The Final 2%

[drudy23]

I totally get that some people will choose not to contribute, even though they certainly can. That’s why they will never get 100% participation. But they don’t need to in order to bring in a huge hunk of money still. On the other hand, there are going to be people that are willing to put up 10-20-50-100 dollars a month or more and never give it a 2nd thought. Just as there are people that contribute every month to Xavier knowing full well that the money they contribute helps to fund academic scholarships. If you, or anyone else, choose not to contribute, so be it. I respect your decision.

But if someone chooses not to contribute , then I would consider it hypocritical of them to complain about Xavier not being able to recruit top level kids or about X being unable compete successfully against schools where they have large NIL funds.

TANSTAAFL……..there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. If you want to dance, you’ve got to pay the fiddler.

Agree somewhat but not completely.

Is it really all that different than what was already going on with donations? I just think the school needs to be on the hook for 98% of this. It's their mess to wade through. It's their job to invest in more areas to fuel NIL. Hire a team, start knocking on business doors, kiss babies, create fundraising events, etc, etc. I'm sure that's in the gameplan.

Honestly, there is now no limit, where before you felt constrained by the rules. Who at X is hustling to get X players involved with local businesses and corporate sponsors? Expand the Marketing/Development team.

You want to throw together some campaigns to make the fans feel connected to it, fine - but there's a fine line between that and feeling like some of this falls on the fans. That's crazy to me. We already fund so much of it from tickets, concessions, donations, parking, tuition, etc, etc.

[Final4]

Afford - yes.

Fell the need to - no.

There is a huge psychological barrier to get fans to pay for players. There just is.

I agree and this is exactly the point I was trying to make earlier. I make donations to Xavier University (primarily the All For One fund) and will continue to do so in the future. I’ll be damned if I’m going to write a check payable to Trey Green (nothing against Trey; I’m sure he is a fine young man).

A lot of people, including some on this board, feel players should be paid. I guess that’s an easy position to take when someone else is doing the paying. I’m in the camp where I don’t think players should be paid. My dad worked two jobs (and I busted my ass) for me to able to go to X. In my mind a full ride and all the other perks should be sufficient compensation. I do however concede that a monthly stipend of an equal amount should be paid to all athletes.

[Xville]

Agree somewhat but not completely.

Is it really all that different than what was already going on with donations? I just think the school needs to be on the hook for 98% of this. It's their mess to wade through. It's their job to invest in more areas to fuel NIL. Hire a team, start knocking on business doors, kiss babies, create fundraising events, etc, etc. I'm sure that's in the gameplan.

Honestly, there is now no limit, where before you felt constrained by the rules. Who at X is hustling to get X players involved with local businesses and corporate sponsors? Expand the Marketing/Development team.

You want to throw together some campaigns to make the fans feel connected to it, fine - but there's a fine line between that and feeling like some of this falls on the fans. That's crazy to me. We already fund so much of it from tickets, concessions, donations, parking, tuition, etc, etc.

Agreed 1 million percent and couldn’t say it any better. If at some point “ the school” pays their own players and it’s wrapped up in ticket costs or whatever. Ok fine that is what it is and I can make that choice to attend if I want, but to ask separately for me to pay Johnny basketball money directly? lol kiss my ass. I firmly believe players should be paid. I also firmly believe that money shouldn’t have to come from x alumni and people who support the school and the athletic department.


Lastly, I believe people are worrying way too much about this nil and acting like it’s created an even bigger disadvantage. I’ll believe that when I actually see it. Up until now it’s been the opposite effect.

[bleedXblue]

I agree and this is exactly the point I was trying to make earlier. I make donations to Xavier University (primarily the All For One fund) and will continue to do so in the future. I’ll be damned if I’m going to write a check payable to Trey Green (nothing against Trey; I’m sure he is a fine young man).

A lot of people, including some on this board, feel players should be paid. I guess that’s an easy position to take when someone else is doing the paying. I’m in the camp where I don’t think players should be paid. My dad worked two jobs (and I busted my ass) for me to able to go to X. In my mind a full ride and all the other perks should be sufficient compensation. I do however concede that a monthly stipend of an equal amount should be paid to all athletes.

