The initial steps are at least promising, but taking a bird’s-eye view, Syracuse Athletics still has a lot to sort out.
For the Syracuse Orange and the rest of the college sports world, NIL will remain a significant hurdle to navigate and will easily define the path for many programs as this year continues.
An important, yet consequential, multi-billion dollar settlement in the House v. NCAA case could soon be finalized as soon as around a month from now. That settlement will pave the way for Syracuse University and other Division 1 institutions to directly share revenue earned with its student-athletes starting next academic year.
With the settlement decision looming, Syracuse Athletics recently unveiled Champion ‘CUSE: The Campaign for Syracuse Athletics — a large-scale fundraising campaign to raise $50 million over the next three years for SU’s D1 programs.
The decision to try and get ahead of the curve is a wise decision. So too is Syracuse Athletics (at least on paper) “intends” to paying the full “cap” in revenue sharing it can give to athletes, which will be around $20.5 million for 2025-26.
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That being said, several glaring problems remain that Syracuse Athletics will need to navigate. Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture for “what comes next?”, I’m personally eyeing a few factors to consider.
The first is seeing the most traction from what I can tell online and among fans — having to personally make the financial investment to begin with.
Assuming you live in the Syracuse area, you’re probably already making a sizable commitment just by buying tickets and going to games. That’s the bare minimum/benchmark experience for pretty much everyone — attending a game or competition within the college sports environment, enjoying it and not caring about much of anything else.
The challenge: Syracuse is a D1 school, and I’d argue the bar is a lot higher compared to most institutions with D1 athletics. On top of that, there’s “legacies” and “reputations” on the line. Fans care clearly about the product on the court or field, and really care about at least maximizing every tool to do what every team (you’d hope) wants to achieve: win at the highest level.
In this new world of college sports with NIL about to truly become mainstream, going to games isn’t enough. You essentially have to pay to play to at least give your D1 school a fighting chance.
Even then, it won’t always work out. Just look at Florida State reportedly investing $12 million in its 2024 football team, which went 2-10.
One thing I haven’t seen with Syracuse’s new fundraising strategy to raise this money — what do the fans who actually put in the money get out if it? And yes, part of that investment is essentially “gambling” on the unknown and on SUA to turn your dollars into successful teams.
But if fans are already paying pretty substantial ticket prices, especially for football and men’s basketball, you’re basically asking them to also double-down and put even more on the table. Without getting into whatever personal financial situation you may be in, that probably isn’t an easy decision for many… unless there’s an incentive.
And that’s the first problem: will Syracuse Athletics provide an incentive of any kind for the fans who invest in this campaign, like getting to meet the players one-on-one, or tickets discounts for families, or free merchandise of some kind? You get the point.
Problem #2 is where it gets ugly, so I’ll try to walk this tightrope carefully.
I’d assume fans want to know how their dollars are being distributed. I’m not very experienced in the world of stocks, but I imagine you would not invest in something if that entity was the Titanic about to hit an iceberg.
This was another point made by casual fans online I’m noticing — “I want to see what this distribution looks like.”
Syracuse University being a private institution makes that quite complicated, unless there’s some transparency… which is tough to come by for any private organization.
That’s where, I think, some tough choices will need to be made in how SUA distributes this revenue sharing. Can Syracuse realistically fundraise enough money for a competitive football and men’s basketball team, plus keep some of its other lower-revenue but very much successful programs afloat, all at once? I share some reservations that is actually possible, and some in our staff will likely say the same.
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In short, will SUA not only be willing to share how it distributes the $20.5 million, or will it be entirely on the fans to find that out themselves through the media, leaks or public data if or when that magically comes out.
And then, there’s a ginormous elephant in the room. Again, I stress I will be cautious while writing this next part out.
The majority of the conversation around NIL is making the comparison to “player empowerment” teams in professional leagues, like the NBA, are navigating. That’s true in most circumstances, but fans (I would argue) boast some influence as well.
Think about it: you buying tickets, donating to this fundraising campaign or another NIL collective, attending games and so on are vital to keep any athletics program above water. If a sizable portion of the fanbase doesn’t do that, well, it’s certainly a different outcome than if a super-majority do.
Fans are going to have the ball in their court for one simple reason: the investment you all put in to make this either work, or not.
The pressure on Syracuse Athletics will be immense to maintain a product you feel great investing in. If not, you always have the choice to simply take your investment out, cut the cord and hit where it hits most — the wallet.
SUA will essentially, and especially now, will really keep the larger fanbase happy.
Because if not, the ramifications will go beyond the field or court.