TOTALLY Out of Hand!

[Herd020]

Another example of how this thing is totally out of hand!

Why Boston College's star receiver stayed put despite six-figure offers to transfer

Elite pass catcher Zay Flowers says he received big-time NIL offers to transfer from Boston College. He turned them down, but his situation laid bare the balancing act top players face in today's college football world.

www.espn.com

 

[RhinoD]

Remember when Texas AM bought Eric Dickerson a new Trans-Am and some jewelry, paid off his mom's house, etc via "underhanded" and "illegal" recruiting deals?

Guess what, those deals are perfectly fine now... All the shady, back alley, calling on or slipping an envelope to an "uncle" or "cousin" etc... All good.

The alarming thing is this is happening as P5's plunder other P5's. Boston College and Pitt are fine universities, with big budgets, major donors, etc. If they can't compete with the Bama's, USC's, Texas, etc of the world what is going to happen is this --

15-20 teams at the top buying off all the best talent... Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Penn State, etc. This will be NFL junior.

About 60-70 teams that are competitive with each other but not on the national landscape. Maybe they pull an upset here or there, but not in the same league as the top tier. They have some NIL money, but not endless amounts... The rest of the P5 and the top half of G5 (Marshall is here).

About 40-50 teams who will be constant doormats... The bottom few dregs of the P5 (who don't play the NIL game to bring in talent, or have high academic standards, IE Vandy, Duke, Etc.) and the bottom half of the G5.

 

[HerdFB1]

Looks like Congress is now involved - I am guessing that they will put some guard rails on the NIL issue. The current state of NIL is out of control!

 

[19MU88]

Remember when Texas AM bought Eric Dickerson a new Trans-Am and some jewelry, paid off his mom's house, etc via "underhanded" and "illegal" recruiting deals?

Guess what, those deals are perfectly fine now... All the shady, back alley, calling on or slipping an envelope to an "uncle" or "cousin" etc... All good.

The alarming thing is this is happening as P5's plunder other P5's. Boston College and Pitt are fine universities, with big budgets, major donors, etc. If they can't compete with the Bama's, USC's, Texas, etc of the world what is going to happen is this --

15-20 teams at the top buying off all the best talent... Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Penn State, etc. This will be NFL junior.

About 60-70 teams that are competitive with each other but not on the national landscape. Maybe they pull an upset here or there, but not in the same league as the top tier. They have some NIL money, but not endless amounts... The rest of the P5 and the top half of G5 (Marshall is here).

About 40-50 teams who will be constant doormats... The bottom few dregs of the P5 (who don't play the NIL game to bring in talent, or have high academic standards, IE Vandy, Duke, Etc.) and the bottom half of the G5.

SMU

 

[RhinoD]

SMU

He went to SMU because their offer was better (and just as or more illegal), lol... A/M bought the car, jewelry, etc when he was a senior in high school.

 

[19MU88]

He went to SMU because their offer was better (and just as or more illegal), lol... A/M bought the car, jewelry, etc when he was a senior in high school.

cool. I didn't recall that and thought you had misspoke. I stand corrected.

 

[MU PIKE]

Watch the 30 for 30 called the Pony Express about SMU. What was illegal then is legal now in a sense.

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

That 30 for 30 is an AMAZING one.

This had been going on for years. College recruiting was described as "The real Wild West."

Something more alarming were the threats about his future if he didn't go to Texas.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

SMU

A&M did buy him all that. He then later signed with SMU and kept the car because what was A&M going to do? Turn him in for keeping their illegal gifts and not signing with them? It was all in that Pony Express 30-for-30.

 

[RhinoD]

A&M did buy him all that. He then later signed with SMU and kept the car because what was A&M going to do? Turn him in for keeping their illegal gifts and not signing with them? It was all in that Pony Express 30-for-30.

After his freshman year at SMU he reported the car stolen... The rumor at the time was the AM booster who bought the car had it "repossessed" and then destroyed/crushed.

That 30/30 may be the best one Ive seen. Really well done.

 

[JudgeDD]

On a side note, when I moved to Winchester, VA over thirty years ago, I became good friends with Russ Potts (you can Google him). Russ was the AD at SMU who resigned just as the shit was hitting the blades. He was AD at Maryland before he got to SMU and a State Senator for a couple decades after. Also ran a sports marketing company. Graduate of Handley High School (Google that one, too), where I have worked since I got here and Maryland. He was a great supporter of all things sports and so we got along great. But he was also a used-car salesman type of politician. He died in December of last year.

He was shady and willing to bend the rules (read "throw the rule book away") but he was an amazingly big-hearted man (who stood about 5' 5"). I think he felt the end justified the means. In any case, knowing him made me remember that even good people make morally-deficient decisions sometimes.

 

[MichiganHerd]

On a side note, when I moved to Winchester, VA over thirty years ago, I became good friends with Russ Potts (you can Google him). Russ was the AD at SMU who resigned just as the shit was hitting the blades. He was AD at Maryland before he got to SMU and a State Senator for a couple decades after. Also ran a sports marketing company. Graduate of Handley High School (Google that one, too), where I have worked since I got here and Maryland. He was a great supporter of all things sports and so we got along great. But he was also a used-car salesman type of politician. He died in December of last year.

