Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Tribune-Star file/Joseph C. Garza
Thanking the ones who mean the most: New Indiana State men’s basketball coach Josh Schertz (right) begins his introduction by thanking his family for all of their support during the press conference to introduce him last year in Hulman Center. ISU athletics director Sherard Clinkscales also is present.
After the first year of college sports’ name, image and likeness era, the total amount spent was about $917 million according to estimates by NIL platform Opendorse. The following graphic shows the average value of some first year NIL deals.
Going up: Indiana State senior Tyreke Key is fouled during a 2021 game at Hulman Center. Key is an example of an ISU player who could have monetized himself with NIL.
Tribune-Star file/Joseph C. Garza
Thanking the ones who mean the most: New Indiana State men’s basketball coach Josh Schertz (right) begins his introduction by thanking his family for all of their support during the press conference to introduce him last year in Hulman Center. ISU athletics director Sherard Clinkscales also is present.
In a whirlwind revolution of internal transformation and external litigation, the college athletics landscape bears little resemblance to what it was even five years ago.
Throughout the 2010s, the NCAA tried to put up a dam to protect itself via legislation to mitigate shifts in rules and external definitions of student-athletes the organization (and many of its institutions) did not welcome in full. Try though they might, a deluge of court cases — as well as institutional, public and political sentiment the NCAA could no longer control — hit the organization with full force and the dam collapsed in a tsunami of change in 2021.
Fans who don’t pay attention to how the sausage is made have found themselves being educated, like it or not, in concepts that were alien until very recently.
The transfer portal — originally conceived in 2018, but changed in 2021 to eliminate the year that transferring student-athletes used to have to sit out — was a seismic change. Student-athletes were now free to move about the country, unfettered by institutions and coaches who often put road-blocks in the way of their movement.
However, it’s Name, Image and Likeness that has truly been the game-changer. The ability for student-athletes to be compensated outside of the university environment was considered “cheating” as recently the spring of 2021. Officially approved in July 2021, NIL and the ability for players to make money has completely changed the dynamic of everything within the college landscape.
NIL has also super-sized the already transformative effect of the transfer portal and has even weaponized it for players and programs alike. The NIL effect has been enormous in all levels of college athletics, but it’s predominantly making headlines at the Power Five level, where there’s more money to spread around and the athletes there have a higher profile.
What does NIL mean for Indiana State and it’s mid-major brethren? NIL hasn’t drastically transformed ISU yet, but rest assured ... it will.
The school is doing what it can to prepare for when the NIL revolution meaningfully shows up at its doorstep.
Purely based on raw numbers? You might think that NIL has passed ISU by a little over one year into it’s conception. According to ISU Assistant Athletic Director/Compliance Joel McMullen, a total of 12 Sycamores have entered into a NIL agreement. Schools must be informed of all NIL deals in-place for its athletes.
“We want our men to explore every option they can to take advantage of their name, image and likeness and we’ll support them. But it hasn’t hit us like in the way you read about nationally,” ISU football coach Curt Mallory said.
This can lead to the notion that the wave of change NIL represents might not impact the mid-major level as acutely as one might think. After all, ISU and its Missouri Valley Conference brethren operate on a different plane than schools in the Power Five universe do. Television contracts pay a minimal amount, the alumni bases aren’t as large, mid-major schools don’t typically have statewide reach and many, including ISU, are in communities without a huge population to sustain a lucrative donor base.
If NIL is a trickle-down proposition? Then mid-majors are barely getting wet. The most meaningful way mid-majors are being affected by NIL is when players in higher profile sports like football and men’s basketball are picked off by high-majors with the resources mid-majors don’t have at their disposal.
However, ISU athletic brass are not naive. They know that the relative current NIL calm isn’t permanent. Eventually, NIL will become a part of the daily landscape as much as it has for high-majors. ISU is doing all it can to be prepared. The first part of the process? Educating fans and donors to let them know what NIL is and that it’s here to stay.
