Editor in Chief of ‘The Athletic’ takes public shot at Dave Doeren and NIL model. Is this fair?

Stewart Mandel, who is the ‘Editor in Chief of College Football’ for The Athletic took to Twitter yesterday to air his thoughts on Dave Doeren lobbying for donors to put their money towards NIL Collectives. Here is what he had to say…

Dave Doeren makes $5 million, and he’s begging fans to donate their entire paychecks to an NIL collective.

The model is so, so broken. https://t.co/KaaMZVrwEK

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 26, 2023

The NIL model is broken, and it’s something we’re going to talk about a little more in an upcoming piece this week, but why is Mendel mentioning Dave Doeren’s salary? Is he mocking the fact that a coach making millions is begging for money from fans? It sure seems like it.

But what’s the point of stating this when Dave Doeren can’t donate to the NIL by rule, but at the same time his job, and the success of NC State football, basically depend on those NIL Collectives being fully funded?

Yes, the system is broken, you have that part right, but trying to drag Doeren into this seems weak.

Dave isn’t some money-hungry greed-machine who is trying to milk the university for all it’s worth. In fact, in March Dave and his wife donated $1.25 million to the university Ato establish a new initiative at NC State to support students with executive functioning challenges and those who are neurodivergent.

Dave & Sara Doeren Donate $1.25 million to Establish New Program at NC Statehttps://t.co/zRJ6u1zUp2

— Charles Standifer (@GroundChuck74) November 26, 2023

But that aside, yes, the system is broken, it just has nothing to do with Dave Doeren and his salary.