Can we stay competitive in the NIL era?

SOWEGA Jacket

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And they shouldn’t. Everyone knows college football players aren’t real students. (With exceptions of course). The charade has finally ended and folks act shocked. The football players have absolutely nothing to do with any schools academics so why keep trying to put lipstick on the pig. UGA realizes it doesn’t matter and their fanbase and alum could care less if 55 5* and 4* players are on campus to play football.
 
bobongo

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
And they shouldn’t. Everyone knows college football players aren’t real students. (With exceptions of course). The charade has finally ended and folks act shocked. The football players have absolutely nothing to do with any schools academics so why keep trying to put lipstick on the pig. UGA realizes it doesn’t matter and their fanbase and alum could care less if 55 5* and 4* players are on campus to play football.
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It isn't a charade everywhere. It isn't a charade here.
 
Vespidae

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bobongo said:
It isn't a charade everywhere. It isn't a charade here.
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I've opined on this before, but I teach at Auburn and have a lot of athletes in my classes. Their attendance is tracked electronically, I have to report grade progress 3-4 times a semester, and any student with less than a B has to be put on a plan.

I get it that some schools use student athletes (UGA is a prime example), but not all schools do so. I think the narrative that the factories are a charade is a bit outdated. Still, there is no question the Top 30 programs are pulling away at lightning speed.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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bobongo said:
It isn't a charade everywhere. It isn't a charade here.
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How many football players would get into GT thru the normal admission process? I know several preferred walk ons who walked on because they knew they‘d never get in based on their high school records and SAT. So it is a charade on that level. We are half a$$ing it. We are letting in players without the normal academic requirements yet still being mediocre. While UGA is bringing in even less academic players and winning. My whole point is it’s a joke so we should have been playing the game to get the best players regardless of academic merit (like we try and make fun of UGA). If we had been playing the game the right way, GT would be a perrrenial top 20 team, would have owned the Coastal since inception and wouldn’t be worried about getting relegated. Instead, we played half the game and are now whining about empty stadiums and huge debt.
 
RonJohn

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
How many football players would get into GT thru the normal admission process? I know several preferred walk ons who walked on because they knew they‘d never get in based on their high school records and SAT. So it is a charade on that level. We are half a$$ing it. We are letting in players without the normal academic requirements yet still being mediocre. While UGA is bringing in even less academic players and winning. My whole point is it’s a joke so we should have been playing the game to get the best players regardless of academic merit (like we try and make fun of UGA). If we had been playing the game the right way, GT would be a perrrenial top 20 team, would have owned the Coastal since inception and wouldn’t be worried about getting relegated. Instead, we played half the game and are now whining about empty stadiums and huge debt.
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I guess that is one way to look at it. Kind of an adolescent way of looking at it though.
 
Northeast Stinger

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RonJohn said:
I guess that is one way to look at it. Kind of an adolescent way of looking at it though.
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Yeah, I think the thing that makes Tech different is that we really do expect players to graduate. At some schools graduation is just an extra added bonus but not expected. Even Tech players who go to the pros or move on in life are known to come back and finish their degree. That’s special and I would hate to see that no longer a priority at Tech.
 
bobongo

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
How many football players would get into GT thru the normal admission process?
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Almost none but no one is pretending otherwise, and it doesn't mean their academic life is a charade. They attend real classes, and they have to pass those real classes in order to stay on the football team. And though the bar is lowered for admission, most have to be at some academic level above the minimum required by the NCAA in order to even get in, because if they aren't they can't pass those very real classes. There are players who can get into other schools but wouldn't be admitted here.

You said football players, with few exceptions, aren't real students. But they are real students at Tech - no charade.
I don't see how lowering the bar for their admission makes their academic life a charade if they are taking real tests and have to pass them.
Few are on the same academic level as the average student, but they are on an academic level sufficient to complete courses and graduate.
 

