Can we stay competitive in the NIL era?

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I get that. I also know history. We had folks laughing at others for decades who said the bowls would never allow a 1 vs. 2 matchup because the bowls have their tie ins and pageantry. Well look at us now. The bowls who ran the post season are irrelevant. And then you had folks saying we’ll never have a playoff. EVER. Look where we are now. And now we still have folks saying they’ll never expand because these ”student athletes” can’t play so many games. And we all know a playoff of 20 plus teams is coming in a couple more iterations. It’s all about money and nothing will stop it. You now have owners of stadiums calling the shots for games and TV execs. When the next guy with deep pockets decides he wants a piece and is willing to pay, contracts are easily renegotiated. No different than when ND and the Orange Bowl would grease each other for an invite.

I know it’s not happening right now because as you stated the process is a slog. But we’ve seen massive changes in just 25 years so I can only imagine the accelerated pace of the next 10 years when zeros keep being added to the price. The day will come, hopefully before I die, where I will be able to watch GT host a playoff game in Bobby Dodd. I hope it happens at the highest level although that’s becoming more and more of a pipe dream with our general direction regarding athletics being backwards.

And to think we use to watch 1 play 6 and 2 play 9 and then wait a day or two to see who Cecil at the Phoenix Times picked as a National Champ. In 20 years the landscape will be totally different than now.

 

[Richard7125]

I get that. I also know history. We had folks laughing at others for decades who said the bowls would never allow a 1 vs. 2 matchup because the bowls have their tie ins and pageantry. Well look at us now. The bowls who ran the post season are irrelevant. And then you had folks saying we’ll never have a playoff. EVER. Look where we are now. And now we still have folks saying they’ll never expand because these ”student athletes” can’t play so many games. And we all know a playoff of 20 plus teams is coming in a couple more iterations. It’s all about money and nothing will stop it. You now have owners of stadiums calling the shots for games and TV execs. When the next guy with deep pockets decides he wants a piece and is willing to pay, contracts are easily renegotiated. No different than when ND and the Orange Bowl would grease each other for an invite.

I know it’s not happening right now because as you stated the process is a slog. But we’ve seen massive changes in just 25 years so I can only imagine the accelerated pace of the next 10 years when zeros keep being added to the price. The day will come, hopefully before I die, where I will be able to watch GT host a playoff game in Bobby Dodd. I hope it happens at the highest level although that’s becoming more and more of a pipe dream with our general direction regarding athletics being backwards.

And to think we use to watch 1 play 6 and 2 play 9 and then wait a day or two to see who Cecil at the Phoenix Times picked as a National Champ. In 20 years the landscape will be totally different than now.

I completely agree the landscape will be a lot different in 20 years. I must have misunderstood the intent of your post when you disagreed with someone suggesting big changes won't happen for 10 years when TV contracts are being renegotiated. Perhaps you disagreed with the TV contracts being the constraint. I simply look at TV contracts being one of many constraints.....but i agree the landscape is changing.

 

[JackedUp]

The short answer is yes. The long answer is but college football needs to regulate this. Even Nick Saban is asking if this is the wild west or what? The conferences need to come together and work out what is acceptable and what is not. A few years ago college football as a whole decided to limit how many coaches are allowed to be in the booth at one time. This was to kept things fair. The conferences needs to do the same with how NIL is marketed to kids. Punish the adults and not the kids. GT has things to offer like any program.

 

[JackedUp]

The short answer is yes. The long answer is but college football needs to regulate this. Even Nick Saban is asking if this is the wild west or what? The conferences need to come together and work out what is acceptable and what is not. A few years ago college football as a whole decided to limit how many coaches are allowed to be in the booth at one time. This was to kept things fair. The conferences needs to do the same with how NIL is marketed to kids. Punish the adults and not the kids. GT has things to offer like any program

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The short answer is yes. The long answer is but college football needs to regulate this. Even Nick Saban is asking if this is the wild west or what? The conferences need to come together and work out what is acceptable and what is not. A few years ago college football as a whole decided to limit how many coaches are allowed to be in the booth at one time. This was to kept things fair. The conferences needs to do the same with how NIL is marketed to kids. Punish the adults and not the kids. GT has things to offer like any program

Nick Saban is the last person to be holding up. The only reason he is concerned is because NIL is a threat to his money laundering system. Prior to NIL, Bama and a few others had a great system in place not to get caught while funneling thousands to recruits. Rush Probst laid it out how many programs did it. With NIL the need for bagmen goes way down so Saban’s advantage is less as other programs like TAMU and USC can play the NIL game just as good as Bama and UGA.

