When it comes to attracting top student-athletes, Temple is ‘woefully’ behind on having the dollars

Given his chance to speak to a group of invested Temple alumni, Andy Carl, director of the Tuff Fund — a name, image, and likeness collective working with Owls athletes — didn’t mince words.

Carl — who arrived at Temple as a freshman in 2003, and said he has been “chasing that elusive second weekend of the NCAA [basketball] tournament ever since” — was on a Zoom call in August, speaking to a group of Owl Club boosters, explaining that, as he speaks more and more with people running collectives at other schools, he has gotten confirmation in his own mind that Temple’s collective financial intake is, in fact, “woefully” behind.

“We lack participation,” Carl told his fellow Owls. “We lack understanding. And we lack financially. Nationally, I don’t know if our collective is in the top 200 of funds.”

Carl had explained a bit more about the Tuff Fund, set up as a nonprofit charitable fund, this one trying to use community-focused initiatives and partnerships to create name, image, and likeness opportunities for Temple athletes. He humanized the whole thing, detailing the initiatives in North Philly and around campus. The goal wasn’t just to do well, but to do some good.

If Carl was attempting to speak plain truth, another Tuff Fund founder, Seth Goldblum, added a little more venom in a recent telephone interview with him and Carl.

“It’s not OK,” Goldblum, a 1993 graduate, said of the financial support offered to Temple athletics, not just to this collective. “We can come up here and present everything is OK, but guess what? The house is on fire.”

Asked how much the Tuff Fund had raised, Carl said, “We’ve raised just over $100,000 in two years.”

“I think that tells the whole story,” Goldblum said. “I think last year I put in a third of all the money myself.”

These two were pinning blame way above the athletic department, they said. In their minds, Temple is squandering an opportunity, and its board of trustees and the entire alumni base need to realize it.

In some ways, the NIL collective era is a referendum on fan interest itself. You can’t tell people where to spend their money. But most Temple fans believe they should be ahead of La Salle and St. Joseph’s locally when it comes to men’s basketball.

Last year, I put a third of the money in myself.”

“I know we’re behind,” Carl said of collectives at those two schools. “It’s not like I’m seeing a bank account, but every account secondhand, we are behind those two schools. That’s not against La Salle or St. Joe’s, but I feel like we are higher on the hierarchy. Our [athletic] budget certainly reflects that.”

(“That’s true,” a La Salle source said of being ahead on that collective figure when told Temple’s number. “Definitely true,” said another.)

Also in the same Owl Club virtual meeting, Temple athletic administrators pointed out how donations to the department were similarly behind those of rivals within the American Athletic Association. Not just the ones you might expect, like Memphis or SMU, for example. But Charlotte, with the same number of donors, is raising more annually.

“The bottom line is, we have 2,000 donors roughly that participate through the Owl Club,” an administrator said over Zoom, “that raised about $2 million annually for Temple athletics.”

To make a comparison that Temple fans should despise: Villanova raised more money solely for its collective (mostly for men’s basketball) in the last year than Temple did for all sports donations.

That should place Temple’s win over Villanova last season on the court in a different kind of perspective.

“It’s paltry,” Carl said of the overall donations. “We’ve tried squeezing blood out of the same rocks for the last 15-20 years.”

“This is not self-interest,” Goldblum said of their pleas. “We don’t get anything.”

“It’s a new world,” said Temple athletic director Arthur Johnson. “In any industry, you have to adjust or you could end up dying.”

At the same time, Johnson said, “You’ve got to respect people’s decisions and their choices.”

» READ MORE: More from the Inquirer's Collective Effort series: Here's how Villanova basketball transformed itself into a pro team

Temple’s AD also wanted to make it clear that the athletic department gets what he called “great support” from the higher administration and the board of trustees when it comes to supporting the whole athletic enterprise. Of his own budget, “a large part of it [comes] from the university.”

Translation? A large part is ultimately coming from tuition dollars. In Johnson’s mind, another factor absolutely comes into play — “the lack of success at the wrong time,” he said, referring to recent seasons in both football and basketball.

“It’s like realignment — if the [recent phase of] conference realignment happened in 2015-16 with the success under [then-Owls football coach] Matt Rhule, you’re probably in the Big 12,” Johnson said.

Maybe, maybe not. Moot point now. Currently, Temple is stuck in a chicken-or-egg scenario. You can’t get donors excited without winning, and you can’t win without direct help. The NIL era is making that more apparent.

In Carl’s mind, NIL collectives actually hinder recruiting efforts at programs such as Villanova hoops or Alabama football, even as their collectives are well-funded. “A detriment,” Carl said. “It’s another factor that levels the playing field.”

But not having collective funds? A far greater detriment. It’s easy to point to Temple’s longtime stature in men’s basketball in particular and assume that would keep some degree of momentum. It just hasn’t, and as the latest round of realignment craziness has hit the landscape and the AAC, Temple was an afterthought, as Johnson suggested.

