Matt blast mitch
- Thread starter Mulder14
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I thought Matt was an extension of Big Dawg. What gives here? I wonder if Matt stepped up in the manner VM was referring?
Mitch skirted federal immigration law to get Oscar 2 million dollars and hes only allowed to get his picture taken in Canada.
Will Levis is the poster boy for NIL and owns racehorses or something.
I'll bet Mitch keeps things a little slow. I don't think he's the roadblock people want to believe.
Will Levis is the poster boy for NIL and owns racehorses or something.
I'll bet Mitch keeps things a little slow. I don't think he's the roadblock people want to believe.
Let's be real. The goal of any athletic director or coach is to win championships. There is no reason to believe anyone at UK would be deliberately trying to make us less competitive. I just don't buy it. That being said, we are a small market team. NIL is probably not going to be a good thing for small market teams in the long run. I hope I am wrong, but I suspect this will not be good for UK athletics as a whole. We still may be able to compete in a sport or two, but they may have to pick the winners and losers inside the athletic department because there may not be enough NIL money for every program to perform at the level we want.
Seems to me he is using the NIL rules as they were intended, while a few schools are participating in auctions for hs kids.
And neither of those two you mention are recruits.
That is the BIG difference in what is going on at UK vs. what is going on at SOME of the schools who seem to be always willing to cheat.....just a little bit....to gain a recruiting advantage.
Mitch has no problem with NIL for players on the roster. That is what NIL is supposed to be about. That is legal.
What Mitch and the big money boosters are unwilling to do, is give out NIL money to induce players to sign at UK. THAT IS against the NCAA rules.
Unfortunately, the NCAA appears to be powerless in enforcement right now.......OR... they are doing what they typically do, and that is wait until a certain school gets caught up in NIL recruiting, and then make an example out of that school in an attempt to slow the cheaters down.
The last thing the NCAA needs right now is for the players, families, agents, etc. etc. to come out against them for preventing their babies from sharing the wealth that is college sports.
So, those willing to push the NIL envelope will surpass those who are not in the new reset for the college football and basketball landscape.
Somebody needs to get Mitch as well as Stoops/Marrow interview to ask the tough questions. There are conflicting narratives playing out here
- UK football is shitting the bed in recruiting this year...almost out of nowhere. On the other hand, UK basketball is looking just fine recruiting. So would I believe Mitch lets Cal bid on recruits but won't let Stoops? That makes no sense to me.
- If it's the boosters and not Mitch....then does that mean boosters care more for b-ball than they do football bidding wars? Or maybe the main big booster (i.e. Crafts) .
- Put teams like Bama, Texas Am, Tennessee, Ohio St, Auburn, Miami, USC, etc.. out of the discussion. They are more rabid fan bases or some huge boosters that can prop it up. But are you leading me to believe teams like USCjr, Louisville, Purdue, Cincy, etc... have better NIL resources/boosters vs. Kentucky? I have a hard time believing this.
- UK football is shitting the bed in recruiting this year...almost out of nowhere. On the other hand, UK basketball is looking just fine recruiting. So would I believe Mitch lets Cal bid on recruits but won't let Stoops? That makes no sense to me.
- If it's the boosters and not Mitch....then does that mean boosters care more for b-ball than they do football bidding wars? Or maybe the main big booster (i.e. Crafts) .
- Put teams like Bama, Texas Am, Tennessee, Ohio St, Auburn, Miami, USC, etc.. out of the discussion. They are more rabid fan bases or some huge boosters that can prop it up. But are you leading me to believe teams like USCjr, Louisville, Purdue, Cincy, etc... have better NIL resources/boosters vs. Kentucky? I have a hard time believing this.
It seems that U of L is getting Adidas money and well we seem to be low man on the Nike totem pole.
Hahaha. I call BS the size of a mountain that UK's NIL problem is that our big money boosters are too pure and virtuous to get into pay for play for talented recruits.
