Opinions on effects of Covid-19 on Bagmen economy and football (and other sports)?
Question for the economically minded and insightful football fans:
Given that the world economy is suffering and going to suffer (please let's not get political here) in order to manage the biologic realities of contagion, what effect will that have on the Bagman effect throughout college sports?
My instinct is that many deep pockets will dry up and that even the marketing effect of major college sports will be blunted to the schools themselves. So that students will choose schools based on the merits of the program and school itself rather than shady deals.
But the counterargument is that the need among athletes for immediate economic relief will be much worse. That they will feel an obligation to go to schools that have a fanbase willing to pay them under the table, even if that amount is significantly less than B19 (Before Covid-19)?
Could this accelerate the move towards simply paying players or will this do just the opposite?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a tendency for the class of 2020 and 2021 to have more high school prospects commit to instate or relative close schools geographically speaking, than ever before. Parents and players will want to stay close to home given all the uncertainty.
I think that makes sense.
It would suggest SEC would maintain its talent disproportions (unfortunately) as most NFL draftees are from the South, right? I don't mean their schools. I mean their family homes.
I hope it bankrupts the fuckers especially in Ohio
April 26th, 2020 at 11:45 PM ^
Why..are you...the way that you are...?
April 27th, 2020 at 12:07 AM ^
Got anything other than that screenshot ya got there?
have a son going through this now, but without the bagmen. recruiting is really weird with so many uncertainties. this son got what amounts to a contingent offer from a B10 school. the main contingency being SAT/ACT scores. well, how do you take either of those tests right now and when will he/kids be able to do so? anybody's guess. this son has some interest from ivy league schools, but mrs XM and i aren't real keen on sending him that far away. so two tangible uncertainties, before you ever get to bagmen, are geography and testing and i can't imagine we're the only family thinking this through.
no camps for the foreseeable future. no on-campus visits. no in person contact. he's been doing virtual visits with various staffs. i think tremendous uncertainty has an effect from top to bottom and everywhere in between for recruiting. heck, will there even be a season in 4+ months? i guess its possible but more likely that it gets pushed to spring? or maybe not at all.
thus, as it relates to the bagman economy my sense of it is that in the bagman schools that their wallets might be closed because of all the uncertainties. further, maybe the competition becomes a little more focused on geographically close schools/recruits? just guessing. tough to hand an envelope of cash to a kid/family when you can't visit them. temporary, but an effect nevertheless.
I'm sorry your son is having to have to make such a significant choice in such a turbulent year.
no worries right now. he's a junior so he has time and hopefully things open up for him and all the other kids in his class. remember, too, football coaches and programs are dealing with this chaos of information also. i predict that in general there are going to be some decisions made on offers where far less information than normal will be available.
double post internet seizing up here in the boon docks.
here is a picture of football
Central is a excellent school, football program and only a few hours away from you. The Mt Pleasant campus is a great place to send your kid just sayin'.
April 26th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^
I used to hit welcome week at central then Michigan’s welcome week since we started a week later. We thought those days would never end
The Ivy league is showing interest and you are suggesting central michigan? I don't care how far away you are from Harvard, if you can swing it YOU MAKE HIM GO TO Harvard, are you kidding me lol
April 26th, 2020 at 11:15 PM ^
the chips haven't contacted us, but other MAC programs have. is nice that it's not too far away from 'up north'.
April 26th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^
Out of curiousity, how are the virtual visits working? 1-on-1 Zoom-like calls trying to replicate the coach visiting your son at his high school? Or group calls like a junior day campus visit?
April 26th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
1-on-1 or sometimes multiple coaches. there was one where about 5 recruits were on with nearly an entire staff and then they kind of split off by position group. i wasn't on that call so i don't know the logistics of how they did that.
Sorry I didn't get to this earlier. Thank you for the insight.
You tell us!
Hey what year is it?
April 27th, 2020 at 12:08 AM ^
That’s a cool pic ya got there. Would you happen to have anything of substance?
Wait, what the hell happened to Tia ?
All the bag should forthwith be redirected toward University presidents and the NCAA to ensure there's a season.
