Mark Stoops believes NIL collectives are illegal and shares they're playing against players that he knows were paid under the table
Mark Stoops went on KSR today with some significant allegations, and calls NIL collectives as we know them illegal.
Whether you want to call it rallying the fan base, or publicly making a call for boosters, everyone from Ryan Day to Nick Saban, has made a plea for NIL funds to help move their program forward in a constantly evolving market. Most places have a creative name for their NIL fundraising efforts, but generically the media has been calling all of them "collectives."
Well, Kentucky's Mark Stoops took issue with the word "collective" today while on Kentucky Sports Radio, noting a collective would be illegal.
“We don’t call it a collective, because the University of Kentucky, we believe that word is illegal, to pay players to come there right out of high school. I’ve always had a belief that players are going to earn it here. I’ve said that from the beginning. We’re going to earn it, we’re not going to give it away.”
Semantics on what to call the fundraising for NIL efforts aside, Stoops admits that Kentucky's football program is behind where it needs to be when it comes to NIL.
“Blaming nobody, are we where we need to be? No. Simple answer: No.”
Entire article:
https://footballscoop.com/news/mark...ayers-that-he-knows-were-paid-under-the-table
The Big Blue Legacy will be a NIL game-changer for Kentucky
Kentucky just upped its Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) game big time. This morning, the Virtus Brand, an independent company created to help players with their NIL opportunities, announced the formation of The Big Blue Legacy. According to the press release, the organization will allow “prominent business leaders” from across the Bluegrass to support Kentucky student-athlete NIL opportunities through pledges to The 15 Fund.
The 15 Fund, which derives its name from Kentucky being the 15th state in the Union, will have a board of directors composed of former UK athletes. It will be led by Fred Johnson, CEO of The Virtus Brand. Johnson, along with the board, will oversee the allocation of NIL funds with the goal of creating a marketplace to support all 29 of Kentucky’s men’s and women’s varsity sports programs. University of Texas boosters and former athletes recently launched a similar NIL fund, the Clark Field Collective, with an initial pledge of $10 million.
“Through the wonderful generosity of business leaders, we are fortunate enough to be able to greatly impact the level of support the student-athlete receives at the University of Kentucky,” Johnson said.
Entire article:
https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-wildcats/news/the-big-blue-legacy-15-fund-nil-kentucky/
A couple comments:
1) UK is doing the same NIL find raising that the other schools are doing (i.e. The 15 Fund); apparently UK isn't as successful as the other schools. Yeah right, UK's is legal because they don't call it a "collective".
2) If Stoops wants to know how payments under the table work, I suggest he just ask Calipari.
“I’m playing against players that I know were given money. That the school and the NCAA know were given money, and we’re still playing against them...under the table, not even above board like it is now. I mean, paying them up on top of the table, you’re allowed to do that now, but I’m talking about under the table.
Yeah, some UK football players played in a pickup basketball game vs the UK basketball team.....
