why do we think chael has any idea what he's talking about?No one was thinking a "few thousand". Chael specifically stated $400k just to compete in the post season next year. That is two tournaments. That's a lot of money for a niche sport. To treat that nonchalantly and act like people are crazy for suggesting that's a lot of money when 95% of programs simply have no NIL market for their wrestlers whatsoever is ****ing crazy.
Comparing it to celebrity endorsements is laughable. NIL isn't being used primarily as a mechanism to profit off athletes endorsing products. It's being used as a means of buying athletes to compete at your school in a sport that mostly doesn't generate profit. You keep talking about it as if there is economic value and ROI to these NIL deals. That's rarely the case with wrestling. It's mega rich men throwing money at athletes so their favorite sports team can win. They aren't doing it to get a financial ROI.
psu is notoriously tight-lipped about these things
chael has a history of saying wild shit to get people to pay attention to him
chael has a podcast and a financial interest in creating content (a huge disincentive to keep anything he hears to himself)
considering all that...we think chael sonnen is the guy to finally get a leak from a relatively trusted/close to the program source as to a specific number for a wrestler (something that i don't think has ever really come out before)?