Some of y'all still thinking NIL is about market size? How big is the advertising market in College Station Texas? Knoxville Tennessee? East Lansing Michigan?. Can we please talk about this like adults, big money boosters are now and have always been willing to give huge cash to help their fav or home school win football games with zero expectations of profiting from it.
Some of y'all still thinking NIL is about market size? How big is the advertising market in College Station Texas? Knoxville Tennessee? East Lansing Michigan?. Can we please talk about this like adults, big money boosters are now and have always been willing to give huge cash to help their fav or home school win football games with zero expectations of profiting from it.
UK basketball always does just fine in recruiting...this is nothing new and you factor in a great recruiting coach (we can argue his on court merits on the b-ball board) then it is not a surprise they are doing well. Calipari improved his assistant coaches as well and that is paying dividends the longer they are working together as a group. My point is UK basketball does not have to incentivize players to come here, even in the NIL era. They are going to be taken care of once on campus and a smart recruit knows that.
Football has to throw more money around as the SEC is such a tough conference and competitive in recruiting so whatever the issue is, they need to fix it quick to maintain the positive momentum we have going on.
Your last point is an interesting one. U of L is in a much larger, wealthier city than UK. Now a large percentage of that city are UK fans which would seem to negate some of U of L's access to wealth. However, some people will donate based on business interests. If they think U of L sports is good for the city and ultimately good for business, then they may invest in U of L players even if they are UK fans. It's hard to judge, but it wouldn't surprise if U of L wouldn't have access to at least ads much wealth as UK given their location.
Cincy is also interesting because the city of Cincinnati certainly has more wealth than Louisville or Lexington, but they also have pro sports. So how does NIL affect a school like Cincy? It's hard to say, but it could be a good thing for them or it may not matter much at all. Without knowing more about their situation it's hard to judge how NIL will affect them. But I would not assume they don't have access to the kind of wealth we do. I may be wrong, but I don't think UK's alumni are going to be one of the more wealthy in the country.
I'm not sure about Purdue either. Indiana is a larger state and is home to some very wealthy people. Do they have interest in seeing Purdue sports improve? I don't know.
It's just hard to say how access to community and booster money will affect the overall landscape. It's very possible you will see some surprises along the way. Personally, I don't think we are a particularly wealthy fan base and that could really hurt us in the long run.
UK is the BIG BROTHER in the state, so why can't we get MOST of the UPS and YUM money??????? What about the Corman family?? Heck most of those kids have UK degrees. What about Toyota?? Or the Saudi's that buy up all of the Thoroughbreds???
Mitch has got to reach out to these and other entities on behalf of our potential athletes!!!
Mitch has got to reach out to these and other entities on behalf of our potential athletes!!!
Think I’ll pass on the Saudi dictatorship money lol but we should try to do the rest.
I posted yesterday that some of UK's current problems lies with recruiters, assistant coaches who need to step up their game. Collins, Stewart, Brother Mike, Buffano and others need to pick it up. Just don't think all the problems are the result of the NIL.
Not to mention, listening to both OC/DC is about as exciting as watching paint dry.
There seems to be zero enthusiasm around our recruiting right now.
Whatever the reason, we are one bad recruiting class from falling back to one notch above Vandy in the SEC East.
Stoops and Mitch have got to get this figured out soon or the entire athletic department is going to take a huge step back because of football.
If big boosters truly don't care enough about football to make it happen, Mark Stoops will be gone before this bad class takes the field at UK.
You get the feeling that Mitch and the boosters are trying to soothe Cal's hurt feelings at the expense of the football program.
Wouldn't be the first time UK basketball cost us a competitive football team.
Regarding your last point, the question I would ask is: are you sure that the NIL numbers for other schools that get thrown about on Twitter or in message boards are accurate?
As far as I am aware, there has been only one school who has come out and publicly stated the total amount of NIL earnings for their student athletes and that was Ohio State.