What college football needed to regulate was decades of turning the other way as the ND’s OU’s, Bama’s, UGA’s, Miami’s made a mockery of the sport. Cam Newton was bought by Auburn. Everyone knows it. And the punishment brought forth by the NCAA was their school President hoisting a Natty. So if you are expecting the NCAA or any conference to actually enforce any rule you are delusional. And the example of limiting coaches in the box is just hilarious. I’m sure Saban and Kirby are upset that they can’t have their 15 “consultants” in the box when they have 40 bought players on the field. It’s all a scam and the losers are the 80% who actually follow the rules.

 

[slugboy]

Just sharing this—I don’t know if it’s accurate

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Just sharing this—I don’t know if it’s accurate

If true, then what has been already communicated, GT will not compete in this landscape, unless someone changes their priorities. Of course, that is obvious, but j/s.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. If the NIL stuff moves forward and the portal remains the way it is with 1 free transfer, then the only way I foresee us surviving with our current financial structure is to focus on bringing in kids that go to other schools out of HS and want to transfer with 3-4 years of eligibility left. If they burn their free pass getting to us, they'll be less likely to leave and other schools will be less likely to throw NIL money at them knowing they have to sit for a year before they can see the field.

 

[JacketFan137]

Just sharing this—I don’t know if it’s accurate

i think this is gonna settle down pretty quick. this isn’t the nfl where boosters will see return on investment in the form of revenue sharing or anything like that. while the crazy deranged fanbases will still have insane boosters i’m not sure it’s gonna last when paying millions just ends up with an 18-20 year old richer and nothing else to show for it.

 

[JacketFan137]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. If the NIL stuff moves forward and the portal remains the way it is with 1 free transfer, then the only way I foresee us surviving with our current financial structure is to focus on bringing in kids that go to other schools out of HS and want to transfer with 3-4 years of eligibility left. If they burn their free pass getting to us, they'll be less likely to leave and other schools will be less likely to throw NIL money at them knowing they have to sit for a year before they can see the field.

our current team is a big time portal gambit. would not be surprised if over half the starters over the next two years are from the portal. almost all the o line, several dbs, all the TEs are all portal guys. that number will probably continue to grow too

 

[UgaBlows]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. If the NIL stuff moves forward and the portal remains the way it is with 1 free transfer, then the only way I foresee us surviving with our current financial structure is to focus on bringing in kids that go to other schools out of HS and want to transfer with 3-4 years of eligibility left. If they burn their free pass getting to us, they'll be less likely to leave and other schools will be less likely to throw NIL money at them knowing they have to sit for a year before they can see the field.

Any kid that plays football at GT and shows NFL potential talent or even SEC 1st or 2nd string talent is going to get recruited away from us period. Unless he‘s that ultra-rare Calvin Johnson type who actually values and wants to earn a GT degree. IMO, The players we need to target with NIL transfer-recruiting are the kids at smaller non-P5 schools who mature and flash P5 quality talent. The 1 and 2 star players, hell the zero star players who suddenly become much better a year or two after highschool and grow or develop into 3 star types.

 

[Vespidae]

Any kid that plays football at GT and shows NFL potential talent or even SEC 1st or 2nd string talent is going to get recruited away from us period. Unless he‘s that ultra-rare Calvin Johnson type who actually values and wants to earn a GT degree. IMO, The players we need to target with NIL transfer-recruiting are the kids at smaller non-P5 schools who mature and flash P5 quality talent. The 1 and 2 star players, hell the zero star players who suddenly become much better a year or two after highschool and grow or develop into 3 star types.

There are two factors at play. The first is the NIL money in absolute terms. I agree with your comment that smaller schools who develop will ultimately yield that talent to larger schools with sizable NIL budgets. The other factor though, is the pathway to the NFL. That's really what LSU, Alabama, OSU and Georgia offer ... "Give me 4 years, and I'll make you a first-round draft pick." As long as that continues, we will see the system continue to tilt towards the Top 10 programs and away from everyone else. (I'm not saying an athlete who goes to a smaller school can't or won't get the NFL ... the probabilities of that happening are an order of magnitude lower.)

 

[bobongo]

(I'm not saying an athlete who goes to a smaller school can't or won't get the NFL ... the probabilities of that happening are an order of magnitude lower.)

That depends entirely, 100%, on the abilities of that particular athlete, and not on which school he attended.
Most of the better athletes go to the bigger schools to begin with. That's the reason they send more to the NFL. But the better athletes who don't stand just as good a chance of making it.

