Can we stay competitive in the NIL era?

[g0lftime]

Better question than "can we" is "How do we?".
We have used the quality of our education, the total person concept (which other schools now mimic) and long term success in the past. We just need to figure out how GT athletes can benefit from NIL within our program. This should be one thing GC would be good at.

 

[tmhunter52]

Better question than "can we" is "How do we?".
We have used the quality of our education, the total person concept (which other schools now mimic) and long term success in the past. We just need to figure out how GT athletes can benefit from NIL within our program. This should be one thing GC would be good at.

The question is how does Tech turn a Saturday afternoon at Bobby Dodd stadium the place to be? Quality football is a given necessity, but the overall experience - from traffic to parking to activities outside the stadium to concessions to you-name-it need to be revamped and upgraded. Tech should hire the people that market the Savannah Bananas. They turned a stadium that could not support a minor league team into a stadium they sell out every game for, basically, a summer league program. It is all about the experience - about FUN - for the whole family. If we ever get back to quality football, that will solve 1/2 of the problem.

 

[davesbrain]

Maybe the big money donors should start funding NIL deals instead of paying coaches salaries and monster buyouts. Flip the model to where we have coaches that are light on experience but cheaper, and funnel money to get better players — while also avoiding getting stuck under huge buyouts that cripple the program.

Let the big money guys fund the 'recruiting infrastructure' of a program, like gms in the nfl...

 

[Vespidae]

Better question than "can we" is "How do we?".
We have used the quality of our education, the total person concept (which other schools now mimic) and long term success in the past. We just need to figure out how GT athletes can benefit from NIL within our program. This should be one thing GC would be good at.

The rules will harmonize eventually. I've seen some proposals already for schools who requires SA's to choose a) tuition, room, board or b) NIL. They cannot choose both.

I think if the NCAA licensing guys can represent all member schools, the payouts for "most" athletes will be somewhat modest. The big draws will be those at big schools with big fanbases in big markets. For example, if Lincoln Riley turns around SoCal, the starting QB there will likely make $5M in NIL. (Bryce Young at Alabama has already earned $1M according to Nick Saban.)

If that model continues, I would expect that most Tech SA's would do better selecting the tuition, room and board option along with negotiated payouts that apply to all NCAA athletes. Others, like Young, could make a play on their own.

This will all play out over time. Let's see.

 

[DvilleJacket]

Nope, to small of an enrollment and most could care less about sports. The elites should have it's on power conference in my opinion.

 

[Fatmike91]

The question is how does Tech turn a Saturday afternoon at Bobby Dodd stadium the place to be? Quality football is a given necessity, but the overall experience - from traffic to parking to activities outside the stadium to concessions to you-name-it need to be revamped and upgraded. Tech should hire the people that market the Savannah Bananas. They turned a stadium that could not support a minor league team into a stadium they sell out every game for, basically, a summer league program. It is all about the experience - about FUN - for the whole family. If we ever get back to quality football, that will solve 1/2 of the problem.

We need to totally rethink the game day experience. Techwood drive should be a tailgate ally filled from North Ave down with booths that include both higher end food and beverages (beer, BBQ, etc.) but also some free family fun events like bungie jumping, face painting and rock climbing, etc. Maybe mix in some "fun" stem stuff like kid friendly chemistry experiments that turn colors, or "explode" (safely). This is something the students could run. Put the wreck out there on display, etc. I'd say let the kids climb on it but that won't work, but there should be some kind of interactive experience with the wreck.

The edge center should have a fan friendly museum that can be toured. Maybe some old wrecks, and a few national championship trophies on display that the public can see. If it were me, I'd also have a statue of coach Ross.

We also need a NIL "program" that does marketing deals to promote the Institute and it's players. This is a real job and requires a team and staff working for the AD separate from the football head coach. We need to establish NIL relationships with companies such as Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, Waffle House, Home Depot, etc. Anything in the 404, and any company with Tech connections. We've done movie connections in the past, we should leverage that too - except all of this is to bring NIL opportunities to the players.

