I've written here before about Moneyball. One of the distinctions of the As, one that has continued after Billy Bean moved up, is that they have continued to win with a payroll about 1/2 the size of the Yankees. The way they do that is to exploit the weaknesses in the market for baseball players. Baseball has been trying to do some kind of equalization program for awhile now, but with about as much success as is found in the NCAA for football. There is simply too much riding on the money spent and the teams that spend it for something like a real luxury tax to work. (The NBA only did it for survival purposes anyhow.)
When Paul was our coach we played Moneyball. We had limited resources and we went after players that most programs didn't want and that fit what the O was doing. And it worked; Tech consistently out performed its recruiting ratings and, just as consistently, finished first or second in our division and won the ACC twice. Now we are trying to play the other kind of Moneyball; spending the money to get our recruiting and (maybe) coaching up by more infrastructure. The jury is out on how well that will work; it's largely up to the Tech "community", such as it is.
But the bottom line here is pretty straightforward. We still have to find ways to play Moneyball. It is highly unlikely that the present high dollar programs will be curbed. It will be equally difficult for Tech to raise the money needed to compete with them, though time will tell on this since we don't really need to match up dollar for dollar to do just fine. When Tech football has succeeded in the past it has been either because of innovative schemes (the razzle-dazzle wing-t, the spread option) or really good coaching (Ross/O'Leary/Fridgen) or both (Dodd and Paul). I'm hoping that Coach is planning to do something along those lines (better coaching, I guess) combined with a much more comprehensive recruiting infrastructure. If so, we will prosper. If any part of the equation is left on the sidelines, I don't doubt that many here will be disappointed.
