THANK YOU CAL 💙 pic.twitter.com/o8WsYjH230

— Kaleb Elarms-Orr (@kjelarmsorr) December 1, 2023

Donate to NIL people.

My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

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Likely UW

Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

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All the more reason to donate. Fight back.

"With that being said" - the four most feared words in college football

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I really don't get why ANY star on our program would want to bail, and gamble, unless it's purely about money (and couldn't blame them if so). Starring it Cal is a one-way ticket to the NFL, though, unlike pretty much any other team. It has always been that way. But I guess we need to prove that it will continue that way as a member of the ACC, and a few players think that's a gamble.

WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

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All the more reason to donate. Fight back.

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Honest question - is alum donations really the driver behind NIL? Or is the driver really the players going out and securing advertisement deals and the collective going out and getting businesses to contribute? I have donated but what I donate pales in comparison to my passion for Cal football. I find it odd to pay for rooting for a team. It's just sports at the end of the day. Yes if I had a billion dollars I'd gladly give a ton more but at that point it'd be like I was on the board and had some greater control to prevent mismanagement. If I got some voting rights I would contribute more.

Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

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All the more reason to donate. Fight back.

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Honest question - is alum donations really the driver behind NIL? Or is the driver really the players going out and securing advertisement deals and the collective going out and getting businesses to contribute? I have donated but what I donate pales in comparison to my passion for Cal football. I find it odd to pay for rooting for a team. It's just sports at the end of the day. Yes if I had a billion dollars I'd gladly give a ton more but at that point it'd be like I was on the board and had some greater control to prevent mismanagement. If I got some voting rights I would contribute more.

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People need to stop equivocating and just donate. More money is always better than less. If everyone just gave $500 every year all of this would stop. The problem is getting people to actually give, not the impact it would have. The impact would be MASSIVE. People should just ask themselves if they're happier watching Cal win or lose. It's really as simple as that.

Other than Spav hitting the portal, this is the first one that really hurts.

WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

---

All the more reason to donate. Fight back.

---

Honest question - is alum donations really the driver behind NIL? Or is the driver really the players going out and securing advertisement deals and the collective going out and getting businesses to contribute? I have donated but what I donate pales in comparison to my passion for Cal football. I find it odd to pay for rooting for a team. It's just sports at the end of the day. Yes if I had a billion dollars I'd gladly give a ton more but at that point it'd be like I was on the board and had some greater control to prevent mismanagement. If I got some voting rights I would contribute more.

---

People need to stop equivocating and just donate. More money is always better than less. If everyone just gave $500 every year all of this would stop. The problem is getting people to actually give, not the impact it would have. The impact would be MASSIVE. People should just ask themselves if they're happier watching Cal win or lose. It's really as simple as that.

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That's pretty much what I do. My questions still stands as I want to understand this. I'm not donating if our hope is to rely only on alum donations when we know a very tiny % of alums care about football. What magic wand is going to change that? Maybe money should be diverted to removing the bureaucratic red tape that would prevent that meaningful change to happen.

Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

---

All the more reason to donate. Fight back.

---

Honest question - is alum donations really the driver behind NIL? Or is the driver really the players going out and securing advertisement deals and the collective going out and getting businesses to contribute? I have donated but what I donate pales in comparison to my passion for Cal football. I find it odd to pay for rooting for a team. It's just sports at the end of the day. Yes if I had a billion dollars I'd gladly give a ton more but at that point it'd be like I was on the board and had some greater control to prevent mismanagement. If I got some voting rights I would contribute more.

---

People need to stop equivocating and just donate. More money is always better than less. If everyone just gave $500 every year all of this would stop. The problem is getting people to actually give, not the impact it would have. The impact would be MASSIVE. People should just ask themselves if they're happier watching Cal win or lose. It's really as simple as that.

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That's pretty much what I do. My questions still stands as I want to understand this. I'm not donating if our hope is to rely only on alum donations when we know a very tiny % of alums care about football. What magic wand is going to change that? Maybe money should be diverted to removing the bureaucratic red tape that would prevent that meaningful change to happen.

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Donate and then encourage everyone you know to donate. Ask them to do the same. Whales have donated, and will likely continue. We need to pull our weight too. Stop muddying the message and become an advocate.

Though it's hard, it's probably best to see how things shake out in the portal (both in and out) before freaking out. This is going to be the nature of college sports moving forward. So much for a lot of these players bleeding blue.

WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

---

All the more reason to donate. Fight back.

---

Honest question - is alum donations really the driver behind NIL? Or is the driver really the players going out and securing advertisement deals and the collective going out and getting businesses to contribute? I have donated but what I donate pales in comparison to my passion for Cal football. I find it odd to pay for rooting for a team. It's just sports at the end of the day. Yes if I had a billion dollars I'd gladly give a ton more but at that point it'd be like I was on the board and had some greater control to prevent mismanagement. If I got some voting rights I would contribute more.

---

People need to stop equivocating and just donate. More money is always better than less. If everyone just gave $500 every year all of this would stop. The problem is getting people to actually give, not the impact it would have. The impact would be MASSIVE. People should just ask themselves if they're happier watching Cal win or lose. It's really as simple as that.

---

That's pretty much what I do. My questions still stands as I want to understand this. I'm not donating if our hope is to rely only on alum donations when we know a very tiny % of alums care about football. What magic wand is going to change that? Maybe money should be diverted to removing the bureaucratic red tape that would prevent that meaningful change to happen.

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Donate and then encourage everyone you know to donate. Ask them to do the same. Whales have donated, and will likely continue. We need to pull our weight too. Stop muddying the message and become an advocate.

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Problem is - none of the friends I went to Cal with are interested to the degree that they would contribute. Asking them to go to a game is like asking for a favor. Broadening that to "everyone I know" includes people with even less connection to Cal.

In any case - i am not trying to muddy the message. I donate what I can and I attend home games. You are answering my question - it really is the whale alums that are driving nil and not really other businesses/advertising deals.

My experience with Cal alums makes me feel the latter (local businesses that benefit from game day and other advertising opps) might be easier and result in more $$$ for NIL than trying to get the few alums who care about football to reach out to the vast majority of alums who don't and ask them for money. Yes that needs to be done too but it's easier when we are a winning program.

I have zero knowledge on NIL - I am trying to understand it better and derive some hope that we can stay relevant. I will keep donating regardless of the team's performance, I was just hoping that we had some other means hear outside of the whales.

I want to clarify the numbers here. We don't need anywhere near all alums. We don't need anyone beyond those who care about games to some degree. And we don't need tons of money from each person.

Cal has an estimated 450,000 living alumni. If 11% of those alumni gave $500 only once a YEAR to NIL we would have a BASE $25 million annual operating budget. BEFORE accounting for any large contributions. By all accounts this would make Cal the #1 NIL school by a VERY wide margin. Likely more than double the next closest school. At just 5% we are right in the mix at the very top of current NIL.

Almost all of us can afford $500 a year. There is no noticeable tax implication at that level. Certainly more than 50,000 unique alumni watch Cal football every season. The issue isn't one of means, it's purely one of engagement.

We saw positive results in year 1 of NIL this season. It allowed us to retain key players, fill holes from defections, and bolster lagging units. More money will do more of all of those things.

Spread the word: "Give $500 and have more fun."

bearsandgiants said:

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I really don't get why ANY star on our program would want to bail, and gamble, unless it's purely about money (and couldn't blame them if so). Starring it Cal is a one-way ticket to the NFL, though, unlike pretty much any other team. It has always been that way. But I guess we need to prove that it will continue that way as a member of the ACC, and a few players think that's a gamble.

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Elarms-Orr is both good enough start at most schools and get paid for it.

WalterSobchak said:

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I want to clarify the numbers here. We don't need anywhere near all alums. We don't need anyone beyond those who care about games to some degree. And we don't need tons of money from each person.

Cal has an estimated 450,000 living alumni. If 11% of those alumni gave $500 only once a YEAR to NIL we would have a BASE $25 million annual operating budget. BEFORE accounting for any large contributions. By all accounts this would make Cal the #1 NIL school by a VERY wide margin. Likely more than double the next closest school. At just 5% we are right in the mix at the very top of current NIL.

Almost all of us can afford $500 a year. There is no noticeable tax implication at that level. Certainly more than 50,000 unique alumni watch Cal football every season. The issue isn't one of means, it's purely one of engagement.

We saw positive results in year 1 of NIL this season. It allowed us to retain key players, fill holes from defections, and bolster lagging units. More money will do more of all of those things.

Spread the word: "Give $500 and have more fun."