Can we compete? Hell yes. We have some unique strengths that can be leveraged (Atlanta, corporate connections, etc).

Will we compete...? Our AD needs to step up. It's way more than the product on the field.

/

 

[85Escape]

We need to totally rethink the game day experience. Techwood drive should be a tailgate ally filled from North Ave down with booths that include both higher end food and beverages (beer, BBQ, etc.) but also some free family fun events like bungie jumping, face painting and rock climbing, etc. Maybe mix in some "fun" stem stuff like kid friendly chemistry experiments that turn colors, or "explode" (safely). This is something the students could run. Put the wreck out there on display, etc. I'd say let the kids climb on it but that won't work, but there should be some kind of interactive experience with the wreck.

The edge center should have a fan friendly museum that can be toured. Maybe some old wrecks, and a few national championship trophies on display that the public can see. If it were me, I'd also have a statue of coach Ross.

We also need a NIL "program" that does marketing deals to promote the Institute and it's players. This is a real job and requires a team and staff working for the AD separate from the football head coach. We need to establish NIL relationships with companies such as Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, Waffle House, Home Depot, etc. Anything in the 404, and any company with Tech connections. We've done movie connections in the past, we should leverage that too - except all of this is to bring NIL opportunities to the players.

Can we compete? Hell yes. We have some unique strengths that can be leveraged (Atlanta, corporate connections, etc).

Will we compete...? Our AD needs to step up. It's way more than the product on the field.

/

He did have a history of doing that at Oregon State, iirc. Like, he added a beer garden to the stadium. But none of that here for some reason. Dunno why.

 

[okiemon]

He did have a history of doing that at Oregon State, iirc. Like, he added a beer garden to the stadium. But none of that here for some reason. Dunno why.

Perhaps it’s the old “trying to drain the swamp while up to your *** in alligators” conundrum.

 

[Randy Carson]

If you're familiar with the English football league system, you might see where this is headed.

Each year, the bottom two teams in each league move down a level while the top two teams move up to the next highest level.

So, let's say we have a Premier League with 32 teams and everybody else divided up into lower-tier leagues. (Sound familiar? FBS? FCS?)

Money will rule, but achievement on the field will play a role, also. So, there will be drama at the top of the league ranking AND and the bottom (as no team would want to be relegated down.)

 

[cthenrys]

I don't think our supporters are willing to give anyone 8 years. The whining would be too great!

Nor should we. We’re not SMU coming off the death penalty.

 

[augustabuzz]

Nor should we. We’re not SMU coming off the death penalty.

We're not Wake Forest either, but that's how they did it. Get old! Stay old!

 

[cthenrys]

Gotta hire a competent HC too.

 

[TampaGT]

I think it depends, do we try to run with the “crowd” or do we play “money ball”. We will fall behind if we try to build and play like most of the other programs. If we keep the money that has recently been added to the program, maybe add a little bit more and embrace being a little bit different then, yes can continue to be Competitive. I think our periods of success since the 90’s was when we doing something different they everyone else. I think the Offenses that we ran with Ralph under CBR and CGO were different from what most people ran at the time, which meant that players that might have been overlooked by other programs could be very successful that GT. Clearly with CPJ we were different and had success, I think we could have had more success, if we didn’t have an AD that tried to sabotage the program and $ being withheld. If we run with the crowd, worrying about where our recruiting rankings (not talking about not recruitin, but worry about where we are rank with 247 etc) and playing in scheme that everyone else, we will make some bowl games, but I think there will be more 3’ish win seasons. Embrace “moneyball“ As the movie loosely says“ if we try to put a team together in here like the Yankees, then we will lose to them out there”

 

[85Escape]

Embrace “moneyball“ As the movie loosely says“ if we try to put a team together in here like the Yankees, then we will lose to them out there”

I couldn't agree more. Everyone who is encouraging us to do what the cool kids are doing are asking for us to be perpetually mediocre with occasional periods of awful. Our ceiling if we try to beat the factories at their game is low, as we have no long-term sustainable advantage.

