EternalOptimist

Do you think he would have the gall to move the team?

Welp - this isn't good

I don't think that is accurate for NIL $$. players do get stipends for cost of living and food, as well as the alstead money, which does add up, but players have been getting that for years (before NIL), and it's similar for all D1s. I'm talking about straight up NIL funds.

It's extremely close

This is interesting - and similar to what I am hearing for St Thomas. Total NIL $ for the UND squad is less than $10K

Yup... crazy I know.

I like the sounds of that. Hopefully, they are working at it with the bigger donors, that's really where it will make the biggest difference.

You might be right - but they did get one of our guys (Deng Mayor) that had several starts for us last year, and was in the main rotation. I believe the rumor was he was given $30K. He may sit the bench, who knows. UND will replace that player in the rotation with either a red-shirt with no playing experience, a true freshman, or a D2 transfer - either way no D1 experience.

I believe that's what is happening at UND. All the ND players that most are complaining about really want to try and prove themselves. However, when looking for that type of player, you're going to get a few that may not work out. NIL affects every school one way or another. You are correct - it can't be used as a sole excuse for poor performance, but on the other hand, it needs to be addressed as a potential barrier to "success". It seems hard to accomplish a top 4 seed in the conference every year with bottom of the league NIL. Can it happen - absolutely. Should we be rooting for it to happen - absolutely. Should we expect it though? I do wonder why we don't see a lot of MBB NIL fundraising attempts, or even conversations about it from the program. To me that comes across as a sign that maybe there is some writing on the wall... but who knows. I'm hoping this team surprises us a little. Sounds like 4.5 D1 wins is the current over/under?

It has to be recognized. It isn't the end all, but it certainly is a factor. In general, those that can pay more will attract the better talent.

We are in the bottom tier of the Summit for NIL.

Just curious - given we don't have the NIL of other schools, what would a successful season look like?

This times 1000. They are destine to be mediocre or bad until ownership changes. That's about as optimistic as even I can be.

Colorado St (-26), Notre Dame (-17), Bethune Cookman (-12), Southeastern Louisiana (-16), Utah Valley (-23)... for Non-Conf. Denver (-25), SDSU (-36) St T (-15). I don't agree about it only working for HS teams, but we can disagree, I actually think it works all the way to NBA level and you sometimes see NBA stars being sent to the bench or get sent to the 2nd squad - It's the nature of competitive sports - if you're not producing, you sit. I don't see that as a HS thing. I guess when it comes down to it, last year I found myself wondering why some of the rotation guys were left to struggle for so long, especially when the team was struggling. Now I'm looking forward to this season, and I wish we had seen more of the returners play last year rather than just instantly discard them as being no good.

HA! Thank God too! I'm really not interested in participation trophies, I'd just like to win games. I assume you'd like to win more games as well? How we get to that level we may or may not agree on, but we have the same end result in mind.