A couple of weeks ago the former Buffalo star passed Brittany Griner for 5th on the all time NCAA division 1 girls scoring list. Tonight in her final game, she passed both Jackie Stiles and Kelsey Mitchell to finish 3rd all time. Fair played 3 years at Buffalo and two at Syracuse, all under Coach Felicia Leggett-Jack.

1. Caitlin Clark Iowa
2. Kelsey Plum Washington
3. Dyaisia Fair Buffalo/Syracuse
4. Kelsey Mitchell Ohio State
5. Jackie Stiles Missouri State
6. Brittany Griner Baylor

Having basically watched them all, I do think Fair is the best female player ever in the MAC. In various lists that I have seen, they always give Buffalo and Syracuse co-billing.

Big props to Fair. She's a great player and has had an amazing career.

She deserves to be in the conversation for greatest MAC player, but (although I am biased) I still think Toledo's Kim Knuth was the most dominant MAC player, for her time, of any of them, at least going back to the 90s. My 2nd pick would be EMU's Tavelyn James - often just unguardable. The other player that probably deserves to be in the conversation, although I never saw her play that I recall, was OU's Caroline Mast who played in the 80s. Was completely dominating statistically in those days. But those are just my opinions.

As an aside, Toledo's Quinesha Lockett has moved into 5th place in all time MAC scoring with 2411 points. (Behind Cece Hooks, Knuth, James and Mast, in that order.) She also has 760 rebounds, 421 assists and 222 steals. She is 6th in scoring among active DI players. She has played a few more games than most, but those are still eye-popping numbers. Not quite up there in the conversation with the names above, but a MAC great nonetheless.

BTW, is the MAC ever gonna update the WBB and MBB record books on the website? They haven't updated them since 2019. So, I have to track some of these records myself. Come on MAC, get your act together.

Not to take anything away from these amazing accomplishments, but they will have an * due to playing 5 seasons to the others 4. And at the top of the list is Clark who can come back if she wants that 5th year but already announced she's going pro. Not sure why as the NIL she makes is far more than the paltry salary paid out by the WNBA.

(03-27-2024 07:01 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Not to take anything away from these amazing accomplishments, but they will have an * due to playing 5 seasons to the others 4. And at the top of the list is Clark who can come back if she wants that 5th year but already announced she's going pro. Not sure why as the NIL she makes is far more than the paltry salary paid out by the WNBA.

I am guessing she has assurances that she will be getting a WNBA record contract. Basically every basketball fan wants to see her play, so she is going to help WNBA set attendance and ratings records.

(03-25-2024 07:39 PM)DICK Wrote:  A couple of weeks ago the former Buffalo star passed Brittany Griner for 5th on the all time NCAA division 1 girls scoring list. Tonight in her final game, she passed both Jackie Stiles and Kelsey Mitchell to finish 3rd all time. Fair played 3 years at Buffalo and two at Syracuse, all under Coach Felicia Leggett-Jack.

1. Caitlin Clark Iowa
2. Kelsey Plum Washington
3. Dyaisia Fair Buffalo/Syracuse
4. Kelsey Mitchell Ohio State
5. Jackie Stiles Missouri State
6. Brittany Griner Baylor

Having basically watched them all, I do think Fair is the best female player ever in the MAC. In various lists that I have seen, they always give Buffalo and Syracuse co-billing.

Incidentally, Mark Mitchell, the father of former Ohio State star Kelsey Mitchell( just passed by Fair on the list above) died yesterday. He was the men's coach at Wilberforce for the last 4 years ( played at Miami this year) and was Kelsey's high school coach at Taft HS in Cincy and also an assistant at Ohio State while she played there. Sad news.

(03-27-2024 07:01 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Not to take anything away from these amazing accomplishments, but they will have an * due to playing 5 seasons to the others 4. And at the top of the list is Clark who can come back if she wants that 5th year but already announced she's going pro. Not sure why as the NIL she makes is far more than the paltry salary paid out by the WNBA.

Besides the basketball reasons—she’s obviously ready for the pros and another year in Iowa City would just seem anticlimactic after all the attention and coverage this year—her WNBA salary will be way down on the list of who’s paying her. Her endorsement deals already exceed $3M and it seems there’s a new deal every day: Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, Buick, Bose, H&R Block, Topps, Goldman Sachs, etc. The list grows and these deals will follow her to the pros. Her income is on the rise next year. She’ll make much more than she did in NIL. The impact she will have there is already being felt. Indiana Fever season tickets for next season are in demand, and you’ll see some the same mania that followed her around this year, selling out almost all of their road games, reflected in ticket sales for Fever road games next year.

And why do I know this stuff, you ask? Well, I live in Iowa and both print and broadcast media are basically all Caitlin Clark, all day, every day.
A bit of an exaggeration, yes, but just a bit.

(03-27-2024 11:03 AM)DICK Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 07:01 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Not to take anything away from these amazing accomplishments, but they will have an * due to playing 5 seasons to the others 4. And at the top of the list is Clark who can come back if she wants that 5th year but already announced she's going pro. Not sure why as the NIL she makes is far more than the paltry salary paid out by the WNBA.

I am guessing she has assurances that she will be getting a WNBA record contract. Basically every basketball fan wants to see her play, so she is going to help WNBA set attendance and ratings records.

https://sportsnaut.com/highest-paid-wnba-players/

Quote:WNBA salaries
As of 2023, the average WNBA salary is $147,745. The most a WNBA player can earn is $234,936 for one season. The WNBA league minimum is $64,000.

But WNBA salaries have slowly been on the rise. In 2022 the max salary was $228,094. In 2021, the max was $190,550. A new collective bargaining agreement in January 2020 helped boost WNBA salaries, where each max and supermax player will receive an annual salary bump of three percent.

WNBA salary vs. NBA
The salary cap for an entire WNBA team is $1,463,200. This is spread between 11 or 12 players and is considerably less than the average NBA salary, which is $9.7 million per player. Meanwhile, the NBA salary cap for each team is $136.021 million.

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/382...sue-league

As I understand it, most of Clark's NIL money is coming directly from big companies for marketing deals and the like (e.g. she has a deal with State Farm.) Those are unlikely to stop when she goes into the WNBA given her huge level of popularity. In fact, the deals may increase as they do over time with other very popular/marketable pro athletes.

This is in contrast to other college players who may be getting most/all of their money from NIL collectives which will drop to 0 the very second they set foot off campus, or those athletes whose popularity ties mostly to their association with a particular high-profile college and will wain once they leave for other pastures.

So it makes total sense for her to move to the WNBA where she will make that salary, plus all her marketing deals, plus have a lot more freedom to do what she wants with life.