Glad to see

[Pennsyhusker]

Glad to see an article in The Journal pointing out that Trev is getting some blowback from various important people about his plan for a $450 million revamp of the stadium at a time when the University as a whole is suffering from budget shortfalls. And before people chime in ... I get it ... ok? ... I get it ... a successful football team is very good financially for the university in the long run. And I further get that the football team is self sustaining and gets no money from the University.

But I am glad there is blow back. I am opposed to spending $450 million on a renovated stadium when the product on the field is still a steaming pile of excrement. Spend that money instead on NIL ventures in some creative ways that will bring elite football players here. Spend that money on even more bells and whistles for the players. Do that and develop championship caliber teams and I guarantee you that tens of thousands of fans will gladly file into an unrenovated South Stadium for games even if it means hardship in holding your piss or finding a Runza. How many of us attended games in freezing cold against nobody opponents back in the Osborne years and stayed until the end even if we were ahead nine million to zero and you had piss backing up to your eye sockets? And don't tell me that this was because so few games were on TV. Because some of those games were not worth watching and it was brutally cold. But you went and you stayed because you really, really wanted to be in that stadium supporting those teams.

Build a winning product on the field. Then renovate the damn stadium. Otherwise, you are going to have a really pretty, shiny new stadium with heated toilets under every new seat and a pizza slice delivered by a Big Red Drone, with only 30,000 showing up to watch us lose to the University of Southern North Dakota with a walk off field goal.

 

[bigboxes]

Glad to see an article in The Journal pointing out that Trev is getting some blowback from various important people about his plan for a $450 million revamp of the stadium at a time when the University as a whole is suffering from budget shortfalls. And before people chime in ... I get it ... ok? ... I get it ... a successful football team is very good financially for the university in the long run. And I further get that the football team is self sustaining and gets no money from the University.

But I am glad there is blow back. I am opposed to spending $450 million on a renovated stadium when the product on the field is still a steaming pile of excrement. Spend that money instead on NIL ventures in some creative ways that will bring elite football players here. Spend that money on even more bells and whistles for the players. Do that and develop championship caliber teams and I guarantee you that tens of thousands of fans will gladly file into an unrenovated South Stadium for games even if it means hardship in holding your piss or finding a Runza. How many of us attended games in freezing cold against nobody opponents back in the Osborne years and stayed until the end even if we were ahead nine million to zero and you had piss backing up to your eye sockets? And don't tell me that this was because so few games were on TV. Because some of those games were not worth watching and it was brutally cold. But you went and you stayed because you really, really wanted to be in that stadium supporting those teams.

Build a winning product on the field. Then renovate the damn stadium. Otherwise, you are going to have a really pretty, shiny new stadium with heated toilets under every new seat and a pizza slice delivered by a Big Red Drone, with only 30,000 showing up to watch us lose to the University of Southern North Dakota with a walk off field goal.

 

[HuskAir]

Glad to see an article in The Journal pointing out that Trev is getting some blowback from various important people about his plan for a $450 million revamp of the stadium at a time when the University as a whole is suffering from budget shortfalls. And before people chime in ... I get it ... ok? ... I get it ... a successful football team is very good financially for the university in the long run. And I further get that the football team is self sustaining and gets no money from the University.

But I am glad there is blow back. I am opposed to spending $450 million on a renovated stadium when the product on the field is still a steaming pile of excrement. Spend that money instead on NIL ventures in some creative ways that will bring elite football players here. Spend that money on even more bells and whistles for the players. Do that and develop championship caliber teams and I guarantee you that tens of thousands of fans will gladly file into an unrenovated South Stadium for games even if it means hardship in holding your piss or finding a Runza. How many of us attended games in freezing cold against nobody opponents back in the Osborne years and stayed until the end even if we were ahead nine million to zero and you had piss backing up to your eye sockets? And don't tell me that this was because so few games were on TV. Because some of those games were not worth watching and it was brutally cold. But you went and you stayed because you really, really wanted to be in that stadium supporting those teams.

Build a winning product on the field. Then renovate the damn stadium. Otherwise, you are going to have a really pretty, shiny new stadium with heated toilets under every new seat and a pizza slice delivered by a Big Red Drone, with only 30,000 showing up to watch us lose to the University of Southern North Dakota with a walk off field goal.

