I planned to save this for the book that @RickyVolante13 and I plan to write about the launching of @the_pcleague (after we finish launching it, of course), but with the leak that Iowa State was pushing for athletes to lose scholarships if they took NIL money, I want to tell ....

... a little story about how we dealt with a critical choice about money vs mission.

About 3 years ago, we had a major partner all ready to go that would have turbocharged our launch. We'd be out there playing games now if we'd reached a deal with this organization.

Ricky would have won a SBJ 40-under-40 award. etc.

But there was one catch.

They said: We really don't think it makes sense to pay athletes a competitive salary. Could you drop that part?

Without skipping a beat, Ricky said "no, that's not going to happen -- that's our primary mission. Yes we want to make money, but not at the expense of athletes rights to do so too."

It killed the deal with this particular group, which as I said was one of those "springboard moments" where we would have rocketed forward. Sayin. g no has meant we have had to do it the slow and hard way, investor by investor.

But it was the correct call.

We inch towards success despite it. Indeed, next week there will be some really fun news. And although it delayed us by years, saying no to bad money was the best thing we ever did.

If that's the kind of organization you support, look soon for your chance to show it proudly!