Name, Image, and Lots of money: HoopsHD interviews Stephen Ford of the Country Roads Trust NIL collective

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Jon Teitel

The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created last year after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Stephen Ford of the Country Roads Trust NIL collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.

Former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck and Arizona Diamondbacks general managing partner Ken Kendrick co-founded an NIL collective called “Country Roads Trust” last January: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did they do it? It is a start-up so we had to get everything from an LLC to a website to a trademark. I had to finish the process while getting athletes on-boarded and raising money from donors. It was a pretty crazy process: we were building the plane while we were flying it!

You are the general manager/COO: what sort of responsibilities do you have? I manage a staff of 3 others. I work with brands on sponsor relationships and work with individuals on the donor side (anywhere from $5000 to 6 figures). I wear 100 different hats but so does everyone else in our office: accounting, putting together deals, etc. Our goal is to get every 1 of our student-athletes an NIL opportunity.

How much of your focus is on basketball compared to football? We focus just as much on basketball as football. We are lucky to have 2 storied programs here including a head coach in Bob Huggins who is top-5 in career wins. They are both huge sports in our state so we are lucky.

What kind of connection (if any) will your group have with former players like Jerry West or people like Coach Huggins/Athletic Director Shane Lyons? We have a good relationship with Bob and his current staff and Jerry is part of our athlete advisory committee.

What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? We have an insurance deal and a big banking deal: they are both longtime supporters of WVU athletics. We do appearances at tailgates and community events at Ronald McDonald House.

People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? My concern is with Country Roads Trust and helping our current student-athletes. Our donors support Children’s Hospital right across the street from us, but from a philanthropic standpoint when they donate to the basketball program it is to help our community efforts.

You are working with more than 100 student-athletes: why did you decide to “spread the wealth” rather than focus on helping 1-2 high-profile student-athletes? There are no other big-time/pro schools in West Virginia: we are the #1 focus for sports in the state. We have the #1 rifle program and a great women’s soccer program and a university fundraising team that allows donors to support non-revenue programs.

In June you hosted football camps for elementary/middle school students: how do you balance giving money to student-athletes with scheduling events that are open to the public? When we do these kinds of camps we have a company that sponsors it and provides an opportunity to market to the community and show some goodwill. We are providing camps to kids from 7 different states and having the sponsors underwrite all of the money for our student-athletes. We did a needs analysis of what is important: we will do camps for all kinds of sports and our student-athletes love that!

What kind of cool stuff do people get if they became 1 of your top donors? It depends: we want to give them access to our student-athletes that they might not otherwise get. We have signed memorabilia, exclusive content, pregame tailgates, suite invites, golf tournaments, etc.

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Name, Image, and Lots of money: HoopsHD interviews Thomas Dieters of the This is Sparta! NIL collective

Posted on September 28, 2022 by Jon Teitel

The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created last year after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Tom Dieters of the This is Sparta! NIL collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.

 

Your organization (Charitable Gift America) founded an NIL collective called “This is Sparta!” last January: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did you do it? It was very simple to create. I started Charitable Gift America about a decade ago and we are a really sophisticated gift-giving organization. I played baseball at Michigan State and heard about a charity that was getting set up for the University of Texas, so I figured that I would just create 1 myself for the Spartans.

How much of your focus is on basketball compared to football/other sports? When we started it I assumed that football would be the big driver, which it is. What I was surprised to find is that people who were contacting me also wanted to help other programs because they thought that football already had the money that they needed. After that we looked into sports like gymnastics/softball and found that there are people who want to donate money to cover the entire roster rather than just the star PG/QB. We actually spent more time working on gymnastics than on football.

What kind of connection (if any) will your group have with people like Coach Tom Izzo/Athletic Director Alan Haller? I met with Alan recently but we are limited as to how much we can discuss. They have both been extremely cooperative to the point that they can be but would never tell me to do an NIL contract with a specific player. We are trying to amend the current NIL laws to create more transparency and want to make sure that we are going in the same direction as the athletic department.

What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? The biggest thing we did was for the women’s gymnastics team, which was not even my radar when we began. It was borne out of some conversations I had with administrators and I realized that the biggest impact we could make on a single program was in gymnastics. We gave each of the 19 gymnasts a $5000 contract: we want to build teams more than individuals.

