Midtown’s Magic 🎱 @ NIL

[SOWEGA Jacket]

No sugar coating this, Huge loss for DL. I guess he's gonna get paid by an SEC team. College Football sucks now, there's almost no point even keeping up with who is on our team anymore. In the blink of an eye, they gone

You hit the main point. Players no longer matter. It’s the coaches and the uniform. I will be rooting for the 11 people wearing GT uniforms on the field. Individually, I don’t care who the player is. All I care about is his performance. The players use the schools for free education and the perks of playing a game and discard the school at any whim. And I’ve accepted that. We the fans use the players for our entertainment, nothing more and nothing less. Just remember it’s just business. They only want me there because of my money and I only want to be there to be entertained. It’s just a transaction.

 

[GaTech4ever]

The players use the schools for free education and the perks of playing a game and discard the school at any whim. And I’ve accepted that.

The coaches and schools have used the players for their salaries, the perks of being a big time football coach/program, and discard the players at any whim. And I accepted that. Like you said; it’s a business. I’d tell my son to use the hell out of Georgia Tech for his own personal benefit — would you not?

 

[kg01]

The coaches and schools have used the players for their salaries, the perks of being a big time football coach/program, and discard the players at any whim. And I accepted that. Like you said; it’s a business. I’d tell my son to use the hell out of Georgia Tech for his own personal benefit — would you not?

Schools make billions of dollars off this sport and folks whine about the kids making a couple hundred thou, at most, out of those billions. Odd.

Especially when folks act like, given the opportunity, they wouldn't do the same dayum thing these kids are doing.

The GT high horse never rests, I guess.

 

[GaTech4ever]

Schools make billions of dollars off this sport and folks whine about the kids making a couple hundred thou, at most, out of those billions. Odd.

Especially when folks act like, given the opportunity, they wouldn't do the same dayum thing these kids are doing.

The GT high horse never rests, I guess.

It also seems to me like people (don’t even need to be talking this chain or GT grads specifically) are taking it personally that these kids can demand more in the marketplace than they can.

It’s like, sorry guys. Yes — you’ve worked your whole life, have multiple degrees, a top-notch education, and at age 60, a green 19 year old Akelo Stone still (correctly) demands more in this economy than you do. Why else would people be counting kids’ pockets? All of a sudden, the power dynamic has shifted. Because, in 2023, Jeff Sims will make more $ than most posters here. And most posters here (who are GT alums) pride themselves on their career success. And when career success = money, and our below average QB makes more money than a 50 year old GT alum, the 50 year old GT alum doesn’t like it anymore because he’s not on the pedestal now.

 

[kg01]

It also seems to me like people (don’t even need to be talking this chain or GT grads specifically) are taking it personally that these kids can demand more in the marketplace than they can.

It’s like, sorry guys. Yes — you’ve worked your whole life, have multiple degrees, a top-notch education, and at age 60, a green 19 year old Akelo Stone still (correctly) demands more in this economy than you do. Why else would people be counting kids’ pockets? All of a sudden, the power dynamic has shifted. Because, in 2023, Jeff Sims will make more $ than most posters here. And most posters here (who are GT alums) pride themselves on their career success. And when career success = money, and our below average QB makes more money than a 50 year old GT alum, the 50 year old GT alum doesn’t like it anymore because he’s not on the pedestal now.

Oof. This probably hits closer to home than a lot of folks here are willing to admit.

Don't get me wrong, I hate the current system(sic). But I also hated how things were before. Neither make any sense if we're gonna pretend this is still "amateur" athletics. I just can't begrudge the kids for operating in the system as it exists.

Hate to see guys go .... but I understand.

 

[tomknight]

It also seems to me like people (don’t even need to be talking this chain or GT grads specifically) are taking it personally that these kids can demand more in the marketplace than they can.

It’s like, sorry guys. Yes — you’ve worked your whole life, have multiple degrees, a top-notch education, and at age 60, a green 19 year old Akelo Stone still (correctly) demands more in this economy than you do. Why else would people be counting kids’ pockets? All of a sudden, the power dynamic has shifted. Because, in 2023, Jeff Sims will make more $ than most posters here. And most posters here (who are GT alums) pride themselves on their career success. And when career success = money, and our below average QB makes more money than a 50 year old GT alum, the 50 year old GT alum doesn’t like it anymore because he’s not on the pedestal now.

this is weak sauce.

i doubt anyone is insecure enough at the points in their life that you reference to give a care at all about how much some kid makes.

it's more of a thing, I suspect, about a perceived lack of parity in all of it.