No disagreement from me. Start with the product on the field. With wins and success comes extra money to use towards the stadium. Until the AD starts putting the product on the field over the gameday experience, they are essentially the St. Louis Cardinals of NCAAF.

 

[Frozone]

Honest question: can funds earmarked for the stadium renovation even be diverted towards NIL? If they can, then I agree completely: NIL funding and getting 4 and 5-star players to Lincoln above all else.

But if it’s just about budget shortfalls at NU, then I couldn’t care less, tbh. Football is the crown jewel of the school and affects everything. It pays for non-revenue programs. It raises the profile of the entire university. Football does more than enough to pay its own way and bring money in, and we do need to keep up with other conference facilities as we try to regain our footing and start winning again.

(That said, I’ll continue to beat the drum of hating the idea of decreasing capacity below 80,000. It’s the white flag of surrender: we’ll never be good again, so let’s meekly surrender 10,000+ seats and have a quieter, less intimidating stadium environment. Add more rows and build UP to spread people out, Trev—don’t just yank out seats to make room! I assume you’re reading this, ofc ).

 

[phoenix4nu]

The raise and extension for Alberts is a head scratcher for me.

 

[SickOfPractice]

NU must be near the top in expenditures for facilities and football coaches with not much to show for it on the field. It's sad.

 

[BugsAreQualityProtein]

Nebraska at this point has been fully assimilated into the bureaucracy that is the BIG conference. There is no sense of urgency to field a winning football team, and why should there be when those BIG checks still cash win or lose. Touting the sellout streak as if it’s both legitimate and a product of their great work, when really it’s just riding on the success of Devaney and Osborne, enabled by generous boosters trying to cling to the past.

 

[schuele]

Honest question: can funds earmarked for the stadium renovation even be diverted towards NIL?

No, they cannot. But I think the point the OP - and others here - are making is that the stadium project and NIL tap the same pool of large donors. And if those people are ponying up half a billion dollars for stadium improvements, NU is less likely to compete on the NIL front.

 

[Frozone]

No, they cannot. But I think the point the OP - and others here - are making is that the stadium project and NIL tap the same pool of large donors. And if those people are ponying up half a billion dollars for stadium improvements, NU is less likely to compete on the NIL front.

Ah. Good point, and you’re right.

 

[ru4nu2win]

Honest question: can funds earmarked for the stadium renovation even be diverted towards NIL? If they can, then I agree completely: NIL funding and getting 4 and 5-star players to Lincoln above all else.

But if it’s just about budget shortfalls at NU, then I couldn’t care less, tbh. Football is the crown jewel of the school and affects everything. It pays for non-revenue programs. It raises the profile of the entire university. Football does more than enough to pay its own way and bring money in, and we do need to keep up with other conference facilities as we try to regain our footing and start winning again.

(That said, I’ll continue to beat the drum of hating the idea of decreasing capacity below 80,000. It’s the white flag of surrender: we’ll never be good again, so let’s meekly surrender 10,000+ seats and have a quieter, less intimidating stadium environment. Add more rows and build UP to spread people out, Trev—don’t just yank out seats to make room! I assume you’re reading this, ofc ).

Minus 10 thousand seats doesn't make a stadium quieter. the loudest stadium I've ever been in was Husky stadium in Washington back when both our teams were in the top 10. 70k capacity. Also, the big house ain't that loud. I would rather have individual seats and less capacity then being stuffed in a overbooked bleacher seat stadium.

 

[huskerfan66]

Honest question: can funds earmarked for the stadium renovation even be diverted towards NIL? If they can, then I agree completely: NIL funding and getting 4 and 5-star players to Lincoln above all else.

But if it’s just about budget shortfalls at NU, then I couldn’t care less, tbh. Football is the crown jewel of the school and affects everything. It pays for non-revenue programs. It raises the profile of the entire university. Football does more than enough to pay its own way and bring money in, and we do need to keep up with other conference facilities as we try to regain our footing and start winning again.