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bobongo said:
Almost none but no one is pretending otherwise, and it doesn't mean their academic life is a charade. They attend real classes, and they have to pass those real classes in order to stay on the football team. And though the bar is lowered for admission, most have to be at some academic level above the minimum required by the NCAA in order to even get in, because if they aren't they can't pass those very real classes. There are players who can get into other schools but wouldn't be admitted here.

You said football players, with few exceptions, aren't real students. But they are real students at Tech - no charade.
I don't see how lowering the bar for their admission makes their academic life a charade if they are taking real tests and have to pass them.
Few are on the same academic level as the average student, but they are on an academic level sufficient to complete courses and graduate.
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Because if they weren’t football players they would never been able to get into GT and take the spot of a non-charade student. My point is all this is a charade. Instead of having every student get accepted on academic merits and then picking 85 to create the team we play the same game UGA plays which is lowering the bar for this special group. The problem is we pretend (like some of the previous posts) that we don’t.

You even said that there are players who get into other schools that wouldn’t get in here. Why the heck not? If we are going to lower the bar to start then do it right and take anyone who is good at football. Right now we bring in players who take spots from kids with 1400s yet we have become mediocre and have been a long time. If we are going to do it then do it freaking right and not halfway. Think of all the stud football players from the Atlanta area we could have won with if we didn’t do it half way.

And the idea that just because they attend classes and get degrees means it’s fair is ridiculous. All the students who were denied entrance in order to lower the bar also could have attended classes and got degrees. I just would have thought GT fans were smart enough to see a scam system. The entire system is bring in players to your school to entertain the alum and bring in money. It has nothing to do with helping the player or anything. It’s money. Are we happy with this as alum? Are we being entertained? We are a perfect case study of a school doing it all wrong. We should either let in any player (Cam’s, Herschel’s, etc) or join the Ivy League. Playing the middle has led us nowhere but down.
 
forensicbuzz

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
Because if they weren’t football players they would never been able to get into GT and take the spot of a non-charade student. My point is all this is a charade. Instead of having every student get accepted on academic merits and then picking 85 to create the team we play the same game UGA plays which is lowering the bar for this special group. The problem is we pretend (like some of the previous posts) that we don’t.

You even said that there are players who get into other schools that wouldn’t get in here. Why the heck not? If we are going to lower the bar to start then do it right and take anyone who is good at football. Right now we bring in players who take spots from kids with 1400s yet we have become mediocre and have been a long time. If we are going to do it then do it freaking right and not halfway. Think of all the stud football players from the Atlanta area we could have won with if we didn’t do it half way.

And the idea that just because they attend classes and get degrees means it’s fair is ridiculous. All the students who were denied entrance in order to lower the bar also could have attended classes and got degrees. I just would have thought GT fans were smart enough to see a scam system. The entire system is bring in players to your school to entertain the alum and bring in money. It has nothing to do with helping the player or anything. It’s money. Are we happy with this as alum? Are we being entertained? We are a perfect case study of a school doing it all wrong. We should either let in any player (Cam’s, Herschel’s, etc) or join the Ivy League. Playing the middle has led us nowhere but down.
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This isn't true. If the student-athletes weren't in school, our admissions numbers would not be any different. This was straight from the mouth of high up in the Admissions department because I said the same thing once and was corrected.
 
Northeast Stinger

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
Because if they weren’t football players they would never been able to get into GT and take the spot of a non-charade student. My point is all this is a charade. Instead of having every student get accepted on academic merits and then picking 85 to create the team we play the same game UGA plays which is lowering the bar for this special group. The problem is we pretend (like some of the previous posts) that we don’t.

You even said that there are players who get into other schools that wouldn’t get in here. Why the heck not? If we are going to lower the bar to start then do it right and take anyone who is good at football. Right now we bring in players who take spots from kids with 1400s yet we have become mediocre and have been a long time. If we are going to do it then do it freaking right and not halfway. Think of all the stud football players from the Atlanta area we could have won with if we didn’t do it half way.