People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? That is exactly what Charitable Gift America is built on: it is completely donor-driven. We do thousands of gifts each year for hospitals/sports programs/etc. If someone wants to give our fund money for a golf/tennis player then that is where it will go. I think it is wonderful that people can designate their money for any charity they want: we never tell donors where to give their money.

How does your own experience in gift planning give you an advantage over other NIL collectives (if at all)? We think that it is a huge advantage. You can start a charity for NIL purposes but it might be hard to maintain your status. The biggest difference is our ability to bring in assets including cash/stocks/real estate/cryptocurrency. Our sophisticated model helps donors with complicated issues that are philanthropic.

Most people assume that collectives will just be giving cash to student-athletes: how does the “life income plan” that you are offering compare to that? Life income plans are our wheelhouse. If a 75-year old donor wants to give us $100,000 while also receiving income for the rest of his life, we can do that, but can also grant the gift value to a charity/NIL designee immediately. The student-athletes receive the money but all our NIL contracts contain a component requiring them to give 5% to charity, which has created a ripple effect around the world. We had 1 young lady who gave money to an elephant preserve in Brazil and another who donated money to a foster home that her little sister lived in before being adopted!

Your goal is to offer student-athletes an “exclusive NIL contract valued at $50,000”: how did you come up with that number, and how many contracts will you be able to offer this fall? I came up with that amount after listening to a sports talk show that mentioned $50,000 was the amount being given to offensive linemen at Texas! Through conversations with leadership at Michigan State we learned they prefer that we do deals for an entire roster rather than just 1-2 profile athletes.

Earlier this month former top high school prospect Emoni Bates (who committed to Michigan State in 2020 before decommitting in 2021) was arrested after sheriff’s deputies found a gun in a car he was driving: how concerned are you about entering contractual relationships with teenagers who might end up behaving badly? It is a concern that we have talked about but there is not a whole lot that we can do about it. Some of our women golfers might qualify for Q School and have to leave their college team we are still obligated to pay them. We are unsure if we can include a morals clause and I do not know if we could even use that to get out of the payments. We certainly do not want to be tied to any criminal activity.

What kind of cool stuff do people get if they became 1 of your top donors? We are not transactional and do not want to be. I did have 1 person who donated his 2 seats to a football game and then we did a drawing for the tickets. I have not had any conversations about “What do I get if I give?” besides getting a charitable deduction.

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The Hoops HD Report: Examining New Transfer Rules

Posted on September 27, 2022 by David Griggs

A full Hoops HD panel examines the new transfer rules, particularly the new transfer portal, and the new rules proposals that could potentially allow a player to transfer an unlimited amount of times without having to sit out a year, and the idea that a transfer player would have to be guaranteed a scholarship and a roster spot by the school they were transferring in to.  We also discuss how many players transferred after last season, and how so many of them ended up with no D1 or D2 offers.

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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Season preview: HoopsHD interviews Lipscomb women’s assistant coach Sydney Shelton

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Jon Teitel

We are still a couple of months away from the tip-off of the college basketball season this fall, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Lipscomb women’s assistant coach Sydney Shelton, who talked about her team’s young roster and her expectations for this season.

You began your college career at Butler, where you were named to the 2017 Big East All-Freshman Team: how were you able to come in and contribute right from the start? I knew that it would be hard as a freshman and that I would have to work really hard and do what they needed me to do. I was not trying to make the all-freshman team: it just goes into your level of buy-in.

You were the best freshman 3-PT shooter in the conference that year with 49 3PM: what is the secret to making shots from behind the arc? Confidence and practice.

You only played 11 games the following season: what made you decide to transfer, and why did you choose Lipscomb? I was not in a good mental place during my sophomore year. I was diagnosed with anxiety/depression and had an eating disorder so I had to step away from the game for a little bit. I was idolizing the game but knew that I needed something different. I wanted to be in a Christian environment and I had some friends who went to Lipscomb: it was the best decision that I could have made.

