A Message from Coach Verdi about Pitt WBB

[CrazyPaco]

Good afternoon!

It gives me great excitement to reach out and connect with you. My goal moving forward is to send out a regular email that will give you direct insight into our women’s basketball program. I will share details about the program, as I would like you all to feel involved. As I said the day that I was hired - I cannot do this alone. We need everyone. We are all in this together!

With that being said, this month is very important for our program. Just recently our season came to an end, and I know you may be just as disappointed as I am with the results. But let’s not allow the results of season one to cloud our vision for our future success. If we want those results to change, then we need to change. The college athletics landscape is changing and whether you agree or disagree with the changing landscape, it is imperative to embrace the changes so we can help this program reach great heights.

As you may be aware, the transfer portal is open, allowing student-athletes to declare their intent to transfer. My goal is to recruit the best student athletes that I can. I want you to be proud of them. I want you to feel good about the women I’m bringing here to represent our program and this great university. In order to recruit the high-level recruits that will make this program great, we need to be able to provide competitive NIL opportunities for our Pitt student-athletes.

Currently, those high-level players are receiving significant compensation for NIL opportunities. Our goal is to raise $200,000 to support our student-athletes in this new landscape of college athletics. As I communicated earlier, we can either turn a blind eye to the new reality of college athletics or embrace it. If we want to catapult this program to national prominence, then we need to be ALL IN.

I am incredibly grateful to the preferred NIL Collective of Pitt Athletics, Alliance 412.They work tirelessly to help our student-athletes to maximize their NIL opportunities, while also making an impact on our community. The best way for you to help elevate the Pitt Women’s Basketball program is to support Alliance 412. To make a contribution to Alliance 412, please click here.

I’m here today to ask you to help in any way that you can. My goal is to connect all alumnae, family, and friends of the program. I want us to do better, and I am going to be that vehicle. I promise you will get my best but I cannot do it without you. Come be a part of something special. Help me put this program on top of the toughest conference in the country. Just imagine that feeling when we do get there. I can see it now and I hope you can too. When we’re cutting down the nets, you’re right there too.

In the meantime, please share my story with your colleagues, friends, family, teammates or anyone you think might want to be part of this program becoming great. Together, I know that we can win and win BIG! Anything is possible!

My Best!

Tory Verdi
Pitt Head Women’s Basketball Coach

 

[NCPitt]

I hope that SMF doesn't see this.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I hope that SMF doesn't see this.

It looks like they are aiming for a player payroll of $200K. If they can raise that, great for them. If Pitt fans out there want to contribute to pay players from the non-revenue sports, more power to them. My stance is that for the contributions which arent earmarked for any one team, it should go to men's basketball first before football because it doesn't take much to get a potential Final Four roster in basketball. $2 million? I don't think a dime of the non-earmarked contributions should go to non-revenue sports athletes for obvious reasons. I am sorry if that hurts feelings but we have 2 pro teams and 10 or whatever other teams that exist only because the NCAA requires it.

 

[NCPitt]

He saw it.

 

[Las Panteras]

It looks like they are aiming for a player payroll of $200K. If they can raise that, great for them. If Pitt fans out there want to contribute to pay players from the non-revenue sports, more power to them. My stance is that for the contributions which arent earmarked for any one team, it should go to men's basketball first before football because it doesn't take much to get a potential Final Four roster in basketball. $2 million? I don't think a dime of the non-earmarked contributions should go to non-revenue sports athletes for obvious reasons. I am sorry if that hurts feelings but we have 2 pro teams and 10 or whatever other teams that exist only because the NCAA requires it.

I want to thank Paco for sharing.

I also want to thank SMF for his view even though feather ruffling.....i admire the conviction.

I have made my position clear. I am not paying players.

That said, I have softened up a bit. Part of me wants to be part of a grass roots effort to help out the sports that need it most.

Im gonna kick a few bucks to WBB

I also am going to send some cash to baseball. Why? Because this guy Coach Bell saw a future here when nobody gave baseball a passing glance. And while Pitt baseball will always struggle in the ACC....if I had to guess...a lot of coaches looking to move up would not even consider Pitt baseball.

Grass roots effort. I hope others may consider.

 

[NJPFAN]

I wonder where he pulled his mailing list from? Who received this note? And why were they chosen?

 

[CrazyPaco]

I wonder where he pulled his mailing list from? Who received this note? And why were they chosen?

Women's hoops season ticket holders and/or donors.

 

[CrazyPaco]

I want to thank Paco for sharing.

I also want to thank SMF for his view even though feather ruffling.....i admire the conviction.

I have made my position clear. I am not paying players.

That said, I have softened up a bit. Part of me wants to be part of a grass roots effort to help out the sports that need it most.

