Old guy

Of course you are entirely correct Lord Elrond, but how many of the board members or the larger group of Bills fans have their own businesses? And even among those that have their own businesses, some of these businesses may not have enough capital to spend in NILs. I assume the vast majority of the members of this board, and the larger group of Bills fans are employed somewhere or retired. By the way when you are dealing with businesses, deductions do not really apply, what is applicable to businesses is business expenses which is a totally different animal and has nothing to do with individual deductions. Retired people may have lots of money, or not. If they are living out of pensions or Social Security, generally they are likely not to have the necessary money to drop it in NILs. The group of fans that is employed somewhere is the group to which the IRS income limitations over deductions apply to. And by the way, I think this little discussion applies directly to problems encountered in raising money for NILs.

My post is real, you can check the IRS rules for deduction limits related to income here: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/2022-ira-contribution-and-deduction-limits-effect-of-modified-agi-on-deductible-contributions-if-you-are-not-covered-by-a-retirement-plan-at-work

Cgeldmacher, I do not want to insult you or put you down, this is absolutely not my intention. However, you just do not know how the IRS places limits on tax deductions based upon the adjusted gross income reported in a couple's return for the year. What you say is correct and true but applicable only to married couples with a total adjusted gross income below $204,000 who are not covered by an employer's retirement plan. If your reported AGI for the year is over $214,000 and you are not covered by an employer's retirement plan, you cannot take deductions on your income for that year. There is a sharp progressive reduction in terms of deductibility of income for married couples with an AGI between $204,000 and $214,000. These are the IRS rules for 2022, I have not found the rules for 2023 so far. I agree that lots of people are covered by employer's retirement plans, and these plans can be made to allow increased retirement account employer contributions. However, contributions above certain limits into these retirement plans are also treated as taxable income. The reason the employers provide both non taxable and taxable funds into their retirement plans is to give executives a larger Combined Gross Income level, a fixed portion of which is treated as taxable income, or in, the case of grants or options, is just is treated as a ledger entry until the grant or option is exercised and then it is treated as taxable income for the year the grant or option is exercised. I know this is complicated. So, kindly tell me if you really believe that a married couple making an adjusted gross income below $204,000 for a year can make a significant contribution to the salary of a HC and take a tax deduction for it in their return. They surely can contribute some money for this purpose and deduct it from their taxes, but the amount they can contribute is like a drop of water added to the sea, particularly when the guy's salary is $2.5 M a year. The big donors just give their money away because they want to do it and because they can do it, tax deductions based upon income have no meaning to them, period.

Whatever your memories of Bobby Knight may be, he is gone and will not come back, just let him rest in peace. The job to judge him and reward or punish him forever is way above your pay grade.

When you say "depends on who shows up once the season starts" you mean whether Eze, SvB, and Magassa will be playing. I think that a more profound difference may well be the level of attendance to the games. A 50/50 raffle payout of $183 for the first exhibition game is a very poor prognostic sign for the season.

OK people, I have a hopefully valid reason for optimism! As you all know, I have not been in the optimistic side of things for quite a long time. So, what happened? I went to see the free practice preview of the team tonight. I am really not absolutely sure as to who was who among the players, there were so many new faces in there. The free practice preview was an over an hour long scrimmage for two teams made from the whole team. Some people did not play a second, like Zhang and Sotirov (I am sure about Zhang not playing, Sotirov #35 for the event I just did not see playing). However, what I saw tonight was a fast hit and run of continual hard play by the teams, that is most of the time they did play this way. Only occasionally did they reverted to the weaving and passing standard for last season. It probably helped that Ford did not control the play of either team, the assistant coaches did the play control. There was a team coached by Tate and Nunez, the other one by Harriman and Thomas (?). Harriman did most of the talking and leading of this second team. I think it may have helped that Ford stayed sitting down in a chair looking like had and advanced bout of constipation, and did not rise to take the lead lead over the teams. Please note that Ford is not capable to stay quiet so he did his share of yelling and he also did transfer players between the two teams. The transfers between the teams were probably planned to allow him to see how well different people played together. Playing under the lead of the assistant coaches was refreshing and invigorating. They were really playing as I hoped they would last year. Parker was amazing, and almost unstoppable. Hughes and Hargrove played very aggressively and scored well. Some of the new players Meadows, Dalger, Ezewiro, Medley, Thames, Curcic and Magassa were better than I expected (my expectations were very low so it was nice to see them doing well and playing aggressively). Curcic is a good ball handler but not so good a shooter. Jimerson has not hit his stride yet. van Bussel played but appeared lost, and, surprise, Lamont Evans IV (a walk on) played a few minutes and looked quite up to it. Please understand that this was a Billikens vs Billikens scrimmage we watched tonight. They know each other and play with each other, things may be different when they play against a different team, and things may well be very different under the Ford's direct direction. However tonight's event increased my optimism about this season by orders of magnitude. I so much wish this would become a reality when we go into real play. Buildings and NILs do not amount go anything in my mind, what I saw tonight, under the assistants direction was a heady dose of optimism for me. All the best to all, I hope my impression tonight becomes reality.

