NIL

86 days in, J Batt weighs stadium naming rights and NIL changes

Published

4 months ago

August 28, 2025

86 days in, J Batt weighs stadium naming rights and NIL changes

It has been 86 days since Michigan State University hired J Batt as athletic director, and already he is focused on the bigger picture, one that could include corporate naming rights for Spartan Stadium and a reshaping of Spartan NIL.

Stadium naming rights

At a media roundtable Wednesday, Batt said he is open to adding a corporate partner’s name to Spartan Stadium.

“The changes in college athletics, like them or not, have created additional pressure on revenue,” Batt said. “And so I think the 30,000 foot change that you’ve seen is that because of that pressure, we’ve got to consider more things that potentially we may not have done in the past.”

Batt was brought to MSU to generate money. It’s a large part as to why he was hired, as in his previous employment with Georgia Tech and Alabama, he created a reputation that consisted of financial and fundraising upgrades. A move to change the name of Spartan Stadium could align with Batt’s previous practices: generate money and financially upgrade.

He did not provide a timeline or name potential partners, but said any deal would involve MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz and align with the university’s goals and standards.

“The key is to find the right intersection between the business terms of an opportunity and aligning those with the institutional values of your university,” Batt said. “The business terms have to be right, but at the same point in time, who the partner is also matters. There’s certainly lots of people that I’m sure would love to put their name on Spartan Stadium.”

While there is no guarantee Spartan Stadium’s name will change, Batt said MSU will be aggressive in generating revenue and adapting to change.

“Our industry has gone under probably one of the most transformative changes in the last few years, really even accelerating into the post-House era,” Batt said. “There’s an opportunity to take ground right now. And so I think what you’ll see from us is not being on our back foot, but instead being on the front foot, finding opportunities, being strategic about that path, and considering all opportunities to drive revenue.”

The plan with NIL

Batt is taking a similar approach with name, image and likeness, aiming to turn change into opportunity.

“We’re gonna do it above board here,” Batt said. “And we’re gonna be focused on opportunities that are within range of compensation, a valid business purpose that run through the NIL Go system. I believe our student athletes have real fair-market value NIL that can be monetized by partners to achieve not only the partner’s goals, but also student athlete’s goals. And so part of our job is to be in a place and in a posture that we’re able to support that.”

The NIL Go system requires athletes to register all third-party NIL deals above $600. It is meant to address pay-for-play concerns that have created uneven playing fields in college athletics.

Another way that Batt and MSU will take full opportunity of change is through revenue sharing, which allows schools to spend upwards of $20.5 million to pay student-athletes for their performances. While the $20.5 million is a starting point, the number is expected to grow year by year.

Batt also pointed to revenue sharing, which allows schools to spend up to $20.5 million on athlete compensation, a number expected to grow in coming years.

“We’ve moved kind of away from fundraising around collectives and we are very focused on working with our MMR partner to provide opportunities,” Batt said “Again, all those opportunities have to meet a valid business purpose. They’ll need to be run through the NIL Go system by the student athletes and the partners. But it’s an important part of where we’re going to continue to evolve.”

In just 86 days, Batt has signaled he does not plan to waste time in capitalizing on opportunities to evolve MSU athletics.

Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “86 days in, J Batt weighs stadium naming rights and NIL changes” on social media.

NIL

OU lineman Danny Okoye face of NIL deal to tout life-saving Narcan

Published

38 minutes ago

December 26, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Dec. 26, 2025, 5:40 a.m. CT

NORMAN – For University of Oklahoma defensive lineman Danny Okoye, his current spot – as the face of a social media campaign seeking to spread awareness of a life-saving drug for those who have overdosed on opioids – was a case of fortuitous timing.

Okoye is the first of a series of OU student-athletes who will participate in an NIL (name, image and likeness) deal with the nonprofit HarborPath of Charlotte, North Carolina, to promote Narcan, the brand name under which the generic drug naloxone is distributed.

Link

NIL

Taylor column: Wyoming’s Wicks not using NIL as an excuse | University of Wyoming

Published

2 hours ago

December 26, 2025

Your Sports Nation

State

Zip Code

Country

Link

NIL

How to make college football worse

Published

2 hours ago

December 26, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Dec. 26, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn has proposed the HUSTLE Act to create tax-deferred savings accounts for college athletes’ NIL income.
The need for congressional intervention is questionable, given that other wealthy groups, like NFL players, do not receive similar legislative protection.

