Cats can't compete regularly in recruiting with the big schools & their money

[Chicat]

I wish I was as good at anything as the NCAA is at losing court cases.

[dmjcat]

"Big time NIL"

This is, unfortunately, a preview of the future for the UA under the new NIL landscape. The Cats don't have "Big Time NIL" and are going to have difficulty competing against the B1G/SEC and other monied schools.

IMO, Congress needs to step in and put the "Amateur" back in college sports.

How long before athletes will not even be required to enroll in school??? College football/basketball might as well be classified as Minor Leagues or Semi-Pro

[Merkin]

How long before athletes will not even be required to enroll in school??? College football/basketball might as well be classified as Minor Leagues or Semi-Pro

Especially when many of them attend 3 or more universities, where it's near impossible to get a degree unless you spent enough semesters in residence. Obviously many of them hope for a pro career where you don't need a degree, but like many ex-UA players found out, if you want to get into coaching, you will need one. At least 3 come to mind that came back to the UA to get their degree after their playing days were over, and they were not transfers.

[azcat49]

Things will start to happen when private equity steps in to buy athletic programs and they won’t want to fund a losing money Olympic sports program.

If the players are considered employees and form a national union you can bet they will come to the same conclusion.

This thing is broken

[UAEebs86]

How long before athletes will not even be required to enroll in school??? College football/basketball might as well be classified as Minor Leagues or Semi-Pro

Especially when many of them attend 3 or more universities, where it's near impossible to get a degree unless you spent enough semesters in residence. Obviously many of them hope for a pro career where you don't need a degree, but like many ex-UA players found out, if you want to get into coaching, you will need one. At least 3 come to mind that came back to the UA to get their degree after their playing days were over, and they were not transfers.

[dmjcat]

How long before athletes will not even be required to enroll in school??? College football/basketball might as well be classified as Minor Leagues or Semi-Pro

Especially when many of them attend 3 or more universities, where it's near impossible to get a degree unless you spent enough semesters in residence. Obviously many of them hope for a pro career where you don't need a degree, but like many ex-UA players found out, if you want to get into coaching, you will need one. At least 3 come to mind that came back to the UA to get their degree after their playing days were over, and they were not transfers.

Roughly 1.6% of college football players end up playing professionally.

We need to set up college sports (football/basketball) to cater to the 98.4% who are not going pro.......in other words the folks who need to focus on getting a college degree.

[Merkin]

[dmjcat]

This is only going to make things worse for the UA and the rest of the Non SEC/B1G teams.
We don't have the TV contract money to compete with them.

[Merkin]

This is going to destroy all the non-revenue sports. When the UA AD can't have a balanced budget without $50M from the academic side each year you know there are going to be some cuts.

All Division I athletes dating back to 2016 are eligible to receive a share as part of the settlement class.

[Ghost]

This is going to destroy all the non-revenue sports. When the UA AD can't have a balanced budget without $50M from the academic side each year you know there are going to be some cuts.

All Division I athletes dating back to 2016 are eligible to receive a share as part of the settlement class.

Such a negative view.

[ProfessorFate]

This is going to destroy all the non-revenue sports. When the UA AD can't have a balanced budget without $50M from the academic side each year you know there are going to be some cuts.

All Division I athletes dating back to 2016 are eligible to receive a share as part of the settlement class.

Such a negative view.

Said the king of negativity.

[Ghost]

This is going to destroy all the non-revenue sports. When the UA AD can't have a balanced budget without $50M from the academic side each year you know there are going to be some cuts.

All Division I athletes dating back to 2016 are eligible to receive a share as part of the settlement class.

Such a negative view.

Said the king of negativity.

Hey, at least Merkin shares how he feels. He doesn’t pick up the Pom poms but drops the Pooper Scooper. It’s how he feels. It’s valid.

[84Cat]

$2.75 million/year

[84Cat]

[dmjcat]

In basketball you can change the entire trajectory of your team with one player.

In football it’s probably 3-5 (depending on position).

If the transfer market has taught us anything, kids are constantly looking for the best opportunity to showcase themselves. Sitting the bench at Bama, Clemson, SC, or Notre Dame (or Duke, Kentucky, Kansas in basketball) isn’t for everyone, ESPECIALLY if there is a six figure NIL deal out there that the guy who is the current starter ahead of you is getting and you aren’t.

