Your response and this thread convinced me to join. I have benefited from great content for years.
What are the benefits of Cyclone Fanatic premium?
- Thread starter OscarBerkshire
- Start date
This endures as a top-10 enduring memory among memories I remember from Cyclone Fanatic.
As a couple others have said, you get access to the premium boards, which can be nice due to people staying on topic more.
For me, personally, I find the value in Chris's inside information. I signed up during the time Texas and OU announced they were leaving the conference, and the information he was providing was nice. He also had a lot of good information during the PAC's fall as well. Now that Basketball is just around the corner, Chris is providing us updates on what's going on in practice.
And it's not all just realignment, he also provides inside information on the programs themselves, like injuries, changes in starters, game plan, etc.
I don’t have an exact timer, but it feels like we get an “insider” nugget at least once a week.
Sometimes it’s bigger stuff about realignment or big stories, more often it’s “I’m hearing [X] player is injured/doing well in practice/etc.” with BBall starting, there’s been a bit of insight into practices. But also, he’s not holding out. When you read the published pieces or podcasts on the main site, they often reference the “nuggets” that came out a few weeks or months earlier.
Chris is always straightforward and doesn’t try to mislead or make things sound bigger if it’s a low-news week.
Overall it’s a really great service and you feel very “plugged in” to the teams.
Sometimes it’s bigger stuff about realignment or big stories, more often it’s “I’m hearing [X] player is injured/doing well in practice/etc.” with BBall starting, there’s been a bit of insight into practices. But also, he’s not holding out. When you read the published pieces or podcasts on the main site, they often reference the “nuggets” that came out a few weeks or months earlier.
Chris is always straightforward and doesn’t try to mislead or make things sound bigger if it’s a low-news week.
Overall it’s a really great service and you feel very “plugged in” to the teams.
I have a few legitmate questions with good intentions.
How do donors know which players recieve what benefits? Is there a list, is it public, etc?
If not, why not? If players are "holding ISU hostage, would donors want to know?" (not sure of a better way to ask this)
How do you approach players? Or do they approach you?
What/who determines who gets what amount for how long?
What if a player breaks some contractual rule?
Do players threaten to leave if they don't get money?
As a premium subscriber and a moron, I take offense to this.
I don’t think it’s a “schtick”, I think he’s genuinely frustrated at how the average college athletics fan is being priced out of the experience. All while being asked to dig a little deeper to give to athletic departments who are printing money and athletes making in the 5, 6, 7 figures, in addition to all a full athletic scholarship provides. I don’t think anybody is blaming you personally or We Will for the current trend, but there is palpable frustration out there.
100% agree with this, and my wife and I donate monthly to the We Will club. It's feeling less like the sport I love with every passing year and my whole life I've only heard about how far behind in donor support we are compared to our peers. It starts to feel a bit hopeless.
And, honestly, reading that some players only stayed (or came at all) because there was a sufficient NIL option to keep them happy makes me a bit sad. Everyone knows it's the case, but to see it spelled out so plainly and honestly puts a gross taste in my mouth.
All of that said, we'll continue to donate. But college athletics is moving away from what I've loved about it.
I feel like this thread could have ended after the discussion of the star studded XXX films "Williams Goes Wild" and Blum's Bodacious Bodies". Clearly those weren't as enticing as I thought.
I don't think they upsold the role of the Amish bench in those films as they could have.
My previous post with questions was not answered, but you describe it much better than I could. People are being asked to give directly to athletes and yet the people giving the money do not want to publicize what athletes are holding the school hostage.
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I understand the frustration and I totally understand not wanting to donate even more money but Gunner definitely has a shtick.
Even if they just called it what it is, subsidies/payments/gofundme, I would at least be a little more okay with it. Instead it’s dressed up as a “non-profit” to make people feel the same as if they are saving starving kids in Africa or helping to rescue puppies.
I don’t think it’s fair to characterize most of this as the players holding schools hostage. It’s not that transactional for most players. But like any of us in the job market, you might prefer the work at Company A, but if Company B is offering twice the pay they become difficult to turn down. Look at Will McDonald or Anthony Johnson. They are Cyclones through and through, and NIL wasn’t a thing when they came here. But if you’re a college student from a lower income background (both were first in their families to get college degrees), six-figures is very enticing.
ISU isn’t offering the most money, yet these players still want to come/stay at ISU. But ISU has to be able to offer enough so that they can turn down School B without feeling like they made a foolish choice for themselves and their family.