Im gonna kick a few bucks to WBB

I also am going to send some cash to baseball. Why? Because this guy Coach Bell saw a future here when nobody gave baseball a passing glance. And while Pitt baseball will always struggle in the ACC....if I had to guess...a lot of coaches looking to move up would not even consider Pitt baseball.

Grass roots effort. I hope others may consider.

This is right out of the Nish Vartabedian playbook... the smaller budgets of other sports means people's gifts can have much greater impacts on them.

 

[Nish67]

Wow, thanks for the mention Paco. My stance is still the same. My first Alliance 412 pledge was for WBB. I did make an exception, SMF, actually yesterday with a pledge to MBB.

 

[Pitt_Boss]

I'll make the case for the non-revenue sports NIL donations:

It is a truly great con that power D1 universities will take in millions and millions of dollars in revenue for football and men's basketball, and then expect their customers to pay the players' salaries. Not even Bob Nutting would try such a scam. There is plenty of money to pay those players, the universities are just too greedy to share it. You become an enable to this scam when you make a NIL donation to pay those players.

By comparison, the non-revenue sports by definition have no revenue stream to pay players. So, if they don't get NIL donations, they will just never pay these athletes. So a NIL donation to a men's soccer team or women's basketball team truly has much more impact to the actual athletes. You a providing them some modest income for folks largely are living on meager means.

 

[Black_Man_Panther]

I'll make the case for the non-revenue sports NIL donations:

It is a truly great con that power D1 universities will take in millions and millions of dollars in revenue for football and men's basketball, and then expect their customers to pay the players' salaries.

You realize that up until the lawsuit filed in TN by UT and VT, the NCAA forbid universities from paying players directly, right? And now that the NCAA extended their losing streak in the court room, the universities CAN pay the players. Get over it.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

You realize that up until the lawsuit filed in TN by UT and VT, the NCAA forbid universities from paying players directly, right? And now that the NCAA extended their losing streak in the court room, the universities CAN pay the players. Get over it.

That wasnt what that lawsuit was about. Teams still cannot pay players directly but are going to be allowed to contribute to collectives so the collectives can pay them, but only up to 30K I believe

The TN lawsuit prohibited the NCAA from making players ineligible if they are induced by NIL money to pick a school. So, now, you are officially allowed to use NIL money to offer players as a recruiting inducement. Go ahead and try to make our multi-million dollar QB ineligible.

 

[CrazyPaco]

I'll make the case for the non-revenue sports NIL donations:

It is a truly great con that power D1 universities will take in millions and millions of dollars in revenue for football and men's basketball, and then expect their customers to pay the players' salaries. Not even Bob Nutting would try such a scam. There is plenty of money to pay those players, the universities are just too greedy to share it. You become an enable to this scam when you make a NIL donation to pay those players.

By comparison, the non-revenue sports by definition have no revenue stream to pay players. So, if they don't get NIL donations, they will just never pay these athletes. So a NIL donation to a men's soccer team or women's basketball team truly has much more impact to the actual athletes. You a providing them some modest income for folks largely are living on meager means.

Well, they couldn't pay players legally, still can't until they become employees which is bound to happen down the road. But keep in mind the NCAA mandates universities field 16 sports, 14 of which are money-losing Olympic sports in order to compete in Division 1 FBS, and operations of all those sports are entirely funded by football and men's basketball. Most athletic departments outside the Big Ten and SEC lose money. Pitt's athletic department loses money and has to be subsidized by the university. College athletics still isn't some professional model of sports where the Steelers bring in the big bucks and can pay their roster....this is a case where Pitt football brings in the medium bucks and that has to support the 17 other money-losing sports that Pitt is essentially mandated to field.

Think of Pitt's most successful sport... Pitt volleyball...the total gate receipts for 2022, a 31-4, conference champion, final four season.... was $98,223. That's right, total gate was less than $100K. That likely doesn't even cover the cost of staging the home games, let alone travel, but might cover the cost of one assistant. Think how a donation of even modest size can impact even a sport as successful as volleyball when that sport has to rely on the revenue of other teams in order to operate.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Women's hoops season ticket holders and/or donors.

That doesn't seem right, because I've been a season ticket holder and a donor for at least 15 years and I didn't get one.

Maybe Coach Verdi doesn't like me!

😢

 

[Pitt_Boss]

You all realize that when you say Universities can't pay the athletes directly/make them employees that is only because of their own rules preventing it?!

The Universities don't want to pay the athletes directly or make them employees. If they wanted to do these things, it would get done so fast changing the regulations to make it happen. They don't want to because they don't want to share their money with the athletes that help them earn it.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

That doesn't seem right, because I've been a season ticket holder and a donor for at least 15 years and I didn't get one.

