Valley Coach Creates NIL Collective
The U.S. Supreme Court reached a landmark 9-0 decision in 2021 that changed the college sports landscape forever. Their decision allowed college athletes to get paid for their name, image, and likeness (NIL). It’s a very controversial issue among college sports fans. Some high profile athletes have gotten 7 figure deals, and many people equate the current NIL environment to the Wild Wild West.
NIL has been limited to college athletes, but a local select baseball coach is changing the game. Coach Rich Diamond has formed The Diamond Collective which will cater to Valley baseball and softball players between the ages of 10-18. Diamond said, “I’ve always been aggressive and progressive, and I’ve thought about this for a while. Now, was the time to make it happen. There’s nothing like this in MS and the entire country that I’m aware of.”
Coach Diamond has been in talks with many Valley businesses to contribute to the collective, and many have agreed to participate. Diamond also plans to contribute his own money to the collective to get it up and running. Diamond created a software portal that allows athletes’ parents to create a profile and upload their child’s videos and stats. Business owners can choose which athletes to do deals with using the portal. Diamond doesn’t plan to put a cap on the deals, and he wants the market to work itself out. Diamond said, “This is new, and I expect businesses to be cautious initially. These are kids after all. But, putting a cap on earnings is just anti-capitalism, and we’ll never do that.”
Also, Diamond is guaranteeing any athlete in The Diamond Collective a minimum of $100 per month of payments. Diamond will have the say so on which athletes are allowed into the collective. Diamond said, “We want only the top level baseball and softball players in our collective, so there will be a stringent vetting process for athletes that apply.”
One local participating business owner said, “I’m so excited about this, and I just think it’s a smarter way for us to spend our advertising dollars.” Some parents are excited about the collective too. One parent told me, “This could help us out a lot. This travel ball is expensive, and it’ll be nice if we can get a $200- $300 per month to help out with expenses.”
Everyone is not happy about The Diamond Collective though. A local high school baseball coach told me, “This is insane. These kids are already entitled, and this is going to make it even worse. Coach Diamond has always been over the top, and this is just crazy.” I spoke to a couple parents about the idea, and they weren’t thrilled. One said, “What if my son isn’t good enough to get a deal, and a couple of his friends get deals? It’s going to be those that get deals vs. those that don’t get deals. It’s going to be unhealthy.”
In addition to The Diamond Collective, Diamond plans to create a transfer portal similar to the current NCAA transfer portal. It will allow parents that are unhappy with their current select baseball or softball team or coach to look for other teams. He also hopes the collective will attract larger businesses outside of The Valley to spend their advertising dollars on his athletes. This is going to be very interesting, and Valleyans are eager to see how it plays out.