Amid FAU’s March Madness run, the Owls have gone from having no NIL collective -- a “rarity even for a mid-major program” -- to a collective that has “raised thousands,” according to Ross Dellenger of SI. In their first week of fundraising, Paradise Collective, run by Chuck Toman and Kevin Koscso have “$65,000 with a goal of reaching $100,000 by the weekend.” In “Year 2 of the NIL era,” it is a window “into the value of a Cinderella in March.” Dellenger: “The spoils of this remarkable journey are a novel concept in such a new world: cash for the athletes.” Toman and Koscso have “spent the past couple of months developing the framework for their group through conversations with other school collectives” with their model being “similar to the one used in many other college towns.” Athletes will earn compensations for “performing community service for local charities.” Koscso said that they have “applied for 501(c)(3) status” for the nonprofit entity of the Paradise Collective, the Paradise One Fund. Dellenger notes FAU “got a late start in the NIL game.” Miami basketball is “reportedly earning more than" $2M in NIL thanks to businessman John Ruiz. San Diego State, a "mid-major like FAU," is also “leagues ahead of the Owls” while UConn has two NIL collectives. But that is not to say FAU had no NIL cash beforehand. FAU AD Brian White said that players have “benefited through individual deals from their run through the tournament,” including a “student-led movement of trading cards and NFTs” (SI, 3/30).
A TRUE CINDERELLA: USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken writes FAU is “easily the most unlikely program ever to reach a Final Four.” College basketball has a certain tier of mid-major programs that, “either through history or geography or sheer institutional ambition,” could conceivably reach a Final Four if all the stars align. SDSU is “one of those places,” but FAU “hadn’t been knocking on the door.” FAU did not “suddenly get a huge pile of booster cash to go recruit players with name, image and likeness deals.” One longtime Conference USA administrator ranked FAU as the “second- or third-worst basketball job in the league, ahead of only UT-San Antonio and perhaps Florida International.” The irony of it all is that FAU’s “big institutional bet on sports was never supposed to be about basketball.” Though the schools baseball and softball teams had been “historically successful,” the vision for growing into a national brand was “supposed to happen on the football field” (USA TODAY, 3/30).
FAU's run to the Final Four has seen the establishment of the schools first NIL collective along with greater exposure for its playersBrad Penner/USA TODAY NETWORK
