What up Aggie Nation! The time has come to really circle the wagons and start to come together to keep the band together! I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in person and on the phone with Coach Calhoun! He’s the absolute real deal and is the guy we need! Couldn’t be more excited! With that being said, priority number 1 is retention of this roster that just won the outright regular season title and brought us the first tourney win in 23 years! We have a lot of momentum on the pillars of Large Donors and Businesses with Blue A. A lot of work to still do and we are still finalizing what benefits come from subscribing, but I just wanted to call everyone to action, that can, to donate and sign up on re occurring. We’ve had a lot of people give one time donation and then sign up for monthly as well. Do what you can and send it off to fellow Aggies and let them know you have signed up and invite them to as well. For those who are already doing it, Thank You! Please spread the word. We need to create a movement and we have a very real possibility to retain everyone and send a message to the rest of the Mountain West that we aren’t messing around in Logan and they better take notice!

Here is the link! https://www.zeffy.com/donation-form/7ab ... 432f0bdcb3

Go Aggies!!!!

Signed up last night! Definitely helps to get the word out about it because I didn’t even know about this one or some of the others prior to yesterday

BlueAAggie wrote: ↑

March 30th, 2024, 7:45 pm

What up Aggie Nation! The time has come to really circle the wagons and start to come together to keep the band together! I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in person and on the phone with Coach Calhoun! He’s the absolute real deal and is the guy we need! Couldn’t be more excited! With that being said, priority number 1 is retention of this roster that just won the outright regular season title and brought us the first tourney win in 23 years! We have a lot of momentum on the pillars of Large Donors and Businesses with Blue A. A lot of work to still do and we are still finalizing what benefits come from subscribing, but I just wanted to call everyone to action, that can, to donate and sign up on re occurring. We’ve had a lot of people give one time donation and then sign up for monthly as well. Do what you can and send it off to fellow Aggies and let them know you have signed up and invite them to as well. For those who are already doing it, Thank You! Please spread the word. We need to create a movement and we have a very real possibility to retain everyone and send a message to the rest of the Mountain West that we aren’t messing around in Logan and they better take notice!

Here is the link! https://www.zeffy.com/donation-form/7ab ... 432f0bdcb3

Go Aggies!!!!

Will do! Thanks for all you do!

I’m a student so I don’t have a ton of excess cash right now but I signed up to give a little bit each month 🫡 this past year was amazing and I’d love to be able to run it back this year with a lot of the same team

Monthly recurring donor already! Just dropped you an extra $250.00.

Would be fun to follow if there was a specific goal and like a meter to monitor progress!

EDIT: I can do more next month. Not super liquid right now (building one house with a big down payment and waiting on our current home to close).

gwaggie wrote: ↑

March 30th, 2024, 7:57 pm

I’m a student so I don’t have a ton of excess cash right now but I signed up to give a little bit each month 🫡 this past year was amazing and I’d love to be able to run it back this year with a lot of the same team

That’s awesome! Thanks for your contribution seriously they all help.

BlueAAggie wrote: ↑

March 30th, 2024, 7:45 pm

What up Aggie Nation! The time has come to really circle the wagons and start to come together to keep the band together! I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in person and on the phone with Coach Calhoun! He’s the absolute real deal and is the guy we need! Couldn’t be more excited! With that being said, priority number 1 is retention of this roster that just won the outright regular season title and brought us the first tourney win in 23 years! We have a lot of momentum on the pillars of Large Donors and Businesses with Blue A. A lot of work to still do and we are still finalizing what benefits come from subscribing, but I just wanted to call everyone to action, that can, to donate and sign up on re occurring. We’ve had a lot of people give one time donation and then sign up for monthly as well. Do what you can and send it off to fellow Aggies and let them know you have signed up and invite them to as well. For those who are already doing it, Thank You! Please spread the word. We need to create a movement and we have a very real possibility to retain everyone and send a message to the rest of the Mountain West that we aren’t messing around in Logan and they better take notice!

Here is the link! https://www.zeffy.com/donation-form/7ab ... 432f0bdcb3

Go Aggies!!!!

Can you use it as a tax write-off?

