience or demographic in a specific way.  These are what actual NIL should be, but they are not at all the majority of what NIL money is, at least not at bigtime athletic programs like yours and mine.

Rather, NiL collectives are basically shell companies that aggregate donations from boosters specifically for a particular school.  They are comprised of wealthy donors, plus rank and file alumni and boosters who donate smaller amounts that are aggregated into larger amounts and distributed to targets as decided by the coaching staff.  This is the majority of where NIL dollars come from for all but the bluest of blue chips, and while they are not really what was intended by allowing NIL, they're not illegal, nor can they ever be made to be illegal.  Players deserve whatever the market will pay for them.

yup, the UNL collective often reaches out to everyone that might be able to give, any 13 year old Husker fan can empty their piggy bank to hope they help in some small way.

not what  NIL intended, but........ WTF?

I love how we cherry pick about what NIL was and was not intended for. NIL, at its core, was to remove any barriers between a person who merits value, and the people who would like to reward that value. If utee wants to give me money, for any reason whatsoever, it’s not up to any government or governing body to stand in the way of free commerce. I don’t see why there needs to be some kind of endorsement or exchange.  

I love how we cherry pick about what NIL was and was not intended for. NIL, at its core, was to remove any barriers between a person who merits value, and the people who would like to reward that value. If utee wants to give me money, for any reason whatsoever, it’s not up to any government or governing body to stand in the way of free commerce. I don’t see why there needs to be some kind of endorsement or exchange. 

I don't disagree with you in principle or intent, but I do disagree in matters of fact.

NIL is by definition money paid to a recipient in exchange for the use of their name, image, and likeness, limited or excepted by whatever the contract specifies.  There is literally no other legitimate reason for this transaction to occur, other than an endorsement.

Nobody wants to pay utee94 for his name, image, or likeness, to endorse their product-- because nobody's ever heard of utee94  Likewise nobody wants to pay the 3rd string left guard at the University of Texas, for his name, image, or likeness, to endorse their product-- because nobody's ever heard of that guy either.

And yet the 3rd string left guard at the University of Texas is making a minimum of $50,000 per year in NIL money.  That is because there is an NIL collective at the University of Texas that guarantees every single offensive lineman at the University of Texas will make a minimum of $50,000 per year in exchange for limited use of their name, image, and likeness rights, regardless of whether or not those rights are actually worth that much on the open market-- which of course they are not.  

This is a perversion of the intent of NIL, but as you point out, there's no real way to separate them because there's no realistic way to define the market value of these athletes.  There's no real way to discern what's a legitimate NIL deal, and what's just an inducement from a school.  So we get both, and there's really no legal way to avoid that.

So, most of these collectives seek zero commercial value?  I guess I did "know" that.  I think some "car dealers" do pay players for NIL because I see the occasional commercial.

But, yeah, I'd guess most of the money is just "play football for us and do next to nothing".  There is no requirement for any commercial quid pro quo.

Back in my day it was said the players would get summer jobs at local car dealers and "never show up" for work, so perhaps that was on my mind.  Thanks for the clarification.

Absolutely.  Plenty of examples of local businesses using the local team's players for actual promotion and this is the true purpose of NIL.

While a private transaction where A gives B money is often quite legal and above board, obviously it CAN be illegal, or unethical.  If you belong to some entity and they have a rule you can't accept money from X, then you can't, in the sense you will be penalized if caught.

lulz, I can remember being mildly excited about his upside. 

That was back before cfb died.  Or at least the bulk of my interest in it did.