Purdue AD Mike Bobinski on NIL collectives: 'We've got to be in it'

The Boilermaker Alliance continues to gain momentum.

The Name, Image and Likeness collective that operates independently from Purdue Athletics imported a heavy-hitter with the addition of Drew Brees to its executive board last week.

"After (wife) Brittany and I first looked at what the Boilermaker Alliance was all about, it didn't take us long to say we were 'all in,' " said Brees at a press conference on Thursday to announce his affiliation with the NIL collective endorsed by Purdue. "This aligns perfectly with what we are all about, what Purdue is all about and what the experience and opportunities for student-athletes should be."

The Boilermaker Alliance is a nonprofit born earlier this year that is raising money for use in NIL endeavors for Purdue athletes.

“For right now, it is a reality," Purdue AD Mike Bobinski said on Gold and Black LIVE on Friday. "And it's something that we can't afford, I don't believe if we're truly trying to position ourselves for success, to look the other way and say we're just not going to participate in that. That's not an answer that I think makes sense for us. We've got to be in it.”

Purdue is in the NIL game, which doesn't appear to be going away. If anything, the concept that was approved in the summer of 2021 is gaining traction across the college landscape.

“I don't see any momentum or any tangible action to have it be otherwise,” said Bobinski. “It exists. It's in our world, at this point. And I think there's nothing that would eliminate the need to be active and to be at least competitive in that space here over the near term.”

The Boilermaker Alliance doesn’t act under the auspicious of the university. It’s a separate entity that operates independently under the guidance of Indianapolis attorney Jeff McKean, who is president of the collective.

“(The Boilermaker Alliance has) been so good about checking in along the way and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think? Does this feel right or not right?’ We can't direct it. That’s not the way these things work. But we've been philosophically connected throughout this as they've walked down the path and we really appreciate that.”

The Purdue athletic department still has its fund-raising efforts, as well. That causes a potential quandary: Where should donors channel their money?

“That is certainly a real issue and one that we think about a lot,” said Bobinski. “Our existing priorities haven't changed. We still need to fund our scholarships, we still need to fund endowments, we still need to fund capital projects. So, none of those priorities have left our plate here. They are all still active and haven't changed in scope. If anything, as you try to undertake stadium renovations, they've increased in scope. Those are high-dollar, high-cost issues.”

Bobinski’s worries are tempered by the fact the money needed for the Boilermaker Alliance won’t be as significant as the athletic department's needs. According to a Boilermaker Alliance press release, the organization intends to raise $6 million to support its mission.

“Even though it's real money and it's a significant amount of dollars that would need to be raised, it doesn't rise to the level of our scholarship bill or capital expenditure bill,” said Bobinski. “It's not at that level of magnitude. So, while I don't dismiss it at all, in terms of its difficulty in raising it, it's not something that I think will ever completely upside down our priorities nor disrupt them in a way that we still can't accomplish all of our ongoing goals.”

The ultimate desire for the Boilermaker Alliance would be to provide NIL for all Purdue athletes.

"That's absolutely the right aspirational goal to have with the understanding that in the short run, we need to make sure that we do what needs to be done and what allows us to be competitive in the sports where this is a real sort of issue that coaches come across every day at this point," said Bobinski.

Translation: Football and basketball are the priorities.

While collectives have been hatched across the nation, there are no guidelines on how much money they should raise from conference to conference or school to school, for that matter.

“I think that's really going to be much more of a local community or a fan base's ability to generate resources," said Bobinski. "That will differ from place to place, I think. It's just a reality that we're going to have to deal with. So, I don't know that I see any uniformity in dollar amount.”

While fund-raising goals will differ, Bobinski would like to see order brought to one aspect of collectives.

“I think we all in college athletics would like to see some uniformity and application in use, sort of eliminating the role of NIL/collectives in recruiting or inducements to transfer, all those sorts of things that were in theory to be prohibited by this and weren't part of this have all become part of it,” said Bobinski.

“So, finding a way to walk that backwards and get this to be what it was truly meant to be and that is providing compensation for legitimate activity or legitimate market value. If there's a way to do that ... there's lots of conversation going on on that front right now. I think everybody of ethical mind and thought wants things to move in that direction. It's just how do you do it? How do you actually move in that direction to get it back to what it was meant to be in the first place?”

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