 

[GaTech4ever]

this is weak sauce.

i doubt anyone is insecure enough at the points in their life that you reference to give a care at all about how much some kid makes.

it's more of a thing, I suspect, about a perceived lack of parity in all of it.

I wish I had as much confidence as you. I’ve seen way too many real-life examples, viral videos, etc. of insecure upper middle class adults to think everyone here is immune from that.

 

[cpf2001]

It’s been “rooting for laundry” for decades. Pre-transfers, pre-NIL - if one of our GT hero players, even one we really like off the field and in their personal life too, had gone to UGA instead, most of us wouldn’t see them the same way. The players didn’t personally matter then, just the decision they made about where to go. It’s just now easier for them to change their minds.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The coaches and schools have used the players for their salaries, the perks of being a big time football coach/program, and discard the players at any whim. And I accepted that. Like you said; it’s a business. I’d tell my son to use the hell out of Georgia Tech for his own personal benefit — would you not?

Man, I absolutely agree with you. I have a kid at GT now and I constantly remind him that GT could care less if he vanished tomorrow. Get what you need and earn a living. I’m like most of you - graduated after busting my backside for years, have GT stuff all over my house, property, and vehicles. Come to games as often as the schedule works out. But if Gibbs were my son under the dumpster fire program we had become I would have told him to leave even if NIL didn’t exist.

And I’ve said from the beginning that I have no problem with NIL or the portal. I’m very consistent in my views. If GT wants a stadium full of GT fans then address all facets of the program to get better. Winning is all that matters and we haven’t won in a minute. That’s why our stadium gets taken over and our fanbase yells at each other.

 

[MidtownJacket]

I have been thinking more about the topic of NIL and specifically at the reactions some of our fans have when kids portal out. I don’t have animosity towards the kids leaving - if anything it’s more a sense of loss for what college athletics is intentionally becoming.

It seems to me, that the difference between college athletics and professional athletics is blurring in many ways (which frankly make the NCAA product inferior to the professional one).

If the connection between player to school to alum continues to weaken, then why would I want to watch smaller, slower players with inferior scheme and ability? Professional sports have better athletes, doing it as a full time job and without limitation on practice or coaching. People go to minor league games for a cheap ticket or proximity. Full stop.

I think college athletes are moving their way towards the difficult life of a minor leaguer. In a vast majority of cases, you’re not going to make more [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅100)̲̅$̲̅] than you would as a college educated, white-collar worker the by playing minor league sports.

I don’t really get where this is going, as the point was always supposed to be kids wanting a college education played NCAA and those wanting to surpass the option played professionally. If anything the pros have pushed an ever increasingly untenable set of costs and complexity into the college ranks with this set up.

 

[stinger 1957]

I'm not saying this is or is not but sometimes it can be a positive if better players are taking playing time away from another player. To me it means we are improving our quality of depth as we go. It would seem to me that this improves CFB overall.

 

[MidtownJacket]

Edited to add, it may all be just gnashing of the teeth as I still enjoy the experience of being on campus (when I can make it to Atlanta). I do think for out of state alumni it just makes it less and less appealing to kids out on watching the players develop over the years and building a sense of shared experience.

 

[yeti92]

When you consider that most of these guys are never going to make the NFL, if another team is willing to pay them a bunch of money they need to get it while the gettin is good. Sucks for us as fans, but iiwii.

 

[LargeFO]

When you consider that most of these guys are never going to make the NFL, if another team is willing to pay them a bunch of money they need to get it while the gettin is good. Sucks for us as fans, but iiwii.

I agree there. I don’t begrudge them getting some moolah. It just sucks as fans.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

You don’t like Key, do you?

Man, come on. This has nothing to do with me liking or disliking Key. Some of you have trouble just looking at facts and put emotions to close to the front. Here’s the fact- we lost a player to the portal who we all agree is a pretty solid player at a position of great need. I simply ask the obvious question of why our head coach couldn’t keep him here. And then you ask me if I like the head coach? What does that have to do with anything? He’s the coach. As he’s even said he owns whatever happens - like any real leader would say. So, yes, why couldn’t Key get him to stay?

I don’t know Key at all and my fandom will never impact him just like it didn’t to all previous coaches. None of them know I even exist. And they shouldn’t because they handle their business and I handle mine. I am happy Key is our coach because I didn’t care about the other choices. Would I rather have Saban? Yep. Would I rather have Belichek? Yep. And a bunch of others but I’m glad we hired Key with our pool options considered. Now it’s up to him to write his future resume. He controls his future not any of us.

