Some of you have asked how NIL donations are being distributed to our SFA athletes. I posed that question to Matt Rocco, Board Chairman of the Sawmill6thMan collective. He kindly sent me the email below.
Personally, as I read the email, I was both greatly disappointed and (at times) mad as H***. You might be, too. The main thing that upset me was that WBB has only received $600 in donations ($600 for the whole team!), and (for some reason which I don't understand), none of it has been distributed to the players. Is it any wonder that we're losing most of our excellent WBB Ladyjacks to the transfer portal? (I can't even hazard a guess how much Jordan Harrison is receiving at West Virginia.) Is it any wonder that we're losing Latrell and Day Day to the portal?
Guys and Gals, we are being greatly "outspent" by other universities, even by some of our WAC peer institutions. It's sad for mid-major schools like ours to be put in this player auctioning situation. The NCAA's NIL system and its partner-in-crime, the transfer portal, are killing college sports. I post this question to you... What can we do to help, or is the system too broken to even try?
BTW, the websites where you can sign up to make one-time or continuing donations to SFA's NIL efforts are...
www.SawMill6thMan.com (MBB donations)
www.sawmillcollective.com (All other athletics teams)
I'm going to also post this over on the General Discussion - SFA NIL Forum, so it doesn't get buried here.
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Matt Rocco From:matt.rocco@etechgs.com
To:Ed Stiles
Thu, Apr 4 at 10:04 AM
Ed:
This past year, the Sawmill 6th Man raised $105,400. Players were awarded NIL money to market the Sawmill 6th Man through social media. There were also compensated for attending community events. In total, the guys contributed over 600 hours in community service.
Of the money raised, over 97% goes directly to the players. 3% covers various fees such as Paypal transactions, bank charges, etc. I can't give specifics by player, but the top guys like Latrell, Nana, AJ, Day, etc. all earned over $15k.
Through the Sawmill Collective, the only team to raise money has been the WBB Team. They have $600, none of it's used. You are the only monthly donor.
I have met with Coach Carthall and Coach Bishop along with Wally to discuss ways they can raise NIL funds. Coach Keller has been very active and is a big supporter. He is fully aware that he will not be able to recruit the players he desires without NIL dollars. The top players in the WAC this past year were making $50,000 to $100,000 or more. None of our guys came close to that. We need to do more. The same is now happening in women's basketball and will continue to get worse.
I heard Latrell is getting $75k to play at North Texas next year ….. this is the world of college sports. I like the concept of student athletes being compensated, but not the way the NIL has allowed the schools with big booster money to manipulate the intent. It's not right, but it is the world our coaches must compete in. Without significant and sustainable NIL funding, SFA's main sports (MBB, WBB, Football & Volleyball) will not be able to compete for the necessary talent needed to be competitive in the WAC. Hope this helps!
Feel free to reach out to me at any time. Any ideas, suggestions are always welcome!!
Matt Rocco
CEO
Etech Global Services
www.etechgs.com936-371-1309