Maybe Coach Verdi doesn't like me!

😢

I was wondering that too because I am Panther Club, A412, and men's football/bball season tickets and didnt get that email. Perhaps he was told he couldn't contact the small fish like us as they want smaller donors to focus on football/bball so they gave him the whale list thinking like a few 10K donations could go a long way. You can make a case for the inverse of this however so who knows. I guess the women's team isn't after the SMFN fortune.

 

[CrazyPaco]

You all realize that when you say Universities can't pay the athletes directly/make them employees that is only because of their own rules preventing it?!

The Universities don't want to pay the athletes directly or make them employees. If they wanted to do these things, it would get done so fast changing the regulations to make it happen. They don't want to because they don't want to share their money with the athletes that help them earn it.

An individual university does not make its own rules. There are 363 D1 members and 723 additional D2 and D3 members, so it is not like Pitt can just arbitrarily decide on its own to start paying players. Individual schools don't operate in a vacuum.

And yes, the vast majority of schools don't want to pay players because they loose money on athletics, just like Pitt does (2022-23: -$40m). Similar to how the University of Pittsburgh doesn't operate in a vacuum within the system of college athletics, Pitt football does not operate in a vacuum within the Department of Athletics.

 

[CrazyPaco]

I was wondering that too because I am Panther Club, A412, and men's football/bball season tickets and didnt get that email. Perhaps he was told he couldn't contact the small fish like us as they want smaller donors to focus on football/bball so they gave him the whale list thinking like a few 10K donations could go a long way. You can make a case for the inverse of this however so who knows. I guess the women's team isn't after the SMFN fortune.

Are you a women's basketball season ticket holder or have you specifically given to women's basketball?

 

[CrazyPaco]

That doesn't seem right, because I've been a season ticket holder and a donor for at least 15 years and I didn't get one.

Maybe Coach Verdi doesn't like me!

😢

check your spam folder...I don't know...this is why I posted it. He only is sending to the contact list the athletic department provides to him. I can tell you that you have to be pretty proactive because they don't seem to maintain lists well.

 

[MajorMajors]

That message was in my “Junk” folder. 👍

Makes me wonder how much the Coach and the coaches will donate. Like for what he’s being paid, seems like Coach Duzz should donate a bundle to Alliance 412…

Go Pitt.

 

[Pitt_Boss]

An individual university does not make its own rules. There are 363 D1 members and 723 additional D2 and D3 members, so it is not like Pitt can just arbitrarily decide on its own to start paying players. Individual schools don't operate in a vacuum.

And yes, the vast majority of schools don't want to pay players because they loose money on athletics, just like Pitt does (2022-23: -$40m). Similar to how the University of Pittsburgh doesn't operate in a vacuum within the system of college athletics, Pitt football does not operate in a vacuum within the Department of Athletics.

Yeah, I never said anything about Pitt specifically. The Universities as a class are the ones preventing this from happening. The universities are making a profit in the revenue sports. If they choose to use that profit to subsidize other student activities (i.e. non-revenue sports), that is their choice. But the athletes in the revenue sports are generating revenue for the university and deserve to be compensated.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Are you a women's basketball season ticket holder or have you specifically given to women's basketball?

No

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

check your spam folder

Unless it was disguised as something from "Cheech & Chong Cruise Chews" it wasn't there either.

😢

Although I have to admit, now I'm wondering just what in the heck "Cheech & Chong Cruise Chews" are. I mean not enough to open the email, but come on, how could you not want to know?

 

[CrazyPaco]

Yeah, I never said anything about Pitt specifically. The Universities as a class are the ones preventing this from happening. The universities are making a profit in the revenue sports. If they choose to use that profit to subsidize other student activities (i.e. non-revenue sports), that is their choice. But the athletes in the revenue sports are generating revenue for the university and deserve to be compensated.

Fielding olympic sports is actually not a choice for any university wishing to participate in the NCAA. They must field non-revenue sports. There is no choice there.

As I said, the vast majority of athletic departments don't bring in enough money from revenue sports to cover all their required other sports. Pitt never has.

 

[CrazyPaco]

No

Then why would you expect to be on a communications list for women's basketball?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

They must field non-revenue sports. There is no choice there. If they don't, they can't field the revenue ones.

Lets say Alabama wants to cut all sports but football and basketball and just have 3-4 women's teams to comply with Title IX. What's the NCAA going to do? Kick them out? The Alabama AG would sue the NCAA then a federal judge in Alabama would rule in Alabama's favor. You can do anything you want now.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Lets say Alabama wants to cut all sports but football and basketball and just have 3-4 women's teams to comply with Title IX. What's the NCAA going to do? Kick them out? The Alabama AG would sue the NCAA then a federal judge in Alabama would rule in Alabama's favor. You can do anything you want now.