Another point:
Effect of VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS. It has been suggested that some student athletes are attracted to programs in which they don't have to physically attend, so they can "meet" academic requirements without ever having to set foot on campus, in an atmosphere that makes cheating easy.
University of Michigan has been a standout among many programs in having minimal online classes (until Covid-19 of course). Given it is likely to have to maintain online classes, perhaps even adopt them permanently, is there a significant effect there as well, regarding levelling the playing field (whether anyone likes it or not)?
Michigan has their share of online learning don't kid yourself. And online classes tend to be HARDER than traditional classes. You have more reading, writing, tests, etc and they absolutely can proctor online tests by using your laptop camera, screen sharing programs, etc. Cheating in online classes can be a little bit harder than most people realize...if someone else is doing the work it's going to be a problem when test time comes.
April 27th, 2020 at 12:13 AM ^
Please... stop it. Justin Fields is only a good QB because his online classes are so easy. Nothing to do with talent or development... it's the online classes!
The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. Bag men are here to stay and nothing is going to change that.
April 26th, 2020 at 10:06 PM ^
Except now the bags are filled with PPE.
Skip the PPE, I'll take a 12 pack of toilet paper.
And the C notes smell of bleach!
April 26th, 2020 at 10:40 PM ^
That depends on how you think of wealth. If you want a 30 foot garden outside your apartment in Manhattan it’ll cost millions or you could have a blue collar job and own a 40 acre lot in da UP
my take, the gap between rich and poor will actually grow during the pandemic.
The bagmen will actually have more resources
April 26th, 2020 at 10:41 PM ^
Maybe the gap widens in time but now everybody is down. Except the good folks at Charmin.
The effects aren’t predictable. The shutdown gives greater access to the bagmen who still have lots of expendable cash and possibly more desperate families needing cash. It could also put even greater emphasis on a football factory that gets players to the nfl.
could also cause some to prioritize education and program.
All the variables still exist and environments that create them.
April 26th, 2020 at 11:35 PM ^
Will the bagmen still make monthly payments if no games are played?
MLB players are not getting paid right now. Just sayin'....
April 26th, 2020 at 11:46 PM ^
Considering deep pockets in this country are finding ways to benefit off of this pandemic I've a feeling they won't be affected too much.
Bagmen will always look to the future. 2021 college football will be back, so the bagmen don't mind funding recruits, since they know their bucks will bring results during and after the 2021 season.
The only football we will see this fall is NFL. Since players can remain fairly isolated and they will be tested every week.There will be no fans in the stadiums but the NFL can do without fans for one season.
The guys who were boosting recruits have the kind of money to weather this storm. They’ll be right there waiting when this is all over.
What I do see happening though is going forward, a lot of recruits who would otherwise go out of state or across the country opt to stay in state or within their own geographic region (I.e. recruits in SEC territory stay in the SEC). So business as usual for the Clemsons, Georgias, Alabamas and LSUs of the world. How it will affect programs like ND, PSU, Michigan or OSU, who all have anywhere between decent to massive national recruiting footprints, I guess we’ll see. I could see each of these programs losing out on at least one guy they really want over all of this. Probably more.
I'm sure one of the hundreds of articles written on the topic could be linked.
I find it hilarious that anytime a team is better than yours, it's because they are obviously cheating (with no evidence). But when it is michigan implicated in the cheating, y'all lose your minds that it could never happen to "the leaders and best."
Maybe those teams are simply better than you.
I think the bigger impact on the college secondary market is going to come from the crude oil collapse tbh. I shudder for the AD at Texas A&M who is going to have to find money to keep Jimbo's salary paid. All those donors are going to be tapped out just keeping the AD paid, let alone having extra for bagging. If I could sell stock in college programs, I'd sell the heck out of the Big 12 schools.
The NBA has probably sped up the time table on name and likeness rights to college players with their super G league contracts. Once there's a way to pay above the table, I wonder if Bagging will continue in this way. Why meet a kid in a parking lot when you can just hire him to advertise your car lot?
No way. People that have tons of money will still have tons of money. Nothing will change.