To the Tuff Fund founders, their collective could be a means to help catch up.

“This to me is the game-changer,” Goldblum said. “This could be our chance to change the trajectory.”

His optimism has faded over the last year.

“Instead of any opportunity, the university has looked at it as a threat,” Carl said.

To be clear, Carl said, he’s not talking about Johnson and the athletic department staff, or any of the coaches — “This is way above Arthur’s level,” Goldblum added. He is frustrated that no one on Temple’s board of trustees has donated to the collective, even after the trustees’ lack of involvement was pointed out publicly. He brings up the passion of the late Lewis Katz, also a former co-owner of The Inquirer, who died in a plane crash in 2014.

“Rest in peace, Lewis Katz — where is that type of leadership, energy, and guidance and caring?” Carl said.

A coaching change in men’s basketball was certainly a factor as five key players transferred out after last season. Both Carl and Goldblum said they are certain several players would have stayed if the collective was better funded after Adam Fisher replaced Aaron McKie as head coach. Transfers left for Penn State, Cincinnati, Memphis, Arkansas, and Houston.

The landscape of all this tragically changed even more on Sept. 19, when acting president JoAnne Epps died. (The interviews with the collective came before Epps’ death.) In addition to serving as the dean of Temple’s Law School and as the university’s provost, Epps had been an athletics faculty representative. If she didn’t know the landscape in recent years, Epps had said in an interview in late August, she intended to study NIL, because “we didn’t used to be allowed to do it, so you’re really changing hearts and minds.”

“It’s a new world. In any industry, you have to adjust or you could end up dying.”

While experts talk about the need for “alignment” on these big items, there’s no way to force the giving hand of alumni. By definition, anyone on that Owl Club Zoom was already a donor to the athletic department, so that was the closest thing to preaching to the choir.

» READ MORE: More from the Inquirer's Collective Effort series: In the case of college sports and the Ivy League, it isn’t all about the money

“I don’t think it should shock anyone that some of the universities that have more robust NIL programs happen to have more success in the win and loss column,” Carl said on the Zoom.

If the university already has to underwrite most athletic costs, can it afford to lose any donations without hurting current programs? That’s a common concern across athletic departments. Collective proponents see it the other way, that a rising tide lifts all boats.

“Change is always scary, but change is also inevitable,” said Temple professor Thilo Kunkel, the director of Temple’s Sport Industry Research Center. “And it’s also a massive opportunity.”

He also looks at being in Philadelphia as an opportunity for partnerships.

“Think of the massive rise of Fanatics, think about Comcast Sports,” Kunkel said. “Those are companies that should be invested in some of the stories we have.”

Carl used the word reciprocal on Zoom to describe how many alumni view their donations. In other words, what’s in it for them? Tickets? Access? What?

“It’s that Philly quid pro quo,” one development specialist said, making it clear this wasn’t just a Temple thing.

Carl was asking for the reward to be in helping future generations of students, to lift the experiences of those who came after.

More thoughts came up on the Owl Club Zoom. A question-and-answer session at the end brought sharp questions.

» READ MORE: More from the Inquirer's Collective Effort series: In the new money era of college sports, what’s the plan for St. Joseph’s, La Salle, and Drexel?

How much of the Owl Club [donations] go to the Tuff Fund?

None.

Where do you see the Tuff Fund being three years from now?

One of two things, Carl answered. In the best-case scenario, there would be “some buy-in” and some momentum, some understanding “that NIL is a necessity to the success of our university’s athletic department. … We need participation from everyone.”

If that all happened, Carl said, “I think that we have the ability to have a robust NIL program and to be wildly successful in athletics.”

Or …

“If that doesn’t take place in three years,” Carl continued, “I don’t envision us having [an] NIL collective program. Just because at the outset of all this, we kind of decided we’re going to set the table for all our university’s constituents, and if it takes off, great, and we’re going to own it and crush it and I’m going to give everything I can as a volunteer to make sure it succeeds, and if it doesn’t, we fall by the wayside. That is a personal opinion.”

So was this, from Goldblum, a longtime top athletic department donor separate from his NIL efforts: “If we’re not going to act on this, we might as well fold up shop. Let’s be City College of New York. Let’s not run a deficit.”

Goldblum was referring to a school that used to compete at the top ranks of college basketball before leaving Division I sports entirely. A harsh view, all his frustration seeping through, and maybe also an attempt to spur some action.

“We’re not asking anyone to do anything outside the lines, to do anything unscrupulous,” Carl said, but he looked at the huge investment Temple makes annually in athletics. Temple reported to the U.S. Department of Education that athletic department expenses in 2021-22 were $67,128,393.

“I would hope when you invest $50 million in a chicken, you’re going to at least season it properly before you cook it,” Carl said.

Nope, he didn’t mince words.

Goldblum went back to Lewis Katz and his importance. He pointed out that this man was not the only mega-rich Temple University graduate.

“Where are our other billionaires?” Goldblum said.