What If?

[SOWEGA Jacket]

What I love most about this new era is that everyone who has been asleep regarding the corruption in college football are now all awake - which will eventually lead to a workable system. While the current anger is directed toward NIL, essentially the anger is about paying players which has been happening but because it was done in the darkness most fans were happy to play make believe.

I wish those fans who are so up in arms today would simply acknowledge that all those decades of games and GT losing were not real. A lot of games in the BIG, SEC, and ACC were semi pro teams playing against amateurs. I can’t think of a school who simply fell off the map more than GT did due to under the table money. GT went from a perennial southern power to an also ran during the era of the bagman. And now that that era is over many fans want to go back to that.

You know what I like? GT being able to line up with paid players just like our opponent. I never want to go back to where Bama, UGA, Clemson, FSU, and others can buy incredible athletes who can barely read and we can’t.

 

[alagold]

What I love most about this new era is that everyone who has been asleep regarding the corruption in college football are now all awake - which will eventually lead to a workable system. While the current anger is directed toward NIL, essentially the anger is about paying players which has been happening but because it was done in the darkness most fans were happy to play make believe.

I wish those fans who are so up in arms today would simply acknowledge that all those decades of games and GT losing were not real. A lot of games in the BIG, SEC, and ACC were semi pro teams playing against amateurs. I can’t think of a school who simply fell off the map more than GT did due to under the table money. GT went from a perennial southern power to an also ran during the era of the bagman. And now that that era is over many fans want to go back to that.

You know what I like? GT being able to line up with paid players just like our opponent. I never want to go back to where Bama, UGA, Clemson, FSU, and others can buy incredible athletes who can barely read and we can’t.

When do you think the BIG! bagman era started?

 

[Root4GT]

What I love most about this new era is that everyone who has been asleep regarding the corruption in college football are now all awake - which will eventually lead to a workable system. While the current anger is directed toward NIL, essentially the anger is about paying players which has been happening but because it was done in the darkness most fans were happy to play make believe.

I wish those fans who are so up in arms today would simply acknowledge that all those decades of games and GT losing were not real. A lot of games in the BIG, SEC, and ACC were semi pro teams playing against amateurs. I can’t think of a school who simply fell off the map more than GT did due to under the table money. GT went from a perennial southern power to an also ran during the era of the bagman. And now that that era is over many fans want to go back to that.

You know what I like? GT being able to line up with paid players just like our opponent. I never want to go back to where Bama, UGA, Clemson, FSU, and others can buy incredible athletes who can barely read and we can’t.

The Bagman contributed to GT’s decline for sure. In my view that was about reason #5 for GT’s decline. Significant for sure. Especially in football. We have had BB Bagmen though. Not near the level of the Football Factories.

 

[kg01]

Maybe. Maybe not. (I’m glad I can share my insights with you)

Towaliga walked in the thread like ...

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

When do you think the BIG! bagman era started

They‘ve been doing it a long time. The difference is the high end players are down south so when the bagman money was close the player stayed closer to home, hence SEC. Now, that it’s all above board the BIG is able to offer more to get that kid from central Florida to the Midwest. The SEC is quickly learning what real money looks like. But the SEC can still beat their chest about stadium takeovers as they lose.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The Bagman contributed to GT’s decline for sure. In my view that was about reason #5 for GT’s decline. Significant for sure. Especially in football. We have had BB Bagmen though. Not near the level of the Football Factories.

I know our school made a series of mistakes but if we s8mply would have done what everyone else was doing in the south that we were aligned with we would have have been fine. Instead we lost 2 decades (70’s and 80’s) Efford we returned to a few years of relevancy.

 

[bigrabbit]

Speaking of bagmen, did anyone else catch PE billionaire Marc Lasry with Avenue Capital on CNBC this morning?



League valuations are Sec $13.3B, B1g $13.2B, ACC $9.6B, XII $6.7B
Have nots can’t get players without external funding, a great brand only goes so far now, need to sell about half ownership to raise enough money to even stay in the game over next 5-10 years.

Deals priced at about 12x ebitda so a school generating $100m sells half, raises $600m (who is generating that kind of cash flow??).

NIL donations can only go so far - are not 100% tax deductible, whereas the usual academic/endowment donations are. He likes heavily viewed teams that are undervalued. He thinks women sports are most undervalued now.

It’s not clear to me how they exit, so pay them labor+x indefinitely? Good grief. Good news is we restructure our debt, bad news is they eat us alive. He said schools have no choice and are seriously looking at this?