He was shady and willing to bend the rules (read "throw the rule book away") but he was an amazingly big-hearted man (who stood about 5' 5"). I think he felt the end justified the means. In any case, knowing him made me remember that even good people make morally-deficient decisions sometimes.

I always wondered why your handle was Judge. Now I know.

I too lived in Winchester for a spell, from 1989 to 1999. I'm familiar with the story you told. I lived out Senseny Road close to the country club. Lots of great times in Winchester, including some nice drunken weekends during Apple Blossom. Assume you've had the ribs at Cork Street Tavern.

 

[JudgeDD]

I lived a little farther out on Senseny Road (Bedford Village) from 1990-2005. And I've eaten ribs everywhere they're sold in a twenty-mile radius. Crazy connections, huh?

 

[oldeherd]

This kind of crap has been around for years, decades, etc. Now it has all been made "legal" and above board.

In the early 1960s, there was a HS basketball player in Weirton, WV, who was highly sought. Ron "Fritz" Williams went on to star at WVU and then played in the NBA with the Warriors. WVU won a hot, contested recruiting battle with Cincinnati, then a renown national program and power in order to land Williams.

Guys from Weirton who knew Williams were at MU at the time. They told some of us that Williams himself had told them and others in that town that Cincy had offered quite a bit of perks, including a house in that city for his parents! You guys can draw your own "conclusions" about what WVU had put on the table that ultimately landed Williams in Morganhole!!

 

[herdfan06]

You guys can draw your own "conclusions" about what WVU had put on the table that ultimately landed Williams in Morganhole!!

A couch and a few cheerleaders?

 

[THUNDERGround]

Ahhh, the good ol' Trans A&M

 

[Aaron Perkins]

Remember when Texas AM bought Eric Dickerson a new Trans-Am and some jewelry, paid off his mom's house, etc via "underhanded" and "illegal" recruiting deals?

Guess what, those deals are perfectly fine now... All the shady, back alley, calling on or slipping an envelope to an "uncle" or "cousin" etc... All good.

The alarming thing is this is happening as P5's plunder other P5's. Boston College and Pitt are fine universities, with big budgets, major donors, etc. If they can't compete with the Bama's, USC's, Texas, etc of the world what is going to happen is this --

15-20 teams at the top buying off all the best talent... Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Penn State, etc. This will be NFL junior.

About 60-70 teams that are competitive with each other but not on the national landscape. Maybe they pull an upset here or there, but not in the same league as the top tier. They have some NIL money, but not endless amounts... The rest of the P5 and the top half of G5 (Marshall is here).

About 40-50 teams who will be constant doormats... The bottom few dregs of the P5 (who don't play the NIL game to bring in talent, or have high academic standards, IE Vandy, Duke, Etc.) and the bottom half of the G5.

Which is exactly the way it is now. So in conclusion. The only people effected are the student athletes now getting compensation without having to look over their shoulders. The breakdown of power is currently exactly the way you have listed above

 

[RhinoD]

Which is exactly the way it is now. So in conclusion. The only people effected at the student athletes now getting compensation without having to look over their shoulders. The breakdown of power is currently exactly the way you have listed above

I don't disagree with you on that front... But the gap is going to be miles wider than it is even now.

 

[TwolfHerdfan]

I don't disagree with you on that front... But the gap is going to be miles wider than it is even now.

Agree. I hope we don't try to keep up. No way we can sustain that. Just do the best we can and attract athletes that want to be successful, be a part of the Marshall story and get their degrees.

 

[RhinoD]

Just read on Yahoo Sports that the NCAA, realizing they can't do much to slow down NIL money from shaping the college sports landscape, is considering reinstating the "sit out rule" where transfers have to take a year off if they enter the transfer portal (unless they have already graduated)... Also looking at putting in two defined "transfer windows" when kids in the portal can sign with new schools, rather than the do whatever, whenever, way it is now.

I think those are probably both good ideas... Kids will have to think twice about jumping ship for more NIL money if they have to sit a year. And boosters may be less likely to offer big cash deals to kids from other schools if they know that kid won't be on the field until two years later.

 

[i am herdman]

Just read on Yahoo Sports that the NCAA, realizing they can't do much to slow down NIL money from shaping the college sports landscape, is considering reinstating the "sit out rule" where transfers have to take a year off if they enter the transfer portal (unless they have already graduated)... Also looking at putting in two defined "transfer windows" when kids in the portal can sign with new schools, rather than the do whatever, whenever, way it is now.

I think those are probably both good ideas... Kids will have to think twice about jumping ship for more NIL money if they have to sit a year. And boosters may be less likely to offer big cash deals to kids from other schools if they know that kid won't be on the field until two years later.

Make freshman ineligible again.

