Fed Ex just pledged $25 Million for the Memphis NIL fund
- Thread starter pittguy81
- Start date
Plenty are full time. I know contractors that have been with the same company for 10 years. The just prefer to be self employed, and a lot of companies like the simplicity of adding 1099 employees.
It doesn't matter how the money is paid by the University. NIL or a paycheck as a 1099 contractor, it's money paid to the athlete.
As a public company they have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders moreso than a local university.
Probably not a coincidence that this news breaks just as the Cal/Arkansas/Tyson/NIL deals are announced. Remember how Cal refused to play Arkansas when he was HC at Memphis. FedEx is stepping up to keep Tiger High relevant.
As an employee, a player would have more benefits and a contract which provides downside risk to both parties
That's not the scenario you were discussing.
Paying people for services who aren't employees with benefits happens all the time. It's not new or original.
This isn't the first time FedEx has been linked to providing significant financial support to Memphis athletics.
In 2010 there were reports that FedEx was going to offer a BCS league up to $10 million per year for 5 years to a BCS conference if they added Memphis to their league. Shortly after the story broke FedEx issued a denial of the story. That said the then CEO of Fedex's son had just transferred to Memphis so have to wonder if there was truth to the initial reports and FedEx denied it when there was shareholder backlash.
If the initial reports were true, I would have to suspect they thought the Big East would be the conference that might take them up on the offer; as it was by far the least stable of the BCS conferences and already had Cincinnati and Louisville in the league that were their most nature regional rivals back when they were all in Conference USA.
FedEx to offer a BCS conference $10 million/year to add Memphis?
FedEx denies offering financial incentives for adding Memphis to a BCS conference
In 2016 when the Big 12 was looking at expanding; FedEx, still at that point under the same CEO as when the 2010 reports came out, was pitching FedEx becoming a "significant sponsor" of the Big 12, should the league add Memphis. Because of that IMO there was probably some fire behind the smoke of the 2010 reports that FedEx was prepared to offer money for Memphis to be added to a BCS league.
FedEx may try to help buy Memphis' way into the Big 12
In 2010 there were reports that FedEx was going to offer a BCS league up to $10 million per year for 5 years to a BCS conference if they added Memphis to their league. Shortly after the story broke FedEx issued a denial of the story. That said the then CEO of Fedex's son had just transferred to Memphis so have to wonder if there was truth to the initial reports and FedEx denied it when there was shareholder backlash.
If the initial reports were true, I would have to suspect they thought the Big East would be the conference that might take them up on the offer; as it was by far the least stable of the BCS conferences and already had Cincinnati and Louisville in the league that were their most nature regional rivals back when they were all in Conference USA.
FedEx to offer a BCS conference $10 million/year to add Memphis?
FedEx denies offering financial incentives for adding Memphis to a BCS conference
In 2016 when the Big 12 was looking at expanding; FedEx, still at that point under the same CEO as when the 2010 reports came out, was pitching FedEx becoming a "significant sponsor" of the Big 12, should the league add Memphis. Because of that IMO there was probably some fire behind the smoke of the 2010 reports that FedEx was prepared to offer money for Memphis to be added to a BCS league.
FedEx may try to help buy Memphis' way into the Big 12
pittdan77
Athletic Director
They have a Board of Directors, who as a non-profit, reports to the public. They could literally lose non-profit status if they enter into above market deals for football player salaries. At least with FedEx, they can do whatever they want as long shareholders are cool with it
What is truly creative is that Virginia universities will be paying athletes an above market rate for services not really being provided (marketing and use of name, image, likeness), when the actual service is playing sports.
Do this in other fields and it is fraud, tax evasion or money laundering. It is all a charade to keep professional sports leagues under the guise of non-profit and to avoid Title IX.
My coworker's daughter is a scholarship athlete in VA. I told him to watch this carefully as this may crack the door to a Title IX settlement at these schools.
Someone has to clue me in on how the booster collectives, which are designed to lose money, are legal. I mean these collectives lose millions every year and that's the point. How does the IRS just look at them and say "well, you guys just must be really bad at marketing."
I dont see a huge difference in what these collectives do and if you or I formed some sham company simply to filter personal expenses through. The IRS would have a field day with that because the company is fake. Well, collectives are fake in a sense.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Not any that collect dividends but a lot of stakeholders would benefit from the money being spent to put their name on things like a building at the York Fairgrounds.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
They literally would not lose your status. They creatively find ways to justify every other goofy thing they blow money on so this wouldn't be any different. Would just be a bad look when they keep cutting staff and pay.
Non-profits need to report their activities and meet the gov't regs. I don't know the collective status. The collective payments are taxable to the players.
So is Fedex the same as Fred Smith??
Some are, some aren't.
Memphis collective partners with Champions for Literacy so contributions made to it through that charity are tax deductible.
Happy Valley United is a registered charity and gifts are tax delectable.
That is something I think has hurt Alliance 412. They do not have any tax deductible mechanism, and it is a problem, IMO.
UPMC also had an overall system operating margin of -0.7% in 2023, not including tax and interest payments which doubled the loss. In fact, health services was nearly -2%. For comparison to the other side of the state, Penn Med's operating margin was +2.4%. UPMC's operating margins have always been lower than what they'd otherwise have for their bond rating (which would be the absolute bottom of investment grade); they survive on scale, and revenue offset from the insurance arm and a large investment income pool. The narrative that because they had $28 billion in revenue, they have unlimited money to toss around, is false. They have 40+ hospitals to run and are in the middle of a major facilities building program. Some of those hospitals are not doing well. Big revenue numbers are meaningless without context.
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A contribution to the PSU pay for play salary fund is tax deductible? What???? I have a hard time believing that's true. Of course, 99% of us can't write off charitable contributions anymore thanks to the 2017 tax bill
This is a brilliant idea. Make the football players adjunct professors. They can teach fake classes for athletes and get paid to (not) teach them.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Not too different from some of the adjunct professors I had in school.
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