The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

As we continue to look for excuses about why WMU BB can't compete.

I'm (semi) astounded that nobody has brought up the issue of NIL $$$.

Even at this level, WMU has lost recruits to other schools over the past 2 years because of this.

It's the world we live in now.

Thoughts?

Answers?

True, WMU cannot compete with the "POWER 5" SCHOOLS due to the NIL. In fact even less now. But you need to look at the future. The Big Boys will break off by themselves (greed you know), and the "Group of 5" will be left to fend for themselves. So, WMU will not be competing with the power 5 group for players, but maybe the second group will be competing with each other. I like breaking off. We should not have to compete with Duke, Kansas, Mihigan State, North Carolina, etc. to get some national notariety. Lets have our own tournament. Lets compete with the USA, American, SunBelt, WAC, Mountain West, and the others that don't have the resources the big boys have. So what if we can' beat Duke, we may have a pretty good tournament with Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Troy, Alabama Birmingham, San Diego State, and on and on. There are so many TV networks looking for events, I'm sure this group could get some pretty good payouts.
P.S. I officially HATE the NIL. The word is out that one kid (still a senior in high school) has committed to Alabama for football, and already has taken in over 1 Million dollars through the NIL. I never thought it would come to the level where schools and their boosters could basically BUY the players they wanted, but that appears to be the future of college sports.
Too bad....I love the amateurs.

WMU BB has lost kids to other MM level schools, and/or other "MM +" schools because of NIL $$$.

What is the new AD's vision for this issue?

And how does he plan to accomplish his vision?

Has anyone asked him?

I've brought it up before. B. Artis White comes to mind as someone who could reap the benefits of NIL as he has over a million followers on TikTok. He can easily do brand deals and stuff now. He would be a good resource for the rest of the athletic department to lean on.

We can't even get people to buy a ticket, why would we expect someone to finance our players?

It all comes back to alumni and community support. WMU has none.

My random thoughts-
For NIL to be successful here WMU athletics needs to “sell” their products to corporate SW Michigan. Hopefully new AD & staff have some ideas.

MAC ACTION Weeknight football games along with general lack of local WMU sports news coverage has certainly hurt sports attendance.
Does mlive even have one WMU article a week?
Why buy football season tickets with no interest or availability to attend two night weekday games?

Bronco hockey has it’s nitch fan interest but I would bet over 80% of SW Michigan knew nothing of this years WMU team getting to NCAA tournament.

Eastern has a plan and a vision for NIL set up by former players,

https://www.gameabove.com/

(04-19-2022 08:58 AM)okgc Wrote:  I would bet over 80% of SW Michigan knew nothing of this years WMU team getting to NCAA tournament.

If true, that would be a real PR/Marketing failure.

(04-19-2022 11:23 AM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 08:58 AM)okgc Wrote:  I would bet over 80% of SW Michigan knew nothing of this years WMU team getting to NCAA tournament.

If true, that would be a real PR/Marketing failure.

80% of the public counldn't tell you who won the Stanley Cup last year. College Hockey is a niche of a niche sport. The buzz that was generated for a team that as great as it was, didn't have a championship to hang its hat on is I think a pretty decent showing for the marketing team.

(04-19-2022 11:23 AM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 08:58 AM)okgc Wrote:  I would bet over 80% of SW Michigan knew nothing of this years WMU team getting to NCAA tournament.

If true, that would be a real PR/Marketing failure.

Do you have any idea how long that's been a problem at WMU?

(04-19-2022 12:55 PM)moe24 Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 11:23 AM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 08:58 AM)okgc Wrote:  I would bet over 80% of SW Michigan knew nothing of this years WMU team getting to NCAA tournament.

If true, that would be a real PR/Marketing failure.

Do you have any idea how long that's been a problem at WMU?

Since Graham Couch moved to Lansing ! ?

(04-19-2022 01:00 PM)okgc Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 12:55 PM)moe24 Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 11:23 AM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(04-19-2022 08:58 AM)okgc Wrote:  I would bet over 80% of SW Michigan knew nothing of this years WMU team getting to NCAA tournament.

If true, that would be a real PR/Marketing failure.

Do you have any idea how long that's been a problem at WMU?

Since Graham Couch moved to Lansing ! ?

Marketing and PR are two things WMU has never done well. In regards to hockey, I live in Minnesota, a state where hockey is a religion, yet very few could tell you anything about Western Michigan. Maybe the die hard guys who go to the local rink to watch peewee games for the fun of it (they don’t have kids playing) can acknowledge WMU’s overall success, but outside of our current ranking, nothing.
I am still flabbergasted by the fact that most sports fans, if asked, can’t confidently say that WMU is a d1 football school, or basketball for that matter.
But yah, we don’t market well.

I think WMU did an adequate job promoting the hockey team's NCAA appearance, at least through social media and email.

It's just that relatively few people follow (or care about) college hockey. As others said, it's very niche.

Our Quick Lane Bowl, kicking off at a rough 11 am EST, had 1.1 million TV viewers. And that was among the least-watched bowls.

The NCAA hockey championship game had less than half of that (404,000 viewers).

(04-20-2022 06:31 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  I think WMU did an adequate job promoting the hockey team's NCAA appearance, at least through social media and email.

It's just that relatively few people follow (or care about) college hockey. As others said, it's very niche.

Our Quick Lane Bowl, kicking off at a rough 11 am EST, had 1.1 million TV viewers. And that was among the least-watched bowls.

The NCAA hockey championship game had less than half of that (404,000 viewers).

So what? Really sad that the WMU hockey team had its best season ever and has achieved consistent success and all the bitter WMU men's bball fans do nothing but 5hit on them. Again, for the millionth time, your beef is not with hockey, it's with football being the insatiable beast.

You know what? I went to a ton of hockey games but I also went to a lot of both men's and women's bball games at WMU. Show some support for other student athletes on campus instead of projecting your pathetic lives on them.

I am not attacking you Motown Bronco personally, unless you truly do feel this way, and more generally the complaint that hockey is successful at the expense of men's bball.

My main point was that WMU did a good job in promoting, at least from what I saw, but the sport overall just doesn’t have the buy-in as it should/could.

I know this is within the basketball forum, but I wasn’t trying to tie it into basketball (or football, for that matter, despite the bowl mention). I kind of went OT.

But to your final point - no, I don’t necessarily think hockey’s success has been “robbing” basketball of theirs.

(04-20-2022 09:43 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  My main point was that WMU did a good job in promoting, at least from what I saw, but the sport overall just doesn’t have the buy-in as it should/could.

I know this is within the basketball forum, but I wasn’t trying to tie it into basketball (or football, for that matter, despite the bowl mention). I kind of went OT.

But to your final point - no, I don’t necessarily think hockey’s success has been “robbing” basketball of theirs.

Fair enough, which is why I wanted to make the point that I was not attacking you personally.

How to get players.

The market

Receipt

What is the new AD's plan with respect to NIL for/at WMU?

Anyone?

Current NIL is pure craziness