While Everyone Talks Collectives, Karen Talks J School Collab

As I mentioned in my post yesterday afternoon, it was a momentous day for Mizzou Athletics after Gov. Mike Parson signed an amendment of SB 718, the NIL bill that will allow Missouri colleges to help their student athletes with their name, image, and likeness deals.

Now, schools like Mizzou can officially provide some sort of assistance to student-athletes in terms of facilitating NIL deals, and student-athletes can officially profit off of say, customized jersey sales, or Topps trading cards. Love this for them.

I also love THIS for them (from my post):

The University has also unveiled a new partnership between athletics, the Missouri School of Journalism, School of Law, Trulaske College of Business and Griggs Innovators Nexus which “will be a foundational piece of the Mizzou’s NIL program moving forward.” The first event in the newly-created CEO Program, which will be held in mid-July, will be a three-day program for Mizzou’s student athletes where they’ll learn - among other things - about social media training, understanding the algorithm, content creation (how to tell your story), marketing strategies, entrepreneurship, the art of negotiations and understanding contracts. This is just the beginning, as in the future, they’ll continue to collaborate on experiential learning opportunities for student-athletes.

But the local media wasn’t particularly focused on this aspect (in all fairness, I had far more info about this than they did #insider), and instead wrote about what there was more information about— the whole collective/money thing.

Sorry, it might just be me, but I just find something really unsavory about the whole “collective” thing. How do you know where the money is going? And allotting it only to the tippity-top to get recruits here is just… not my favorite. I strongly feel that all athletes should be able to benefit from this, and that’s why the new partnership part of this has really captured my attention. Let’s help them ALL get that bag through education.

Regardless of whether or not I love the former Mizzou athletes - L Bo and Larry Budweiser Sasser - who are a part of Advancing Missouri Athletes (AMA) collective, it’s just not my favorite and I’m not sure it’s sustainable.

Here’s what the local media had to say:

Dave Matter (St. Louis Post- Dispatch) talked with the head guy in charge of AMA.

Gabe DeArmand (PowerMizzou) talked with Laurence Bowers about his part in the collective.

Matt Stahl (Columbia Tribune) had a notebook which focused on all things in the news on Thursday, ranging from the NIL stuff to the Big 12/SEC Challenge unveiling, to Mizzou FB’s newest commits.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On to the links! There actually wasn’t a ton of news...

Side Note: Congrats to the Warriors. I’m a huge Steve Kerr fan - please run for office - and I root for Klay for all he’s been through these last few years. And I’m an even bigger Steph “Chef” Curry fan (from way back in his Davidson College days — he is the nicest guy), but man, I wanted this for the Celtics and StL native Jayson Tatum and my guy & Zo’s guy, Jaylen Brown(ie). An additional congrats goes to Missouri’s own Otto Porter, Jr. But also, I give no congrats to you, unnamed kU player (you know who it is).

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Yesterday at Rock M:

• I wrote about the new NIL bill amendment, and how it relates to my beloved place of employment. Please read; they’ve got some really good ideas.
• Aaron continued his ‘Build a Player’ series, this time focusing on the offensive line.
• A new BTBS hit your ear holes, where BK and Nate are just really confused about what Drink is doing with this roster. Nate even swears, you guys.

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More Links:

Football/Baseball

• Catch up on Mizzou stuff with Dave Matter’s new chat at STL Today. (subscribers)
• In the weight room:

• It’s always great to see Mizzou guys tearing it up in the offseason playing summer/fall ball. Looking good, Justin Colon!

Hoops

• Mizzou Hoops received its Big 12/SEC Challenge opponent, which will take place in CoMo on January 28. Welcome to the Iowa State Cyclones, a familiar opponent, as they faced them just last year (and lost). Read more at MUTigers.com and the KC Star.

• Looks like Noah Carter is going to be involved in a charity event.

• Hey, fellas! Hard at work on the court. Props to the athletic photographer here; these shots are great.

• CJ Moore and Eamonn Brennan of the The Athletic ($$) wrote, For college centers unwanted by the NBA, NIL opens a path for staying in school. Mizzou doesn’t have a center, per se, but I thought it was an interesting article regardless.
• PowerMizzou’s Mitchell Forde listed the wide net Mizzou has cast so far for the 2024 hoopers now that they can make contact.

Former Mizzou Sports Stars/Regional Sports Stuff

• Great for KCMO! FIFA selects Kansas City among 16 host nations for 2026 World Cup, per the KC Star and Missourian.

• According to the Missourian’s reports, Memphis is hiring former Mizzou head baseball coach Tim Jamieson.
• According to the Missourian’s staff wire, former MU standout Hayden Buckley is tied 7th at the U.S. Open, trailing Hadwin’s lead by two.
• Per the Columbia Tribune’s Chris Kwiecinski, 16 years after Mizzou, how Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz tenure highlighted his biggest strength. This is a great story, and it was lovely to hear from former Mizzou greats on Quin’s coaching acumen.

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