(That said, I’ll continue to beat the drum of hating the idea of decreasing capacity below 80,000. It’s the white flag of surrender: we’ll never be good again, so let’s meekly surrender 10,000+ seats and have a quieter, less intimidating stadium environment. Add more rows and build UP to spread people out, Trev—don’t just yank out seats to make room! I assume you’re reading this, ofc ).

Answer to the first sentence.....NO....that $already given. University can't legally have anything to do with nil really

 

[Tetonia]

Great post. My understanding though was that the athletic dept was in the process of internalizing our NIL initiative. Which would make things pretty transparent. Would be ann anwesome move for the program. Anyone knows better wanna chime in here?

 

[WHCSC]

I’ve read on here a few times and think it would work if the main NIL collective would advertise and make it easy for the average joe fan to donate they’d get a pretty good response. Social media ads, newspaper ads, anywhere they can put a QR code with options to donate 10, 20, 50

 

[WHCSC]

Great post. My understanding though was that the athletic dept was in the process of internalizing our NIL initiative. Which would make things pretty transparent. Would be ann anwesome move for the program. Anyone knows better wanna chime in here?

They can’t do that

 

[huskerfan66]

Glad to see an article in The Journal pointing out that Trev is getting some blowback from various important people about his plan for a $450 million revamp of the stadium at a time when the University as a whole is suffering from budget shortfalls. And before people chime in ... I get it ... ok? ... I get it ... a successful football team is very good financially for the university in the long run. And I further get that the football team is self sustaining and gets no money from the University.

But I am glad there is blow back. I am opposed to spending $450 million on a renovated stadium when the product on the field is still a steaming pile of excrement. Spend that money instead on NIL ventures in some creative ways that will bring elite football players here. Spend that money on even more bells and whistles for the players. Do that and develop championship caliber teams and I guarantee you that tens of thousands of fans will gladly file into an unrenovated South Stadium for games even if it means hardship in holding your piss or finding a Runza. How many of us attended games in freezing cold against nobody opponents back in the Osborne years and stayed until the end even if we were ahead nine million to zero and you had piss backing up to your eye sockets? And don't tell me that this was because so few games were on TV. Because some of those games were not worth watching and it was brutally cold. But you went and you stayed because you really, really wanted to be in that stadium supporting those teams.

Build a winning product on the field. Then renovate the damn stadium. Otherwise, you are going to have a really pretty, shiny new stadium with heated toilets under every new seat and a pizza slice delivered by a Big Red Drone, with only 30,000 showing up to watch us lose to the University of Southern North Dakota with a walk off field goal.

Not surprised blowback. Probably mostly from academia, students and people who don't care about attending games in person.

Maybe Trev has already taken the first step to better product...got rid of Frost

Now step 2 better be coming

 

[dinglefritz]

No, they cannot. But I think the point the OP - and others here - are making is that the stadium project and NIL tap the same pool of large donors. And if those people are ponying up half a billion dollars for stadium improvements, NU is less likely to compete on the NIL front.

Those donors are not necessarily the same people who support outdated liberal arts programs. The stadium expansion is a measured expenditure to keep feeding an income producing monster that benefits the whole university. I’m sorry if a few profs in your social studies or English departments get cut. Get over it.

You have to continue to invest in the cash cow that the football program is. FWIW I’m an economic conservative but the cost versus benefits of this has been weighed. We have WAY too many profs teaching undergrad classes with 15-20 kids in them in areas that don’t prepare them for the real world.

 

[Yantzeee]

No, they cannot. But I think the point the OP - and others here - are making is that the stadium project and NIL tap the same pool of large donors. And if those people are ponying up half a billion dollars for stadium improvements, NU is less likely to compete on the NIL front.

Yes and no. Technically it depends on what the donors intent is. A lot of fund accounts are more vague giving to an area of greatest need that management has the discretion to apply to it as it deems fit and those funds can be rerouted. Also management always has the opportunity to go back to the donor and ask to redesign a donation to be something that is a greater need. Having said that, reapply a facility designated fund to NIL likely won’t work because NIL is not a charitable cause, so there would be no tax deduction. And I don’t know if funds given to the University for NIL would be considered under UBIT nor do I think the university can be directly involved in it

Really the only way to give to NIL and it be for a tax deduction would be for a business expense such as advertising. Businesses would have to get creative to justify a business expense for marketing with large NIL deals. And businesses do. The best way to get NIL money flowing seems to be via social media followers and I don’t know that our fan base is young enough to follow a kid on TikTok. A lot of the older fans find it cringe to follow an 18 year old, though we heavily follow their playing. I do think the administration needs to figure out something and get more creative

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

Meh...I can't make myself care about how rich people donate or spend their money. In fact I think it's rude for people with reletively no money to tell tbose who have earned it and have it, where they should give it away and to who.