“It starts by sharing with our alumni and donors and fans what’s going on. We have to educate them on what NIL is. We try to educate where we think it’s going knowing full-well it’s evolving all of the time,” ISU Director of Athletics Sherard Clinkscales said.
Whether a coach, administrator or fan disagrees with NIL philosophically matters not. You have to acknowledge it. You will have to participate in it.
“I get asked what do you think about NIL? My response is that what I think doesn’t matter what I think. If I don’t embrace it? I’ll be coaching high school in four years,” ISU men’s basketball coach Josh Schertz said. “The equivalent of not doing NIL would be the equivalent of going Division I and not giving scholarships. You have to have NIL money to compete for recruits, especially ones in the portal and to retain good players within your own program. All of the guard rails are off.”
There’s an acknowledgement that the biggest revolution in regards to NIL is how it can disrupt the continuity. This is an especially acute issue at the mid-major level, where continuity is a selling point to parents of athletes and for athletes to feel at home in an atmosphere where they could thrive and still have after-college opportunities in a more relaxed environment than the Power Five level.
“At this level, but particularly at our institution, to have success? We have to have continuity — which drives sustainability. You’re in an environment right now where everything is designed to fracture continuity,” Schertz said.
After the first year of college sports’ name, image and likeness era, the total amount spent was about $917 million according to estimates by NIL platform Opendorse. The following graphic shows the average value of some first year NIL deals.
Clinkscales and the ISU coaches spoken to all acknowledged that the changes in college sports have moved at light speed. Fans who might still embrace the traditional concept of student-athletes who were compensated in the form of an education are being left behind at warp speed by changes that push college athletics closer to the pros in terms of compensation and the chase for more money.
Clinkscales agrees that traditional fans are likely shocked by change, but he also noted that being shocked by change doesn’t mean ISU can stand pat. And in any case? Clinkscales sees some of the aspects of NIL as having been part of the landscape all along.
“I’ll sound cynical, but some of the things going on now having been going on a long time. People just didn’t know about it and people in athletics didn’t talk about it,” Clinkscales said. “Has it taken the shine off? The Norman Rockwell feeling? Absolutely, but this has been going on a long time. Now? It’s out there. You have to handle it.”
And part of handling it at the mid-major level is managing money.
Though NIL seems to have a Wild West feel to it when you take into account men’s basketball players who have leveraged themselves to the highest bidder, there are rules in place. Schools cannot participate in NIL deals. NIL money has to come from a third party.
It puts every school in college athletics in the bizarre circumstance of having zero control over monetary practices that can dramatically affect their on and off-field performance. How do coaches square that dynamic?
“I can’t solicit anybody to give anything, but I can explain why it’s important. For a lot of people, this is new, and there’s this idea that it’s cheating in terms of paying players. It was cheating, but now it’s not,” Schertz said. “We also have to underscore that to remain viable in Division I and in the Missouri Valley? We have to be a player in NIL.”
Schertz emphasized, however, that “being a player” doesn’t mean having to compete with Power Five schools that can pay a player a six-figure sum.
“We need to let people understand that when they read about Oscar Tshwiebe getting $2 million to go back to Kentucky? We understand we’ll not be at that level, but we don’t have to be. We just have to be good enough to keep the guys we’ll be able to keep,” Schertz said.
Still, one big NIL concern that hangs over mid-majors is how much blood can be drawn from a smaller stone? Power Five schools, especially ones that are successful, have a seemingly endless supply of supporters who will give until it hurts. For mid-majors? They were very recently just sweating over identifying enough donors to keep up in the facilities arms race. Now? There’s an entirely different beast to feed.
“The more donors you have? The less it’s a concern. If you’re depending on donor money to run your program? The concern level is much higher. There is a fear you wind up with a small group of people and there’s not enough left,” Schertz said.
ISU offered encouraging news last week when it announced that athletics had raised $4.4 million in 2021-22, a record for the school, and an impressive total considering that the pandemic was still having a disruptive effect for much of that academic year. ISU isn’t resting on those laurels, though. A NIL collective, as yet unnamed, is being organized for those who want to donate to help keep ISU student-athletes compensated.
