OT - Rumor Texas A&M allegedly paid 25-30 Milly for recruits
January 4th, 2022 at 4:29 PM ^
Every single rumored number to this point has turned out to be lower than first reported
January 4th, 2022 at 3:58 PM ^
No way...
This will be the new norm, not the exception.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:00 PM ^
Im not sure I see the issue here. Isn't this what NIL is supposed to be? It's a market economy, your worth is what someone is willing to pay you.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:00 PM ^
The bigger concern here is why this younger generation has to end words with y that don't end in y. Examples include Natty, Milly, and so on. It's troubling, or as you would say...... troubly.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:05 PM ^
I will vote for anyone who takes on the cause of ending this.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:26 PM ^
I think you should chill and enjoy a fatty.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:01 PM ^
I understand that the players deserve something, but Good Lord, this is starting to get insane
January 4th, 2022 at 4:04 PM ^
In another thread I had mentioned I am acquainted with an older gentleman who served as athletic director for two big-name schools (Pac-12 and SEC), and he's well-connected with many currently-serving ADs around college football. He told me the ADs are saying the whole NIL thing is "out of control" ... it's a bidding war, and some players are working college against college to get the biggest NIL deal up front.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:07 PM ^
I get that it's the wild west right now, but also this is just how the labor market works and college ADs aren't used to football players having negotiating leverage. Have highly demanded skills? You are highly sought after and that's unfolding with NIL
January 4th, 2022 at 5:36 PM ^
That sounds exactly like what coaches have been doing for three decades. Boo hoo, the ADs started this mess.
January 4th, 2022 at 6:54 PM ^
Those ADs didn't see this coming?
And combined with the Portal it's going to make every player a "recruit" every year.
It's unrestricted free agency with no salary cap. What could go wrong?
January 4th, 2022 at 4:08 PM ^
I am slightly to the right of Bernie Sanders on most economic and domestic policy issues and I disagree. A lot of these guys are from impoverished backgrounds and are supposed amateurs, but everyone else - from coaches, to TV networks, and advertisers - are raking in billions. For the most part, even if they want to focus on academics, if they are starters or good players, that's going to be increasingly difficult at most schools, Michigan included, especially if they want to major in something a little more challenging. If they use the money wisely, they could be setting themselves up big time.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:09 PM ^
So, would you say any more insane than Mel Tucker getting 95 million fucking dollars? The NCAA is completely to blame here, and just reaping what they've sown!
January 4th, 2022 at 5:20 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh was given $9 million a year to coach unpaid players. Jimbo Fisher was given over $100,000,000 at once. It’s been insane, so it’s only right the players start getting a piece of the pie.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
Aha, the true identity of the 12th Man surfaces.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:28 PM ^
Hah - this was good
January 4th, 2022 at 4:05 PM ^
That's a lot of money to go 9-3 when you could probably just go 8-4 for half the price
January 4th, 2022 at 4:15 PM ^
Geez. Is this sustainable? What happens when it doesn’t work out like some of these insane NIL deals? I guess we will all see in the next few years.
January 4th, 2022 at 9:27 PM ^
Yes because we have a culture where we have billionaires and once you get one of those you can pay $100M a year which is the interest on a CD once you have $8-10-20-50B. (class warfare)
Hey I am really into college sports. My $32B generates zilly money annual. I am going to "donate" X% to my college. All in on CFB.
Just imagine if Beyonce or any Kardashian was into college football. She could fund an entire football team without missing a beat. Welcome to reality! $100M is a rounding error to some of these peeps.
January 4th, 2022 at 11:27 PM ^
Apparently Larry Page does not give a wit about Michigan football. Oh well.
January 5th, 2022 at 2:39 AM ^
I heard Stephen Ross likes football . . .
January 4th, 2022 at 4:19 PM ^
If only there was an organization out there that regulated and enforced activities related to college athletics.
So, we're in the Wild West right now when it comes to this NIL thing. Everyone saw this coming. Questions are what do we want and how do we get there?
We can't pretend power-five college football is an amateur sport any more. That much is clear. For that matter, a softball booster could go out and create The Queen and Her Court for the local Division III college and nobody would even blink.
