Darts were flying, and the beer pitchers needed refilling. While it was a Wednesday night in July, it sure felt like a Friday or a Saturday — despite the rest of the bar being empty.
Various Division 1 college assistant coaches sat at the bar and tables at Wingnutz Bar and Grill in Amherst, N.Y. It was a long day of watching game after game after game at USA Hockey’s Select 17 Camp.
It was July 9. One day before, Gavin McKenna, the presumptive No. 1 pick for next June’s NHL Draft, announced his intention to leave the Medicine Hat Tigers of Canada’s Western Hockey League to join Penn State in the NCAA.
The public reaction: This was ground-breaking. McKenna reportedly would net $700,000 in NIL (name, image and likeness) money to attend Penn State. He became the biggest domino to fall ever since a U.S. federal court ruling broke down the wall between the Canadian Hockey League and the NCAA.
So, naturally, the McKenna decision was the primary topic among these college coaches.
Predictions about his point value — somewhere in the 55- to 60-point range was the popular answer. How would he do against older, stronger competition? Would he be worth the money Penn State was reportedly giving him? What would make him not worth that money?
Eventually, the conversation turned big picture.
Just exactly how many more CHL prospects are going to do this? How would this impact recruiting? Was the $700K that McKenna reportedly drew in an outlier or the new floor for high-end prospects looking to play college hockey?
Since many of these were coaches from Eastern schools, there were questions about the Big Ten and the money those schools could offer to prospects.
How would this impact Hockey East and other top Eastern Division 1 programs?
They didn’t know. And from talking to many other Division 1 coaches over the past month, the common answer was that they didn’t know, either.
“It’s the California gold rush right now,” former Merrimack assistant coach Jimmy Mullin said.
So, what kind of impact will NIL and revenue sharing have on college hockey and the recruiting landscape?
And is it true that Big Ten schools hold the cards?
The basics
Beginning on July 1, 2021, college athletes became eligible to earn income based on their name, image and likeness. It came from the Supreme Court’s decision in NCAA v. Alston. A landmark decision, college athletes could now be paid outside of their scholarship. Still, schools couldn’t directly pay players.
That changed on June 6.
In House v. NCAA, three federal antitrust lawsuits were settled. All three claimed that the NCAA illegally limited the earning power of players. In return, the NCAA will pay $2.8 billion over the next 10 years to collegiate players from 2016 to now.
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The biggest long-term impact, however, was that starting July 1, schools can pay their athletes through revenue sharing, and there’s a cap for each school that is slated to go up every year. Each school has a pool of up to $20.5 million this coming season.
“We never thought we’d be doing this,” UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford said.
Since House v. NCAA, the College Sports Commission was created to ensure all went smoothly with revenue sharing. They partnered with Deloitte and will monitor NIL deals through the “NIL Go” portal. Players will report third-party NIL deals to the portal, and NIL Go is charged with making sure they comply with the rules.
Enforcing this can be difficult. Players are now making money before they arrive in college. While football and men’s basketball dominate headlines, men’s hockey can fly under the radar.
“In the past couple of years, most of the money that was coming into collectives was coming from donors,” Bamford said. “They’re trying to cut off that pay-for-play from donors and make it legitimate business opportunities for student-athletes.”
UMass doesn’t generate enough revenue to disperse the full $20.5 million to players. But because the NCAA eliminated sport-specific scholarship caps in that House v. NCAA settlement, hockey teams can put 26 players on scholarship instead of 18.
“We’re going to use a combination. More in aid, and some of the additional benefits that the NCAA allows us to provide, like cost of attendance and Alston payments,” Bamford said. “We’re going to do more of that than actual NIL. We’re going to do some NIL in hockey, but we’re going to do a combination of those two.
“Once we fill all the buckets that the NCAA allows you to fill, then if we want to pay a student-athlete beyond that for their name, image and likeness, we will do that.”
One roadblock to non-United States citizens earning money through collegiate sports is their student visas. Any deal over $600 must be disclosed and could impact the student visa.
As an example, UMass, like many college hockey teams, rosters several players from outside the United States every season. Finding ways to pay them without interfering with their student visa can be difficult.
“We try to build in what we would describe as passive income,” Bamford said. “Using their name, image and likeness on tickets, on marketing materials for a corporate sponsor to use them in their social media. But things like showing up and signing autographs, being at an event or being at the opening of a store — that’s considered in the realm of employment like an independent contractor.”
While UMass won’t hit the $20.5 million cap in revenue sharing, many schools in the power conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC) certainly will.
The Big Ten competes in college hockey. There’s always been a recruiting competition between the Midwestern schools (Big Ten and NCHC) vs. the Eastern schools (Hockey East and ECAC).
There’s a perception that things are about to change.
Paying everybody
In early June, Cayden Lindstrom decided he was going to play at Michigan State this season. He was picked fourth in the 2024 NHL Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets and spent the last four seasons in the WHL.
On July 21, Porter Martone also announced his commitment to Michigan State this season. Martone was fresh off being picked sixth in the NHL Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers. The 6-foot-3 power forward spent the previous three years in the OHL.
Like McKenna, this was big — and so was the likely price to get both players. Another big win for the Big Ten, right?
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Yes, but that’s not the full story.
There certainly will be more money generated by teams at Michigan State than at Boston University. But Michigan State and its Big Ten counterparts have more mouths to feed.
“That $20.5 million runs out pretty quickly when you’re paying for football and basketball,” Bamford said.
The Big 10 is known for its high-end football and men’s basketball, which is where the majority of the money across all college conferences is going — first football, then men’s basketball. After that, it’s men’s hockey, according to NIL-NCAA.com. Payouts to men’s hockey teams are projected to average roughly 2.7 percent of the total revenue sharing — but that’s with every sport getting a share.
