I have had some conversations lately with people at Alliance 412, and I thought I would share a few things they’ve told me.
- Membership is short of what it needs to be. We saw this week that Michigan State’s primary collective basically folded up shop due to a lack of support from fans. The group was driven by a mega-booster, but with fewer than 100 contributing members, that mega-booster threw in the towel because he felt like he couldn’t do it all himself.
Obviously, Pitt has a mega-booster in Chris Bickell, who is doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind Alliance 412. I don’t think he’s going to bail the way the MSU guy did, and I also think Alliance 412 has some other big boosters making significant contributions. But right now, Pitt’s collective has about 225 members; that’s more than MSU had but less than a Power Five school probably needs to succeed.
- The impression I get in talking to people at Alliance 412 is that success, in this case, is defined by having some of those bigger boosters at the top but a strong base of fans filling out the foundation of the collective. They put it to me this way:
If Pitt has 20,000 season ticket holders (that number is probably a bit lower than reality, but let's go with it). If half of those people gave $10 per month, it adds up to $100,000 from the group - or $1.2 million per year.
That’s not quite the same as Ole Miss raising $3 million in like a week or something, but it’s enough to put Pitt on the right path to being competitive in this landscape.
- Say what you will about that landscape, but it’s impossible to deny that it exists. The programs that succeed will be the ones that can navigate the landscape. The programs that fail to adapt to it are going to fall behind. We’re already seeing this play out in 2023 across the country.
- Adding Doug Whaley to the Alliance 412 team is a strong move. Most people around here know his bona fides; the key in this role is that he’s got executive experience in an NFL personnel role.
- Here’s the last thing I’ll share from some of the conversations I’ve had: the people at Alliance 412 are just as frustrated about this season as you are. Maybe more. But I think they view the collective as a means to helping the team improve in the new world of college sports.
- Membership is short of what it needs to be. We saw this week that Michigan State’s primary collective basically folded up shop due to a lack of support from fans. The group was driven by a mega-booster, but with fewer than 100 contributing members, that mega-booster threw in the towel because he felt like he couldn’t do it all himself.
Obviously, Pitt has a mega-booster in Chris Bickell, who is doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind Alliance 412. I don’t think he’s going to bail the way the MSU guy did, and I also think Alliance 412 has some other big boosters making significant contributions. But right now, Pitt’s collective has about 225 members; that’s more than MSU had but less than a Power Five school probably needs to succeed.
- The impression I get in talking to people at Alliance 412 is that success, in this case, is defined by having some of those bigger boosters at the top but a strong base of fans filling out the foundation of the collective. They put it to me this way:
If Pitt has 20,000 season ticket holders (that number is probably a bit lower than reality, but let's go with it). If half of those people gave $10 per month, it adds up to $100,000 from the group - or $1.2 million per year.
That’s not quite the same as Ole Miss raising $3 million in like a week or something, but it’s enough to put Pitt on the right path to being competitive in this landscape.
- Say what you will about that landscape, but it’s impossible to deny that it exists. The programs that succeed will be the ones that can navigate the landscape. The programs that fail to adapt to it are going to fall behind. We’re already seeing this play out in 2023 across the country.
- Adding Doug Whaley to the Alliance 412 team is a strong move. Most people around here know his bona fides; the key in this role is that he’s got executive experience in an NFL personnel role.
- Here’s the last thing I’ll share from some of the conversations I’ve had: the people at Alliance 412 are just as frustrated about this season as you are. Maybe more. But I think they view the collective as a means to helping the team improve in the new world of college sports.