I think we can agree that all this under-the-table stuff isn't ideal. But if you have a well-maintained professional league, you have to do something about how players are allocated. Or you end up with something like European Soccer (Football) and for that to work well, you probably want a tier system. Given the age requirements, you can see where this is headed - IMG is ahead of its time.
We're barely into the NIL era. This is going to be uncomfortable for quite a while.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
I know it’s nitty but *TAMU* isn’t paying 25-30 million. The school is paying cost of attendance just like it ever was.
Pretty impressive operation those booster have going though.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:15 PM ^
Booster organization has been the secret sauce at Alabama under Saban and now Georgia under Kirby. Before Saban arrived at LSU and Alabama, both of those schools had booster cultures where individual boosters would line up the guys they wanted the coach to recruit and the coach either had to run the risk of offending them by not signing the kids they had paid or not playing them enough. Auburn still deals with this, which is why it's always teetering on the edge of firing the coach. It's like the old Bill Parcells adage about being asked to cook the meal but not buy the groceries, except instead of one other person buying the groceries it's like 10 different people with totally different ideas of what should be cooked.
Saban showed up at LSU and Alabama and on day 1 got their boosters in line and made it clear they worked for him now, not the other way around. It takes a unique guy to pull that off, but he managed it. So instead of boosters going rogue and doing weird shit that makes it easy to get caught, everything is centrally managed by Saban and the right guys he wants get the right amount of money to get them on campus. Kirby learned under the master and has replicated that at Georgia. That's how you win.
January 4th, 2022 at 9:56 PM ^
the hell, now we’re saying “nitty?” step away, i’m begging you.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
....and Texas A&M will still probably finish 2nd or 3rd in their division.
January 5th, 2022 at 4:18 AM ^
in the SEC that means playoff bound.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
Not surprised
January 4th, 2022 at 4:31 PM ^
Be very interesting to see how the state of Texas worded its NIL laws. If it is illegal, you can guarantee any UT fans with subpoena power will be looking into it.
Here's a PDF created by UT for those wondering how messy this could get.
https://texassports.com/documents/2021/7/1//NIL_Donor_Fan_FAQ_DRAFT_6_30_21.pdf?id=15852
No. The Texas law states, “No individual, corporate entity, or other organization may: (1) enter into any arrangement with a prospective student-athlete relating to the prospective student-athlete’s name, image, or likeness prior to their enrollment in an institution of higher education; or (2) use inducements of future name, image, and likeness compensation arrangement to recruit a prospective student-athlete to any institution of higher education.” PSAs may also be subject to amateurism rules of various state athletics associations that prohibit a PSA from using their NIL for compensation
January 4th, 2022 at 4:34 PM ^
This is exactly why I laughed when people said this would even the playing field for schools like Michigan. We will never go to these lengths to get recruits and the recruiting deck will always be stacked against us for certain recruits.
January 4th, 2022 at 6:59 PM ^
There are two "we's" . . . the university and the fanbase / boosters.
The university won't do it. But the fanbase / boosters very well may.
Hell, I'll contribute.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:37 PM ^
1. Can't be mad at the players at all for taking advantage of, basically, a rule that has now laws or oversight. Crazy to even say that, its wild west out there.
2. If this is remotely true, no way its sustainable for a school...right? Paying that much for kids to play football, and they are kids at that time of recruitment, what if they get hurt, do they get any money? What if they are a bust, do they pay it back? What if they take money and become absolute shit shows with how they spend it (drugs, alcohol)? For the biggest of recruits, what if they dont make the league...do they pay it back?
3. At some point this will either ruin said school spending that much, or it will put the final nail in the coffin for college football.
NIL was supposed to level(ish) out the playing field right? With this type of spending, it will get even worse for the schools that just dont give a shit and will do whatever to win.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:22 PM ^
Schools have never given a shit about the rules. Especially funny that an OKLAHOMA fan is crying about cheating. Michigan cheats. Ohio state cheats. A&M cheats. Everyone cheats
January 4th, 2022 at 5:51 PM ^
Well Fatty, the point is - is this even cheating anymore?
When someone starts asking these kids for their 1099s I guess we'll see how much they have & where it came from.
In fact, I've been begging Michigan to get in front of this before it was even legal - how about a Major on how to market & monetize oneself, how to Incorporate yourself, find tax dodges (say, donating Turkeys for example!)