In 2019 doctors found that you had a fracture in your femur and a torn labrum in your left hip: how close did that come to ending your career, and how were you able to get back onto the court? It honestly should have ended my career and my doctor said that I should never run again. I healed pretty well…and then hurt my other hip! I did lots of rehab and was honest with myself about helping myself so I watched a lot of film and managed my time on the court.

You played for Coach Lauren Sumski and were hired to be 1 of her assistants last June: why did you take the job, and what is it like to have a head coach who is married to 1 of your fellow assistants? It has been incredible and I would not want to work anywhere else. You get a lot of basketball but you also get a family environment. Lauren and her husband Chris have an awesome dynamic: they do a phenomenal job of working together but they can also separate basketball from their relationship. They know that basketball is not the most important thing in life: they are special people.

You were a 2-time member of the ASUN All-Academic Team: how did you balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? I have always had good study habits so I blocked off time and planned my day hour-by-hour.

You graduated in 2020 as a psychology major: how much does your degree come in handy as a coach? Every single day! You need to know how to work with/connect with people so it is the foundation of everything in coaching.

You have a lot of young players this year with a roster featuring just 1 senior/2 juniors: does your coaching style change based on the experience on your team (or lack thereof)? No: we treat it all the same. The girls who are young are so far ahead of where we thought they would be: they love the game and are extremely coachable. They are very fast learners so we will continue to challenge them because we know what they are capable of.

You only have 4 players from Tennessee: what sort of recruiting philosophy do you and the rest of the coaching staff have? We have tended to get players from specific states. In the past it has been harder to get girls from Tennessee because there are a lot of other good schools around here, but now that we are doing better there are more girls who want to be a part of that. We are able to extend our reach beyond the usual states and get players from Florida/Spain/etc.

What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? Our mission is to glorify God 1 workout/practice/game at a time. We try to do everything with excellence/high character. Our other goal is to maximize our potential and be the best that we can be. We want to be ASUN champs and get to the NCAA tourney and go on a run and make it as far as we can, which is always the goal.

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Happy Birthday!: HoopsHD interviews Western Michigan legend David Kool

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Jon Teitel

David Kool finished his high school career in 2006 as Mr. Basketball of Michigan, then arrived at Western Michigan and became Mr. Everything. In 2007 he finished 5th in the nation with 91.7 FT% and was named MAC ROY, in 2008 he was named to the All-MAC 1st-Team, and in 2010 he graduated as the leading scorer in school history with 2122 PTS. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with David about being a great FT shooter and a great student. Today is David’s 35th birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!

In addition to basketball you played soccer/track/football in high school: which sport did you like the most, and when did you first realize that your future was in basketball? My favorite sport other than basketball was soccer. I realized that my future was in basketball when I was a sophomore in high school. I got some advice from a person I trusted that if I wanted to play D-1 basketball then I would have to give up my other sports. Basketball at the D-1 level was always my dream so it was an easy decision.

Many big-time colleges passed on you after you tore your ACL prior to your senior year, even though you became your high school’s all-time leading scorer and were named Michigan’s Mr. Basketball in 2006: what school was highest on your wish list, and why did you choose Western Michigan? If I had not torn my ACL then I would have ended up at Michigan State. I was in close contact with them throughout high school and it would have been a dream come true to play for their program. I chose WMU because they always stayed with me even after my ACL tear: that made me feel really good. They said they would take me anyway and did not care about my injury and I really appreciated that. Also, it was close to home so my family could come and watch all my games, which was very important to me.

After sitting out the start of your college career due to a hamstring injury, you ended up scoring 11.4 PPG and being named MAC ROY: how were you able to bounce back from the injury, and how were you able to come in and contribute as a freshman? Hard work and perseverance is how I live my life. I have been blessed with many gifts and I could not succeed without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I always lean on Him when I get into trouble and need help (which is every day), so I just put my faith in Him, as I did with my ACL. I had faith that I would come back strong as long as I worked hard.

You finished your freshman year 5th in the nation with 91.7 FT%, which also set a conference single-season record: what is your secret for making FTs? My secret for FT shooting is being confident and consistent and just practicing. I shot close to 100 FTs everyday and always kept the same motion/rhythm. I always made them so I was confident. When getting into games it is important to rely on muscle memory and know that you will make every shot because you have practiced like that.

