Clunie Email re NIL

[Acorn]

The College just sent an email from Chris Clunie addressing many of the questions and concerns about NIL that have been raised here. He describes how Davidson is (and has for several years now) been embracing the new landscape.

Here’s the text:

“Dear Wildcat Fans,

Davidson Athletics has a history of rising to the challenge. In the 1960s, football and men’s basketball moved Davidson College into national prominence. In 1984, women’s tennis won the school’s first-ever (and only to date) national championship. In 1992, men’s soccer defied belief by not just hosting but advancing to the Final Four. And in 2014, spurred by an incredible run to the 2008 Elite Eight and Coach Bob McKillop’s sustained success, Davidson Athletics catapulted from the Southern Conference to the Atlantic 10 Conference. These moments provide a mere snapshot of transformative impact, but this program has always embraced the challenges ahead…all while doing athletics the right way. However, we are undoubtedly facing some of our biggest challenges yet. And, as has always been the case, we need your support and partnership.

In June of 2021, pushed by both internal and external pressures, the NCAA gave scholar-athletes the opportunity to benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL). This is something that Davidson Athletics wholeheartedly embraced. In August of 2021, we entered a partnership with INFLCR, a content platform for athletics which provided access to images that scholar-athletes could utilize across their social media platforms and NIL engagements. The partnership also provided education, resources and the ability for scholar-athletes to disclose deals. In February of 2023, Davidson Athletics launched the Davidson Wildcat Exchange, a portal that allows local business, donors, alums and other interested entities to connect and engage with Wildcat scholar-athletes as they pursue NIL opportunities.

While Davidson Athletics has tried to build a sustainable and healthy framework for NIL, different laws and attitudes across the rest of the country have created a chaotic landscape, especially within the sport of basketball. NIL, combined with the NCAA’s recent unlimited transfer rule, has created an inequitable marketplace where the focus is now on unregulated compensation as opposed to the uncompromising academic and athletic balance that makes Davidson so special. We know that scholar-athletes are not attracted to Davidson solely because of NIL; however, the new reality dictates that we not only embrace the opportunities that NIL provides for our scholar-athletes but also ground them in our foundation of doing athletics the right way. This is hard but is yet another challenge that we must and can face.

In addition to the Davidson Wildcat Exchange, which provides NIL opportunities for all our scholar-athletes, the Exit 30 Collective Inc. provides NIL opportunities for our men’s and women’s basketball programs. The mission of the collective is to raise awareness for charitable causes in North Carolina by partnering with basketball scholar-athletes who use their platform to support philanthropic work in our communities. What is special about the collective is that it was founded by and is managed by Davidson alums, meaning they understand the importance of a Davidson education, the importance of winning basketball programs to all Davidson sports, as well as tying NIL opportunities to leadership, service and impact.

Division I athletics is a distinct advantage for Davidson College, one in which we do not ask our scholar-athletes to compromise academic nor athletic excellence…they can and should strive for both. And amidst the ever-changing NCAA landscape, we feel strongly that Wildcat scholar-athletes can enhance their brands and engage in NIL opportunities while benefitting from a Davidson community that will never waver in its commitment to excellence and integrity. Throughout our history, Davidson Athletics has rewarded the audacity to do more with more. Because of your investment in and support of the Davidson Athletic Fund, the Davidson Wildcat Exchange and the Exit 30 Collective, we can and will continue to position this program for sustained and transformative success.

Thank you for your generosity, your investment and your commitment to Davidson Basketball, Davidson Athletics and Davidson College.

Go ’Cats!”

[i77cat]

Hopefully, the numbers will rapidly follow that email. How much do we have bankrolled? Is it invested so that it will grow? What did we spend so far this year? Etc.

[mccabemi]

We’re now just another school that plays the game.

[TiredCat88]

What's the numbers? Give us some meat.

Have been hearing the same thing since 2000 about fully funding our athletic teams.

[wildforthecats]

We’re now just another school that plays the game.

Come to a season ending banquet sometime. I think if you asked all who attended tonight, they would disagree.

