Can someone explain to me, a diehard CAL (guess I am an ‘old blue’ now) and football fan, how the NIL is being used to lure players from the rotating transfer portal, community colleges and high school kids to CAL? I know what NIL is, just not the application of it for individual players. Especially at Cal. Thank you in advance!
NIL is now how most major programs use to funnel money to top athletes. The larger the fund for each program, the larger the offer we can divvy up and allocate to best players, likely with recommendations from the staff on need and value.
Happy to be a supporter here. But I have a question. It may just be my lack of attention on the matter, but I think the only time I have been asked to support the Cal Legends Collective is on this site. Is there a reason the "ask" is not coordinated with either the University or maybe the Alumni Association. In the back of my mind I know there are some restrictions, but I find it a bit odd. And if nothing else, why do I not hear from Cal Legends Collective directly?
My guess is that they don’t have access to Cal Athletics donors lists. The university policy may not permit the sharing of donor information, which is a pretty standard no-no in the not-for-profit world. Another theory would be that athletic department doesn’t want competition for philanthropic resources. Both may be true.
Appreciate all the support, and we work every day on getting the University to preach the gospel of NIL. That hasn't always been frictionless. Some of this centers around Title IX concerns (the more tightly the University is connected to the Collective the more there are concerns that the Collective is just Cal's alter ego and therefore subject to Title IX). I think that concern is vastly overstated and there's nothing unique to how Cal operates here. If anything California Legends is pretty far above what other schools are doing on gender equality. It allows all athletes to register and it covers all sports. It's not just for football and MBB. That's pretty unusual across all colleges. And if the Justice Department wants to go after anyone over Title IX they probably will start with the Collective that calls itself "The Men of Westwood." Yes, I'm looking at you UCLA.
With that said, Cal has in fact tried various ways to promote California Legends. The Collective has been featured in several Knowlton's Notes (if you get those). It's been featured in in-stadium ads at the football and MBB games. It's regularly discussed on the Cal message boards by myself and others. The Collective has a social media feed and sends out regular messages through Twitter and IG. And of course the athletes themselves regularly discuss and feature California Legends in their social media posts. So the Collective tries many ways to get the word out. Some more successful than others.
Wow...thanks for the comprehensive response. One follow up...is California Legends a formal organization/corporation or some other organized body, or just a group of volunteers without a formal structure. Again, curious how to dial into it (if not on Instagram and rarely checking Twitter), how decisions are made for allocation of monies, etc. All this is a spirit of wanting to support the effort and perhaps leverage it even more effectively.
Well, I just did something wacky...I googled California Legends Collective and got most of my answers from their site...fascinating...they even have an App! Thanks again!
We all have had strong opinions on how the athletics department handled things in the past. We fans have to put our money where our mouths are given this opportunity during a critical time. We're already seeing some fantastic transfer classes so it's working!
Last line is the most important. Some folks are reluctant to jump into NIL because it seems like they’ll never be able to get out again. But that’s not how I am looking at it.
Because of Cal’s bad to mediocre performance in its revenue sports over the last several years, it almost found itself relegated out of the power conferences altogether. We literally got into the ACC by the skin of our teeth. And the realignment wheel is absolutely going to spin again in the very near term. It is up to the Cal community and our coaching staff to demonstrate that we have a serious athletic department that can actually compete at this level. We have squandered our opportunities and our advantages for far too long. So it is now or never for this program to succeed. Cal currently has a top 20 portal class for football and a top 10 one for men’s basketball. With still more room for improvement. That is far better than we’ve done in recruiting in any of our revenue sports for quite a long time. And it is largely thanks to NIL and the efforts of the Cal community.
I’m pushing all the chips on to the table for 2024 I can. And if we can, in fact, generate some buzz and excitement around this program, I am fully confident others will step in. But regardless Cal needs to show ESPN and Fox and everyone else that we are in this to win. This is how.