You ended your college career with a career-high 39 PTS/12-21 FG in a loss to Akron in the 2010 conference tourney semifinals: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”, and what was it like to play your best game in your last game? The Akron game is unforgettable. I remember hitting my 1st shot from the corner and after that it was like I was out there by myself: I literally could not see anything else on the court besides the bucket. I was in a rhythm that had never happened since high school and I thought that every shot was going in. The basket was enormous and I was “in the zone”. Playing my best game in my last game was great because I went out with no regrets and gave it my all. I could not have done anything different, which makes me feel so good inside!

In 2010 you were named conference POY/All-American: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding honors? It just goes to show that all of my hard work and all of those hours in the gym paid off. It made me feel as though all of my decisions dating back to high school and everything I have done in my life has paid off. It feels great to be rewarded after working so hard.

You remain the all-time leading scorer in school history: did you realize at the time how prolific a player you were? I think I will realize more of what it means when I am older. It was kind of surreal back then and remained that way for a long time. After I stopped playing I had time to think about what happened at WMU and realized how special it really was and what it all meant. I know that WMU is such a special place with people who love the basketball program: they will always have a soft spot in my heart. I could not have ever imagined a better career than the one I had.

You were a 3-time Academic All-MAC performer: how did you balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? The academic honors are just as important to me (if not more important) because that was my future. I was going to play basketball for a little longer, but after I was done I was going to fall back on my education/degree from WMU. That is my bread maker so academics were always #1 in my life. Basketball was great, but I was at WMU to receive a quality education and set myself up for success in the real world…and that is what happened.

You participated in the 2010 Portsmouth Invitational, where you only had 1 turnover in 3 games: what did you think about your performance, and which player impressed you the most? Portsmouth was really interesting: I did not know what to really expect from it. It was basically an open gym where players were very, very selfish and tried to do things that they simply could not do. I went in with the attitude to just play my game and control what I could control and I did that. My goal was to have 1 NBA team/scout/GM watch me and say that they wanted to give me a shot to make their team in training camp. I continued to work hard and hoped that I impressed at least 1 team. I wish I would have shot the ball better but I did everything else well: I played good defense, talked on the floor, got rebounds, and took care of the ball. I was most impressed with Jerome Randle from California: it was amazing to me how easy it was for him to get into the lane and score over bigger defenders even though he is so small. He is a great competitor who is extremely talented.

How do you want people to remember you the most, and what do you hope to do in the future? I want people to remember that I played the game of basketball the right way and worked as hard as I possibly could to win every single game. I was a fierce competitor on the court and did everything it took to win, but off the court I was a kind/caring person who tried to help everyone that I knew.

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Independent Media Day Recap and Response

Posted on September 23, 2022 by David Griggs

CLICK HERE for All of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

Okay, there was no Media Day for the two independent teams, but I did not know what else to title this.

COMMENTS FROM DAVID

-Hartford is in year 3 of reclassifying as a D3 school.  They are still technically D1…but only technically.  They were a rather sub-par 12-20 last year (although they were a respectable 9-9 in America East play), and nearly every player who saw regular minutes is now gone.  This has been a rather unfortunate story.  It was only two years ago that we saw Hartford make the NCAA Tournament.  The decision for them to transition down to D3 is questionable at best, unbelievably stupid at worst, and if you follow them on Twitter is not a decision that has been widely accepted by those who support the program.

-Chicago State will also be an Independent this year after playing in the WAC and finishing in last place for about the last nine or ten years.  It has been a while since Chicago State was considered to not be one of the ten worst programs in all of D1.  Their 30-game schedule this year has them playing just eight games at home, and only four of those are against other D1 opponents.  They did win seven games a year ago, which was a seven game improvement from what they had done the previous year (to be fair, the previous year was the COVID year where they only played nine games and cancelled all the rest)!!  They have a lot of new transfers, many of whom saw limited minutes at other D1 programs.  The optimistic way to put this is to say that it is a roster of guys who will have the opportunity to see more minutes than what they did at their previous programs and become contributing players!

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