Kevin Negandhi, a Temple alumnus and ESPN anchor and Adrian Wojnarowski, former ESPN NBA reporter and first-ever St. Bonaventure Men’s Basketball general manager, hosted a first-of-its-kind Name, Image and Likeness event at Mitten Hall on Temple’s campus Tuesday evening. The event aimed to educate alumni and bring attention to the growing realm of NIL in college athletics.
The duo spoke on the uphill battles their respective universities face in the changing and demanding NIL space and how more support will benefit the teams and individual student-athletes. The night quickly turned into two friends taking a trip down memory lane, speaking about their passion for what made them close in the first place — basketball.
Andy Carl, the executive director of the TUFF Fund, an independent NIL collective that supports Temple’s athletes, spearheaded the event. Negandhi asked Carl to contact Wojanrowski to work together because the trio all have the same drive for informing people about NIL.
“There’s a constant education of having conversations regarding NIL and revenue share, because it changes every day,” Carl said. “For folks in the space like Kevin and Adrian who live it day to day to be able to come back and speak and impart wisdom. I think it’s just really, really important to ramp up the importance of NIL and revenue share on campuses like ours.”
Both Temple and St. Bonaventure have faced similar challenges in the NIL space because they are not in the most prominent conferences, which makes it difficult to offer student-athletes the NIL resources that Power 4 schools have. Wojnarowski, now as a general manager, has seen that more than ever, he said.
Schools in mid-major conferences, like Temple and St. Bonaventure, oftentimes need more support from their fanbase and alumni to reel in top-tier student-athletes because they don’t have the financial resources to compete with top programs. However, the most successful mid-major programs have created family atmospheres and built life-long relationships to attract people to the programs, Wojnarowski said.
“What I try to control is the experience and the value we’re giving to our student-athletes,” Wojnarowski said. “If you can show them value, you can help them become better as players and hopefully you can win. You’re helping them move toward a degree and you’re helping them to meet some people outside the basketball road that can be impactful in their life. There’s a lot of ways that we can impact players and for as long as they’re with you, that’s our job.”
The two also touched on the importance of educating people about NIL and the ongoing changes. A goal they have with providing athletes with NIL deals is allowing and helping them go back to their communities and impact something that is meaningful to them.
Negandhi and Wojnarowski worked together on ESPN for years but bonded due to their love for their alma mater’s basketball’s programs. The pair shared the same cubicle while at ESPN and often talked about their school’s facing off against each other when Temple was in the Atlantic-10 conference with St. Bonaventure.
Negandhi reminisced on the first Temple basketball game he watched when he was 12 years old at McGonigle Hall. He got his start in media by working at Temple’s student media outlets and even convinced his parents to let him stay on North Broad Street for one more semester so he could call the first game at The Liacouras Center.
“This is a place where there’s so much great passion,” said Temple Men’s Basketball head coach Adam Fisher. “And ride with your experience here and whether that’s through sport, whether that’s in the classroom, there’s just an experience that you want to have. Kevin was awesome. He’s been here all afternoon. He watched practice. He spoke to our team after practice, that’s why you want to come here, to meet people like that.”
When Wojnarowski was a sports editor at the Bona Venture, St. Bonaventure’s student-run newspaper, he sat hidden away in a corner to watch Temple’s practice before the teams faced off. Wojnarowski said then-Temple head coach John Chaney talked to his players for 35 minutes about life before the team picked up their coats and left, never even touching a ball.
In an effort to stress to attendees the importance of financial support, Negandhi spoke about how he would have supported Temple Athletics while he was a student in a heartbeat. The alum attended the event repping a shirt featuring former Temple guard Eddie Jones and said he would have loved giving Jones $100 because he represented what Negandhi loved, Temple Basketball.
Negandhi called for current students and alumni to attend games and show the school spirit and pride because that’s part of the experience.
“That’s what we’re talking about,” Negandhi said. “Giving student-athletes the ability to kind of come back and have this as a resource at Temple University, inside Saint Bonaventure, you identify. We came back because we’re connected to our alma maters and we want to make sure that student-athletes feel that way, that this is not just a transaction, that there’s a family here.”
Be the first to comment