OrangeCountyAggie wrote: ↑

March 30th, 2024, 8:31 pm

BlueAAggie wrote: ↑

March 30th, 2024, 7:45 pm

What up Aggie Nation! The time has come to really circle the wagons and start to come together to keep the band together! I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in person and on the phone with Coach Calhoun! He’s the absolute real deal and is the guy we need! Couldn’t be more excited! With that being said, priority number 1 is retention of this roster that just won the outright regular season title and brought us the first tourney win in 23 years! We have a lot of momentum on the pillars of Large Donors and Businesses with Blue A. A lot of work to still do and we are still finalizing what benefits come from subscribing, but I just wanted to call everyone to action, that can, to donate and sign up on re occurring. We’ve had a lot of people give one time donation and then sign up for monthly as well. Do what you can and send it off to fellow Aggies and let them know you have signed up and invite them to as well. For those who are already doing it, Thank You! Please spread the word. We need to create a movement and we have a very real possibility to retain everyone and send a message to the rest of the Mountain West that we aren’t messing around in Logan and they better take notice!

Here is the link! https://www.zeffy.com/donation-form/7ab ... 432f0bdcb3

Go Aggies!!!!

Can you use it as a tax write-off?

It says on the email they send that the donation is 100% tax deductable.

Signed up already. #IWillHaveAnother!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I signed up on recurring a few months ago. I am also putting in one time donations when possible. Excited to see this grow.

Signed up! Bring this same team back! #paythemandrunitback!

Just bumped my monthly donation up a level. Lots of small monthly donors begin to add up.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

Just signed up! Let’s run it back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m sorry, many may criticize me and others like me for not caring enough about the Aggies to donate, but I will never donate. Why? Because it isn’t NIL. What product am I using their Name, Image, or Likeness to advertise or make money off of?

If they want to get paid, go be the face of some company and do their advertisings, sell your image to a video game, (I’m still waiting for NCAA Football and basketball to come out), go endorse Taco Bell, or the Blue bird, or center street grill!

Kids playing with passion, heart and desire is what made college sports fun to watch (and still does).

I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t watch pro football or basketball because I don’t see the passion that I see in college.

I would rather have a team full of kids that play with passion and heart, than kids that play with a sense of entitlement.

If I only cared about being a fan of the best teams, I would be an Alabama or LSU fan. I am not, I am an Aggie fan. I believe in the Cinderella story.

When someone is trying to raise money for a cause they believe in why make their job harder with Anti NIL posts?

BioAggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 12:24 am

I’m sorry, many may criticize me and others like me for not caring enough about the Aggies to donate, but I will never donate. Why? Because it isn’t NIL. What product am I using their Name, Image, or Likeness to advertise or make money off of?

If they want to get paid, go be the face of some company and do their advertisings, sell your image to a video game, (I’m still waiting for NCAA Football and basketball to come out), go endorse Taco Bell, or the Blue bird, or center street grill!

Kids playing with passion, heart and desire is what made college sports fun to watch (and still does).

I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t watch pro football or basketball because I don’t see the passion that I see in college.

I would rather have a team full of kids that play with passion and heart, than kids that play with a sense of entitlement.

If I only cared about being a fan of the best teams, I would be an Alabama or LSU fan. I am not, I am an Aggie fan. I believe in the Cinderella story.

I get your point and that works great for the Dukes and NC’s of the world. Unfortunately, Utah state is not going to get anyone that Nike wants to put on their commercials and Wilson motor can only budget so much. The Aggies are a case where your idea of what NIL should be doesn’t work, so help pay or slowly watch us dwindle into nothing.

I believe in Cinderella stories too but what fun would it be to hope that your team is a Cinderella every single year because you’re against the idea of what college sports currently is.

The main money can and should come from actual nil deals don’t get me wrong, I think every Aggie fan there is should be pestering their friends and neighbors who own businesses to take advantage of the marketing opportunities and help support these kids in the ability to stay at Utah state. Individual donations matter though, especially until we can get a lot of businesses contributing in a way that makes sense to them.