If the hollowness of the bowl season or the irrationality of the playoff system has you saddened by the state of college football, it could always be worse. Congress could get involved.

It’s already bad enough that NCAA apologists want Congress to grant college athletics an antitrust exemption. Now Tennessee Senator (and gubernatorial candidate) Marsha Blackburn, in a timely act of pandering, wants to give college athletes special tax-advantaged savings accounts – “for their own protection.”

Blackburn’s comically named “Helping Undergraduate Students Thrive with Long Term Earnings (HUSTLE Act) would allow certain college athletes to create tax-deferred accounts for their Name Image and Likeness (NIL) income.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big fan of saving and investing, especially in a tax-deferred vehicle. But the aim of this act ‒ somehow protecting young people from squandering their NIL riches ‒ raises an obvious question: Where exactly is the constitutional mandate (or even suggestion) for Congress to pass laws discouraging 19-year-old millionaires from buying expensive cars and jewelry?

If Blackburn is genuinely concerned about young, wealthy athletes squandering their money, why didn’t she start with the NFL? A widely cited 2009 Sports Illustrated article claimed that 78% of NFL players “face financial stress or bankruptcy” within two years of retirement. This figure was likely exaggerated, but a statistically sound study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 15.7% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring. Yet this hasn’t prompted any urgent Congressional push to save professional athletes from themselves.

If age is really the determining factor in financial responsibility, why is the fastest growing demographic of bankruptcy filers over 65? Why is the median age of someone filing for bankruptcy 49 and not 29?

Blackburn could, of course, propose legislation allowing college athletes to participate in the existing tax-deferred retirement accounts at their respective universities, but that would concede that the players are employees ‒ something universities want to avoid at practically all costs.

Not to be outdone by the Senate, the House of Representatives proposed the SCORE Act, which would grant NCAA institutions exemptions from antitrust laws – essentially codifying the illegal wage collusion the schools practiced for decades ‒ while also legally declaring that players are not employees of the universities that pay for their athletic services. Too many old timers simply can’t accept the end of decades of illegal (and in my opinion, immoral) athletic department business practices, so they are begging Congress to protect them.

Even if you concede the premise that 20-year-olds are incapable of making wise financial decisions and require assistance, why would Congress be the entity to turn to for financial wisdom?

David Moon, president of Moon Capital Management, may be reached atdavid@mooncap.com.

Link

NIL

Chiefs Stadium Deal Is Insane

Published

4 hours ago

December 26, 2025

Your Sports Nation

stl.pony said:

Feel like it’s largely being paid for by sales tax the new stadium development will generate.

Not in finance, so someone should absolutely check my math/analysis on this.

State of Kansas has an 8.25% sales tax. For the sales tax to generate 3 billion, the total sales would need to be about 36 billion. According to this article the Royals stadium and Arrowhead stadium collectively generate 55 million a year in tax revenue. (Don’t know what the analysis is to produce that; admit it could be wrong.) If you round it up to 60 million a year, the break even point is 600+ years.

If you take the numbers the Chiefs put out, 1 billion in economic impact for the region and 29 million in tax revenue per year. The break even point from tax revenue would be 1800 years?

I don’t know what is considered the region for the economic impact evaluation and how that changes based on if the stadium is on the Missouri side or the Kansas side of Kansas City. I also remember reading a report about the state fair of Texas that claimed that events like the state fair and sporting events don’t necessarily generate additional economic activity in a region, it just concentrates it into the event rather the wider community. (Admittedly, that could mean more tax revenue for one city in the region over another.) In my layperson’s opinion, a sports stadium deal like this doesn’t seem to be as smart of a decision as offering economic incentives to a Toyota or other non-entertainment business to move to your city.

Link

NIL

Michigan urged to hire SEC coordinator over head coaches to replace Sherrone Moore

Published

5 hours ago

December 26, 2025

Your Sports Nation

As Michigan’s coaching search drags on, some overlooked possibilities could be floating back to the forefront. After apparently striking out on established head coaches like Kenny Dillingham and Kalen DeBoer, one SEC coordinator is exactly such a possibility for the Wolverines.

In a recent episode of Andy and Ari On3, Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman pointed out that the current coaching carousel has been virtually obsessed with established head coaches. Kentucky hired Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein as its next coach, but otherwise, schools have passed on coordinators in favor of coaches with head coaching experience.