I don't think the kid sitting on the bench at Oregon is our problem.

Its the 5 Star point guard or center that we competing against them for. If they wind up with the 5 star guard and we wind up with the 3 star Transfer portal guy its not going to end well for the UA.

I was talking football, not basketball, but are you of the opinion that the old rules were somehow holding Nike back from getting kids to go to Oregon that Arizona wanted?

Basketball and football aren't really comparable at Arizona.

In basketball, there's no reason we whould not be competitive for 5 stars with or without NIL. There are NBA alums and boosters for Arizona basketball that will make us nationally competitive in the way we always were. Kansas, Kentucky, etc were in on guys like Aaron Gordon and Deandre Ayton and they still will be.

Football, Arizona is not blessed with the advantages we have in basketball. There, using the portal to score a dissatisfied 4 star is a coup for us.

People overrate the Nike thing too. Duke, Kentucky, etc. all contract with Nike. If Knight starts dropping cash for Oregon to screw other Nike schools, there will be blowback. So far Oregon hasn't overperformed in this area:

"Also, if you remove the six-figure deals for Thibodeaux and Carey you get a better idea of how the average athlete who received an NIL deal actually did. The average deal at Oregon without Thibodeaux’s biggest endorsement would be $723"

Thibodeaux got 100k, but the vast majority of Oregon's NIL deals haven't been near that.

"No reason we would not be competitive with NIL"????? Again, if Phil wants to pony up the $$$ we will certainly NOT be competitive in any universe. To suggest otherwise is lunacy. The UA doesn't have a Bill Gates type alumni

"Blowback"" What the hell are you smoking??? You think there is going to be "blowback" to the guy worth $55 billion who is funding all of the shoe deals??? All of those universities getting $$$ from Phil will be kissing his ass in perpetuity regardless of who he pays off. Money doesnt talk, it SCREAMS.

Ok, then why isn't Knight doing that? NIL is fully available and he hasn't leveraged a single deal for Oregon yet. Is he only 83 so he doesn't want to rush it while he's young?

If he wanted to drop millions, he'd be doing it. He isn't.

Yes, there's going to be blowback. Nike has deals with Texas and Ohio State worth over 250 million each. There's a contract with requirements. Nike signed those deals because they believe those schools will generate enough revenue to pay the deal off.

We're talking billions in revenue that Knight is going to jeopardize because he likes Oregon and despite the fact he could openly have been doing it for a year and hasn't done it at all?

Finally, no one's dropping billions. The wildest unsubstantiated rumor is Texas A&M doing 30 mil in NIL deals for an incoming 28 man class. Keep in mind, that is the unsubstantiated high end estimate of a message board rando. Or about 1 mil per player.

That's not an amount that's impossible for Arizona. It's not just alums, it's any companies included. Dr. Pepper ponied up for DJ Uiagalelei (sp) so it's not like it's only university boosters.

Wonder if Spiff will ever return and comment on how totally wrong he was about the entire NIL/Phil Knight argument.

https://sports.yahoo.com/oregon-footbal ... 09065.html

[dmjcat]

$10 Million for 1 player. NIL is totally out of control.

https://www.boundingintosports.com/coll ... ing-money/

[gronk4heisman]

$10 Million for 1 player. NIL is totally out of control.

https://www.boundingintosports.com/coll ... ing-money/

Anyone spending that on a football player is a moron, one football player is not making that big of a difference. Now a basketball player or two, that's a different story.

[EastCoastCat]

Don’t agree. I’m a big Michigan fan and anybody who has watched them this year knows the QB situation was abysmal. Their QB is a walk on cancer survivor (and we still beat tOSU).

The QB cupboard was bare so they had to do something drastic imo. $10M for the best QB prospect in the country was a no-brainer if Michigan wants to get back into the NC discussion.

NIL is the new world order so ante up if you want to sit at the big boys table.

[Chicat]

$10M for a freshman though is insane. Arch Manning probably would have commanded that amount two years ago if this was the market and he threw 5 passes as a freshman and was redshirted. That’s $2M per pass ($5M per completion) and they all happened in a blowout against TTech.

