What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

UMaine 25-26: Marques My Word: Back to the Big Time

AMC said:
To be fair, Barr did say that it was going to be a bit of a rebuilding year. We just didn't listen.
Click to expand...
Some of us did.

Just like some of us can see the freshmen are talented and are the strongest class if you factor in their contributions given it’s their first year.

Others are asking too much from freshmen and pinning success on them. Saying things like we should have used NIL money instead of building the addition. Blah blah.

They are ignoring the fact that your team should be carried by the upperclassmen in a traditionally well run program. So they are misguided in their thinking. I’ve pointed this out.

Perhaps Barr knew where the team was going to be and didn’t care for the recruiting that happened under Fortier and Soltys. I mean those two were the primary recruiters for the current senior, junior, and sophomore classes. I think the major junior being elligible saved the program from being very bad.

Let’s hope the two new coaches can feather in layers of good classes like this freshman class. I think if they continue to recruit major junior players it will help a lot.

Until then, we have a team that is average team in hockey east and that means Maine likely can’t make the ground now to get into the ncaa playoffs.

Kind of a bummer. Still a lot better than the Gendron days. This would be a good Gendron year, yet it is likely the most disappointing for Barr. Program is at different level and expectations are much higher.
 
AMC said:
To be fair, Barr did say that it was going to be a bit of a rebuilding year. We just didn't listen.
Click to expand...
This and I cant help but think that the expectations by many were just too high for this season. Win hockey east and then what frozen four the next season after losing the players they did. Nah.
 
Support for NIL at UMaine, having an event before the Jan 31st game.

beardowncollective.org

Home - Bear Down Collective

NAME. IMAGE.LIKENESS. BDC is a way for all fans, at every contribution level to invest in student-athletes Membership. Fans of the University of Maine now have the opportunity to support student-athletes directly by joining Bear Down Collective. Each membership level offers exclusive benefits...
beardowncollective.org beardowncollective.org
 
walrus said:
Support for NIL at UMaine, having an event before the Jan 31st game.

beardowncollective.org

Home - Bear Down Collective

NAME. IMAGE.LIKENESS. BDC is a way for all fans, at every contribution level to invest in student-athletes Membership. Fans of the University of Maine now have the opportunity to support student-athletes directly by joining Bear Down Collective. Each membership level offers exclusive benefits...
beardowncollective.org beardowncollective.org
Click to expand...
How does this work? I understand where a business sponsors players with nil in return for promotional benefits. This organization was established solely to support the athletes with nil money and isnt a business looking to be promoted by the athletes. Probably every school has a similar supporting organization. Is a player going to wear a tshirt around that says bear down collective, probably not. So somehow the laws associated with nil allow for monetary support from organizations that are set up a certain way. Wonder what the parameters are around that.
 
NorthMike said:
How does this work? I understand where a business sponsors players with nil in return for promotional benefits. This organization was established solely to support the athletes with nil money and isnt a business looking to be promoted by the athletes. Probably every school has a similar supporting organization. Is a player going to wear a tshirt around that says bear down collective, probably not. So somehow the laws associated with nil allow for monetary support from organizations that are set up a certain way. Wonder what the parameters are around that.
Click to expand...

Usually they figure out some sort of bare minimum thing for the athletes to do, from the FAQ:

WHAT TYPES OF NIL OPPORTUNITIES DOES BEAR DOWN COLLECTIVE HELP ACTIVATE?
Bear Down Collective offers University of Maine-Orono student-athletes near limitless opportunities to engage in NIL activations, including: autograph signings, social media promotions, camps and clinics, charity events, special appearances, commercials and many more!
Click to expand...

But that also brings me to my other complaint:

1. If this is what the University wants fans contributing to (i.e. it's the semi-official way to do this), maybe they ought to put more care into who they partner with in order TO GET THE NAME OF THE DAMN SCHOOL CORRECT. It's "University of Maine-Orono" everywhere! That hasn't been the name since the 80's! I have no idea what that logo is, but it isn't a UMaine mark, and it makes it look like there's no approval from the school. It makes it look like a slip-shod operation and raises questions about its authenticity when you can't get things right.

2. If this isn't THE outlet, what is THE outlet? Is there a THE outlet?

Again, I don't expect Maine to set up what an SEC school does, but if you go to the University of Georgia athletics website there is a big link that says "Name Image and Likeness." There's a statement from the Athletic Director, with his picture! There's a link to "The Georgia Bulldogs Exchange" that uses the school's actual logo!

And, again x2, if this isn't what UMaine wants to do, if the plan is to do without NIL, or cover it with quiet conversations with a select few bigger donors, that's fine! But set the expectations! Give an interview with someone being like "listen, we don't know what's going to happen with college athletics, but we are leery of jumping in with both feet and want to take our time and not make big commitments right now" so that we can all at least understand and expect not to go toe-to-toe with BC and BU or whoever!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top