Creighton bails on Battle 4 Atlantis to play in Players Era Festival (NIL)
- Thread starter mzadnik
- Start date
The whole premise of NIL has turned into strictly P4P and taken college hoops recruiting down to a new low.
It never even pretended to be NIL.
This kind of big payout tournament seems really unfair. Each team gets $1 million. Imagine what Seton Hall could do with that? Meanwhile Creighton's NIL coffers are already bursting.
I dont see this as a bad thing, the players may change but the only thing that is consistent about a program year after year is the name of the front of the jersey and if you are lucky a coach. Seton Hall is not Duke but its name is well known, and I don't know many rising young coaches that have more momentum then Sha. As long as Seton Hall and the Big East says competitive these types of paid tournaments are going to spread and Seton Hall will take part in them more often then not.
Hopefully we can get invited and not soon enough . Seems like the schools chosen so far are schools that need the extra NIL money the least .
So a hedge fund with mainly UAE interests wants to give 8 colleges a million bucks to play a few games.
As Major Lance once sang, Um, Um, Um Um, Um, Um.
As Major Lance once sang, Um, Um, Um Um, Um, Um.
Last edited:
So many of us, and rightly so, have complained about players given verbals and then taking the offer to another school to see if they'll better it. But what's the difference with what Creighton just did? They committed to a tournament and then bailed when a better offer came along.
We should be doing everything we can to get into an event like this.
They are paying a penalty it appears, so at least there is a consequence.
Whole thing sucks from a Fan perspective, but the way the landscape is you can’t blame any of these players or coaches for finding a way. I’m concerned we don’t have this level of creativity/adaption that Creighton just displayed. Not saying they are right or wrong, but it makes total sense if you’re trying to maximize NIL opportunities for your student athletes.
What level creativity is needed for beginning $1 mil tournaments to please please please let us in?
The creativity wouldn't be in begging these tournaments to let us in. It would be in convincing said tournaments that Seton Hall is a better option than one of its Big East counterparts.
To use the example of Creighton, they regularly fill an 18,000 seat arena. Then there is their success on the floor with three Sweet 16s (including an Elite Eight) in the past four years.
ok....I am reading the article linked above....according to that...and I paraphrase....Creighton upon reading that the event organizers were looking to add 1 more team, and perhaps from the Big East, reached out to make their interest known...and not only signed up for 2024...but also for 2025 and 2026.
So wait...they now have a 3 year period where they will get $1 million bonus in NIL money?
We couldn't "reach out"? No cell service that day...?
Seriously, how ridiculous is this??
And, I should add, not surprisingly, a number of these first year teams have also expressed an interest in/signed on for all 3 years. And there is a list of schools (not us) that have expressed an interest in participating should the tournament expand.
So for anyone hoping or looking for us to participate in this anytime soon...not happening.
Maybe our billionaire cyber security/F1 guy can sponsor a tournament where we are the named sponsor, so get a $1 million bonus, plus another for participating, invite other big schools with similar $1 million payouts, have all players do their thing/hawk for Crowdstrike and F-1 (get F-1 to co-sponsor)...do it at a splashy locale, etc.
What the heck do I know....but I do know, there are no rules, so shoot for the stars and get creative....just about anything goes. And...we NEED to be creative because we aren't going to raise the millions necessary annually to compete any other way
I'd agree we should have reached out (although we do have a commitment to Charleston we would have needed to buy out).
With that said there's no guarantee the organizers would have selected us even if we were the only Big East team to inquire.
no there is no guarantee.....except for the guarantee that we arent going if we DON't reach out.
also....the "buy out" would be easily absorbed by 3 years of guaranteed $1 million in NIL
I like McDermott but I suspect this NIL is right in his wheelhouse. And not in the best way.
The United Arab Emirates will fund NILs but will dictate scheduling for the schools involved.
Because we are not leaders, we are not even followers, we are spectators! Seton Hall would have passed on the opportunity so they could see how it worked out for others before even thinking of trying it themselves. We need better leaders.
Would like to know if possible if we reached out to get into that NIL tourney . I would hope so .
Is it even factual that we didn’t reach out, or was it just speculated and turned into fact in about 3-4 posts?
Well I don’t know that it’s factual, but the article does list the schools that have reached out asking to participate should this expand…and we’re not listed.
Does that absolutely mean we didn’t reach out? No.
Does the fact that this tournament seemed to catch everyone off guard absolutely mean e we weren’t aware and didn’t express initial interest? No.
None of these are “absolutes”, but the evidence points to the answer being “no”.
I hope we did reach out. I also know we’re less desirable than a Creighton, UConn, Villanova or Marquette, and arguably others in the BE.
The longer we build on a no NCAA streak, the more we will dull.
My guess is no one knows and the speculation is just the negativism that sometimes permeates on the board.
That plus we are not attractive enough roster wise at this point so we would never get an invite at this time.
Maybe it we had another $1m NIL from the tournament we'd be more attractive from a roster standpoint
What comes first? Chickenbox or the egg?
Whether we called or not, I'd say there was less zero chance of Seton Hall getting into the Players Era Festival in 2024. It does seem like a mistake, however, to commit to a non-NIL event for 2025.
Along these lines, I think it's time to scrap the Rutgers home-and-home in favor Onward Setonia teaming up with Knights of the Raritan to host an annual neutral site game benefiting NIL for both schools. Obviously a lot of logistics to sort and they need to get it all right in order to leave enough money in the pot to make it worth everyone's while, but it's gotta be worth exploring, right?