I surely hope that an appeal to NCAA does not become like a court appeal which can take a very long time and result in some decision that will then be appealed again at a higher level.

Am I to understand that outsourced management is free, meaning that it costs nothing? I agree the Champions Center adds image, but it is not likely to add profits to offset its costs. I think your posts confirm your significant lack of understanding about money and about costs. It does not really matter who pays for the outsourced management, someone within the University has to pay for them. I doubt this building will generate any profits for the AD or the University, but it will add costs. You also should understand that outsourced management of a building generally costs more than internally paying for the management of a building. The reason for this is that internal management pays for the costs incurred, outsourced management has to cover the costs incurred plus profits for the outsourced management providers. The money for NILs was not going to happen and it was evident that would be the case way before last season was over.

There is, in my opinion, a curious issue with the people still posting in this board. There does not seem to be a solid appreciation about money availability or about what things cost. One aspect no one has mentioned is the cost of keeping buildings in good shape. The Champion's Center will certainly add support and maintenance costs to the AD budget. How much additional income, if any, it will provide to the AD is yet to be seen. The same lack of appreciation happened last season, when a lot of people were sure we would have abundant money donations for paying NILs. Nope, that did not happen. Ultimately what counts is winning games, that is what will bring money and opportunity to the SLU AD.

I have no idea if you know anything about the way AA works. It goes like this: Once an alcoholic always an alcoholic, the desire for alcohol is always present. This is true for drug addicts as well. The only way to get back to a normal life is absolute sobriety with not even a drop of alcohol taken. If they have one drink the dam breaks and the there is no stopping to the drinking. If Danny can ever get a 5 year AA sobriety medal, then he might be ready for a job like he had before. It is not demons he is fighting, it is his own brain neurosecretions that drive the desire.

Not always, you may have read the information I published about sports at Harvard and the IVYs. They go for "intellectual" athletes, read those that are going for the education, not the money. Students that want an education and a diploma from a high level University may not have money as their prime goal.

Willie that was a good answer. What I see is a very low level of optimism for this season.

So, let's do some comparison math. Who believes that the stats or the current roster, at this time in August, are better than the stats for last season's team at the same point in time? I know there were wild expectations about specific player performance last season at this point in time last season which do not appear to be there this season. So, who thinks we are going to the NCAA this season? Or in a more modest manner, who believes we will do better this season than we did last season?

I agree with both of you, education is probably not as important as basketball for these kids. However, regardless of how important it is for them, the loss of an opportunity to obtain a free of charge college education is a major loss for anyone.

I completely agree that every single player entering the portal had his own goals/desires involved in their decision to accept or refuse an offer, assuming there was one. I agree that all of these kinds of information are opaque and will remain so regardless. However, those players joining the portal looking for the largest amount of NIL money possible and still not committed made a major mistake. Not only did they lose the money they were hoping to get, but they also lost the chance of getting a free education. Many of the players in the portal may, as you say, have had little potential for going professional. The loss of a free education for these players with little potential for going professional is a very serious loss anyway you look at it.