 

[UgaBlows]

Rampant ungoverned NIL is truly bad, but coupled with free and easy transfers it’s a freaking disaster. Is there any way that each years new recruits could be bound by contract to prevent them from transferring unless both the school and player agreed to it? I meam hell the school is supposed to honor scholorships no matter what, it should work both ways. Obviously this would have to be a widespread thing agreed upon by most schools to work. Another thing that might settle down the insane amounts of NIL money is if they just made everyone eligible for the NFL after highschool.

 

[JacketFan137]

Rampant ungoverned NIL is truly bad, but coupled with free and easy transfers it’s a freaking disaster. Is there any way that each years new recruits could be bound by contract to prevent them from transferring unless both the school and player agreed to it? I meam hell the school is supposed to honor scholorships no matter what, it should work both ways. Obviously this would have to be a widespread thing agreed upon by most schools to work. Another thing that might settle down the insane amounts of NIL money is if they just made everyone eligible for the NFL after highschool.

it would take some truly special players to get drafted out of hs. the difference in size and speed is enormous and the development that can occur over the first two years can be a lot. the only guys that may have been drafted recently were studs like clowney, trevor lawrence, adrian peterson and very few others. they were seen as generational recruits coming out of hs

 

[Vespidae]

That depends entirely, 100%, on the abilities of that particular athlete, and not on which school he attended.
Most of the better athletes go to the bigger schools to begin with. That's the reason they send more to the NFL. But the better athletes who don't stand just as good a chance of making it.

Bill Belechik

That depends entirely, 100%, on the abilities of that particular athlete, and not on which school he attended.
Most of the better athletes go to the bigger schools to begin with. That's the reason they send more to the NFL. But the better athletes who don't stand just as good a chance of making it.

Bill Belichick said it best. Playing 4 years against the best players prepares you for the professional game in a way that playing for smaller schools can't.

Again ... the probability is higher that you will play pro ball coming from LSU than Bowling Green.

 

[bobongo]

Bill Belechik

Bill Belichick said it best. Playing 4 years against the best players prepares you for the professional game in a way that playing for smaller schools can't.

Again ... the probability is higher that you will play pro ball coming from LSU than Bowling Green.

Maybe that applies to G-5 to some small extent, but it certainly doesn't apply to us at all. We play competition equal to or superior to competition faced by Alabama.
And about 1/3 of NFL players didn't even play for P-5 schools. The overriding factor is how good they are, not where they played.

Belichick might say that, but 21 players on the Patriots roster are from non-P-5 schools:

New England Patriots 2024 Player Roster | NFL.com

www.nfl.com

 

[JacketFan137]

Maybe that applies to G-5 to some small extent, but it certainly doesn't apply to us at all. We play competition equal to or superior to competition faced by Alabama.
And about 1/3 of NFL players didn't even play for P-5 schools. The overriding factor is how good they are, not where they played.

Belichick might say that, but 21 players on the Patriots roster are from non-P-5 schools:

New England Patriots 2024 Player Roster | NFL.com

www.nfl.com

i would be interested to see the breakdown by position group across the league. i play dynasty fantasy football so i focus a lot on offenses and right now SEC WR production translates at a significantly higher rate than any other conference and the gap is growing and growing each year.

 

[Billygoat91]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. If the NIL stuff moves forward and the portal remains the way it is with 1 free transfer, then the only way I foresee us surviving with our current financial structure is to focus on bringing in kids that go to other schools out of HS and want to transfer with 3-4 years of eligibility left. If they burn their free pass getting to us, they'll be less likely to leave and other schools will be less likely to throw NIL money at them knowing they have to sit for a year before they can see the field.

This is genius! I think that this is reflected to a degree in mid- to lower-teir P-5 schools focusing more on transfers. 2023 freshman commit numbers are down across the board for all schools. This is because the portal is a viable way to get more mature, ready-to-play talent on your team. Do you want to be our next football GM?

 

[Vespidae]

Maybe that applies to G-5 to some small extent, but it certainly doesn't apply to us at all. We play competition equal to or superior to competition faced by Alabama.
And about 1/3 of NFL players didn't even play for P-5 schools. The overriding factor is how good they are, not where they played.

Belichick might say that, but 21 players on the Patriots roster are from non-P-5 schools:

New England Patriots 2024 Player Roster | NFL.com

www.nfl.com

Alabama played against 10 first round draft picks, 15 if you count UGA twice. I need to get the full playoff numbers which I will.

Tech played against 7 first rounds picks .. one of those was UGA (which had 5). That's what Belichick was referring to.