Ohio State AD Gene Smith says recruits are demanding $5,000 to just visit campus.

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MplsGopher said:
NCAA too afraid to do anything unless/until US Congress makes national law.
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Agreed but I don't think it's just fear. NCAA isn't very good at making rules and I think they might know that. Now, if the NCAA wanted to pay a special task force from the Treasury Department, that bunch would be capable of drafting rules and reporting policies. The major issues are:

1) What types of activities are/are not allowed?
2) What are the reasonable values (or ranges of values) for specific services?
3) What are the appropriate reporting and verification procedures?
4) What are the penalties for noncompliance?
5) What are the criteria and procedures for appeal?

All of these issues could be addressed reasonably well but that would take time and the commitment of dedicated resources. If a group insists on making rules, then they have to know what they are in for and not settle for half-assed ones.
 

The last day of college football ever played was 1/1/2020. Everything after that is not college football.
 


fan of Ray Williams said:
In the process right now of trying to convince day care that my grandchild is going to be special. Want some money.
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Heard about a guy having a heart attack and having his wife phone bunch of hospitals to see who would pay the most for him to visit.
 



saintpauljeff said:
Didn’t Paige Bueckers start signing deals as a high school student? Man, she could have made big bucks on her recruitment tour and still gone to UConn in the end.
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It's kind of strange for non-revenue sports. It's often less tied to the team than it is the revenue sports. Paige is likely getting paid because she generates clicks - it doesn't matter if her team wins. In revenue sports, for most people, they are getting paid because they will help the team win.
 

MplsGopher said:
Here’s what I think about that:

If you take any NIL deal before you first enroll in an NCAA institution, then you should be completely ineligible to play your first season in college.

🖕🖕
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I think if you take NIL $$ then you are off scholarship and you pay full tuition at retail price - in the $40k to $60K range at most places
 

Imagine paying some punk kid from no where near this state a $5k bribe out of your own pocket (as a donor) just to get him to come visit here.

The gall. You think that’s a kid who wants to come be a Gopher???? How dumb are you. Just set the money on fire.

Some kid says that, I say GTFO. Don’t want you here, with that sense of entitlement. You’ll be poison for the locker room.
 




MplsGopher said:
Imagine paying some punk kid from no where near this state a $5k bribe out of your own pocket (as a donor) just to get him to come visit here.

The gall. You think that’s a kid who wants to come be a Gopher???? How dumb are you. Just set the money on fire.

Some kid says that, I say GTFO. Don’t want you here, with that sense of entitlement. You’ll be poison for the locker room.
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And the beauty of it is nobody is forced to pay that money. Just like no employer has to pay what I ask for my services.
 

Gophers1992 said:
If someone is willing to pay them that I don't see the problem. It's weird to think about, sure, but nobody's getting harmed here.
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The correct response is: We don’t pay for hostages, we don’t negotiate with terrorists, and we don’t pay recruits to visit.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Agreed but I don't think it's just fear. NCAA isn't very good at making rules and I think they might know that. Now, if the NCAA wanted to pay a special task force from the Treasury Department, that bunch would be capable of drafting rules and reporting policies. The major issues are:

1) What types of activities are/are not allowed?
2) What are the reasonable values (or ranges of values) for specific services?
3) What are the appropriate reporting and verification procedures?
4) What are the penalties for noncompliance?
5) What are the criteria and procedures for appeal?

All of these issues could be addressed reasonably well but that would take time and the commitment of dedicated resources. If a group insists on making rules, then they have to know what they are in for and not settle for half-assed ones.
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The NCAA employs around 100 lawyers but they need help from a department of the Federal government to make rules?
 

GoldenMAV30266 said:
There’s gonna be an investigation on NIL soon, if kids are demanding money to visit that means they probably got paid to visit somewhere else. I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to work 🤔.
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Congress won't do anything. No one else can really.
 



context - Smith made these statements while meeting with House and Senate members in Washington DC to lobby on behalf of national NIL legislation.

there are different bills being proposed by various members, but no real progress yet. one of the big sticking points is the question of whether college athletes should be considered employees of the school they attend. some politicians support employee status. others want to try and preserve the amateur model. so no consensus on any legislation.

and on top of that, Washington is so messed up right now that a government shutdown is roughly a week away. so I just don't see any NIL legislation getting passed until after the next election.

as of today, schools have a choice - play the game to land top recruits, or don't play the game and don't land top recruits. it stinks, but that is the reality of the situation.
 

GopherRob said:
It’s all so corrupt. NCAA opened up the flood gates and walked away. What a mess.
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The NCAA didn't open the floodgates willingly, their hand was forced by the Supreme Court.