I agree with ACE. I wonder why Lord Elrond analysis did not include the possible impact of NIL offers received vs personal player ambition/agent recommendation on the part of the players in the portal. Are the players really interested in transferring to better schools or are they primarily interested in getting the largest NIL possible? And among those players that did not find a new home, how many received NIL offers they considered inadequate? The role of the players agents in determining how high a NIL should individual players in the portal be aiming for was probably also involved in this process. I am aware that there is no reliable information available about how much in NIL was offered and rejected by the players that did not find a new home in the portal this year. From my point of view, player/agent ambition and greed may have played an important role in the failed transfer outcome for at least some of the players that did not find a new home. It must be remembered that many young kids are probably not ready to say "enough is enough" and accept a good offer.

Taj, you forgot to add the most important factor from Dandridge's point of view, no NIL either,.

I fully agree with what you are saying Steve. For example, in MO we have to vote to elect judges. I assume most voters know absolutely nothing about these judges decisions, they either vote for no judges at all, or vote for them according to party affiliation (if available).

Interesting video, but what it shows is that the actual building of the shell is still going on, walls and floors are not complete, etc. The interior finishing of a new building takes a fair amount of time, particularly if some of the materials they plan to use are in short supply. They need to fit doors and mechanicals (HVAC), escalators, lights, bathroom fixtures, flooring. Inspections to certify the installations are done in the proper way need to be done as new systems are installed. The building may or may not be completed by October.

The mention of the Coca Cola formula brought back memories of my trip to the Coca Cola HQ years back. They keep the formula in a vast vault where they keep all sorts of company memorabilia. The vault is open during regular hours and visitors are allowed to enter it to see its contents. I remember having a talk with some exec about how concerned they were with someone hiding in the vault before closing, stealing the formula, and coming out of the vault next day mixed in with the tourists. Well, I freely offered the company a simple solution to their problem. I told them to evacuate all the air out of the vault after it is closed at the end of the visiting hours. If there happened to be anyone hiding in there to steal the formula, they should find him/her after opening the vault the next day or after the dead body starts to stink. I do not think Coca Cola adopted my freely offered solution.

Just for the sake of clarification Torch, who are you asking to step down?

You are entirely correct brianstl. However let's talk money, they have, or certainly Harvard has, lots more money available than SLU does. Their regular funding drives produce several times the total amount of SLU's endowment. Their donors probably have the ability to pay huge NILs and get any player they want in their teams. And yet they talk about getting players only from other similar schools with "intellectual athletes." You could ask, and alumni do ask, what is the real value of a Harvard education? The answer is that it may not be as much as they think. I remember going to a meeting in Milwaukee and being taken from the airport to the hotel by a taxi driver who had graduated from Harvard college. I think the real answer to questions like this one is that a college education (and grad school education as well) is really worth what you, the alum, makes out of it. Some people apparently fail in this regard. In my opinion, and solely in my opinion, the value of an education is a lot greater than the value of money, or specifically the value of NILs.

After reading a lot of the posts regarding NILs and the current state of college athletic recruiting, I have scratched my head wondering whether a lot of people truly believe that money comes down from heaven, like Mana used to in Moses times. I found this editorial article in the Harvard Magazine discussing how the current situation affects their athletic programs. Please keep in mind that Harvard has over 30 times the endownment SLU has, and makes a lot more money than SLU through their ownership of lots of small startup companies. Harvard also hold fund raisers periodically that raise in excess of $6 B for the University. Yet, John Rosenberg, editor, think expenses of $50 M for maintenance and refurbishment of athletic facilities, is a lot of money. This article present a view of sports from Harvard (and the IVYs) point of view where athletes have to "intellectual" athletes and be academically acceptable for Harvard admission. I think it is a very interesting piece to read and make a silent comparison with SLUs athletic department's points of view and expenses. NILs and the portal are discussed together with possible ways they might try to deal with the multitude of changes going on. Hope you find this interesting. Here is the link: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2023/07/letters-7-ware-ivy-athletics Oh, and John Rosenberg documents that average attendance at their football games has decreased to about 7000. Keep in mind that their football stadium is a lot larger than the Chaifetz.

If that is the case Dandridge is in for a very tough ride and may well come out with a lower amount of money than the top offer he has received.

The most important point that determines whether a NIL strategy will be successful or not is the availability of money. No money or not enough money, means no NILs strategy. If enough money is available then some kind of a NIL strategy is possible.