Until a lawsuit changes that, they would no longer be D1.

But why would they? Alabama is one of the schools on top of the food chain. They are one of the few athletic departments not losing money on their overall athletic department.

In any case, 3-4 women's sports is not going to cover federal Title IX concerns when you have 85 football scholarships + 13 men's basketball scholarships. And the consideration for compliance isn't just scholarship numbers, it is also equivalent opportunities and experiences (meaning you can't just be cheap with them). FYI, the NCAA also requires a minimum of 8 women's varsity sports as well as either a minimum of 200 scholarships or an expenditure of $4 million on scholarships in order to maintain D1 FBS membership.

BTW, it is also a requirement of ACC membership. Each ACC member has to field the D1 FBS minimum of 16 sports, and is specifically required to field both men's and women's basketball and one of either women's soccer or women's volleyball.

 

[CrazyPaco]

That message was in my “Junk” folder. 👍

Makes me wonder how much the Coach and the coaches will donate. Like for what he’s being paid, seems like Coach Duzz should donate a bundle to Alliance 412…

Go Pitt.

Well, we know Duzz has annually donated to the university because he is always on the public donor lists.

 

[Las Panteras]

Lets say Alabama wants to cut all sports but football and basketball and just have 3-4 women's teams to comply with Title IX. What's the NCAA going to do? Kick them out? The Alabama AG would sue the NCAA then a federal judge in Alabama would rule in Alabama's favor. You can do anything you want now.

This is yet another reason the bigs are going to leave the NCAA.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Until a lawsuit changes that, they would no longer be D1.

But why would they? Alabama is one of the schools on top of the food chain. They are one of the few athletic departments not losing money on their overall athletic department.

In any case, 3-4 women's sports is not going to cover federal Title IX concerns when you have 85 football scholarships + 13 men's basketball scholarships. And the consideration for compliance isn't just scholarship numbers, it is also equivalent opportunities and experiences (meaning you can't just be cheap with them). FYI, the NCAA also requires a minimum of 8 women's varsity sports as well as either a minimum of 200 scholarships or an expenditure of $4 million on scholarships in order to maintain D1 FBS membership.

BTW, it is also a requirement of ACC membership. Each ACC member has to field the D1 FBS minimum of 16 sports, and is specifically required to field both men's and women's basketball and one of either women's soccer or women's volleyball.

Alabama wouldn't need to do this but I was just using an example. Just about any NCAA rule would be invalidated in court. They are on a longer streak in court than Trump. The courts have basically said the NCAA cant have any rules. Although I hate the NCAA, I dont fully understand how the courts continually side against the NCAA's rules. Not a lawyer but I would think that organizations like the NCAA have the right to set their own rules.

 

[Pitt_Boss]

Fielding olympic sports is actually not a choice for any university wishing to participate in the NCAA. They must field non-revenue sports. There is no choice there.

As I said, the vast majority of athletic departments don't bring in enough money from revenue sports to cover all their required other sports. Pitt never has.

I didn't say not to field Olympic sports. I said using the money generated by revenue sports to pay for those Olympic sports is a choice. Of course the money for the Olympic sports needs to come from somewhere, but it's disingenuous to pretend that the athletes in football and men's basketball aren't generating millions in PROFIT for Universities just because that profit is used to pay other bills. Just as I'm typing this, a new proposal for an 80 team college Super League for football that pays the players is being discussed. So, at least for football, the schools maybe finally admitting this.

Anyway, the original point of my posts in this thread was to donate money for NIL for non-revenue sports because the athletes in those sports will never get paid (or not anytime soon), so their best bet for compensation is NIL.

 

[CrazyPaco]

I didn't say not to field Olympic sports. I said using the money generated by revenue sports to pay for those Olympic sports is a choice. Of course the money for the Olympic sports needs to come from somewhere, but it's disingenuous to pretend that the athletes in football and men's basketball aren't generating millions in PROFIT for Universities just because that profit is used to pay other bills. Just as I'm typing this, a new proposal for an 80 team college Super League for football that pays the players is being discussed. So, at least for football, the schools maybe finally admitting this.

Anyway, the original point of my posts in this thread was to donate money for NIL for non-revenue sports because the athletes in those sports will never get paid (or not anytime soon), so their best bet for compensation is NIL.

You can discuss all the future hypotheticals that you want, but the last 50 years of college athletics operations is not a hypothetical, and the operations of revenue and non-revenue sports are tied together financially because at nearly every single university, they function under the same operating unit.