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Thank you for breaking that down - a very competitive nil seems much more attainable now.

Instead of just paying them which they deserve considering they play a sport that could make them a quadriplegic very easily we're stuck as fans and alumni with this crappy carousel.

Econ141 said:

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WalterSobchak said:

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I want to clarify the numbers here. We don't need anywhere near all alums. We don't need anyone beyond those who care about games to some degree. And we don't need tons of money from each person.

Cal has an estimated 450,000 living alumni. If 11% of those alumni gave $500 only once a YEAR to NIL we would have a BASE $25 million annual operating budget. BEFORE accounting for any large contributions. By all accounts this would make Cal the #1 NIL school by a VERY wide margin. Likely more than double the next closest school. At just 5% we are right in the mix at the very top of current NIL.

Almost all of us can afford $500 a year. There is no noticeable tax implication at that level. Certainly more than 50,000 unique alumni watch Cal football every season. The issue isn't one of means, it's purely one of engagement.

We saw positive results in year 1 of NIL this season. It allowed us to retain key players, fill holes from defections, and bolster lagging units. More money will do more of all of those things.

Spread the word: "Give $500 and have more fun."

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Thank you for breaking that down - a very competitive nil seems much more attainable now.

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I'm glad it helps.

To Everyone: Please use this info to encourage every Cal fan you know to give. BI doesn't have the same reach we can attain through networked word-of-mouth.

Grrrrah76 said:

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Though it's hard, it's probably best to see how things shake out in the portal (both in and out) before freaking out. This is going to be the nature of college sports moving forward. So much for a lot of these players bleeding blue.

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30 years of Cal conditioning makes this impossible, at least for me.

I couldn't find the Cal Legends link on BI, then saw it on your signature. Thanks and just donated.

https://calegends.com/donation/

BearoutEast67 said:

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I couldn't find the Cal Legends link on BI, then saw it on your signature. Thanks and just donated.

https://calegends.com/donation/

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Awesome. Wish I could link directly so it was clickable in my sig.

Please consider copying my sig to be yours also. I would love to see a day when everyone here has that link in their sig!

WalterSobchak said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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I couldn't find the Cal Legends link on BI, then saw it on your signature. Thanks and just donated.

https://calegends.com/donation/

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Awesome. Wish I could link directly so it was clickable in my sig.

Please consider copying my sig to be yours also. I would love to see a day when everyone here has that link in their sig!

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Done!

Maybe you could make a URL that redirects to that page

Nofado said:

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Maybe you could make a URL that redirects to that page

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Unfortunately signatures don't support HTML or I definitely would. That was my original intent. The blue would pop more also to make it more noticeable.

Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA USC DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

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FIFY

WalterSobchak said:

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Econ141 said:

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My worry is that the new UCLA USC DC seems legit and they might poach our best guys.

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FIFY

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You are right

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39022878/sources-danton-lynn-set-leave-ucla-usc-coordinator-job

Man UCLA is getting picked apart like a carcass, and I like it!

IF YOU TYPE OR READ YOU MUST DONATE

For reference Bud Elliot of the Cover 3 Podcast, said 3M yearly NIL budget is more than what the smaller ACC schools are offering (I imagine Wake/Boston College/Syracuse) so if Cal gets to 5-6M that should be above average for the conference.

Joegeo said:

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For reference Bud Elliot of the Cover 3 Podcast, said 3M yearly NIL budget is more than what the smaller ACC schools are offering (I imagine Wake/Boston College/Syracuse) so if Cal gets to 5-6M that should be above average for the conference.

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Cal played 4 teams this year with double digit million NIL "budgets". Figures are projected to increase significantly for those teams.

$5-6M isn't going to be enough moving forward in any league.

WalterSobchak said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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I couldn't find the Cal Legends link on BI, then saw it on your signature. Thanks and just donated.

https://calegends.com/donation/

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Awesome. Wish I could link directly so it was clickable in my sig.

Please consider copying my sig to be yours also. I would love to see a day when everyone here has that link in their sig!

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Seems like the administration of this website could just hard wire that change, or place a reminder between every 5th post on how to give to NIL.

Also, how about an NIL campaign where a Cal fan could create an account and it would create a personal Cal fan page where friends and family could give in your name. People get asked all the time about gifts for birthdays, Christmas and other events and it would be simple enough to just say here is what I want- a donation to my favorite school!