Both Staples and Wasserman singled out Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann as a strong coaching possibility who Michigan should consider. “Why hasn’t he been in the conversation,” asked Wasserman. “He’s been intereviewed by schools, they just haven’t hired him,” noted Staples. “Normally, multiple coordinators would have either gotten these jobs or been finalists for these jobs.”

“If I were Michigan, I would hire Schumann over all the others,” said Wasserman. “I feel like if you’re Michigan, you want to get the guy that reshapes how you do things. It’s not that Jedd Fisch wouldn’t or Jeff Brohm wouldn’t….Don’t you want to go get the younger coordinator from Georgia who recruits his ass off and has been around big builds and has he defense playing like this at the right time and try to build you program around that?”

Schumann is only 35 years old, but has spent the last 17 seasons with either the Alabama or Georgia programs. He went to Alabama to be a student assistant coach under Nick Saban, then moved up to graduate assistant and then to Director of Football Operations.

When Kirby Smart left Alabama to take the Georgia head coaching job, Schumann went with him. First, he was the inside linebacker coach. In 2019, he added co-defensive coordinator to his responsibilities and ahead of 2024, he became the sole defensive coordinator

Georgia has historically been a very aggressive big-play-oriented defense, but Schumann has helped remake them on the fly. In 2025, the Bulldogs have held opponents to 15.9 points per game, second in the SEC, despite being near the bottom of the conference standings in sacks (tied for last), tackles for loss (next to last), and turnovers forced (13th).

Schumann was considered in 2023 for the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator role, but hasn’t been significantly linked with another collegiate job. Despite his relative youth, his experience inside two of the foremost college football dynasties of recent vintage makes him an intriguing possibility, should Michigan decide to take a chance.

Link

NIL

No easy fix for what ails college football, but it’s still fun

Published

10 hours ago

December 26, 2025

Your Sports Nation

As much as the state of college athletics these days drives people to distraction, coaches and administrators don’t have many options.

So, you don’t like players being paid? You don’t like players have the ability to transfer to another program anytime they choose? You don’t like lawyers and agents raking in huge amounts of cash? What can unhappy fans do about it?

You can stop supporting your favorite program. You can stop going to games or even watching games. If enough people do that, what they will accomplish is making it more difficult for their favorite programs to win. They will change nothing.

Despite all of it, coaches are expected to win. Athletics directors are expected to provide the resources for them to win. They have no choice but to play the game with the rules – or lack thereof – in place today.

Is it out of control? Of course it is, in football and basketball. Will there be efforts to mitigate the damage that is being done to the sports so many love? There will be. Will they be successful? Maybe, but so far we’re not seeing it. Yet, TV ratings are higher than ever. Stadiums are filled. It’s still fun, which is what it was always meant to be.

For sure, there are some misconceptions out there.

Players, in fact, can and do sign contracts. There is nothing to keep them from signing multi-year contracts, but those are iffy for both sides. Maybe a player turns out not to be worth what he is being paid. Or maybe he turns out to be worth more than he’s being paid.

None of this is simple. It is further complicated by agents who are neither qualified nor interested in much anything beyond making money for themselves.

Maybe, one day, someone will find a solution. Maybe Congress will step in and help, though there has been no indication that is close to happening.

Players and coaches are better-trained, better-informed and more knowledgeable than they have ever been. Players are not the spoiled, entitled young men they are accused of being. They are being pulled in all sorts of directions by family, agents, boosters and others with agendas of their own.

Almost every effort to find common ground has blown up.

The December signing period was meant to give players who had made up their minds opportunities to get the recruiting process over with. Previous to that move, it was rare for players to graduate early and enroll in time for spring practice. Now, it’s what every coach wants and most players want.

NIL was supposed to be about players having opportunities to earn spending money, maybe even get a car. It was never meant to make anybody wealthy. Along came collectives, and that changed.

Penalty-free transfers were supposed to be about players having opportunities to go in search of more playing time. Instead, added to NIL, it become a monster. Without penalty-free transfers, things would be different today.

For now, if people let this destroy their love for the game, they are letting the forces of chaos win. It’s still college students – yes, they are students – playing football. And they pay a fearsome price in blood, sweat and mental challenges to do it.

Once the portal has opened and closed and rosters begin to be set, things will calm down. The focus will return to where it should be, on those who play the game and the season ahead.

***

To all of you who do us the honor of coming here to read and comment and debate, and to Ron Sanders, Nathan King, Christian Clemente, Jason Caldwell and Patrick Bingham, my valued colleagues, I wish joy, peace and love on this day.

Link