Rumor: Cole Hocker has signed with Nike

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...

He should stay the hell away from BTC

Jerry ruins Mid-distance talents like no one else

He'll be joining a new training group in Oregon. One of his teammates, James West, let the cat out of the bag on the Sunday Plodcast. Teare will be joining as well

High hopes wrote:

He'll be joining a new training group in Oregon. One of his teammates, James West, let the cat out of the bag on the Sunday Plodcast. Teare will be joining as well

Episode? Timestamp?

hmm? wrote:

High hopes wrote:

He'll be joining a new training group in Oregon. One of his teammates, James West, let the cat out of the bag on the Sunday Plodcast. Teare will be joining as well

Episode? Timestamp?

Skip to 2:20ish

Interesting.

Sounds like a win for everybody.

Oregon gets to retain their athletes with remaining collegiate eligibility (Cole Hocker, Cooper Teare), post collegiate athletes coached by Thomas get to remain with him and have access to Hayward Field and it's facilities (James West, Neil Gourley), Nike get to associate themselves with a group of highly influential up and coming athletes and everyone gets a contract (NIL for Hocker/Teare, Pro for West/Gourley).

I'm not surprised this is the outcome as many have speculated this as the perfect setup which is now made possible by the new NCAA NIL rules. Especially with Oregon's ties with Nike, the ability for a deal to be setup was probably pushed by head coach Johnson so he could retain the depth of the distance squad.

Seems pretty straightforward with a few questions here and there.

Charlie Hunter? He's a 3:53 miler, NCAA champion, Olympic semi-finalist. I believe he still has eligibility so does he return to run for Oregon or go pro under this new group? Did he get an offer at all?

Reed Brown? He hasn't had the best season as of recent and hasn't shown too much potential to go pro? Does he still have eligibility left at Oregon or did he get any sort of offer?

A side note about Neil Gourley, he was previously with Nike OTC and seems like he got dropped in late 2020/early 2021? Do people get dropped by their sponsors and then resign 9 months later?

TLDR: James West spills the beans about a potential new Nike supported group with Ben Thomas as the coach with athletes including himself and Neil Gourley while Cole Hocker & Cooper Teare receive NIL deals to run at Oregon.

Nike aside, it's a good idea for Hocker and an interesting early test of the new rules.

Note: "It's definitely not set in stone at all." (3:15)

Now he can get unlimited access to the good Nike sauce.

If this is true then there is not much of a case to say he is the NCAA 1500m record holder.

There are in season records (he didn't even have the NCAA season best).

Post season records (Lagat and Wheating both ran faster than Hocker but their NCAA eligibility was up after NCAAs in those years).

Do you say he still had NCAA eligibility at the time he ran 3:31.40, therefore he ran the fastest 1500m time by an NCAA eligible athlete?

Exactly,let's see how much Mr 20secs in a year continues to improve.

Star wrote:

If this is true then there is not much of a case to say he is the NCAA 1500m record holder.

There are in season records (he didn't even have the NCAA season best).

Post season records (Lagat and Wheating both ran faster than Hocker but their NCAA eligibility was up after NCAAs in those years).

Do you say he still had NCAA eligibility at the time he ran 3:31.40, therefore he ran the fastest 1500m time by an NCAA eligible athlete?

No:

1) Sounds like it’ll be a NIL deal and he’ll still be in the NCAA

2) Either way he hadn’t gone pro by the time he ran in the Olympics

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.

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.

Maybe it’ll be a little messy but it’s MUCH better for elite athletes

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).

Good move by Hocker. He has done great under Ben Thomas and should stick with him,

And he still gets to complete for Oregon as well. I think this new NIL policy will keep star athletes in college longer.