As the world of NIL issues continue to unfold in college football, the Michigan State Spartans have revisited a past issue for future advice.
During a trip to Iowa to take on a tough team in the Hawkeyes, Michigan State Spartans players received a mysterious email that stated an NIL deal would be terminated. Nearly 40 athletes lost deals and thousands of dollars in just a matter of seconds, shortly before playing one of the biggest games of the season.
NIL collective Spartan Dawgs 4 Life came to fame when they offered to pay for NIL deals for football and basketball athletes. The Spartans athletic department felt that NIL deals were a thing of the future, and here to stay, and thus signed on the SD4L company as a collective. The apparel brand quickly turned into a major figure within the NIL expansion on Michigan State athletics.
However, football coach and main driver of the collective Mel Tucker was fired due to sexual harassment claims made against him. Tucker was fired shortly after the agreement between SD4L and the Michigan State Spartans program was struck, which ultimately left the company dead in the water. With no mover to motivate the program and fans, the company feared that players would quickly begin to leave the program.
The first game after the firing of Tucker would come on the road against the Iowa Hawkeyes, which was a major contest at the time. On the drive there, however, SD4L sent out an email to all 40 of their athletes stating they would no longer be able to pay out the NIL deals they had previously agreed to.
SD4L claims they only generated roughly ‘100 subscribers’ to the platform, which provided only enough revenue to pay five athletes. With a major flop in sales and an incoming coaching change that would bring different personnel to the field, the collective quickly decided to dump the deals.
Michigan State Spartans, Opposing Programs Learning From Mistakes Within NIL
While many would call the world of NIL deals and payments the ‘Wild West’, it is mainly due to the fact that there is no handbook on paying athletes.
Many athletes drives millions of dollars of revenue into the programs they play for, but never get to see any of that money. The NIL deals were built to offer a happy medium, but have quickly gotten out of hand as transfers and hirings are being based off of NIL values.
The Michigan State Spartans in particular have worked hard to improve the NIL aspect of their athletics department moving forward. An unnamed agent previously stated the program was a ‘total dumpster fire’ when it came to the NIL structure. However, the agent has begun to work with the program and encourages players to ‘read and not sign’ before making a decision moving forward.
NIL also played a big role in the coaching search for the Spartans, as the program wanted someone with an understand of both NIL deals and the transfer portal in order to avoid the same situation.
As for SD4L, however, the company still runs and exists in the world of Spartans NIL deals. Currently, only five basketball players are signed to the company, and no football players are linked to the company anymore.
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