...don't get me wrong..if a rich dude wants to buy us some better players, great...but if they want to renovate the stadium that's fine to.

 

[scarletred]

Minus 10 thousand seats doesn't make a stadium quieter. the loudest stadium I've ever been in was Husky stadium in Washington back when both our teams were in the top 10. 70k capacity. Also, the big house ain't that loud. I would rather have individual seats and less capacity then being stuffed in an overbooked bleacher seat stadium.

+1

 

[TruHusker]

Is it OK if I don't care one way or the other? If it comes down to spending money to get a winning team, we are in an endless and likely unwinnable battle. Pennsy makes his point about the use of the funds but that is also assuming those same "donated" funds would be made available for NIL.

Does anyone really think we can win bidding wars to get athletes here? Little ole Nebraska? We might get some, will they stay, will they work out, that is another can of worms.

Who is to say that the NIL proposal hasn't been floated by Trev? I was in the college business at a small level but getting people to donate to something tangible was always easier.

I read a quit article that A&M was prepared to offer Kirby Smart a blank check, essentially 5 years for $100 million. Nearly unlimited resources after that. Not sure if it is true or not. This is all going to get way out of hand but it will give everyone something else to complain about.

 

[HuskerLLM]

Great post. My understanding though was that the athletic dept was in the process of internalizing our NIL initiative. Which would make things pretty transparent. Would be ann anwesome move for the program. Anyone knows better wanna chime in here?

The ncaa has a sub-committee investigating the idea of Athlatic Departments getting more involved in NIL and directing NIL, but as of now still not allowed

IMO, we are eventually heading to a "salary cap" sort of situation in FBS

 

[jp4423]

No, they cannot. But I think the point the OP - and others here - are making is that the stadium project and NIL tap the same pool of large donors. And if those people are ponying up half a billion dollars for stadium improvements, NU is less likely to compete on the NIL front.

Agree 100% - use 50-75 million for stadium upgrades (necessary to be compliant with disabilities etc) and use the remaining donor pool to fund nil

 

[WHCSC]

The ncaa has a sub-committee investigating the idea of Athlatic Departments getting more involved in NIL and directing NIL, but as of now still not allowed

IMO, we are eventually heading to a "salary cap" sort of situation in FBS

And that will bring us right back to under the table payments

 

[Tetonia]

The ncaa has a sub-committee investigating the idea of Athlatic Departments getting more involved in NIL and directing NIL, but as of now still not allowed

IMO, we are eventually heading to a "salary cap" sort of situation in FBS

Well, hopefully we’re not gonna sit on our ass until the NCAA figures shit out. Need to act one way or another, Now. Program can’t survive another whiff like this last offseason, IMHO. This place will come unglued. And our schedule is WAY harder, BTW. They need to bring in A LOT of better talent.

 

[Tetonia]

The ncaa has a sub-committee investigating the idea of Athlatic Departments getting more involved in NIL and directing NIL, but as of now still not allowed

IMO, we are eventually heading to a "salary cap" sort of situation in FBS

Well, hopefully we’re not gonna sit on our ass until the NCAA figures shit out. Need to act one way or another, Now. Program can’t survive another whiff like this last offseason, IMHO. This place will come unglued. And our schedule is WAY harder, BTW. They need to bring in A LOT of better talent

 

[dinglefritz]

I’ve read on here a few times and think it would work if the main NIL collective would advertise and make it easy for the average joe fan to donate they’d get a pretty good response. Social media ads, newspaper ads, anywhere they can put a QR code with options to donate 10, 20, 50

They already advertise a bunch on the radio stations carrying Husker sports.