The way all of this has developed sucks. We could go on forever about how broken it is. But we can only control the controllables and we care about ISU, so this is the way.
It’s not the way. If we cared about ISU then we would make a stand and try to be a differentiator. Because this is going to relegate us to obscurity faster than any stretch of losing/scandals ever could. Instead of differentiating, we just jumped in to the pile and did the same thing as everyone else. It’s not sustainable for everyone, but it’s exponentially more unsustainable for ISU than even Iowa.
Lol this is delusional. The train has left the station. Us trying to "make a stand" will have zero effect on the path of all this. We differentiate ourselves by trying to offer a good fan base, good development, good coaches, good AD etc because we can't offer the money other programs can. Not playing the NIL game at all will leave us not being able to attract recruits or coaches and then we might as well go join the MAC.
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I was a big opponent to NIL, mostly because you could see it was going to come to where it has. It's disgusting. The way ISU and We Will have done it I can stand behind. We are helping kids pay bills, and they are asked to give back. Hell, that Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon NIL agreement is what this was all about. Pay the kids for their likeness. Paying them to use there name and image on EA Sports. I can stand behind 100%.
I hate the pay to play BS, and that this responsibility falls on the fans. I love the way Brent put it in a recent podcast. This will change in the next 5 years. (Total guess). But you want to stay at least in the conversation until that time. So if me giving $10/month can help us stay afloat during these tumultuous times, I will! (See what I did there?) Just need 1000s more to do the same.
But the fact that I pay nearly $3,000/year for my football tickets and have had them for 25+ years isn't enough, that sucks. What really sucks is all of the fans that live out of state that never have to buy a ticket to a game or the cost of tailgating weekly, yet give nothing to these ventures. If you can't afford $10/month, no shame. But if you are on here ******** about coaches/players and give nothing to the team. You can go **** right off with your realistic opinions.
Regarding the OP, I just tried a premium membership for the last month. I found it hard to find premium info and found just as much negativity on the premium topics as in the general board. I will sign back up, I'm just trying to fund this ISU fascination without my family paying more. I pay for it out of my "fun" money account. If I give too much from that I can't golf as much.
I have been on this site since 2007, so I owe Jeremy, Chris, and the great writing staff. I was thinking about bumping to the $25/month WeWill, thinking that would get me on the premium again, but it looks like I would need to go from $10 to $50/month to get that priv. I still might, but it's a calculated decision. Not sure if this is public information, but if I give $50/month to WeWill, how much of that goes to CF? $12? Or does Chris take a hit because he knows the better the teams are the more this site thrives?
I hate the pay to play BS, and that this responsibility falls on the fans. I love the way Brent put it in a recent podcast. This will change in the next 5 years. (Total guess). But you want to stay at least in the conversation until that time. So if me giving $10/month can help us stay afloat during these tumultuous times, I will! (See what I did there?) Just need 1000s more to do the same.
But the fact that I pay nearly $3,000/year for my football tickets and have had them for 25+ years isn't enough, that sucks. What really sucks is all of the fans that live out of state that never have to buy a ticket to a game or the cost of tailgating weekly, yet give nothing to these ventures. If you can't afford $10/month, no shame. But if you are on here ******** about coaches/players and give nothing to the team. You can go **** right off with your realistic opinions.
Regarding the OP, I just tried a premium membership for the last month. I found it hard to find premium info and found just as much negativity on the premium topics as in the general board. I will sign back up, I'm just trying to fund this ISU fascination without my family paying more. I pay for it out of my "fun" money account. If I give too much from that I can't golf as much.
I have been on this site since 2007, so I owe Jeremy, Chris, and the great writing staff. I was thinking about bumping to the $25/month WeWill, thinking that would get me on the premium again, but it looks like I would need to go from $10 to $50/month to get that priv. I still might, but it's a calculated decision. Not sure if this is public information, but if I give $50/month to WeWill, how much of that goes to CF? $12? Or does Chris take a hit because he knows the better the teams are the more this site thrives?
In so little words I agree there should be a way for We Will to rally the out of state fanbase. The alumni association in Denver was great when I lived out there. I don’t think they would be above passing around a hat for donations. In fact they may already be doing this. As for the thousands of others that don’t get to be a part of one of the city chapters, what can we do? I’m genuinely asking.
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Which athletes are getting paid? How much are they getting paid? The thing I don't like is it's all secretive. "Give us money but we won't tell you who is getting it, why they're getting it, how much they're getting, etc. And if you don't, we won't be able to keep up. "