Michigan not being where A&M is is unconscionable, really. This is for the benefit of the student-athletes, who bring in capital-B $Billions to the school, and provide lifetime memories like that osu game for us!
January 4th, 2022 at 6:49 PM ^
NIL isn’t going to stop cheating. It’ll always happen. But now the players get a bigger slice of the pie legitimately
January 4th, 2022 at 9:30 PM ^
At this point, what does it even mean to "cheat," if this is legal?
January 4th, 2022 at 8:20 PM ^
Well then Michigan is Terrible at cheating. You have schools like Georgia who “recruited” 40 top 100 players between 2018-2021 class ans Michigan had 7!
January 4th, 2022 at 4:47 PM ^
"milly?" seriously?
stop that.
January 4th, 2022 at 4:58 PM ^
Stephen Ross finds that in his couch cushions every other month.
Let's do this.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:34 AM ^
Mr. Ross, no need for a bed, I'll just crash on your couch tonight.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:00 PM ^
Yeah A&M has that ole miss vibe from a few years ago, except it's all legal now
January 4th, 2022 at 5:07 PM ^
And if Michigan isn't doing this multiple people should be fired. People around here shit all over Steven Godfrey when he was writing about the high cost of signing key recruits 5-10 years ago because people would rather live in fantasy world than engage with the reality of things. If you don't pay them, someone else will, and you're not going to go to heaven because you underpaid for college football players.
Texas A&M has accomplished far less in the modern era of college football than Michigan, but they got money. If they can do this, there's no excuse for Michigan not being able to do it. Texas A&M is a weird school in the middle of bumfuck nowhere built around a fake army and being super racist. Start handing out checks like Yost used to and Michigan can have top 2 recruiting classes.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:24 PM ^
Michigan is closer to this than people think. There was a lot of turmoil behind the scenes. You’d be stunned to learn our head coach can occasionally piss boosters off especially when he’s not winning.
now he’s won, he brought Mike Hart back, he’s mellowed hour a bit and he brought back Albert Karna$chia who I’m pretty sure is imperative with some of those relationship
January 4th, 2022 at 11:23 PM ^
I claim no inside knowledge.
But I have always been sure that Michigan has paid players (or at least has a wink-wink system of not noticing when boosters...do things).
Just does not seem plausible that Michigan could recruit in the 8-15 range nationally and be totally clean.
And if I am wrong on Michigan...then my theory MUST be right applied to OSU.
There is absolutely NO WAY they can recruit at the top three level since Meyer walked in the door unless they are just as good at the dirty stuff as top SEC programs.
NO F'IN WAY they are winning recruiting battles for kids in Texas, Florida, etc. against 'Bama by being even one millimeter cleaner than 'Bama.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:47 PM ^
the worst part of college sports is money. we need less of it, not more.
January 5th, 2022 at 2:50 AM ^
People are interested in college football. Money follows interest. It's going to be hard to get rid of the money when people are that interested.
There are no money problems in Shuffleboard. Because nobody cares.
January 4th, 2022 at 5:55 PM ^
Ford, you may be my new favorite on here!
Let's fire some asses if Michigan's NIL program isn't causing hand-wringing by next Fall! Think "holding camps in Georgia & Alabama" level consternation!
January 4th, 2022 at 9:59 PM ^
You are so correct. Why aren't UM's boosters banding together on their yachts and jets and $30M houses in Vail offering $20M to Stroud to transfer? $20M to JSN? Let's do it right.
Eff this its the wild wild west.
January 4th, 2022 at 11:41 PM ^
So...OSU played an o.k. bag men game under Tressel (remember he was caught with small-time violations at Youngstown State, but OSU hired him anyway). Then Meyer arrived and took their bag men game to the SEC level.
Would be HILARIOUS if Michigan were to wipe all of that away and just use its huge money alumni advantage to 'acquire' OSU starters as transfers and top 100 recruiting targets with huge NIL game.
Won't happen though. Michigan super-wealthy alums/boosters tilt high brow. Not gonna get down and dirty with scam NILs. Real NILs? Sure. But not these thinly veiled 'buy 5-stars' phony NILs.