I don’t think Craig Huffman will mind if I share a note he sent me the day Grant committed to Vanderbilt:

“I think you know how much Grant and the Huffman’s love Davidson. Will always be our second home!”

[stevelee]

I was told that one of our returning players was offered $300,000 to transfer.

The Tuesday night video could be informative. I don't know whether there will be a chance for Q&A.

[bagelcat]

Or we could not play the game and have D3 athletics. We easily could have gone there.

As for me, I like being an alum/fan of a small, academically rigorous school that plays D1 basketball in a really good conference.

Makes us unique. And by that a mean in a category of one.

Wake Forest is small, but I think their undergraduate enrollment is about 3x what ours is. Richmond is at least 2x what ours is, I believe.

So if we have to play the game and it's the price of us being competitive, I'll abide by that.

Sure, I wish this wasn't the world we lived in, but it is. And I will continue to blame the NCAA, which resisted reasonable compensation/revenue sharing and increased cost of attendance, only to abdicate the responsibility they once claimed was essential for the good of collegiate sports. So we've gone from 60 to 0 (or perhaps 5) in terms of what is impermissible.

But give the NCAA credit, they are still able to make cloying and self-serving promotional spots and tell you how much they care about unity and equality.

[mccabemi]

We’re now just another school that plays the game.

Come to a season ending banquet sometime. I think if you asked all who attended tonight, they would disagree.

I don’t think Craig Huffman will mind if I share a note he sent me the day Grant committed to Vanderbilt:

“I think you know how much Grant and the Huffman’s love Davidson. Will always be our second home!”

I guess we have to ask if we’re going to be a school of Huffmans or something else.

[ScootCat]

I believe Davidson will find a way to more than hold its own in the A10. It’s my hope they can do that while still maintaining, in large part, the high standards that have set the men’s basketball program apart for so long. Here’s hoping loyal fans stay loyal through the inevitable bumps and bruises to come, both on and off the court. Go Cats!

[mccabemi]

Listen, I’m just not buying it. People have different bs meters, so to each their own. If you find this bit genuine you have a different meter than me.

“What is special about the collective is that it was founded by and is managed by Davidson alums, meaning they understand the importance of a Davidson education, the importance of winning basketball programs to all Davidson sports, as well as tying NIL opportunities to leadership, service and impact.”

What’s special is that Dad of the assistant coach runs it and the goal is to win basketball games. The schtick is insulting to me. But like I said, to each their own.

[wildforthecats]

Listen, I’m just not buying it. People have different bs meters, so to each their own. If you find this bit genuine you have a different meter than me.

“What is special about the collective is that it was founded by and is managed by Davidson alums, meaning they understand the importance of a Davidson education, the importance of winning basketball programs to all Davidson sports, as well as tying NIL opportunities to leadership, service and impact.”

What’s special is that Dad of the assistant coach runs it and the goal is to win basketball games. The schtick is insulting to me. But like I said, to each their own.

I think you should reach out and have a conversation with Ernie.

[i77cat]

The part I'm skeptical about is that "...Davidson will find a way to more than hold its own in the A10." I love ScootCat's optimism. Perhaps there is a depth and breadth of positive factors that will all combine to make us contenders. I hear contrasting opinions from some of the program insiders. Go Cats.

[ScootCat]

I think Davidson MBB is fortunate to have an NIL collective run by former Wildcat players. Yes, they want us to win; but I’m confident they’ll run the collective with integrity, unlike many “win at all cost” Power 5 collectives

[Bill Cobb]

Frankly, we could buy the A10 if we really wanted to. The question is will Davidson go all-in on an endeavor that is inherently smarmy like the NIL.

I don't know and will not hazard a guess. I don't know what I would do if it were my decision.

[ScootCat]

If we still plan on recruiting primarily thru the high school channel, we need enough NIL money to prevent select players from being poached after they develop here. The collective could also be used judiciously in the portal when a hole in the roster emerges. I see NIL at Davidson as more of a retention tool than one used to offensively chase expensive portal hoppers.