In my opinion, Utah state is a place where kids want to play but you have to think about yourself and the future. If some school comes knocking with 200k/year and you’re currently just getting free taco time and 10k from a car dealership how is the spectrum/Hurd/being close to home supposed to make up the rest of that difference??? This is an all in effort.

Pretend the free MWC app you use to watch games cost you $15 a month and sign up for a small subscription. Eat at home once a week instead of going out for a $12 lunch and there’s another $50 a month. If the people who care about the Aggies performance just did a little bit each, we’d be able to keep some more of these guys that we love watching.

BioAggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 12:24 am

I’m sorry, many may criticize me and others like me for not caring enough about the Aggies to donate, but I will never donate. Why? Because it isn’t NIL. What product am I using their Name, Image, or Likeness to advertise or make money off of?

If they want to get paid, go be the face of some company and do their advertisings, sell your image to a video game, (I’m still waiting for NCAA Football and basketball to come out), go endorse Taco Bell, or the Blue bird, or center street grill!

Kids playing with passion, heart and desire is what made college sports fun to watch (and still does).

I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t watch pro football or basketball because I don’t see the passion that I see in college.

I would rather have a team full of kids that play with passion and heart, than kids that play with a sense of entitlement.

If I only cared about being a fan of the best teams, I would be an Alabama or LSU fan. I am not, I am an Aggie fan. I believe in the Cinderella story.

Thumbs down. Posts like this don’t belong here imo.

Here’s the reality — you can hate on NIL and free transfers all you want, but the objective data is our best seasons have come in this era. Do you want to sustain success here or not? If you have disposable income and USU athletics is a big part of what you rely on for entertainment, why wouldn’t you donate to NIL?

Per Trilly Donovan, P5s on average have annual NIL warchests in the 1.5 million - 2 million range. If just 2,500 people signed up at the lowest monthly subscription rate, that’s about $800k in NIL per year before business/institutional donors are accounted for. That doesn’t seem THAT unrealistic to accomplish. Even 1,500 people is $500k per year.

Does it matter how much we donate? We offered to double Danny’s salary. He was gone anyways. It wouldn’t have stopped Odom or Smith either.

It wouldn’t have kept GA 1.0 or Wells and if BA were winning at a better clip he’d be gone too.

I don’t see NIL as being any different. Had we offered Ashworth $100k more, Creighton would have offered $200k. It’s absurd to think we’re ever going to buy better players.

There is no loyalty from coaches, very little from players, and everything from fans.

dyedblue wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:32 am

Does it matter how much we donate? We offered to double Danny’s salary. He was gone anyways. It wouldn’t have stopped Odom or Smith either.

It wouldn’t have kept GA 1.0 or Wells and if BA were winning at a better clip he’d be gone too.

I don’t see NIL as being any different. Had we offered Ashworth $100k more, Creighton would have offered $200k. It’s absurd to think we’re ever going to buy better players.

There is no loyalty from coaches, very little from players, and everything from fans.

I’m willing to stick it out at the job I like for $30,000 less than what I can make elsewhere because I like the job and where I live. However I wouldn’t be willing to stick it out here for $50,000 less. You don’t have to compete with top dollar to keep people…

Dkdavis wrote:

dyedblue wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:32 am

Does it matter how much we donate? We offered to double Danny’s salary. He was gone anyways. It wouldn’t have stopped Odom or Smith either.

It wouldn’t have kept GA 1.0 or Wells and if BA were winning at a better clip he’d be gone too.

I don’t see NIL as being any different. Had we offered Ashworth $100k more, Creighton would have offered $200k. It’s absurd to think we’re ever going to buy better players.

There is no loyalty from coaches, very little from players, and everything from fans.

I’m willing to stick it out at the job I like for $30,000 less than what I can make elsewhere because I like the job and where I live. However I wouldn’t be willing to stick it out here for $50,000 less. You don’t have to compete with top dollar to keep people…

Exactly. And the perks of Utah state (the crowd, the student section, the tight knit community, competitive competition….) help make up a little bit of ground too, they aren’t worthless. If a player is offered 100k to leave and play somewhere or 60k to stay in Logan there’s a good chance they could stay because the environment can make up some of the difference.