“John Newton, an alumnus and long-time employee of the advancement office, now retired, was recommended as someone who can lead this. He and some other people are putting together a collective that people are already contributing to. We’re excited about where this is going. I feel comfortable as an athletic director that someone is doing this that I can trust,” said Clinkscales, who noted that his Power Five peers may have more access to money, but it’s often uncontrolled money.
One might think a NIL collective puts it in competition with traditional university revenue development. That’s one way to perceive it, but Clinkscales isn’t comfortable with that context.
“I’ve been very clear with our donors that we have different buckets in which you can give. There’s philanthropy, there’s sponsorships, ticket revenue and NIL. They can choose how to spend their money,” Clinkscales said. “Our job, and the job of everyone in development, is to get past the group of donors we’ve always had and reach out to more to be able to give. In this new world we’re in? We have to continue to expand.”
Another transformative effect of NIL? The definition of coaches has morphed into something unrecognizable to the days where a coach lorded over their programs with dictatorial authority.
The old job of recruiting talent is still there, but the day where a player signed a National Letter Of Intent and was handcuffed to a school for their five years of eligibility are long gone.
Clinkscales went straight to the heart of this matter and the fiscal reality for ISU and mid-majors.
“From a philosophical standpoint, with our coaches and where we fit within the pendulum of athletics, what can we do when it comes to NIL for our student-athletes? What I told our coaches was that we’ll be able to retain some, but we won’t be able to buy out anybody. We’re not going to be able to have pay-for-play student-athletes,” Clinkscales said.
So what do you do? More than ever, coaches have to embrace the notion that they’re partners in the development of a student-athlete. It’s no longer a top-down relationship.
“We have to have coaches in place who foster strong relationships with our student-athletes. Our university and community have to embrace and love our student-athletes to give them a sense of home and to be comfortable. Then? We can meet all of their needs and some of their want,” Clinkscales said. “X’s and O’s are important, but the chemistry part and fitting pieces of the puzzle together are the most important thing. I think we have coaches who can do that.”
It also changes how coaches approach recruiting. Mallory admitted that it’s been an adjustment.
“What we’re looking for is what the right fit is in the portal. NIL is the first question they ask, it’s not always the first answer I want to give about Indiana State. I want to talk more about the people, education, experience or culture. As far as a deal-breaker in recruiting? It hasn’t come up,” Mallory said.
However, it will likely be a deal-breaker at some point. NIL adds yet another layer of pressure when it comes to winning. Win today, get the NIL lucre from the donor base tomorrow. If you don’t? You can suffer the double jeopardy of losing on and off the court.
“What NIL has done is hold coaches even more accountable. You can’t build from the bottom up. You could do a great job recruiting, but suddenly, you lose two kids and you’re right back in the portal. The job of coach has increased exponentially than what it was before,” Clinkscales said. “It changes the way I evaluate their success. It’s tough now. You can do all of the right things and you can lose players and you’re in trouble.”
Clinkscales noted that Power Five programs, especially in football, are already hiring assistants who strictly handle the portal. Or, much in the way a capologist operates in the NBA, they go through scenarios on what might happen if a certain player leaves and what options are out there if it comes to pass.
The job of being of head coach is less about coaching the game itself than ever.
“It’s become more like a general manager thing where you’re acquiring and identifying talent. We have the coaches at Indiana State who can do it, but we have to create resources where they can continue to do it,” Clinkscales said.
Perhaps the biggest shock to the traditional system occurred after the men’s basketball season ended for schools in March and April. A heretofore unknown marketplace exploded into an unprecedented college basketball silly season. Players put themselves in the portal and those who were attractive played off one high bidder against another.
In other words? It was free agency, but on a scale unknown in professional sports, where there are rules in place to govern chaos. Coaches are put into a position where they’re re-recruiting athletes on a yearly basis. For a coach trying to build the traditional way via several years of productive recruiting classes? Good luck. A once dependable way to win is now exposed to the twin ravages of the portal and NIL.