So what’s going to be the pressure to play these kids right away, maybe before they’re ready? It’s not going to be better to have an 18 year old out there throwing 25 INTs and killing your team because he’s making 8 figures. That shit is going to drive people out of their minds.

[84Cat]

Well, when you get the owner of Oracle to pony up the money, it's just peanuts. His net worth is over $200 billion

[gronk4heisman]

Don’t agree. I’m a big Michigan fan and anybody who has watched them this year knows the QB situation was abysmal. Their QB is a walk on cancer survivor (and we still beat tOSU).

The QB cupboard was bare so they had to do something drastic imo. $10M for the best QB prospect in the country was a no-brainer if Michigan wants to get back into the NC discussion.

NIL is the new world order so ante up if you want to sit at the big boys table.

Maybe I am biased and care way more about college basketball, give me 5 college basketball 5 star prospects for $2M a piece and that is money way better spent than throwing money away on a single freshman quarterback who is just as likely to be the next Jaden Rashada.

[Fishclamps]

Now is that 10 mil for 1 year? Or 10 mil spread out over 4? They don't really say.

[EastCoastCat]

Don’t agree. I’m a big Michigan fan and anybody who has watched them this year knows the QB situation was abysmal. Their QB is a walk on cancer survivor (and we still beat tOSU).

The QB cupboard was bare so they had to do something drastic imo. $10M for the best QB prospect in the country was a no-brainer if Michigan wants to get back into the NC discussion.

NIL is the new world order so ante up if you want to sit at the big boys table.

Maybe I am biased and care way more about college basketball, give me 5 college basketball 5 star prospects for $2M a piece and that is money way better spent than throwing money away on a single freshman quarterback who is just as likely to be the next Jaden Rashada.

I get what you’re saying Gronk, but you also need to consider how much more revenue is generated in football vs basketball. Also, the QB is the most important position in maybe all of sports.

[Merkin]

the QB is the most important position in maybe all of sports.

How many other sports have one guy wearing a red jersey in practice where you can't touch him?

[gronk4heisman]

Don’t agree. I’m a big Michigan fan and anybody who has watched them this year knows the QB situation was abysmal. Their QB is a walk on cancer survivor (and we still beat tOSU).

The QB cupboard was bare so they had to do something drastic imo. $10M for the best QB prospect in the country was a no-brainer if Michigan wants to get back into the NC discussion.

NIL is the new world order so ante up if you want to sit at the big boys table.

Maybe I am biased and care way more about college basketball, give me 5 college basketball 5 star prospects for $2M a piece and that is money way better spent than throwing money away on a single freshman quarterback who is just as likely to be the next Jaden Rashada.

I get what you’re saying Gronk, but you also need to consider how much more revenue is generated in football vs basketball. Also, the QB is the most important position in maybe all of sports.

I get money generation in football vs. basketball, but as a booster I would prefer to spend my money on championships for my basketball team over maybe a win or two for my football team. That win or two isn't changing the scales of money they are seeing, they are Michigan they are already getting the max from their huge attendance numbers and Big 10 money even before donations. But that championship sure would be changing a lot of joy in my household and bragging rights among my other rich silver spoon ass hole friends.

[dmjcat]

[pc in NM]

The quicker that "college football" can be separated from universities, and directly be affiliated with the corporate wealthy, the more comfortable the kleptocracy will be...

[TheCat]

SMU story in football.

Shortly before receiving the invite, David Miller, the chairman of the school’s board, quickly organized a meeting of 12 wealthy donors. The net worth in the room exceeded $15 billion, according to Yahoo Sports.

The group included oilman Ray Hunt, worth about $7 billion himself, and his nephew, Clark, owner of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Also in attendance were Rich Templeton and Marty Flanagan, the former CEOs of Texas Instruments and Invesco, respectively.

“It’s a couple hundred million dollars,” Miller, the founder of EnCap Investments, an oil and gas private equity firm, told Yahoo at the time. “I’m not losing sleep over it.”