And the idea that just because they attend classes and get degrees means it’s fair is ridiculous. All the students who were denied entrance in order to lower the bar also could have attended classes and got degrees. I just would have thought GT fans were smart enough to see a scam system. The entire system is bring in players to your school to entertain the alum and bring in money. It has nothing to do with helping the player or anything. It’s money. Are we happy with this as alum? Are we being entertained? We are a perfect case study of a school doing it all wrong. We should either let in any player (Cam’s, Herschel’s, etc) or join the Ivy League. Playing the middle has led us nowhere but down.
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This is sophistry. If Tech is perpetuating a charade then literally every school in the country is too. That especially includes Harvard where, if you just went by SAT scores and GPAs, each entering class should be 70% female and 65% from Asia.

No, many centuries ago academia decided that REAL education for the REAL world needed to be more well rounded in makeup and that included sports. That is the exact opposite of a sham.

A sham is fake classes, grade inflation and athletes who don’t graduate. ENTIRELY different.
 
Northeast Stinger

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herb said:
It’s now not enough to get the $100,000 payment to come to a school, you have to pay up again or the player is transferring.
https://amp.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article260883402.html
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Unreal to see how far we have come with all this in such a short time. Seems like 100 years ago that a college athlete even talking to an agent could get them banned from college sports. Now it’s just the price of doing business with college athletes.
 

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Northeast Stinger said:
Unreal to see how far we have come with all this in such a short time. Seems like 100 years ago that a college athlete even talking to an agent could get them banned from college sports. Now it’s just the price of doing business with college athletes.
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I don’t think we’ve come that far... it’s just that the wool has been pulled back from our eyes.

It’s kind of like college football passed out cold on a 10 hour red eye flight, woke up five minutes before landing and thought, “dang, that was fast!”
 
Northeast Stinger

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BuzzStone said:
Yea I will attend more GT softball games this year than football and basketball combined.
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This starts an interesting reflection for me. It was my love of football (playing GrayY or whatever it was called) that caused me to see a Dodd team as a child. Fell in love with the old gold and white. All my support for Tech sports is derivative of that first love.

If I quit following football at all levels (almost there) and quit following basket ball, it will probably start me on a slippery slope to abandoning all spectator sports. Though I will probably always watch The Masters each year.

But realistically I will probably think of Tech in ways other than sports.

Final note is that I worried before the start of last season that uga would end up being national champs. I saw no way anyone would beat them except Alabama and I knew they couldn’t beat them twice. It was another weird season with Covid hangover and the deaths of colleagues. I watched virtually no bowl games and watched the playoffs in piecemeal fashion. The only game I watched in earnest was the championship hoping against hope that Bama would save us from a national nightmare. But the dirtier and more dishonest program of the two came out on top. Yay dogs.

The last three years have killed much of my love for the game and I’m even forgetting so much of what I used to know about it. It’s just not fun anymore.
 

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Northeast Stinger said:
This starts an interesting reflection for me. It was my love of football (playing GrayY or whatever it was called) that caused me to see a Dodd team as a child. Fell in love with the old gold and white. All my support for Tech sports is derivative of that first love.

If I quit following football at all levels (almost there) and quit following basket ball, it will probably start me on a slippery slope to abandoning all spectator sports. Though I will probably always watch The Masters each year.

But realistically I will probably think of Tech in ways other than sports.

Final note is that I worried before the start of last season that uga would end up being national champs. I saw no way anyone would beat them except Alabama and I knew they couldn’t beat them twice. It was another weird season with Covid hangover and the deaths of colleagues. I watched virtually no bowl games and watched the playoffs in piecemeal fashion. The only game I watched in earnest was the championship hoping against hope that Bama would save us from a national nightmare. But the dirtier and more dishonest program of the two came out on top. Yay dogs.

The last three years have killed much of my love for the game and I’m even forgetting so much of what I used to know about it. It’s just not fun anymore.
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Amen, brother! Preach on!
 
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