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Subject: Xaivian Lee Will Make "More Than $6 Million" at Florida Author: An Observer [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 12:37:00 05/31/25 Sat https://www.si.com/fannation/name-image-likeness/nil-news/florida-gators-transfer-xaivian-lee-signs-historic-nil-sneaker-deal?fbclid=IwY2xjawKoCqNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFJT3ppTVBUMG1hR0t6dDQ5AR5HK0bf5CO7tz1ggkzHU84YyUfPa54_zeAG1LHDA5bMb5C1nMTNx7Zse6po2g_aem_mnY_kxvDGz66FPdZFFCxcw It's impossible to criticize a player from leaving the august halls of academe for what is essentially a new business opportunity that will pay him "more than $6 million" for starters and probably much more if he can keep up his level of play. If Lee makes an NBA roster, then all bets are off in terms of earnings. But as understandable as this is, it's also sad. I may have him confused with Tosan, but I believe that Lee's only Division I offer came from Princeton. Now Lee and Danny Wolf as well as a growing legion of Ivy players, have developed into much better players and moved onto the big time. Again, no confusion as to why this is happening. Over the course of my life, I've had the very good fortune of dating a few women who, when passers-by walked by, those who took notice of us undoubtedly thought, "She is completely out of his league. What's going on here? That is unsustainable." Specifically, in college, there was a parade of men hovering around my girlfriend. I mean dozens. I'm sure they figured that I would be an easy boyfriend to replace. But you know what? They all stayed, my clear inferiority as a mate notwithstanding. I guess that experience over the years formed my view of the world and my expectations for loyalty, fidelity and relationships. That's how I want the world to be, in my dreams. Well, the world isn't how I want it to be in a lot of ways. Seeing Danny Wolf and Xaivian Lee leave Yale and Princeton for the bright lights and big dollars is 100% understandable. But that doesn't mean it's not tragic. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Subject: Re: Xaivian Lee Will Make "More Than $6 Million" at Florida Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 13:22:15 05/31/25 Sat Some of us have seen this coming for a while. The bloom is off the Ivy. The public perception of the value of the degree among non-Ivy grads is waning - and even plenty of Ivy grads are not impressed with the caliber of some of today's graduates, given what's been going on over the past couple of years. By refusing to play the D1 game as the rest of the country does, and pretending that it's $h*t doesn't stink, the Ivies are keeping their noses in the air, and heads in the sand. This was all avoidable. As many people note - these schools are flush with endowment money, but they have not deployed it wisely. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Xaivian Lee Will Make "More Than $6 Million" at Florida Author: Ghost [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 14:01:54 05/31/25 Sat Schools do not have to use their endowment $. If you're going to play at that level, you create new positions within the athletics department or with your rights holder that specifically raise new NIL money. Your development office may not be happy but in most cases, these 'givers' wouldn't have supported athletics anyway so most of it is new money. Can't blame the kids for cashing in, it's a unique business opportunity for undergrads. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: Xaivian Lee Will Make "More Than $6 Million" at Florida Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:57:47 05/31/25 Sat Agree that NIL isn't endowment monies. But you are correct that the development office won't be happy if alums are hit up for NIL cooperatives. Then again the 30-40 sports programs, some of which are vanity projects, doesn't help matters either. The endowment comment was more about how the schools are now so financially dependent on federal grants and overseas tuition remittances that they have locked up their endowments in illiquid assets to be at risk when the gravy train slows down. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: $6 million is peanuts compared to Duke's Copper Flagg Author: NYCblue [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 11:23:59 06/01/25 Sun Cooper Flagg might be taking a pay cut to go to the NBA. Flagg, who is expected to go to the Mavericks with the No. 1 pick in the draft, earned $28 million through two NIL deals during his one year at Duke, reporter Howard Bryant told Bob Costas on “The 92nd Street Y.” [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: $6 million is peanuts compared to Duke's Copper Flagg Author: sparman [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:28:23 06/01/25 Sun Good to see the Durham Basketball Academy living up to its name. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: $6 million is peanuts compared to Duke's Copper Flagg Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:53:45 06/01/25 Sun And yet, it doesn't seem to tarnish the school's academic reputation, or student desirability... [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: $6 million is peanuts compared to Duke's Copper Flagg Author: sparman [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 13:10:43 06/01/25 Sun Of course, NOT spendimg millions on NIL doesn't seem to have tarnished the academic reputation of D3 schools like MIT, Nescac, U Chicago, Carnegie-Mellon, Cal Tech, etc., etc. You seem anxious to spend endowment money on funding athlete payments. How much habe you contributed to Columbia's endowmemt for this purpose (and why do you think other donors imtend for their gifts to be used this way)? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: $6 million is peanuts compared to Duke's Cooper Flagg Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 19:33:43 06/01/25 Sun NO. I already addressed the endowment comment earlier. I am opposed to the antediluvian mindset of The Ivy League. Either it wants to be NCAA Division 1 or it doesn't. This bullshit about wanting it both ways is just making the conference de facto D3. If that's what they want, just make it happen. Of course the league will always have a couple of D1 teams that make noise - especially in sports that the big boys don't care about (lacrosse, fencing, field hockey, etc.) But Ivy basketball is about to revert to mid 80s level - and it will cascade much faster than people think. Then again, most Ivy campus admins privately love this, even as they whisper sweet nothings in the ears of Joe Tsai and Bob Kraft and Stephen Lewenstein... Given all the garbage that is going on at the 8 schools - this is the time to pivot away from the insular navel-gazing nihilism on campus, and invest in team-building and school pride-building activities, like Duke, and Stanford, and Vanderbilt and Michigan do. If nothing else, signaling an interest in big-time sports would certainly change the profile of applicants. Fewer anarchists, for sure. That the people who run these schools can't see the rot that has emerged from this nihilistic revolutionary worldview that affects way too many admits, is crazy. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Why Do We Love College Sports? Why Do **YOU** Love College Sports? Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:08:00 06/03/25 Tue The debate immediately above in this thread and over many other threads is the philosophical underpinning behind the critical question of, "How should Ivy League athletic departments navigate in the new world order of the transfer portal and especially NIL compensation, now at >$6 million for Xaivian Lee and at least $28 million for Cooper Flagg?" Can the Ivies keep up in this world? Do we even want to keep up? I don't have the final answer or even a partial answer, but I'd like to ask our posters here the following: Why do we love Ivy and college sports? Why do **YOU** love college sports? I love Ivy and college sports because they bring me back to my own undergraduate years, which were very happy. Rooting for my alma mater helps me feel emotionally connected to my school, which I like. Also, I enjoy sports in general. Last but not at all least, winning championships and beating a rival is fun because all of us fans, but especially those of us who are men, like to achieve. And achieving vicariously is a form of achieving. Sports fans root for their teams because, when the teams win, the fans -- especially the men, who are hard-wired to be competitve -- feel that they, too, have won something. When my alma mater wins a championship or defeats one of our rivals, I stand a little taller and walk a little prouder. Why? I think XY chromosomes have a lot to do with it (and that includes winning in women's sports, which provoke the same feelings). I think these motivations are universal on this board and across all college sports. Professional sports, too, for that matter. Well, how would you feel if you read the following lede story after a competitive season next year in your favorite sport? "After a season with great games and incredible endings, the basketball/football/lacrosse team of [your alma mater] narrowily edged out Harvard/Princeton for the Ivy League championship. The $10 million roster that [your alma mater] assembled through its well-organized and well-funded NIL collective was too much for the $3 million roster Harvard put together and the $5 million roster Princeton fielded. "Coach ______ of the [your alma mater] basketball/football/lacrosse team said after the championship game, 'I want to thank the players and assistant coaches, but especially our generous donors who made this Ivy title happen." I don't know about you, but that doesn't do anything for me. I don't want to win that way. I would feel no sense of happiness or vicarious achievement because my school's rich boosters out-donated my rivals' rich boosters. What's the fun of that? So. . . . Why enter the rat race when you can't envision feeling happiness from winning the rat race? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: Why Do We Love College Sports? Why Do **YOU** Love College Sports? Author: Quaker62 [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:40:25 06/03/25 Tue I think I might have said this here before but in the words of Pete Carril, “If you are in the rat race, you are, by definition, a rat.” I think that the ruination of college sports, as most of the readers in this forum might agree is the Ed Obannion NIL case which opened Pandora’s box as far as payments to college athletes is concerned thanks to Sonny Vaccaro. I would like to think that the brethren here believe that college sports are supposed th be played by actual college students. Therefore a few things should apply. First, enforcer the 22 hour per week rule which limits the time the athletes can devote to team activities. Second, make scholarships 5 years, non-revocable. Thus coaches can’t “run off” their recruiting mistakes. Make all athletes take 80% of a full academic load each semester. This recognizes the time spent on the 22 hour commitment to their sport. Third, reinstitute the one year “sit out” rule for transfers. The argument that coaches can move from place to place without penalty is moot because there is a penalty for that. It’s called a buy out. Coaches do in fact pay a penalty. Fourth, I think the argument can be made for the schools to get a piece of the NIL action paid to players because if it weren’t for the investment made by the schools in sponsoring college sports, there would be no NIL for the athletes take advantage of. Shouldn’t the investor be compensated for their investment? The counter-argument for this is that this has all been decided in the courts. The judicial system might just be wrong in it's assessment. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Why Do We Love College Sports? Why Do **YOU** Love College Sports? Author: Quaker62 [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 20:24:14 06/03/25 Tue Also, eliminate scholarships summer school. Athletes are already getting 5 years to complete 4 years of schooling. If they are unable to successfully navigate that schedule, then just perhaps they are not collage student material. Additionally, scholarship summer school is just another way for the coaches to work out their players with the idea of developing the talent. I would contend that that further separates the “student-athlete (don’t you just hate that term?) from the student-students. Unless we continue to delude ourselves that the athletes’ education is to prepare them for the “next level” (another despicable term) then that simply reinforces the idea that college sports are a training ground for the pros…for that small percentage off athletes who play professionally. Why should our institutions be a minor league for the pros. If the pros want to “developed” players, let them do the job on their own. This applies especially to pro football. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: Why Do We Love College Sports? Why Do **YOU** Love College Sports? Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 21:29:51 06/04/25 Wed To borrow from Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola, we're all part of the same hypocrisy, Senator. Do you really think that Princeton's and Harvard's advantage in winning championships has nothing to do with the power of their donor network? Who funds Princeton's continual facility upgrades? The tooth fairy? Who makes Harvard tuition very affordable for middle class families already making $250k, Donald Trump? Now, who's being naive, Kay? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Indeed! And don't forget... Author: Go Green [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 05:03:34 06/05/25 Thu ... that Michael Corleone went to Dartmouth. :) [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Why Do We Love College Sports? Why Do **YOU** Love College Sports? Author: Bengal [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:15:10 06/06/25 Fri But never think it involves my family. You left out tgat next sentence, lol. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Why Do We Love College Sports? Why Do **YOU** Love College Sports? Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 08:29:55 06/13/25 Fri Never forget that Michael was the best at lying with a straight face. It was an abortion, Michael. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]