But if we can only offer that guy 20k then it’s game over.

gwaggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:39 am

Dkdavis wrote:

dyedblue wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:32 am

Does it matter how much we donate? We offered to double Danny’s salary. He was gone anyways. It wouldn’t have stopped Odom or Smith either.

It wouldn’t have kept GA 1.0 or Wells and if BA were winning at a better clip he’d be gone too.

I don’t see NIL as being any different. Had we offered Ashworth $100k more, Creighton would have offered $200k. It’s absurd to think we’re ever going to buy better players.

There is no loyalty from coaches, very little from players, and everything from fans.

I’m willing to stick it out at the job I like for $30,000 less than what I can make elsewhere because I like the job and where I live. However I wouldn’t be willing to stick it out here for $50,000 less. You don’t have to compete with top dollar to keep people…

Exactly. And the perks of Utah state (the crowd, the student section, the tight knit community, competitive competition….) help make up a little bit of ground too, they aren’t worthless. If a player is offered 100k to leave and play somewhere or 60k to stay in Logan there’s a good chance they could stay because the environment can make up some of the difference.

But if we can only offer that guy 20k then it’s game over.

Exactly -- and the reality is, we're just trying to be the best in the MW. We don't necessarily need to compete with the Power 5s.

For this thread, I say people should do as they wish with their hard earned money. If you can throw some into the NIL pot then that is your choice. For a different thread, there are arguments on both sides of these NIL collectives. I think I will keep my opinions out of this thread calling Aggies to Action.

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:13 am

gwaggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:39 am

Dkdavis wrote:

dyedblue wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:32 am

Does it matter how much we donate? We offered to double Danny’s salary. He was gone anyways. It wouldn’t have stopped Odom or Smith either.

It wouldn’t have kept GA 1.0 or Wells and if BA were winning at a better clip he’d be gone too.

I don’t see NIL as being any different. Had we offered Ashworth $100k more, Creighton would have offered $200k. It’s absurd to think we’re ever going to buy better players.

There is no loyalty from coaches, very little from players, and everything from fans.

I’m willing to stick it out at the job I like for $30,000 less than what I can make elsewhere because I like the job and where I live. However I wouldn’t be willing to stick it out here for $50,000 less. You don’t have to compete with top dollar to keep people…

Exactly. And the perks of Utah state (the crowd, the student section, the tight knit community, competitive competition….) help make up a little bit of ground too, they aren’t worthless. If a player is offered 100k to leave and play somewhere or 60k to stay in Logan there’s a good chance they could stay because the environment can make up some of the difference.

But if we can only offer that guy 20k then it’s game over.

Exactly -- and the reality is, we're just trying to be the best in the MW. We don't necessarily need to compete with the Power 5s.

I agree with this rationale. The players have to weigh social opportunities, cultural fit, play style, coaches, teammates, playing time, opportunity to win, and money. The only factor that is easily quantifiable is the money. If the money gap is huge, it will disproportionately dominate the decision, but if we can keep the gap reasonable, then other factors get their due consideration.

I would love (mostly) to live in Cache Valley, but I'm not willing to take a 50% salary cut. I might consider 20%, though.

There are theoretical arguments against NIL. Do I wish the NCAA would have pulled its head out of its (I can't express myself without swearing) sooner and put some guardrails on this stuff when it had a chance rather than go all in on amateurism? 100%. But this is now the new reality we are living in. Rather than long for the halcyon days of a bygone era, it's time to be practical. If you can afford it and you care enough about USU athletics to be posting on a fan message board about it, you should probably be contributing rather than free-riding.

And to be clear, I am NOT advocating anyone do anything that stretches their budget.

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:01 am

Here’s the reality — you can hate on NIL and free transfers all you want, but the objective data is our best seasons have come in this era. Do you want to sustain success here or not? If you have disposable income and USU athletics is a big part of what you rely on for entertainment, why wouldn’t you donate to NIL?

Per Trilly Donovan, P5s on average have annual NIL warchests in the 1.5 million - 2 million range. If just 2,500 people signed up at the lowest monthly subscription rate, that’s about $800k in NIL per year before business/institutional donors are accounted for. That doesn’t seem THAT unrealistic to accomplish. Even 1,500 people is $500k per year.