[84Cat]

The first two paragraphs of an email to Alabama fans from AD Greg Byrne in which he alleges competition used “million-dollar paydays” to lure Tide athletes away. He said it’s time to “fight back.”



https://bsky.app/profile/bycasagrande.b ... m4kb76522l

[dmjcat]

The first two paragraphs of an email to Alabama fans from AD Greg Byrne in which he alleges competition used “million-dollar paydays” to lure Tide athletes away. He said it’s time to “fight back.”



https://bsky.app/profile/bycasagrande.b ... m4kb76522l

Another example that demonstrates just how far college amateur sports has fallen.

The UA is currently pursuing 3 highly ranked HS basketball players (Peat/Burries/Arenas). I can't see how we could possibly afford all 3 of them......perhaps not even 1 of them. Rumors have already been circulating that asu is offering more NIL for Peat, Burries is being pursued by both Alabama and BYU (who just coughed up $5M for 1 player and have made it clear that they are not done) and Arenas is being courted by B1G and SEC schools that we can not possibly afford to match from an NIL standpoint.

The only realistic way out of this mess that could save the UA is Congressional action. We don't have an alumni base which is going to financially bankroll the UA in this new NIL warfare. Ted Cruz has been trying to pass legislation in Congress (unsuccessfully thus far) that would put some guardrails on this madness. The only way the UA will be able to realistically compete in the future is legislation that would mandate salary caps significantly lower than what the top players are currently commanding. Given the deep political divisions in Congress I'm not holding my breath.

https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-congres ... 2216109792

[Merkin]

Since Senator Tuberville has first hand experience in coaching college sports, thought I would look up his opinion.

Initially he was quite upset about Saban's retirement: https://www.rocketcitynow.com/article/n ... 41a8fc5841

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and I have been working on this for years, and we have a solution that could stop this race to the bottom and save college sports. It’s called the Protecting Athletes, Schools, and Sports (PASS) Act. Our bill would create a single national standard for adapting to NIL in college sports. It would end pay for play and implement a national standard for all NIL deals by creating a uniform contract. It would also require universities to honor the original scholarship made to a student athlete, regardless of their NIL deal status.”


But more recently he is proposing punishing students who accept a NIL offer, but decide to go elsewhere.
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/colleg ... 234816907/

[azgreg]

[UAEebs86]

Insanity

[Chicat]

They better hope they are paying for 2023 Beck and not 2024 Beck.

[Merkin]

With the NCAA no longer counting JC years, cutting down roster sizes, and am now considering giving everyone 5 years to play 5, these players are never going to leave.

Yet there are still the same number of high school athletes graduating.

[dmjcat]

Well this is certainly not good news for the athletic dept. I can't see the UA engaging in revenue sharing with athletes anytime in the near future. Recruiting for football/basketball is going to be very difficult for the foreseeable future.

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/colleg ... 234828187/

[Merkin]

Don't think the UA has a choice in not paying players. Pretty sure it's mandated by a judge.

[dmjcat]

Don't think the UA has a choice in not paying players. Pretty sure it's mandated by a judge.

I could be wrong but I don't think thats how its going to work Merk. The schools are "allowed" to contribute up to a certain amount of revenue......they are not required to. And when you are the UA and you don't have any revenue its not likely there is going to be a lot of sharing. This article discusses it in more detail.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ncaa-next/

Some snippets of the article are pasted below:

Schools will be given the option of funding up to 22% of their annual revenue -- an average of about $23 million per school -- to be set aside annually for athletes for the next 10 years beginning next year. In essence, it is true pay for play ... with conditions.

For now, the revenue-sharing conversation starts with if schools can afford to fully fund $23 million for 10 years (or by how much). Remember, membership in that club is optional. That all-in list would likely include all of the SEC and Big Ten.

After that?

"What are we talking about ... 50 teams that will be able to compete?" said Jason Montgomery, a veteran sports law attorney at Husch Blackwell.

How that list of top competitors are determined has long been the No. 1 topic in the halls of college football powers from here to Pullman, Washington. Revenue-sharing might be the tipping point.

"It's going to depend on who you're recruiting against," said Rob Ianello, general manager at Kansas. "If you're in the Ohio State world [it's] who you're recruiting against. But if you're School X in the Big 12, and Arizona and Oklahoma State and Arizona State, Kansas and Kansas State, if we're all operating at the max and then you're not, how can you compete? How can you keep your roster like the other schools will?"

[Merkin]

Thanks for the correction.

And that really sucks for UA MBB and FB.