About a month ago, Ohio State announced that over the first 11 months of NIL, the total value of NIL deals across all of Ohio State’s sports was $3.5M. The reason they wanted to announce that publicly is because Ohio State had the highest total NIL earnings in the country according to data from one of the platforms schools use to track NIL deals.
So I’m not sure I believe some of the numbers thrown out there, particularly when they don’t also provide any specifics on the deals, and I’m also skeptical that athletes are able earn more from NIL deals at a place like UL or Purdue than they can at UK.
I understand people are anxious about how recruiting has been lately, but it’s also possible that we’re simply having a bad year and that it’s not primarily NIL driven.
All great discussion...I'll say this
Stop with the city of Louisville and Cincy are bigger areas...thus more NIL resources.
1. Look at how fan attendance/support is for those teams.....Cincy averages less than 40k attendance....UL is back to giving away tickets with Kroger coupons, etc... If City size is the new NIL monster...then Rutgers, Ga Tech, Vandy, SMU, Northwestern, etc... are going to be passing up conference smaller town schools...and none of us believe that is going to be the case.
2. If this is a Nike don't ante up but Addidas would....then I am over the swoosh on my UK gear regardless....that can be resolved with a switch to apparel like Under Armour, etc...
There are specifics that aren't easily explained away.
Stop with the city of Louisville and Cincy are bigger areas...thus more NIL resources.
1. Look at how fan attendance/support is for those teams.....Cincy averages less than 40k attendance....UL is back to giving away tickets with Kroger coupons, etc... If City size is the new NIL monster...then Rutgers, Ga Tech, Vandy, SMU, Northwestern, etc... are going to be passing up conference smaller town schools...and none of us believe that is going to be the case.
2. If this is a Nike don't ante up but Addidas would....then I am over the swoosh on my UK gear regardless....that can be resolved with a switch to apparel like Under Armour, etc...
There are specifics that aren't easily explained away.
- Texas AM reports are pretty well vetted of their NIL investments
- Saban is on tape in front of his boosters stating we need to pump it up to keep it up with Aggies
- Tennesee and their $8M QB commit
- Miami and their multi million deal for their QB
- UL has top RB and QB literally out of nowhere..video evidence of recruiting visits with cars, etc...
- USC/Lincoln Riley bought the Pitt transfer....so you can surmise they are buying recruits as well
- Texas has the a minimum price tag for scholarship players....
I have no idea if all are accurate....where this is smoke isn't their usually fire?
Cats out of the bag now….Too late to Pollyanna this… jump on board or get left behind
Let me put it this way.
If it’s the athletics department making an announcement, then I’m inclined to believe it.
If it comes from an unnamed source, or from a college coach or from boosters associated with the program, then I get pretty skeptical pretty quick.
Take Saban as an example. There is an incentive for him to stretch the truth when speaking to boosters in order to motivate them to pony up some cash. Ryan Day recently did the same thing, telling Ohio State boosters that the program would need $13M each year to prevent other schools from poaching current players on Ohio State’s roster.
Now while it’s certainly possible that they’re telling the truth, I think it’s much more likely that they’re fudging the numbers when discussing NIL.