We've got to find a way to compete on our terms...money-ball. Figure out what inherent consistent competitive advantages you have and build a strategy to leverage it. For us, it is an education and maybe (and I do mean maybe...I'm not convinced) the ATL.

So, who can we target player-wise with the education part? Well, pretty much those that realize that they are unlikely to make the NFL and need a longer-term career option. If the ATL is an advantage then maybe you could add to that players who want to play at home or in an urban environment. Okay, now let's figure out what system we can use that leverages the player-base we are likely to get from that...I'd say the Air-raid or something like it.

Frankly the strategy behind the Flex offense we had is solid. We just had a bad recruiter who couldn't sell it over the negative recruiting and a fan-base who became more interested in not being teased about a 'high-school offense' than they did about winning.

 

[Vespidae]

I think our periods of success since the 90’s was when we doing something different they everyone else. I think the Offenses that we ran with Ralph under CBR and CGO were different from what most people ran at the time, which meant that players that might have been overlooked by other programs could be very successful that GT.

This reminds me of Don Coryell. As head coach at San Diego State, he was frustrated that he couldn't get the athletes that the greater LA schools like USC and UCLA were getting. The big offensive lineman and the great RB's were plentiful in that area but not in San Diego. But what San Diego DID have were fast receivers with good hands. So Don threw the "conventional" playbook in the trash and built Air Coryell.

Results? Coryell coached 12 seasons with the San Diego State, using the philosophy of recruiting only junior college players. He compiled a record of 104 wins, 19 losses and 2 ties including three undefeated seasons in 1966, 1968 and 1969. His teams enjoyed winning streaks of 31 and 25 games, and won three bowl games during his tenure. He later had outstanding success in turning around failing NFL franchises.

Moral? Adapt to your surroundings.

 

[TampaGT]

Frankly the strategy behind the Flex offense we had is solid. We just had a bad recruiter who couldn't sell it over the negative recruiting and a fan-base who became more interested in not being teased about a 'high-school offense' than they did about winning.

The recruiting problem that we had was $. For most of his time here we had a rec staff of 2 people. It was doubled the last 2 or 3 years and there was an uptick in recruiting. Sad thing was we were at 4 and most other teams in the Acc had double the amount. Now TS has increased the staff to respectable level. I think we would have had more success if more $ had been put into the program

 

[iceeater1969]

The boom of dead money in college sports

What did FBS schools pay football and basketball coaches not to coach? The numbers will surprise you.

www.espn.com

We are top 20 and ranked ahead of uga in something. This does include all buyouts, which means any money paid to a person not coaching. That's why CPJ is listed on there even though he retired. Our books should be cleared of dead money (atleast for another year). This more than NIL or lack of staff or poor facilities hurt us.

Money into football is pretty much fixed except for donations, ticket sales. On $ Overspent/ donations Texas is way better than Ga Tech. Also their debt per donations is way way better than GT. We are warm beer.

Paying Texas ol guys will cause churn in the portal. They are after the ol guys that are 1 year from NFL likely from SEC.

 

[jayparr]

If wake forest can win 10 games we can

I wish, but it will never happen under this mess!

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Just sticking this here. If someone wants to start a separate thread I’m fine with that.

Tech has always won, and only been able to win, with innovation. A short list off the top of my head would be that Tech helped develop the forward pass, ran the first “hidden ball” plays, developed the shift later used by Dallas Cowboys under Landry, ran the first hurry-up offense, developed the belly series, ran some of the first option plays and much more. Every time other teams caught on and started using similar tactics Tech would change it up again.

All of our successful coaches at Tech avoided doing what everybody else was doing at the time. That used to be a source of pride in our storied history but sadly has become something that now we are almost ashamed of.

Innovation and being different is how we win in this current football climate.

 

[Vespidae]

Nope, to small of an enrollment and most could care less about sports. The elites should have it's on power conference in my opinion.

One of the models for NIL is to license to electronic games. In that model, the entire NCAA would be represented and each player would receive a monthly check. So it really doesn't matter what the enrollment is.