This is what we need to do if you can afford a little each month. That’s what I do.

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:32 am

There are theoretical arguments against NIL. Do I wish the NCAA would have pulled its head out of its (I can't express myself without swearing) sooner and put some guardrails on this stuff when it had a chance rather than go all in on amateurism? 100%. But this is now the new reality we are living in. Rather than long for the halcyon days of a bygone era, it's time to be practical. If you can afford it and you care enough about USU athletics to be posting on a fan message board about it, you should probably be contributing rather than free-riding.

And to be clear, I am NOT advocating anyone do anything that stretches their budget.

I'm not a huge fan of it, but you are right it is what it is. We need to have a collective that's at least on par with the Mountain West, and we should try to be at least one of the upper classes of the G5 in NIL. It doesn't have to be P4 type because we'll never get there.

I feel some Aggie fans see what teams like Tennessee or Texas A&M are doing and they have a sour taste on NIL. That is not what we're striving to be.

Aggiealum13 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:40 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:32 am

There are theoretical arguments against NIL. Do I wish the NCAA would have pulled its head out of its (I can't express myself without swearing) sooner and put some guardrails on this stuff when it had a chance rather than go all in on amateurism? 100%. But this is now the new reality we are living in. Rather than long for the halcyon days of a bygone era, it's time to be practical. If you can afford it and you care enough about USU athletics to be posting on a fan message board about it, you should probably be contributing rather than free-riding.

And to be clear, I am NOT advocating anyone do anything that stretches their budget.

I'm not a huge fan of it, but you are right it is what it is. We need to have a collective that's at least on par with the Mountain West, and we should try to be at least one of the upper classes of the G5 in NIL. It doesn't have to be P4 type because we'll never get there.

Fact of the matter is, if the average MWC schools had $2 million per year for NIL, the average P4 school would figure out how to get $4 million per year for NIL. We'll never catch up and shouldn't try.

You're right that if Utah State was towards the top of the MWC (and therefore G5), we'd be in a good place.

Even if we had an NIL war chest like a Kansas (yes, KU is killing it in NIL) or a Texas A&M, we aren't going to beat those schools for recruits, because money being equal a kid is going to want to play in the SEC or Big 12 rather than the MW. That isn't the goal.

We just need to keep up with other MW schools so we aren't losing players to peer schools or lower level schools. It made me sick when I read that UVU had more NIL money for basketball than we did last offseason. I hope that is NEVER the case again.

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 8:01 am

Here’s the reality — you can hate on NIL and free transfers all you want, but the objective data is our best seasons have come in this era. Do you want to sustain success here or not? If you have disposable income and USU athletics is a big part of what you rely on for entertainment, why wouldn’t you donate to NIL?

Per Trilly Donovan, P5s on average have annual NIL warchests in the 1.5 million - 2 million range. If just 2,500 people signed up at the lowest monthly subscription rate, that’s about $800k in NIL per year before business/institutional donors are accounted for. That doesn’t seem THAT unrealistic to accomplish. Even 1,500 people is $500k per year.

Agreed, i don't necessarily like the NIL era but will donate what i can. If people don't want to that is fine as well.

3rdGenAggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:43 am

Aggiealum13 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:40 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:32 am

There are theoretical arguments against NIL. Do I wish the NCAA would have pulled its head out of its (I can't express myself without swearing) sooner and put some guardrails on this stuff when it had a chance rather than go all in on amateurism? 100%. But this is now the new reality we are living in. Rather than long for the halcyon days of a bygone era, it's time to be practical. If you can afford it and you care enough about USU athletics to be posting on a fan message board about it, you should probably be contributing rather than free-riding.

And to be clear, I am NOT advocating anyone do anything that stretches their budget.

I'm not a huge fan of it, but you are right it is what it is. We need to have a collective that's at least on par with the Mountain West, and we should try to be at least one of the upper classes of the G5 in NIL. It doesn't have to be P4 type because we'll never get there.

Fact of the matter is, if the average MWC schools had $2 million per year for NIL, the average P4 school would figure out how to get $4 million per year for NIL. We'll never catch up and shouldn't try.

