As long as we have a Sampson as our coach I feel good about our future…
This will be my last post on this and I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree but it takes some time to get together a national schedule unless he strategically went somewhere like TSU that plays a ton of “buy” games on the road and wouldn’t have to adjust their schedule. And playing against teams like that where he’s literally the only guy they have to focus on could hurt his stock if he’s facing constant doubles and no one else on his team can really make the other squads pay.
Also, you are way overrating Zion hype coming out of high school. Zion got a $75 million shoe contract and supposedly could have gotten more if he’d signed with another brand. Almost no one has come or comes out of high school with that type of hype except Lebron. He became one of the most recognizable sports figures by being a transcendent player for one of the most recognizable programs out there. The hype really started growing after his epic midnight madness performance at Duke. It’s unlikely he could have achieved that level of fame at Prairie View, even though he still would have been a big deal. In January ESPN isn’t going to have it’s lead story on Prairie View beating Southern by 25. The hype would help but that and how exciting he is as a player can only go so far. Ja Morant being an exciting player and potential top 3 pick didn’t get Murray State a bunch of coverage during the year.
I’m not opposed to this and actually think it would make college basketball more interesting if an HBCU can become a national power, but it’s a way bigger risk than you are giving credit. Especially for the first players. If this became a trend and Howard becomes a national power with better facilities, training staff, etc. and starts putting together a Gonzaga like OOC schedule after a few years of success then it will be less risky.
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He would’ve still. It’s all about the TV coverage and if he was at TSU he would’ve had decent talent around him. Zion would’ve been on the team that beat Oregon. That’s a whole different situation unlike other places.
Places like Duke are Duke because of the players. You start funneling players with name value things change. There was a reason folks wanted to integrate overnight seeing the value.
All espn and other outlets have to do is cover the man consistently and it changes. This story got tons of run so the next step is getting him on campus and go from there.
Howard Lost their best player to UConn last year and transition between coaches.
Howard is UA school
You’re going to see how this plays out if LeBron James’s son ends up at NC Central. Nike and ESPN are going to all but buy as many P7 OOC games as they can to get max exposure.
LeBron James’ son won’t spend a second playing college basketball.
He’s that talented?
Yes
There’s talks that he might go HBCU if Duke doesn’t step up but who knows at this point. He has the brand and skills to go straight out of highschool.
Is he his dad? No. Is he good enough to play in the G League straight out of high school? Absolutely. He should be a top 25 player in his class coming out of high school.
I think everyone is forgetting one important thing. Athletes will be able to take advantage of their NIL and build their own brand. Being a 5 star, they will be able to make a lot of money from advertisers no matter what school they attend.
Gotta hit a growth spirt first
That opens the floodgates. He can get paid legally going anywhere.
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I think this is a nice story and would be an even cooler story if the young man stayed at Howard and got his degree. Going to an HBCU or Duke or Kentucky or UH for that matter for 1 semester is kind of a dog and pony show. As soon as the new NBA, CBA, takes effect, the NCAA would be smart to work with the NBA and change its pro entry rules to that of baseball. Everyone should be draft eligible after HS, but once you commit to playing college ball, you should commit for 3 years.
I’m ok with the G-League too. I’m shocked at the $$ that the G-League is shelling out for kids that aren’t ready to play in the NBA. I’m not sure how it makes that $$$ back and I also wonder how basketball economics and sports economics in general might radically change post pandemic. I suspect there is going to be a giant market correction in a many areas.
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Matt, I would assume that the G-League will earn a TV contract to televise their games - similar to what the major colleges have now - and of course they will sell tickets to fans. And their player costs (payroll, et al) probably aren’t much higher than some major college programs.
Tv rights for the G league are probably worth very little.
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TV rights may not be in the 100 million dollar range but the G-League has the NBA to subsidize it.
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With 28 teams, the g-league is about the same size as just 2 (out of the 10+ Division 1) college BB conferences. Might want to wait and compare how much TV revenue the g-league earns compared with 2 D-1 college conferences combined - like say the AAC & Conference USA.
If it isn’t our Coogs I could care less about any other league
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Yeah I don’t see it. It’s still minor league sports. The Rio Grande Vipers don’t have multiple generations of fans that are going to tune in to watch.
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The G-League just spent the last 2 years streaming games on twitch. They were on YouTube before that. They totaled 1.6 million in attendance for the 2018-2019 season. Assuming each team plays roughly 25 games, that’s about 2500 a game in attendance. According to NCAA figures, that puts them between the CAA and the WAC.
All of that to say, the G-League’s media rights are peanuts.