Rumor: Cole Hocker has signed with Nike

That Hobbs Kessler deal is looking worse all the time.

wild guess 473 wrote:

Assuming this is accurate, does this open the door for NIL contracts only in those situations where the university and NIL sponsors line up?

I can’t imagine you could have Nike giving shoes to Oregon while Oregon’s runners have separate NIL deals with Puma, Adidas, and New Balance.

It almost sounds like elite HS athletes need agents to help them pick which college to go to. What a nightmare.

The really talented kids already need a lot of expertise to make these decisions. At least now, there will be concrete benefits for the athletes, AND incentive for the shoe brands to generously support the big NCAA programs for recruiting purposes.

I’d worried that NIL deals could sap revenue from non-revenue sports, but that may not be the case for the big track schools.

mdoat hassan wrote:

That Hobbs Kessler deal is looking worse all the time.

Why? Hobbs signed with Adidas. NAU is an Adidas school. He could technically do the same exact thing and run for NAU

jboyough to wrote:

mdoat hassan wrote:

That Hobbs Kessler deal is looking worse all the time.

Why? Hobbs signed with Adidas. NAU is an Adidas school. He could technically do the same exact thing and run for NAU

Depends a lot on the terms of the deal. I had thought Hobbs signed before the NIL decision, which I assume involves sacrificing your eligibility.

RunRaider wrote:

jboyough to wrote:

Why? Hobbs signed with Adidas. NAU is an Adidas school. He could technically do the same exact thing and run for NAU

Depends a lot on the terms of the deal. I had thought Hobbs signed before the NIL decision, which I assume involves sacrificing your eligibility.

For example: NIL deals involve compensation for specific things: name, image, and likeness.

It’s not hard to imagine Nike signing such a deal with Hocker, presumably with a clause giving them the right to a more expansive deal after his eligibility expires.

Kessler’s deal is, by all accounts, a traditional professional deal with allowances for things like coaching stipends and performance incentives. (It’s been speculated that the upcoming schedule of consecutive World Championships and Olympics years played into Kessler’s decision to go pro now — he wants to earn $$$ from making those teams.) Kessler has said he’ll keep his current coach instead of going with Mike Smith — presumably adidas is paying for that. Kessler’s terms would fall outside the scope of an NIL deal.

It’ll depend how things shake out, but either could come out of these negotiations on top. Does Hocker lose out by not getting performance bonuses for going pro before the Trials and making performance bonuses? Does Kessler fail to make a few teams and miss out on both bonuses AND marketability as an NCAA champion? There are risks to either approach but Hocker’s path is unproven (assuming the NIL rumor is true, of course).

i think he has been successful with mid distance runners. not every runner sets world records. you can only get so much out of an athlete.

BenThomasTC wrote:

wild guess 473 wrote:

Assuming this is accurate, does this open the door for NIL contracts only in those situations where the university and NIL sponsors line up?

I can’t imagine you could have Nike giving shoes to Oregon while Oregon’s runners have separate NIL deals with Puma, Adidas, and New Balance.

It almost sounds like elite HS athletes need agents to help them pick which college to go to. What a nightmare.

I'm pretty sure there's a rule where it can't conflict with the school's existing sponsor (eg. Cole Hocker can't take a NIL deal with Adidas cause he's bind with Oregon and has to wear Nike when he's running).

I believe this is a state by state issue. The article I read said that Texas law permitted a school to nix a deal that was against its the school's interests, but that Tennessee law did not, and used the example of a kid at Tennessee signing with adidas.

When Rupp graduated from Oregon and officially went pro he got backpay for the time he spent running in the NCAA. I don't know enough about what a NIL deal entails (ie. are they by definition less lucrative than a normal pro deal, or can Nike pay somebody $300k for their name, image, and likeness?) but I assume something similar will happen for Hocker if he ends up staying at Oregon.

The Dirty Duck wrote:

BenThomasTC wrote:

I'm pretty sure there's a rule where it can't conflict with the school's existing sponsor (eg. Cole Hocker can't take a NIL deal with Adidas cause he's bind with Oregon and has to wear Nike when he's running).

My guess is that school contracts that infringe on athletes freedom to sign individual deals will be nullified under the new rules. Otherwise it would be easy for schools to circumvent the law. But I'm sure the courts will clarify and revise the laws for years to come.

The state of Oregon passed a NIL law that prevents (for example) Oregon athletes from signing NIL deals with Nike’s competitors. I call it Phil’s Law

Hah! wrote:

GaultFanboy12 wrote:

Closer sources to Hocker’s inner circle have confirmed he will sign with Nike, not Bowerman club yet but first to be confirmed a Nike running athlete. Expect this news to break in the next few days and be official

His career looks to be on a downward trend...

My guess is he’ll go up before he gets injured and done because he doesn’t have patience.

I’ve zero idea how he is at all but going based on the very little I’ve seen of his races.

I’d be surprised if he makes it to the next olympics. He obviously has talent which should be nurtured but I don’t think he has the patience to take a more gradual approach. Hope he doesn’t end up like that girl who was supposed to be the fastest in America and I’ve no idea what she’s up to now and also forgotten her name.

There are no official NCAA athletics records, only unofficial ones. This leads to contradictory positions like that old men's magazine Track & Field News not recognizing marks set after the collegiate season, like Hocker's, but recognizing high school records set after and outside of high school competition, like Alan Webb's high school mile record.

I find the subject very interesting, since it talks about things of interest to everything.

wild guess 473 wrote:

Assuming this is accurate, does this open the door for NIL contracts only in those situations where the university and NIL sponsors line up?

I can’t imagine you could have Nike giving shoes to Oregon while Oregon’s runners have separate NIL deals with Puma, Adidas, and New Balance.

It almost sounds like elite HS athletes need agents to help them pick which college to go to. What a nightmare.

I'm sure this wouldn't withstand a legal challenge. If an athlete's contract was limited to the school's sponsor, it would restrict their ability to make a contract, period. Pre-NIL contracts, I've seen Oregon runners wearing multiple shoe brands, not just the school's sponsor. They made individual deals, probably under the table.

Cole Hocker would be more interesting if he didn't sign with Nike.

charlie hunter also seems to be sticking around in eugene, based on social media

although in australia he'd have to quarantine/lockdown, so maybe he's just temporarily riding things out in eugene.

Charlie Hunter is 25. How can he still have eligibility left?

Eugenia wrote:

Charlie Hunter is 25. How can he still have eligibility left?

Not sure about his outdoor eligibility, but this indoor season didn’t count against anyones eligibility, so everyone can come back who was eligible last winter.

Indoors did count towards eligibility. The only one that didn't count was Cross Country in 2020

think hes on his way up wrote:

I’ve zero idea how he is at all

could have had a much more concise post just by saying this