Can someone explain to me, a diehard CAL (guess I am an ‘old blue’ now) and football fan, how the NIL is being used to lure players from the rotating transfer portal, community colleges and high school kids to CAL? I know what NIL is, just not the application of it for individual players. Especially at Cal. Thank you in advance!
NIL is now how most major programs use to funnel money to top athletes. The larger the fund for each program, the larger the offer we can divvy up and allocate to best players, likely with recommendations from the staff on need and value.
Happy to be a supporter here. But I have a question. It may just be my lack of attention on the matter, but I think the only time I have been asked to support the Cal Legends Collective is on this site. Is there a reason the "ask" is not coordinated with either the University or maybe the Alumni Association. In the back of my mind I know there are some restrictions, but I find it a bit odd. And if nothing else, why do I not hear from Cal Legends Collective directly?
My guess is that they don’t have access to Cal Athletics donors lists. The university policy may not permit the sharing of donor information, which is a pretty standard no-no in the not-for-profit world. Another theory would be that athletic department doesn’t want competition for philanthropic resources. Both may be true.
agreed
Appreciate all the support, and we work every day on getting the University to preach the gospel of NIL. That hasn't always been frictionless. Some of this centers around Title IX concerns (the more tightly the University is connected to the Collective the more there are concerns that the Collective is just Cal's alter ego and therefore subject to Title IX). I think that concern is vastly overstated and there's nothing unique to how Cal operates here. If anything California Legends is pretty far above what other schools are doing on gender equality. It allows all athletes to register and it covers all sports. It's not just for football and MBB. That's pretty unusual across all colleges. And if the Justice Department wants to go after anyone over Title IX they probably will start with the Collective that calls itself "The Men of Westwood." Yes, I'm looking at you UCLA.
With that said, Cal has in fact tried various ways to promote California Legends. The Collective has been featured in several Knowlton's Notes (if you get those). It's been featured in in-stadium ads at the football and MBB games. It's regularly discussed on the Cal message boards by myself and others. The Collective has a social media feed and sends out regular messages through Twitter and IG. And of course the athletes themselves regularly discuss and feature California Legends in their social media posts. So the Collective tries many ways to get the word out. Some more successful than others.
Wow...thanks for the comprehensive response. One follow up...is California Legends a formal organization/corporation or some other organized body, or just a group of volunteers without a formal structure. Again, curious how to dial into it (if not on Instagram and rarely checking Twitter), how decisions are made for allocation of monies, etc. All this is a spirit of wanting to support the effort and perhaps leverage it even more effectively.
Well, I just did something wacky...I googled California Legends Collective and got most of my answers from their site...fascinating...they even have an App! Thanks again!
Can we get a collective 'Fuck Yeah'?
We all have had strong opinions on how the athletics department handled things in the past. We fans have to put our money where our mouths are given this opportunity during a critical time. We're already seeing some fantastic transfer classes so it's working!
ITS DONATE OR DIE FOR CAL SPORTS
Last line is the most important. Some folks are reluctant to jump into NIL because it seems like they’ll never be able to get out again. But that’s not how I am looking at it.
Because of Cal’s bad to mediocre performance in its revenue sports over the last several years, it almost found itself relegated out of the power conferences altogether. We literally got into the ACC by the skin of our teeth. And the realignment wheel is absolutely going to spin again in the very near term. It is up to the Cal community and our coaching staff to demonstrate that we have a serious athletic department that can actually compete at this level. We have squandered our opportunities and our advantages for far too long. So it is now or never for this program to succeed. Cal currently has a top 20 portal class for football and a top 10 one for men’s basketball. With still more room for improvement. That is far better than we’ve done in recruiting in any of our revenue sports for quite a long time. And it is largely thanks to NIL and the efforts of the Cal community.
I’m pushing all the chips on to the table for 2024 I can. And if we can, in fact, generate some buzz and excitement around this program, I am fully confident others will step in. But regardless Cal needs to show ESPN and Fox and everyone else that we are in this to win. This is how.