This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Gooood morning, winners. Thanks so much for rocking with us this morning. I hope you’re well and had an awesome Monday. College basketball is officially back.
Angel Reese has been one of the best players in college basketball for the last year. But instead of talking about how good she is, all anyone wants to talk about is her money. Specifically, it’s about how much money she’ll lose by turning pro.
The assertion is that Reese should delay her jump to the WNBA as long as possible because she makes more off her name, image and likeness in college than what she would in the league. The estimation for her NIL value is currently set at $1.7 million, according to On3 Sports. The current max salary in the WNBA is around $240,000. Salary caps for teams last year were about $1.4 million.
The conversation tends to go something like the one we saw on the TNT pre-game show between Brendan Haywood, Stephanie Ready and Renee Montgomery (who partially owns the Atlanta Dream, by the way!). You can listen here.
“She gonna have to take a pay cut when she go to the WNBA”
Why is this the message being pushed on TNT?? Why do people act like “NIL” style deals go away in the WNBA??? pic.twitter.com/LNj4TSicF1
— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) November 7, 2023
“You brought up NIL money,” Haywood said to his teammates. “She’s going to have to take a pay cut when she goes to the WNBA.” He wasn’t alone in his thinking.
Ready chimed in saying “That’s serious,” followed by Montgomery calling his words an “unfortunate fact.”
It’s easy to see how the conversation gets here. But it’s also very easy to see how reductive it is.
It doesn’t take very long to determine that Reese — or anyone else taking a pay cut — isn’t actually a fact as Montgomery said. It’s a narrative that has run a bit wild. So let’s tame it here.
Reese’s salary would actually be increasing because LSU doesn’t technically pay her to play basketball. Whatever team drafts her will. Let’s start there.
You might be asking “Well, what about her NIL deals? Won’t they go away?” And that’s not necessarily true, either. We have to realize that her NIL valuation is not a salary — it’s a valuation. It’s an estimation of what her likeness earns her on the open market.
If you look at the list of companies she’s working with, most of them don’t have anything to do with LSU or the state of Louisiana. She’s got deals with Reebok, AirBnb, Bose, Raising Canes, Amazon and more. Those deals won’t disappear just because she goes to the WNBA. Her image and likeness are still hers — not her school’s.
She may lose some deals here and there, sure, but the big ones won’t leave. Reese will still be visible. Plus, she’ll have a salary on top of that.
Look, there’s no debating that WNBA salaries need to be bumped up. With the way that league has grown, players deserve to be paid more. Especially when you’ve got some coaches earning more than double what their players make. That time is going to come.
In the meantime, can we please just talk about the game? Thanks in advance.
March Madness in November
Speaking of Reese and LSU, how about that loss to Colorado on Monday? It’s March in November, folks.
LSU’s 92-78 loss to Colorado was probably the most shocking. The roster is also stacked with star talent, including the All-American headliner Reese. Yet the team still found itself down by as many as 22 in the first quarter. Kim Mukley’s squad became the first defending D1 champion to lose its home opener since UConn in the 1995-96 season.
It wasn’t just LSU. Tom Izzo’s No. 4 Michigan State team was handed its first-ever home loss in November under the coach, according to ESPN. JMU came out on top of a 79-76 overtime thriller on Monday. Michigan State shot 1-20 from 3-point range. Tyson Walker scored 35 points on 26 shots, but no other starter scored more than nine.
The “Down goes Sparty” obligatory Twitter post from JMU was fantastic.
1-0 ✅#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/xaHizXkrBw
— JMU Men's Basketball (@JMUMBasketball) November 7, 2023
This is the most March-feeling November I can remember in quite some time, folks.
We’re still seeing the upsets we saw in the NCAA tournament last season. We’ll probably begin to see more in the regular season because of how talent spreads in the transfer portal. You don’t have to have a top recruiting class to win anymore.
Surely, the upsets won’t always be this big and dramatic. But we’re going to see more competitive balance in college hoops. And that’s going to be so fun to watch.
College hoops team or Christian Rock Band? Take the quiz!
Our Christian D’Andrea can only be described as a mad genius and you’re about to see why.
This dude created a quiz from the schools in the depths of college basketball hell that you might not have heard of.
Anyway, here’s how this guessing game works.
“While the NCAA women’s season kicked off with a pair of top 25 matchups, Monday’s men’s games were mostly littered with easy wins over outmatched opponents. Teams from Power 6 Conferences picked on mid-majors. Mid-majors picked on low-majors. And low-majors, in an effort to build some early momentum, invited some schools you probably may have never heard of to their home gymnasiums.
Thus, a challenge was born. This quiz is simple. All you have to do is tell me whether or not I’m naming a sub-Division I college basketball team that played a buy game on opening night or a contemporary Christian rock artist, as categorized by Wikipedia.”
I’ll be honest with y’all. I only got four of the 11 choices right and one was Dartmouth. I feel like that’s easy.
TRY YOUR HAND: Take Christian’s quiz here. It’s the most fun you’ll have on the internet today.
Quick hits: Is Alabama back?!?!? … The best moments from the ManningCast … and more
— Tyler Nettuno is back with his weekly winners and losers from college football and, yup, that’s Nick Saban’s music. Sign.
— Charles Curtis has the best moments from Monday Night Football’s ManningCast right here for you.
— Speaking of Monday Night Football, did Aaron Rodgers tell Derwin James he’d be back in a few weeks? This dude is wild.
— Here’s Christian and Robert Zeglinski with their weekly NFL power rankings detailing the Panther’s regret on Bryce Young.
— This Trevor Lawrence-Peyton Manning face swap is the stuff of nightmares. Please look at it. Cory Woodruff has it here.
— Robert Zeglisnki detailed why the Bills are doomed here. Don’t take your anger out on us, Bills fans.
That’s all, folks! Let’s do this again tomorrow. Thanks for reading. Until next time, peace.
-Sykes ✌️