“It’s free agency every year with no salary cap rules, no contracts, no tampering rules, no nothing. I don’t know of another sport that exists like that. It has to be looked at. If we’re going to operate like this where it’s a one-year deal every year? It’s hard to build that continuity when you’re building a new team year-in, year-out. It becomes like prep school or JUCO basketball,” Schertz said.
Schertz may decry the new normal, but he is also prepared for it. And he wasn’t surprised by the first offseason of NIL in any case.
“Any time you’re in a business where there’s tremendous publicity and money? You’re opening up opportunities for kids to be exploited. I wasn’t surprised to see this becoming a bidding war. You hope it’s in the kids’ best interest and not the adults. College basketball has always had shady characters behind the scenes. NIL has given those shady characters a real opportunity to con and grift,” Schertz said.
Going up: Indiana State senior Tyreke Key is fouled during a 2021 game at Hulman Center. Key is an example of an ISU player who could have monetized himself with NIL.
It’s not impossible to keep players. Schertz is proud that he was able to keep nearly all of his players at Division II Lincoln Memorial when many could have moved up to Division I. Tyreke Key, who transferred to Tennessee in April, could have been compensated well had he stayed with the Sycamores, though likely not at a level Tennessee couldn’t afford to match or exceed had it come to it.
Schertz noted that the bubble of both the transfer portal and NIL will likely cool over time. If for no other reason than the notion that all but a few players hurt their attractiveness as a pro prospect if they’re constantly switching schools. If you’re not good enough to go pro? Switching schools constantly also makes it nearly impossible to graduate in a timely manner.
However, college transfers will also not ever return to pre-portal levels either. Coaches have to embrace their role in retaining talent. Schertz identified the biggest key in doing so.
“Kids are going to lean on people around them. There’s a circle of influence in recruiting and with every recruit. It could be a parent or 10 people. You’re recruiting them along with the player,” Schertz explained.
“There are people who creep into that circle of influence. Maybe, a NIL agent,” Schertz continued. “It’s going to take a strong circle of influence where the parents, the coaches and AAU coach are grounded and working in the kids’ best interest. And sometimes? The best interest is for the kid to leave. If it isn’t? A coach has to be part of that circle of influence.”
Many in the college world have suggested that both the portal and NIL need to be reigned in. Whether via legislation or via NCAA guidelines its disparate membership could agree on, the notion that there needs to be guard rails in place to stabilize college athletics to some semblance of what it once was have been much discussed.
However, there is nothing illegal about anything related to either the portal or NIL. Court decisions have confirmed the freedom athletes have to both move around and to make money from their own popularity. Any attempt to legislate college athletics to what it once was would be facing an uphill climb from a legal point of view.
It’s telling that when Clinkscales was asked about how realistic it would be to put “guard rails” in place to keep the portal and NIL under control? He let out an audible laugh. Clinkscales does support one idea that might mitigate the effect of losing athletes.
“If you end up losing players? I think the NCAA has to come up with a plan where the school that’s losing players gets to get something back over time just to be able to manage it,” said Clinkscales, who also noted he doesn’t know what form that might take.
Clinkscales is skeptical about the viability of rules that would put college athletics’ toothpaste back in the tube it was in pre-NIL.
“Guard rails? People are going to do what they want to do. If someone wants to start a collective and give our athletes a million dollars? I can’t stop them. There’s nothing I can do,” Clinkscales noted.
So how does ISU and its mid-major partners respond? The landscape is still evolving, but Schertz has his own plan ... even as he accepts the new normal.
“You better know the people around the recruit and have faith in those people. It’s always been important to me ... who are his people?” Schertz said. “You’d better know them inside and out. There’s no other solution with the way it’s set up today. You can’t cap market value because the market is what people are willing to pay. There’s nothing on the horizon, as coaches, that we think is going to regulate this.”
Todd Aaron Golden has been Sports Editor and Indiana State beat writer since September 2004. Born in Milwaukee but an Indiana resident most of his adult life, he previously worked in Jeffersonville, Columbus and Eau Claire, Wis.
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