Having said that, NIL is a way for Universities to avoid paying the athletes directly beyond scholarships/stipends.

They hung far too long to the "amateur" model while also paying coaches multi-millions with exorbitant budgets/facilities.

The grenade has blown up in the NCAA's hand. Yet mega-conferences still are inking billion dollar media deals. At some point one would think the bubble will burst.
 

GoldenMAV30266 said:
There’s gonna be an investigation on NIL soon, if kids are demanding money to visit that means they probably got paid to visit somewhere else. I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to work 🤔.
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To me this is the ultimate question on how, when and by whom NIL is enforced.

WHO is in charge of this enforcement? The Supreme Court took away control of any pay enforcement from the NCAA without any guard rails in place for NIL to roll out.

So here we are... and schools can pretty much do what they want and apparently kids can now demand what they want.
 

@Ope3 correct, the schools love NIL because they don’t have to pay the athletes. Donors still footing the bill. All the TV money can be spent on coaches, staff, equipment, travel, and most important of all facilities.

Build as much as you can with all this TV money while the gravy train is rolling. Bet that’s what presidents are telling each other behind closed doors.

Everyone is convinced that once athlete as employee is legislated, the party’s over, it becomes AAA baseball.
 

MNVCGUY said:
For the revenue sports....yep, it was easy to see this coming. There was no doubt NIL was going to be twisted and made into something it was never meant to be.

Would be interesting to know how it is working at the non-revenue sports. Hopefully NIL as intended has been good for those athletes who might be in a position to make some money that they would not have been able to in the past.
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What was it meant to be?
 

HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving said:
What was it meant to be?
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as I remember it, the original intent of NIL was to allow student-athletes to make some money by doing endorsements or selling their own t-shirts and posters. instead of - for example - the U of MN selling a Mo Ibrahim Jersey or poster, Mo could sell his own Jersey or poster and keep the profits for himself, or do a paid endorsement for some local business.

it was never intended for some fat cat to shell out 6-figure and 7-figure payments to recruits. but once someone figured out they could do that, or someone came up with the idea of a "collective" to funnel payments to athletes, the genie was out of the bottle and now no one knows how to put it back.
 

So what is any different at OSU? They have been cheaters for years. The worst cheaters in fact in all of college football. Bleed them dry for all I care.
 

NIL is a disaster, just as open transfers are, just as the giant conference movement is - destroying regional conferences. All based on TV money greed, indifferent to standards, tradition, loyalty, discipline. Anarchy - and not at all good for middling teams like Minnesota, which will have to crawl over the 4 best teams from the Pac-12, plus Michigan, Ohio St., Penn St. And we couldn't even get ahead of Iowa and Wisconsin in the West division.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
as I remember it, the original intent of NIL was to allow student-athletes to make some money by doing endorsements or selling their own t-shirts and posters. instead of - for example - the U of MN selling a Mo Ibrahim Jersey or poster, Mo could sell his own Jersey or poster and keep the profits for himself, or do a paid endorsement for some local business.

it was never intended for some fat cat to shell out 6-figure and 7-figure payments to recruits. but once someone figured out they could do that, or someone came up with the idea of a "collective" to funnel payments to athletes, the genie was out of the bottle and now no one knows how to put it back.
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This was the idea you and others had in your minds. That doesn't mean it's what NIL was "meant to be".
 

short ornery norwegian said:
context - Smith made these statements while meeting with House and Senate members in Washington DC to lobby on behalf of national NIL legislation.

there are different bills being proposed by various members, but no real progress yet. one of the big sticking points is the question of whether college athletes should be considered employees of the school they attend. some politicians support employee status. others want to try and preserve the amateur model. so no consensus on any legislation.

and on top of that, Washington is so messed up right now that a government shutdown is roughly a week away. so I just don't see any NIL legislation getting passed until after the next election.

as of today, schools have a choice - play the game to land top recruits, or don't play the game and don't land top recruits. it stinks, but that is the reality of the situation.
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Schools do not have the choice you present. Only a few can meet the demands. If a handful start paying pre-signing bonuses of $5k, next year the demand will be $10k and upwards from there.
 

Gophers1992 said:
This was the idea you and others had in your minds. That doesn't mean it's what NIL was "meant to be".
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well, this goes back to a bill passed by the California State Legislature on Sept 30, 2019. Here are details from an ESPN article from Oct 1 of that year. I think it is fairly clear what the intent of the legislation was in terms of how athletes could benefit from the law.

On September 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Pay To Play Act, which opens the door for college athletes in that state to collect money from endorsement deals without fear of losing their NCAA eligibility or scholarships.