Everyone keeps saying UK is recruiting poorly this year and I cant agree. It seems to be it is more perception of how we as a fan base think they should be recruiting more than anything. Sure the NIL matters and UK must maximize it, but the reality is not a lot has changed. UK has never swayed from the model they are building thus far. Focus on areas and in state kids and then fill in appropriately. They shoot their shot first with bigger "rated" kids and if they don't get the big name (which we often don't early), we find an underrated 3 star to fill out our roster. UK is built on depth and development, not instant success from big time recruits. Recruiting is year round, and while it is true, Stoops likes to done by the early signing period, that is still a long way away and a "commitment" right now is essentially meaningless. A lot can and will change in the next few months and then you have the transfer portal, which UK has clearly focused on to look for instant impact need positions instead of incoming recruits. For me, its business as usual
Looking to the future what happens if stoops/ marrow decide to leave and calipari retires? I believe you’re right
I think you are over simplifying it. I don't think anyone is saying that large cities automatically equate to more money. The point is large cities generally have more wealthy people than rural areas and smaller cities. Depending on the culture of those cities, it could equate to access to money for schools located in those areas that will help them build a better program than they have historically had. It's hard to judge individual situations because we don't really know that much about them. But I think it's a mistake to assume UK is going to be one of the schools that can attract the most NIL money. That would surprise me unless UK can tap into some national NIL money that isn't tied to fandom. This isn't a wealthy State and I doubt UK has a relatively wealthy fan base. So where will that leave us in the grand scheme of things?
UK's 2023 recruiting class is the worst in.the SEC and among the worst in all power 5 programs.
A couple dozen kids were invited to UK for official recruiting visits in June are now committed to other schools.
No objective measure says recruiting is going well, results show it is awful.
As others say and I completely agree with, this all isn't on Barnhart & NIL. Stoops has hired guys last 18 months who are showing to be terrible recruiters. Hell as of right now the 2nd best recruiter on staff is here because he was Liam Coen's buddy....and got promoted to WR coach because somebody got a DUI.
Maybe our sad fate is to do what Kiffin is doing at Ole Miss ..build a roster from the portal.
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I support your opinion. Also, UK is recruiting higher grade players, as a whole, than they use to and covering later portion of the country. The newer coaches seem to be getting several high rated recruits to visit. Seems as you climb the ladder in the football world waiting for commitment seems get longer, some happen very late. I'm not going to panic, I 'm going to trust my coaches until there's a real reason.
I think Stoops may feel he has the portal to fall back on if recruiting continues belly up.
From what I've heard in the past on Rafters, Cal and the folks at Nike have had a bit of falling out, so there's probably at least a little of truth to what you say.
I wouldn't say we're crapping the bed like another poster stated, but we're not exactly lights out in recruiting this year either, especially considering the excellent 2021 season.
Ohio State has done it. Saban has done it. Jimbo has done it.
It is a BIG recruiting tool to announce how much YOUR players are getting paid to play.
No accident it is coming from Bama, Ohio State, and TA&M.
Tennessee's "$8M QB" will receive a series of four $2M loans at a low rate. He will not receive all of it, if he is any good. Probably won't see all of it if he washes out.
Imagine taking 2 years of loans and your career stalls?
Then, why didn’t we offer him 10mil loan?
This NIL stuff is the easiest thing in the world, an absolute godsend for a historically lower tier SEC program turned into a respectable program by a badass coach. And so far our administration has f’d it up. It’s still early, but we have chosen not to take full advantage of the gift the NCAA gave us.
Well you can believe what you want but something is obviously going on . UL doesn’t get the no1 running back in the country out of Texas to choose them over Bama, Georgia, Texas, LSU, and Texas A&M or big time quarterbacks from California without some “help” .
Lol. I need one of those "loans". The kind you don't have to pay back if you don't succeed.
I never said that there wasn’t something going on at some of these other schools. Never even suggested that.
If you were to read the full conversation, you’d see that I was simply making two points:
- I’m skeptical of some of the NIL amounts being thrown around and I do not believe that an athlete at UL or Purdue can earn more than an athlete at UK (now whether we’re taking full advantage of our potential is a different story)
- I don’t believe that our recent recruiting struggles are primarily driven by other schools’ NIL activities; I think some of our staff are simply struggling at the moment
So now it's the boosters. That's a damn lie. There are plenty of big money boosters. Mich has told them to stay away from recruiting.
Matt makes a compelling case that Mitch needs to change or UK football, in particular, will radically slip. Listen here.
Good grief. Is that even an inducement? If he flames out he leaves Tennessee with a debt he could never repay. What in the hell is that?
