NIL still lagging
I don’t think Sampson would ever say “nah, NIL is good - we don’t need any more.” It will always be “lagging” if you ask him. 
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The job that Kellen Sampson passed on was Charleston
Who hired Chris Mack instead
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According to LinkingCoogs they are less than 25% of the way to the goal so I think that would be lagging to most everyone.
They have until next year. I’m not worried about that especially going for it all!!!
I agree with this. I’m sure our NIL could improve but we are doing quite well in the NIL department compared to most Big 12 schools.
“The goal” is always changing, which is the name of the game in fundraising.
“The goal” is also an arbitrary number that they came up with rather than a known overhead expense.
I’m not saying our NIL fund is sitting at an ideal number, but I can promise you that there isn’t a number at which either the coach or the fundraisers will say “hey, we don’t need anything else right now.” 
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By anyone’s measure, UH’s NIL program still seems to be lagging behind and quite underfunded. (notwithstanding our sunshine pumpers)
And while we are presently struggling, the upcoming future of sharing media rights revenues with athletes will likely assure that it’s going to remain a problem for us (and other programs) in the Big12.
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What do we have, and what should we have?
The truth is that nobody really knows the answer to this. I mean, the guys who need to know have a bead on what’s being spent, but there’s not a “real” number that qualifies as a budget number.
I would argue that it’s not lagging or underfunded based on the fact that we aren’t losing players because of the alleged shortfall. Having more and sustaining it would help ensure that remains the case. If they want to change tactics and start bidding on players, that’s a different deal.
The revenue sharing will impact our already strapped general athletics funding far more than NIL. That one is going to hurt.
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Just an observation. If the men’s basketball NIL is lagging behind, what does that say about football? The published reports about the basketball NIL have been very positive. Not so much football. For the umpteenth time, until UH starts getting serious NIL money for football, the best we can hope for is to be a middle-of-the pack team. Which actually would be an improvement over last year.
I think football is a lot tougher & hell given there’s like 80+ per team. Where in cbb is only like 13 tops.
It should not come as surprise to anyone that our NIL is lagging. The only way we stay ahead in NIL is if we get huge corporate backing but they also have less incentive to do it.
Hopefully it gets better
We have “Sunshine Pumpers” on the basketball board?
I thought that term was for guys who constantly backed a horrible coach of an underperforming program……
In football we had “Sunshine Pumpers “.
We could conceivably have them in baseball right now but have not seen any….
How do you seriously use that term to define people that support the basketball program? CKS resurrected the program from death’s door……We are now consistently in the top 5 in the nation….
I guess put me down as a “Sunshine Pumper” of CKS and the basketball team.
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I know we have a few major donations to the basketball NIL in the past, but the problem with NIL it is very much a what have you done for me lately, players expect to get paid every year. LinkingCoogs set a 1 million dollar goal and made a commitment to the team in the run it back campaign. Sure no one has transferred, but if LinkingCoogs does not fulfill the commitment, we may lose half the team next year, like Kelvin said in the interview the guys know what other teams are willing to pay for their services. The coaching staff can only do so much to keep the players happy in the world of NIL.
I bought the LinkinCoogs NIL membership when it was offered, I did not have a spare $10k but I paid something, and let me tell you the total number of members is laughable at this point. If we take the we have a full year to raise the money mindset, I guess we expect the NIL group to skip the baseball and football seasons. Without more buy-in the most we can hope for in football will be a couple mediocre season followed by one good or great season, followed by losing our best players to the portal, and starting the cycle over again.
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I don’t disagree with any of that, but it doesn’t mean we’re underfunded today.
The problem is that for the most part, the ask here is from the same donor base who is already funding scholarships and facilities upgrades. Personally, if I have to decide whether to donate money to the university vs a player payment fund, the decision is pretty easy. The number of members to Cougar Pride is also pathetic, so the burden of supporting athletics is being borne by too few.
But NIL has to come from somewhere else unless the athletics budget and scholarship funds are going to be reduced. It’s on LinkingCoogs or whomever to go find those connections and develop that support. They’ll have to demonstrate value to investors beyond the “hey, support your school” thing that works for the few alumni who already donate.
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The AD is going to have to tell us fans where to focus our giving. We can’t keep supporting all these different groups.
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We can’t even fill our small football stadium, the football team is not very good, fan support lacking, so why do we think business’s in Houston that are infiltrated with Horns and Aggies will fund our NIL program, some of y’all live in fantasy land, UH just doesn’t have the support from Houston, it’s sad but true, I wish it would change, but it’s the same old issue with UH lack of fan support in the stadium and tv viewers unless we are playing OU, Tx etc etc
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Bingo, I think its only a matter of time before ADs start discouraging so many direct donations like advocating 50/50, or they allow groups like Cougar Pride to pay players via NIL, or maybe the athletic department to do something like sell the entire new club or suites to the NIL group, so they can mark them up the way Cougar Pride does with season tickets.