Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) funding has quickly become the biggest chore for college athletic programs across the country. Raising enough money to not only fund athletic programs to the fullest, but also to put cash in the pockets for your players, has become the new “arms race.” No longer is having top-notch facilities the thing. Instead, it’s about having pockets deep enough to outbid your rivals for the services of transfers and incoming recruits. It’s a whole new ball game.
At the outset of the transfer portal era, a lot of big-money donors were more than happy to direct much of their annual donations to the players. But now that players often don’t provide much or any return on that investment – especially those who bounce from program to program, given the lack of rules or restrictions in the portal – donors are already looking for something different. An actual bang for their buck, so to speak.
Programs have begun all sorts of creative fundraising ideas, from membership tiers to ticket surcharges to special branded merchandise.
But they’re all missing the obvious one: A preseason exhibition game. Think of the money that could be raised.
Deion Sanders has already made public his desire for a spring time joint practice scrimmage game, and would be more than happy to see the NCAA allow it in August, too. And given the fact that locally-based rivalry games are scarce in these parts these days, is there a better NIL fundraising opportunity than an August preseason tilt between, say, CU and CSU? Or CU and Air Force? Or…. you get the idea.
College football is the only sport without a preseason. They play exhibitions in college hoops and all the other sports. The pros do it across the board. Only college football makes teams start the season without a warm-up game. Now, with the NCAA on life-support as an organization, it shouldn’t be hard to convince those who are still making decisions (other than the courts, of course) to allow for a late August exhibition, with all the proceeds going to the two participating school’s NIL funds.
The Buffs could host the Rams (with the TV rights being sold to the highest local TV bidder) and the proceeds split between the programs. The game would likely be a sellout with a big TV audience. Of course, scheduling these games would be a year-to-year thing, since non-conference schedules are different each year. For instance, since the Rams and the Buffs play six regular season games between now and 2038, there would have to be alternative plans made in those years. CSU could play Air Force, or Utah or another team with minimal travel expenses.
The Buffs don’t have Nebraska on any future schedules yet, and neither do the Rams, for that matter. Just sayin’…
Unlike Sanders, CSU’s new head coach, Jim Mora Jr, hasn’t given any thought to the idea of playing an NFL-style preseason game.
“I’ve never thought of it; I really haven’t,” Mora said with a smile, after the Rams practiced in front of an empty stadium last Saturday. “That’s out of my control, so I don’t worry about it. It’s never been a part of my thought process.”
Instead, Mora is putting everyone from his players to the band to the PA announcer… and even the guys who fire off the cannon when the Rams score – through a series of Saturday afternoon dress rehearsals as the Rams prepare for their season opener against Wyoming. The last three Saturdays in August have and will all feature an intersquad game complete with a tunnel walk, band fanfare, scoreboard highlights and all the other things that go with a late-afternoon kick off…except for the fans, of course. Nobody gets to watch, or pay for a ticket.
Seems like a wasted opportunity to not only have your team hit guys in a different-colored jersey, but also add badly needed NIL dollars to the fund. With the direction the sport is going, it seems like only a matter of time before all the coaches – not just Sanders – will be thinking about it.