That won’t be everybody. Take Ohio State. The Buckeyes have made it clear that only football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and volleyball will receive revenue sharing. Minnesota’s men’s hockey team is one of six teams that will get revenue sharing. The Golden Gophers will split the final 5 percent with volleyball.
At Michigan, 75 percent of the revenue will go to football, while the other 25 percent will be handed out to men’s and women’s basketball, according to athletic director Warde Manuel on 247 Sports’ Michigan Insider show in February.
“They can do things outside of the $20.5 million with collectives,” Bamford said. “There are certainly other avenues they can pay student-athletes, there’s no doubt. And I think some of them will.”
Still, paying for football and men’s basketball is paramount in the Big Ten. Yet, since the McKenna news broke, CHL players looking to play in college hockey have had money on the mind when talking to schools.
“When you think of higher-end guys, they’re on social media and that’s what these kids see,” Mullin, now the associate head coach of the USHL’s Fargo Force, said. “It’s like, this kid was a first-round pick and in the OHL and had a successful few years in the CHL, and then he decides to come the college route.
“'Awesome, what can you pay?' Sometimes, it was the first question out of their mouth.”
In terms of recruiting younger players, revenue sharing and NIL payments certainly have come up. Those CHL players are seeing the same news about McKenna and others that rising juniors in high school are seeing.
But has it changed much in which schools the players are picking?
“I had a coach say to me once, ‘Listen, I haven’t beat North Dakota for a kid in forever, and now they have to pay to get that kid.’” UConn men’s hockey coach Mike Cavanaugh said.
This has caused programs to be more selective in the players they bring in.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Mullin said. “It’s just the world that we live in right now.”
What happens next for the Eastern schools?
On Aug. 6, shortly after the start of the recruiting of rising juniors in high school, Providence College stole the headlines.
The Friars got a commitment for the upcoming season from Roger McQueen, who had just gone No. 10 to the Anaheim Ducks in June’s NHL Draft. At 6-foot-6, the high-end center came straight from the WHL.
READ MORE: Did the CHL ruling have an impact on Aug. 1 commitments?
Providence College is a unique situation. The Friars boast a highly successful men’s basketball program. UConn has men’s and women’s basketball teams that compete for and often win national championships.
Those programs certainly generate revenue.
“Well, we create revenue, too,” Cavanaugh was quick to point out. “(Men’s and women’s basketball) takes the majority of the (revenue sharing). But I don’t think UConn is getting to the $20.5 million mark, so we’re not really affected by that.”
Even with money to play with, that doesn’t guarantee winning.
“Just because you may have a lot of money or just because you have resources that other people don’t, doesn’t mean that you’re a slam dunk to win,” Cavanaugh said.
In 2021, Matthew Wood, a high-end, 6-foot-4 right winger from Alberta, committed to UConn. He played a season with UConn before being drafted 15th in 2023 by the Nashville Predators. He did one more season at UConn before entering the transfer portal in 2024 and picking Minnesota.
Had Wood been looking to commit today, he would’ve commanded a lot of money. But in the first year after Wood left, the Huskies went 23-12-4 and came within a goal of making the Frozen Four.
“There was always a hierarchy in recruiting,” said Cavanaugh, who spent 18 seasons as an assistant at Boston College. “But you could still win the national title. It’s the one sport where it’s really hard to be dominant.”
Those high-end players haven’t necessarily always chosen the biggest offer. According to sources, Martone and McQueen were offered more money by other programs. Both looked at Michigan State and Providence College, respectively, as better places for their NHL development.
Being developed in the best environment in college will likely mean more money down the road in the NHL.
“These Hockey East programs, if they’re going to be dishing out money and treating these kids like professionals, they’re not just developing the student-athlete,” Mullin said. “It’s not enough to just get them on campus. You have to retain them now for four years or for however long you can.
“If I’m paying a kid $25,000 to go to School X, then my job is to get the most out of that investment. When a guy signs an NHL deal, do they say, ‘OK, good luck. See you Thursday, have a good week of practice?' No, you develop your investments.”
In recruiting rising juniors in high school, it’s been fairly rare for players from the East to pick a school from the Midwest. The last one was Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.), and he switched his commitment from Minnesota to Boston University in 2023. That shouldn’t change much with NIL and revenue sharing.
But will players be more attracted by money from out west?
“You’ll have to see over time,” Cavanaugh said. “Is a kid going to take $50,000 from School X as opposed to getting, say, $10,000 from Boston College? Does a kid say ‘Screw it, I still want to go to BC?’ I don’t know.”
That happened in this past recruiting cycle. While monetary values aren’t known, high-end, local talents like Carter Meyer (Winchester, Mass.) and Sam Pandolfo (Winchester, Mass.) still chose Boston University, and Finn Sears (Medford, Mass.), Rocco Pelosi and Jake Boguniecki (Orange, Conn.) still picked Boston College.
Along with generating more TV revenue money — to compete with the Big Ten and its TV network — one area where Hockey East and other Eastern schools could improve: funding for more coaches.
FULL MAGAZINE: Check out the September/October edition of the New England Hockey Journal magazine
“Nobody has an advantage when it comes to coaching resources,” Mullin said. “I think that’s where the money only goes so far. I think the money right now is very short-sighted.”
Why?
“I don’t think anybody realizes what 70 points in the CHL looks like yet in college hockey,” he said. “That might be a big investment. You might say, ‘Yep, I’ll give this kid $20,000 to come play for us each year. But then maybe those 70 points in the OHL actually only results in 15 points in college hockey. Is that investment going to be sustainable moving forward?”
Time will tell.