Money could come in the form of major brands like Nike or McDonald's using the athletes in commercials. It could also come from small businesses like car dealerships putting an athlete on a local billboard or memorabilia shops paying an athlete to show up for an autograph session for fans. Athletes could also make money themselves by monetizing social media feeds, selling T-shirts online or advertising to give lessons in their sport to younger kids. The new law allows athletes to hire an agent to help manage the process.

(and here's some irony - a quote in the article from Gene Smith)

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told reporters the day after California's law was signed that it was "a complex issue" and he was worried about how the NCAA and schools would monitor "bad actors" in an open market.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
not at all good for middling teams like Minnesota, which will have to crawl over the 4 best teams from the Pac-12, plus Michigan, Ohio St., Penn St. And we couldn't even get ahead of Iowa and Wisconsin in the West division.
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I don't see it that way. Look at some of the supposed powers. Alabama for example, Ohio State for another. They aren't automatic top 5 teams anymore because now everyone can pay their players. In years past it was only a handful of chosen ones that could get away with it.

That said, I agree with the premise of your post, it is a free for all and I HATE the conference realignments. It is now controlled 100% by what everything is else in this country. $$$$$$$
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I still think this is going to balance out and be good for the Power 4 Conferences. 8 Pac 12 teams are ranked and they are dispersing to the B1G, Big12 and ACC. There will be more parity IMO. We shall see.
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I agree there is a good chance this leads to more parity like it apparently has this year. It's one more variable thrown into the mix. It appears Nick Saban agrees too.

"The nature of the beast has changed, too, with the transfer portal. Other people get better quicker, and it also cuts into your depth."

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...ban-alabama-face-test-humility-amid-bump-road

Check out how many players transferred out of Alabama vs. how many came in this year:

https://247sports.com/college/alabama/Season/2023-football/TransferPortal/?institutionkey=24096

Some of these guys had much higher ratings when they were initially recruited, but their transfer rating is lower because of underwhelming performance or riding the bench. Tommy Brockermeyer was the #2 ranked tackle and 10th ranked recruit nationally out of high school and just transferred to TCU.

Oregon basically took an Alabama starting receiver, Traeshon Holden, and made him their own. At least they aren't just stealing good players from us! I'm glad we added them to the conference. We may as well have the best teams in the B1G.

Unfortunately, I don't think Minnesota is positioned to be one of the biggest beneficiaries. We probably stay middle of the pack. Areas with deep pockets, but poor recruiting will likely benefit the most like Oregon, Nebraska, etc. Maybe we figure something out locally. I like adding another variable to the mix that can lead to success. It used to be just good recruiting and good coaching. Now it's good recruiting, good coaching, good roster management (because the best won't be as deep as they once were) & MONEY!!!
 

The only change the NCAA needs to make regarding NIL is to stop trying to differentiate between NIL, pay for play, recruiting inducements, etc.

If some crazy billionaire wants to pay a huge amount of money for someone to play QB for their favorite school, there's no reason there shouldn't be the ability to make this contract between two consenting adults.
 

Gophers1992 said:
This was the idea you and others had in your minds. That doesn't mean it's what NIL was "meant to be".
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Actually he is pretty spot on as to what NIL was "meant to be" and most likely is at most levels other than football and basketball where it has predictably become something entirely different.

It certainly wasn't meant to be what it has become in college football and basketball....even if it wasn't too hard to predict it happening as soon as teams/boosters figured out they could pay recruits/players and call it NIL.
 

GopherRob said:
It’s all so corrupt. NCAA opened up the flood gates and walked away. What a mess.
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IIRC the California legislature set the NIL trend and other states soon followed suit. The NCAA has taken a hands off approach, no stomach for further litigation I guess.

As I recall it and I could be wrong the recent Supreme Court decision some reference was specifically regarding total cost of attendance, not NIL, but in his addendum beer guy Kavanaugh signaled that attempts to limit compensation whether third party NIL or direct payment might not pass mustard if it crosses their desk.

The NCAA punted on this, pure and simple. Picking their battles. If you like NIL, realignment, conference collapses you’ll love what’s next. Legislation proposals enabling employee status, bargaining power, work stoppages. Hold on to your hats.
Ope3 said:
The NCAA didn't open the floodgates willingly, their hand was forced by the Supreme Court.

Having said that, NIL is a way for Universities to avoid paying the athletes directly beyond scholarships/stipends.

They hung far too long to the "amateur" model while also paying coaches multi-millions with exorbitant budgets/facilities.

The grenade has blown up in the NCAA's hand. Yet mega-conferences still are inking billion dollar media deals. At some point one would think the bubble will burst.
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