 

[shine003]

I’m always amazed at how many of our fans care about how money they never gave is spent. Coaches salaries, stadium renovations, university budgets, and now NIL have nothing to do with 99 percent of us. Why do you care how the money is spent? If trev spent $450 million that could have gone to better the team on a stadium, then I would get it. But that’s not how it works. Big money donors give their money for a specific reason. If the Hawks want to donate a building and not buy high school kids, that’s their choice. Trev can’t redirect university donations into NIL. They went out the last two coaching searches and spent big money to get who they wanted. That’s all you can ask. Spend money where you can and hope local businesses and donors support NIL. The idea that it’s one or the other is absurd. And the academia types pissed the football team has unlimited funding can go cry me a river. Because the AD can’t redirect donations to academics anymore than he can to NIL

 

[HuskerLLM]

And that will bring us right back to under the table payments

Yes

 

[WHCSC]

They already advertise a bunch on the radio stations carrying Husker sports.

Not easy and direct enough. Can they advertise in the stadium during games?

 

[dinglefritz]

Not easy and direct enough. Can they advertise in the stadium during games?

I think they do.

 

[pascal]

Empty debate. The ruinization of college football is set in motion.
Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to be a head football coach in this environment.
NIL was released and then immediately corrupted. The transfer portal is going neck and neck with NIL. They are two sides of the same coin.

 

[huskerfan66]

Yes and no. Technically it depends on what the donors intent is. A lot of fund accounts are more vague giving to an area of greatest need that management has the discretion to apply to it as it deems fit and those funds can be rerouted. Also management always has the opportunity to go back to the donor and ask to redesign a donation to be something that is a greater need. Having said that, reapply a facility designated fund to NIL likely won’t work because NIL is not a charitable cause, so there would be no tax deduction. And I don’t know if funds given to the University for NIL would be considered under UBIT nor do I think the university can be directly involved in it

Really the only way to give to NIL and it be for a tax deduction would be for a business expense such as advertising. Businesses would have to get creative to justify a business expense for marketing with large NIL deals. And businesses do. The best way to get NIL money flowing seems to be via social media followers and I don’t know that our fan base is young enough to follow a kid on TikTok. A lot of the older fans find it cringe to follow an 18 year old, though we heavily follow their playing. I do think the administration needs to figure out something and get more creative

And then in return that student athlete has to be continually social mediaing.....time not well spent

 

[beaglehusker]

Is it OK if I don't care one way or the other? If it comes down to spending money to get a winning team, we are in an endless and likely unwinnable battle. Pennsy makes his point about the use of the funds but that is also assuming those same "donated" funds would be made available for NIL.

Does anyone really think we can win bidding wars to get athletes here? Little ole Nebraska? We might get some, will they stay, will they work out, that is another can of worms.

Who is to say that the NIL proposal hasn't been floated by Trev? I was in the college business at a small level but getting people to donate to something tangible was always easier.

I read a quit article that A&M was prepared to offer Kirby Smart a blank check, essentially 5 years for $100 million. Nearly unlimited resources after that. Not sure if it is true or not. This is all going to get way out of hand but it will give everyone something else to complain about.

It's already out of hand.

 

[WHCSC]

And then in return that student athlete has to be continually social mediaing.....time not well spent

Anybody with a huge SM following has someone else managing it for them

 

[BugsAreQualityProtein]

Anybody with a huge SM following has someone else managing it for them

Even so it’s not that time consuming. Snap a quick selfie with said product or advertisement and post to SM. Takes seconds at the most.

 

[king_kong_]

Those donors are not necessarily the same people who support outdated liberal arts programs. The stadium expansion is a measured expenditure to keep feeding an income producing monster that benefits the whole university. I’m sorry if a few profs in your social studies or English departments get cut. Get over it.

You have to continue to invest in the cash cow that the football program is. FWIW I’m an economic conservative but the cost versus benefits of this has been weighed. We have WAY too many profs teaching undergrad classes with 15-20 kids in them in areas that don’t prepare them for the real world.

Aren’t you the same guy who said trev has great relationships with big money which is why he’s uniquely qualified for his post?

Now those same guys are cutting his legs out from under him in the newspaper?

Sure glad we shelled out that raise and extension. Things are going great in his athletic dept!