 

[bbneutralfan]

I doubt we have to worry to much about NIL money when we don’t have it.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

I don't disagree with you on that front... But the gap is going to be miles wider than it is even now.

Eh. The more I think about it the more I just don't get the "gap" thing. What is that gap? Marshall and WVU? Marshall and Ohio State? That gap was there no matter what happens. This NIL stuff is going to poison the well for sure, but OU or USC offering some player $3 million really has no effect on Marshall. We weren't getting their recruits anyways and this doesn't make their roster any better.

The only gap Marshall needs to worry about is the one with peer institutions like Appy, Boise, Coastal, OHIO, Memphis, and whatever other G5 teams you can come up with.

NIL is going to sour people on the game because players like Pitt's JR WR who just won the Biletnikoff award is no being lured away from them for something some 7 figure deal.

What is going to hurt everyone the most is the darn portal that is just allowing kids regardless of NIL deals the ability to just pick up an leave whenever. If you restrict the portal this all evens back out. They should put a limitation on it that you have 1 mulligan to use before the completion of your sophomore season. That way you won't be seeing the upperclassman star players leaving G5 teams for "greener" pastures anymore than you already did.

Another thing that the NCAA needs to seriously look at is Roster numbers. The "85" just isn't going to cut it. They're going to have to find some other way of capping it. I'm not sure why no one has done this yet, but with NIL deals now you could easily circumvent that limitation. Just don't put your best players on scholarship. Have their way paid through an NIL. Then you have extra scholarships to give out and the P5 could go back to the pre-85 days when Tom Osborne would sign a kid just so OU couldn't have him.

I say let the P5 do what they want. They already do and eventually they're going to burn it all down while they're asleep on the couch.

 

[Dorrej]

I doubt we have to worry to much about NIL money when we don’t have it.

We have nil money for NIL.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

Just read on Yahoo Sports that the NCAA, realizing they can't do much to slow down NIL money from shaping the college sports landscape, is considering reinstating the "sit out rule" where transfers have to take a year off if they enter the transfer portal (unless they have already graduated)... Also looking at putting in two defined "transfer windows" when kids in the portal can sign with new schools, rather than the do whatever, whenever, way it is now.

I think those are probably both good ideas... Kids will have to think twice about jumping ship for more NIL money if they have to sit a year. And boosters may be less likely to offer big cash deals to kids from other schools if they know that kid won't be on the field until two years later.

I'm hoping they see just how many players who enter the portal get left out the in cold when the dust settles. I don't know about this past year, but something like 2/3s of the players that entered the year before didn't find any landing spots and there were a lot more players in it this year. A lot of the players are in the portal because they couldn't crack the 2-deep where they were so they're chasing PT and there really wasn't a demand for their services in the first place.

Just look at the some of the guys we've had hit the portal since Spring Camp ended. Some of these guys we haven't even heard about. Do you think other teams have? Aside from the players that left with Donnan to UGA, I can't think of a time we lost a player to transfer and they actually flourished at another FBS team. Ty Tyler went from stud starting DE here to pine rider at Louisville. Blake Frohnapfel did alright at UMASS, but he traded being a starter for a championship team to playing two years for a cellar dweller that wasn't even sure if they wanted to keep football. Cain Madden did start for Notre Dame, but some could argue he exposed himself and killed his draft stock. I don't even think he got a UDFA deal. Only a rookie camp invite to the NYG.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

We have nil money for NIL.

"We" aren't supposed to. No school has NIL money. It's donors and sponsors that do and Marshall needs to be more proactive in cultivating this. Are they going to be 6-7 figure deals? No. Of course not. However Marshall isn't dealing with 6-7 figure level talent anyways. Most of the G5 rosters don't have many if any 6-7 figure talent. What we can do is get them car lot commercials like Ali and Kinsey got where they get some used Mercedes.

Marshall doesn't need to be looking at what the top schools in the P5 are doing. We need to look at and try and be more creative than our peer institutions and conference mates are doing. Clemson's QB landing a $1M dollar deal with Dr. Pepper doesn't have any effect on Marshall, but Appy getting a better QB does. Marshall not being able to compete with Coastal, ULL, or the better teams in the G5 does.

 

[Dorrej]

"We" aren't supposed to. No school has NIL money. It's donors and sponsors that do and Marshall needs to be more proactive in cultivating this. Are they going to be 6-7 figure deals? No. Of course not. However Marshall isn't dealing with 6-7 figure level talent anyways. Most of the G5 rosters don't have many if any 6-7 figure talent. What we can do is get them car lot commercials like Ali and Kinsey got where they get some used Mercedes.

Marshall doesn't need to be looking at what the top schools in the P5 are doing. We need to look at and try and be more creative than our peer institutions and conference mates are doing. Clemson's QB landing a $1M dollar deal with Dr. Pepper doesn't have any effect on Marshall, but Appy getting a better QB does. Marshall not being able to compete with Coastal, ULL, or the better teams in the G5 does.

You take the whole “we are Marshall” thing a little too literally . “We” are fans and donors… not the school itself