I didn’t know I had to like someone to root for them to succeed. And I didn’t know I had to dislike someone if I wasn’t rooting for them. This is sports not a life or death endeavor. Key seems like a cool level headed dude based on the short clips we get to see. And since he’s the GT coach I’ll be rooting for him. But if he left us and became the LSU coach then I probably wouldn’t root for him even if he’s a swell guy.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

Man, come on. This has nothing to do with me liking or disliking Key. Some of you have trouble just looking at facts and put emotions to close to the front. Here’s the fact- we lost a player to the portal who we all agree is a pretty solid player at a position of great need. I simply ask the obvious question of why our head coach couldn’t keep him here. And then you ask me if I like the head coach? What does that have to do with anything? He’s the coach. As he’s even said he owns whatever happens - like any real leader would say. So, yes, why couldn’t Key get him to stay?

I don’t know Key at all and my fandom will never impact him just like it didn’t to all previous coaches. None of them know I even exist. And they shouldn’t because they handle their business and I handle mine. I am happy Key is our coach because I didn’t care about the other choices. Would I rather have Saban? Yep. Would I rather have Belichek? Yep. And a bunch of others but I’m glad we hired Key with our pool options considered. Now it’s up to him to write his future resume. He controls his future not any of us.

I didn’t know I had to like someone to root for them to succeed. And I didn’t know I had to dislike someone if I wasn’t rooting for them. This is sports not a life or death endeavor. Key seems like a cool level headed dude based on the short clips we get to see. And since he’s the GT coach I’ll be rooting for him. But if he left us and became the LSU coach then I probably wouldn’t root for him even if he’s a swell guy.

The pretty strong rumor is that Stone was tampered with by another program offering more NIL money than we could match. This is an NCAA rules violation, but they aren't enforcing anything nowadays so do with that what you will. Meanwhile our guys are either goodie two shoes or grouchy misers opposing NIL on principle neither of which is particularly good for the program, but is understandable.

It really isn't just about the coach keeping players anymore, he needs the boosters to do these backroom negotiations. It's weird right now. I'm not even sure myself what should be acknowledged publicly because I don't know when we're being shady and when that's just how the game is now. If I, myself, understood better what role schools are supposed to have in negotiating and oversight of NIL deals, I'd give some examples, but I don't want to implicate anyone if I describe something incorrectly out of my own ignorance. I get the sense other school's boosters are better NIL bagmen than our guys, not just because they have more money but because they're better at making sure the right guys get it. Think of it closer to the NFL where the roster is built by the GM instead of the head coach, except the GM is a third party nebulous group of boosters.

Key is a good guy and was the best option we had, in my opinion. I'm not sure he's going to be a good coach for us. He's talking about guys going to classes and being students first. I don't know any of our opponents who do it that way. I'd rather cut the charade. These football players are employees of third party affiliates contracted to come in and represent our school.

 

[CEB]

He's talking about guys going to classes and being students first. I don't know any of our opponents who do it that way. I'd rather cut the charade. These football players are employees of third party affiliates contracted to come in and represent our school.

This right here... that’s what we’re competing against virtually every Saturday. Id like to think there are points for doing things the “right” way (and I appreciate Key and Tech for trying) but there aren’t. Big time college athletics has very little to do with colleges or students at this point.

 

[JacketFan137]

This right here... that’s what we’re competing against virtually every Saturday. Id like to think there are points for doing things the “right” way (and I appreciate Key and Tech for trying) but there aren’t. Big time college athletics has very little to do with colleges or students at this point.

could have said most of this the last 20 years. it’s just progressively gotten worse and worse to the point where it’s now legal.

 

[Jim Prather]

could have said most of this the last 20 years. it’s just progressively gotten worse and worse to the point where it’s now legal.

That is true. This has been going on for half a century (or more). The only difference today, is that it has been made so much easier. Before, the challenge was hiding the payoffs In that sense, it limited the amounts a little bit. Now that there are no guardrails, it has become the wild west.

 

[JacketFan137]

That is true. This has been going on for half a century (or more). The only difference today, is that it has been made so much easier. Before, the challenge was hiding the payoffs In that sense, it limited the amounts a little bit. Now that there are no guardrails, it has become the wild west.

the portal coming at the same time is what did this. i think both together are very fair and should exist. the problem is there’s no reason for the ivey’s, mccollum’s and stone’s of the world to be transferring when they are every day starters. it’s very clearly just for the NIL deal and that is what kills the amateur feel of the sport

NCAA could greatly reduce this if they just made you ineligible for NIL deals for a year after transferring similar to how you used to have to sit s year if it was a non grad transfer.