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Almost a year into the NIL era and Dean and the gang still don't understand why people crave more information, or have critiques/theories about NU's NIL efforts. I don't know if they're being willfully ignorant, or they have skin in the game somehow, but personally I think a few different things can be true:
1. Before NIL was officially implemented, we all heard about how NU was preparing to be a leader in the field, and this could be our huge shot to level the playing field with recruiting for the first time since the glory days.
2. As our recruiting class stalled throughout the 2021 season, there was very little happening publicly on the NIL front. Agencies for other teams were bragging about ridiculous NIL deals while ABM seemed, at least from the outside looking in, to be slipshod and thrown together on the fly (owners had no experience in the field, no social media presence, website looked like it was from the late 90s for the first nine months, etc.)
3. As Dean has said many times, ABM is just one agency and if people think they can do a better job they are free to try (even though ABM is run by the head coach's oldest friend and is as close to being 'official' as these things can be).
4. Based on what players and recruits are saying, it seems like things are apparently better behind the scenes with NIL than a lot of us have assumed. It has to be to attract the transfers/recruits we've had in lately.
5. NIL is now a GIGANTIC part of recruiting and player retention, and fans are not used to having something so integral to the game be shrouded in secrecy, private financial information, and dependent on outside business decisions. OF COURSE people have tons of questions and theories and crave more information. Media members basically just throwing up their hands and saying "hey I just pass along info, why is everyone questioning it?" doesn't really help the situation.
6. People WANT this to work well, and they want to know more about how it all works so that we can follow this part of the team as closely as the other parts. If this is now the number one way to recruit and keep players, then it's just as important and should be just as up for discussion as wins/losses/stats.
1. Before NIL was officially implemented, we all heard about how NU was preparing to be a leader in the field, and this could be our huge shot to level the playing field with recruiting for the first time since the glory days.
2. As our recruiting class stalled throughout the 2021 season, there was very little happening publicly on the NIL front. Agencies for other teams were bragging about ridiculous NIL deals while ABM seemed, at least from the outside looking in, to be slipshod and thrown together on the fly (owners had no experience in the field, no social media presence, website looked like it was from the late 90s for the first nine months, etc.)
3. As Dean has said many times, ABM is just one agency and if people think they can do a better job they are free to try (even though ABM is run by the head coach's oldest friend and is as close to being 'official' as these things can be).
4. Based on what players and recruits are saying, it seems like things are apparently better behind the scenes with NIL than a lot of us have assumed. It has to be to attract the transfers/recruits we've had in lately.
5. NIL is now a GIGANTIC part of recruiting and player retention, and fans are not used to having something so integral to the game be shrouded in secrecy, private financial information, and dependent on outside business decisions. OF COURSE people have tons of questions and theories and crave more information. Media members basically just throwing up their hands and saying "hey I just pass along info, why is everyone questioning it?" doesn't really help the situation.
6. People WANT this to work well, and they want to know more about how it all works so that we can follow this part of the team as closely as the other parts. If this is now the number one way to recruit and keep players, then it's just as important and should be just as up for discussion as wins/losses/stats.