Agreed and this whole NIL should be based on market dynamics that can be validated. For example- if the Manning kid at Texas got 3M NIL to sign with Texas- where is the validation that his NIL was used and it has a market value of 3M. I could be wrong but dont think anyone is policing this and now its simply comes down to whos willing to fork over the dough to get him to sign- has nothing to do with NIL....

[MHettel]

I totally get that some people will choose not to contribute, even though they certainly can. That’s why they will never get 100% participation. But they don’t need to in order to bring in a huge hunk of money still. On the other hand, there are going to be people that are willing to put up 10-20-50-100 dollars a month or more and never give it a 2nd thought. Just as there are people that contribute every month to Xavier knowing full well that the money they contribute helps to fund academic scholarships. If you, or anyone else, choose not to contribute, so be it. I respect your decision.

But if someone chooses not to contribute , then I would consider it hypocritical of them to complain about Xavier not being able to recruit top level kids or about X being unable compete successfully against schools where they have large NIL funds.

TANSTAAFL……..there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. If you want to dance, you’ve got to pay the fiddler.

Im gonna stay away from doing any math this time....

This whole line of discussion might be occuring simultaneously on any number of college basketball message boards as we speak. The reality is, we have a FRACTION of the alumni that most state schools have. Add in all of the NON-Alumni fans that also love their state school and the potential population of people contributing is overwhelmingly in favor fo the big schools.

If you are relying on a fat cat to bankroll the program, the problem persists. Sure we have few of our own, but put a 10X on the alumni population for a buig schools and they will have far more than we do.

The old rules allowed our little Mom & Pop convenience store on the corner to survive and somewhat flourish in the land of Costco, Walmart and Home Depot. But as soon as the rules change and allow the big boys to weaponize their advantage, we become nostalgia.

NIL + Immediate Transfer rules is ground zero.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I like the idea of collectives having cool perks or rewards for fans who contribute. Now, I am not sure that the ones offered in the Final 2% are enough to persuade me to contribute but I think that is the route to go for trying to get the average fan to contribute. But I agree it should be on the schools to figure this out how to fund, not on those of us fans who already are paying for tickets and gear and concessions etc.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Not really related to anything other than talking about getting alumni to contribute but I may be one of the rare fans on this message board who did not go to X. I was thinking though about my other friends who are diehard Xavier fans that I text regularly with about X basketball. Of a group of 9 of us who all are big X basketball fans who text regularly about Xavier hoops, only 1 of us went to X for undergrad (1 went for grad school).

Obviously the number of non alumni X fans is much smaller than those of state schools (similar to the alumni numbers themselves) but there would be some who didn't go there who might contribute as well.

[drudy23]

I also tend to think "the Final 2%" is more of a marketing ploy than reality. Are we really only 2% away?

If so, we probably wouldn't need a campaign for the final 2%.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I also tend to think "the Final 2%" is more of a marketing ploy than reality. Are we really only 2% away?

If so, we probably wouldn't need a campaign for the final 2%.

The final 2% refers to getting over the hump to the Final 4. Was it Steele who said that in his press conference? Or did it start with another coach?

[drudy23]

The final 2% refers to getting over the hump to the Final 4. Was it Steele who said that in his press conference? Or did it start with another coach?

Hopefully we're not using anything Steele related in any of the marketing.

I just clicked the link to check it out, and I'm simply not interested in things even in the highest tier:

Virtual game film break-down with Coach - don't care
Merchandise - maybe, but have plenty
Shoot Around at Cintas with players - don't care - how about some open gym runs?
Virtual scouting break-down - don't care
Attend a practice - don't care
Birthday Shout-Out - don't care

Things I would care about:
- Preferential tickets to away games or NCAA tournament games
- Suite give-aways for high profile home games (or any home games for that matter)
- Preferential treatment toward seat upgrades
- Letting me practice with the team, or throw me into some pick up games - just to see what I can do lol
- Walk-on for a couple games, with the potential to play in the game lol
- Concession vouchers for each home game - $6 hot dog!!!