I’m with 1927 here.
What is a “home field advantage” if you sacrifice it by putting the opposing team’s band and fans too close to the action?
Good move by Penn State.
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A Bama friend said it was a shame SMU’s band was stuck up there. He said it was a Playoff thing and not Penn State driven.
I know some SMU donors, not too well mind ya, and no one is giving away their generational wealth. Some are billionaires and give away tens of millions but they’ve got plenty left. It’s kind of like Tillman. Has he given away his “generational wealth”? Nope.
What are those families who don’t give large amounts to charity (not NIL) doing with their generational wealth? A neighbor’s grandkids attended Emery Weiner HS in Houston. They now attend top 30 undergrads. What would they do with that money if they went to Katy HS and UT instead?
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You don’t understand what people earn and what they choose to do with their money.
From what I understand, this was SMU’s call. Penn State (really, the CFP) gave SMU the requisite allocation of both lower and upper bowl tickets, and SMU chose of their own accord to give the better seats to their donors rather than their band.
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Yes…ive seen the huge % of people that have very little in savings and are ill prepared for their own retirement let alone, generational wealth.
Them giving money away to college athletes is a huge head scratcher.
Again, everyone with a college degree has a path to a net worth of at least a $1 million as long as you don’t do stupid things like giving away your retirement to NIL UNLESS you have $10 million or more.
UH has ample opportunities to raise NIL funds via bucket #2 since we sit in a huge market with tons of businesses
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And I’ve proven your broad brush wrong last time we went through this. No need to rehash.
These aren’t the people funding the bulk of NIl
Actually its not hard. Just because you don’t have discipline, doesn’t mean it is difficult.
You just have to develop a plan and NO giving money to NIL is NOT SMART unless you are established…very well established…which excludes 95% of the population
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Generally, the bulk of NIL money comes from the folks that would have had buildings, departments, and chairs named after them in the olden days. People aren’t living under a bridge because they gave their money to an NIL collective; those folks can afford it pretty painlessly. I think it’s easy sometimes for common folks to not grasp quite how much money a few hundred million (or a few billion) is; at that level of wealth, the trade-off for giving a few million to an NIL collective is something like turning the summer home in the Keys into a rental property in the 50 weekends a year they’re not there instead of just leaving it empty.
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So…is our problem that those "type of wealthy " people are NOT sending their sons and daughters to the University of Houston but ARE sending them to other large 100 year old plus public schools with equal, or lower, academics and equal, or lower, endowments?
Why is that?
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Perception. Those institutions are perceived to be a better education, college experience, better networks and able to provide better outcomes in life.
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I think it is more of UH being favorable to the working class or the first generation graduates.
There were plenty of veterans in the 70s and 80s who used their GI Bill at UH as first generation students.
Once the 90s rolled around and the first generation students are from either the working class, immigrants, or people who relocated to Houston.
Not saying we are poor in NIL but we never had a strong hold on developing a generational fanbase.
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Where should they put them? In the good and expensive seats that their own fans pay for?
Our Achilles heel will always be our inability to attract High ROI Traditional Students.
If we want to become an upper echelon P4 Public University- we MUST make the transition in becoming a Destination University instead of a Regional College serving primarily non-traditional students
Not about inequality…there are PLENTY of Universities to serve their needs but the fact is The University of Houston has invested 100s of Millions, if not Billions, to move up the Academic Institution Ladder.
WHY wouldn’t we want to celebrate our next 100 years as a Traditional University?
Its is 100% what Renu Khator envisions.
There are examples everywhere!
Texas A&M is no longer an All Male White University.
Florida State is no longer an All Female Teaching College.
We must Evolve!
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Sons and daughters are largely irrelevant. College football may as well be entirely divorced from the student body. Many major donors at other schools would never dare send their kid to the school they fund; they themselves might be a Longhorn or a Buckeye or a Trojan, but their kids are going to HPYSM if they have anything to say about it. Heck, Larry Ellison spent $8MM to buy Michigan a QB and his only tie to the program is that his girlfriend is a fan.
It depends on the type of graduates the school puts out.
The low lying fruit to building a fanbase is actually getting relatives and close friends to attend the school you went to.
I’m more likely to convince my kids/siblings/relatives/close friends/high school friends to attend UH than some random stranger on the street in Houston.
When we’re talking about growing the fan base, sure, that’s easier to do with alumni and students. But that’s even easier if you have a slate of major donors making sure the team is actually worth watching. A Cal McNair or a Jim Crane or a Tilman Fertitta can drop a really good year’s worth of revenue on UH Football and not even feel the difference in their net worth; those guys are the ones funding the Michigans and the Alabamas and the Clemsons of the world. Those are the folks who can make a difference in the trajectory of our program. Johnny High-ROI who came from a barely-1%er household in Massachusetts or whatever doesn’t even measure, by comparison.
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A lot of the rich and successful people I know have trouble spending their money, a lot are workaholics and the money just kind of stacks up, the reason they all get yachts or car collections is because once you have built generation wealth you have to spend the money on something.
I will say I think it was posted in another thread about Miami booster John Ruiz who kicked off the NIL wars with 10 million to Miami athletes from his company Lifewallet, Lifewallet is on the verge of bankruptcy. I don’t know if it is funny or sad, but the most high profile people at giving money away tend to be giving money away they don’t end up having i.e. Sam Bankman-Fried.
Typical Miami behavior lol
I’m not surprised considering all the scamming and shady business that goes down there.
She is an alumni, I believe
They always have. Now it is legal. So called blue bloods became and where they are today because of it. The “old” blue bloods no longer in the spotlight no longer have that help.
Old way:
NIL way:
