Ohio State believes it needs $13 million in NIL money to keep its football roster together: Doug Lesmerises
Ryan Day and Gene Smith spoke to about 100 members of the Columbus business community on Thursday about a new NIL program.
By Doug Lesmerises, cleveland.com
Ohio State believes it needs $13 million in NIL money to keep its football roster together: Doug Lesmerises
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Speaking to about 100 members of the Columbus business community on Thursday morning, Ohio State football coach Ryan Day put a Name, Image and Likeness price tag on what he believes it will take to keep the Ohio State football roster together.
That rate? $13 million.
To some schools engaged in NIL payments at the highest level right now, that number might sound small and quaint. To many other schools in the Big Ten, it may sound gigantic and impossible. As usual, it’s a number that puts Ohio State in the thick of the latest changes to college sports, as the Buckeyes always say they seek to straddle the line of keeping up without going too far.
And while it might be tempting to look at $13 million for an 85-man scholarship football team as $150,000 per player, I think the better calculation is something closer to $500,000 each for the 26 guys you can’t live without.
Ohio State hosted the event at the Covelli Center on campus to unveil an NIL Corporate Ambassador Program to encourage businesses to hire OSU athletes through the athletic department. Businesses get the athletes as endorsers and can provide internship and educational opportunities. And the athletes get paid.
But the event was also a clear signal that Ohio State is making the moves it believes it needs to make to keep up in an unregulated NIL world, where the NCAA is sitting on the sidelines as states and athletic departments implement different rules and hand out millions of dollars in different ways to keep players on their teams, or get players to their teams.
Ohio State, as it often does, is trying to occupy a middle ground. On a 30-minute panel featuring Day, athletic director Gene Smith, and Carey Hoyt, the senior associate AD overseeing the NIL efforts, Smith referenced schools that are basically directly paying recruits through NIL right now, which isn’t technically allowed by NCAA rules but isn’t currently being enforced at all.
“Unscrupulous characters are good at what they do, and it’s always been that way,” Smith said.
So Smith said the Buckeyes won’t get into the world of encouraging straight payments for recruits. Ohio State, both with its new internal program and with its outside collectives, continues to try to tie player payments to actions. On video screens at the event, possible player activities highlighted were brand endorsements, autograph signings, establishing camps, making appearances and promoting businesses.
But the reality is that Ohio State can’t fall behind. Smith and Day said they believe NIL and the transfer portal will sort itself out in the next two to three years. They didn’t offer specifics, but maybe that leads to a structure of the largest and richest athletic departments breaking off to make and follow and new set of rules. In the meantime, Day compared the situation to the speed limit.
“If the speed limit’s 45 miles per hour, and you drive 45 miles per hour, a lot of people are going to pass you by,” Day said. “If you go too fast, you’re going to get pulled over.”
So that’s the middle ground Ohio State said it wants. What is that? Maybe 53 miles per hour? Maybe 57 if the weather is good and the roads are empty?
Day said the Buckeyes have been gathering information by talking to recruits and their families and getting a sense of what other schools might be discussing with NIL deals. He said he believes right now top-shelf quarterbacks require $2 million in NIL money. Major offensive tackles and edge rushers he said are about $1 million.
If you can’t match that, other teams might have a chance to pluck key players from your roster. Day told the assembled potential NIL donors that every player on the team could go in the transfer portal when this season ends, and then field calls from other schools who might be offering NIL deals. Players may feel they have to take that money to help their families.
Unless Ohio State can offer enough to keep them here.
“One phone call, and they’re out the door,” Day said. “We cannot let that happen at Ohio State. I’m not trying to sound the alarm, I’m just trying to be transparent about what we’re dealing with.”
To deal with it, Day set the bar at $13 million. That would include money offered to players by the outside collectives that have already formed to pay Ohio State players. And it would include this new brand ambassador program. As outlined in the 10-page color brochure, no NIL deal can demand that the player stay at Ohio State in order to be paid. And the NIL deals can’t be directly tied for performance -- no touchdown bonuses.
But Ohio State feels it has to do something more. Thursday morning, they made their case to people who can give them money -- a $13 million case.