You're right that if Utah State was towards the top of the MWC (and therefore G5), we'd be in a good place.

And to add to that, I do feel men's basketball is where the greatest amount of NIL needs to be focused on. I love football and I want football to be a big part of the nil collective, but men's basketball is the sport that USU could really put themselves on the map if done right.

Aggiealum13 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:48 am

3rdGenAggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:43 am

Aggiealum13 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:40 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:32 am

There are theoretical arguments against NIL. Do I wish the NCAA would have pulled its head out of its (I can't express myself without swearing) sooner and put some guardrails on this stuff when it had a chance rather than go all in on amateurism? 100%. But this is now the new reality we are living in. Rather than long for the halcyon days of a bygone era, it's time to be practical. If you can afford it and you care enough about USU athletics to be posting on a fan message board about it, you should probably be contributing rather than free-riding.

And to be clear, I am NOT advocating anyone do anything that stretches their budget.

I'm not a huge fan of it, but you are right it is what it is. We need to have a collective that's at least on par with the Mountain West, and we should try to be at least one of the upper classes of the G5 in NIL. It doesn't have to be P4 type because we'll never get there.

Fact of the matter is, if the average MWC schools had $2 million per year for NIL, the average P4 school would figure out how to get $4 million per year for NIL. We'll never catch up and shouldn't try.

You're right that if Utah State was towards the top of the MWC (and therefore G5), we'd be in a good place.

And to add to that, I do feel a men's basketball is where the greatest amount of NIL needs to be focused on. I love football and I want football to be a big part of the nil collective, but men's basketball is the sport that USU could really put themselves on the map if done right.

Agreed, in football i don't see USU ever being much more competitive than what we have seen over the last 10+ years (which is still really solid). With basketball I actually see USU's ceiling to be much higher and the ability to compete closer to the highest level than in football.

Even though my promise was to increase my donation by a thousand if Sprinkle stayed, I went ahead and increased it any way.

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:50 am

Aggiealum13 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:48 am

3rdGenAggie wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:43 am

Aggiealum13 wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:40 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2024, 9:32 am

There are theoretical arguments against NIL. Do I wish the NCAA would have pulled its head out of its (I can't express myself without swearing) sooner and put some guardrails on this stuff when it had a chance rather than go all in on amateurism? 100%. But this is now the new reality we are living in. Rather than long for the halcyon days of a bygone era, it's time to be practical. If you can afford it and you care enough about USU athletics to be posting on a fan message board about it, you should probably be contributing rather than free-riding.

And to be clear, I am NOT advocating anyone do anything that stretches their budget.

I'm not a huge fan of it, but you are right it is what it is. We need to have a collective that's at least on par with the Mountain West, and we should try to be at least one of the upper classes of the G5 in NIL. It doesn't have to be P4 type because we'll never get there.

Fact of the matter is, if the average MWC schools had $2 million per year for NIL, the average P4 school would figure out how to get $4 million per year for NIL. We'll never catch up and shouldn't try.

You're right that if Utah State was towards the top of the MWC (and therefore G5), we'd be in a good place.

And to add to that, I do feel a men's basketball is where the greatest amount of NIL needs to be focused on. I love football and I want football to be a big part of the nil collective, but men's basketball is the sport that USU could really put themselves on the map if done right.

Agreed, in football i don't see USU ever being much more competitive than what we have seen over the last 10+ years (which is still really solid). With basketball I actually see USU's ceiling to be much higher and the ability to compete closer to the highest level than in football.

Yep, it's a combination of a few things: (1) the MW is a much better basketball conference than it is a football conference; (2) the numbers game of funding an NIL that's competitive is much easier at a scale of 15 players versus 85 players; (3) our heritage is as a basketball first school.

It's why schools like UNM are "all in" on men's basketball for their NIL. I think the priority of our NIL efforts should definitely be making sure what we have committed to basketball is at the top of the MW before anything else is considered. Our approach to football NIL should basically be a "moneyball" approach, IMO. Just enough to keep us competing for bowl games.

The reality is, no matter how much we commit to football NIL, I don't see our football team ever being able to accomplish anything that felt as cool as winning a single NCAA tourney game.