ETSU Athletics is trying to put lipstick on the proverbial pig that goes by the name — NIL. Like many others, ETSU athletics has been forced into this HUGE MESS — or fold. Money has corrupted college sports -- certainly football and basketball at the top. The fallout has worked its way down to ETSU Athletics and its peers —- schools that can least afford to get into these money war games.

And, when unionization comes, things should really get interesting.

Clay Travis reacts to Nick Saban forecasting 'serious problems' ahead for college sports

https://www.foxnews.com/media/clay-travi...ege-sports

St. John’s, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Ole Miss, Indiana and Oklahoma decided not to participate in the NIT after missing out on the field of 68 for the Big Dance.

Is the NIT going to be a casualty of NIL and the Portal? And, how much longer are the power brokers going to put up with the automatic bids? My take, not much longer.

Sanders's comments:

https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/etsu-ad-...uc-sports/

(03-22-2024 09:55 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Sanders's comments:

https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/etsu-ad-...uc-sports/

Hello there - the money man here beating that dead horse. Well, that dead horse has been resuscitated into a monster that’s about to devour mid-major college sports. Doc is being very guarded with his assessment - but underneath he’s seething. Sure — the big folks — who are monopolizing all the media money — will come through this just fine — of course some (SEC-Big 10) better than others. But — ETSU and the like — NOT MUCH GOOD CAN COME OUT OF THIS. The NCAA must post-haste drop the minimum number of teams required for Division I membership- certainly for the mid-major schools — so the chopping and athletic budget adjustments can commence.

(03-22-2024 12:50 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(03-22-2024 09:55 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Sanders's comments:

https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/etsu-ad-...uc-sports/

Hello there - the money man here beating that dead horse. Well, that dead horse has been resuscitated into a monster that’s about to devour mid-major college sports. Doc is being very guarded with his assessment - but underneath he’s seething. Sure — the big folks — who are monopolizing all the media money — will come through this just fine — of course some (SEC-Big 10) better than others. But — ETSU and the like — NOT MUCH GOOD CAN COME OUT OF THIS. The NCAA must post-haste drop the minimum number of teams required for Division I membership- certainly for the mid-major schools — so the chopping and athletic budget adjustments can commence.

^^^ What he said. I don't see how 14 sports minimum can be financially supported anymore. And then there is Title IX.

Part 2 of Sanders's comments:

https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/buc-spor...ome-norms/

(03-14-2024 10:06 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  Make sense of this:

Nick Saban urges Congress to make NIL 'equal across the board,' expresses concerns on Dartmouth unionization

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nick-saba...ionization

I agree that something needs to be done to regulate NIL and inject some sanity back into college athletics. However, Nick Saban is hardly in a position to sound the alarm about the corrupting influence of money in college sports. His $11 million salary and the salaries of other high-paid coaches point to the excesses in college athletics. In 1963, Doug Dickey came to Tennessee as head football coach at an annual salary of $16,000. In today's dollars, that would be just over $160,000, according to an online inflation calculator. There are high school football coaches in Texas who make more than that today.

(03-23-2024 09:36 AM)Bucbacker Wrote:  

(03-14-2024 10:06 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  Make sense of this:

Nick Saban urges Congress to make NIL 'equal across the board,' expresses concerns on Dartmouth unionization

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nick-saba...ionization

I agree that something needs to be done to regulate NIL and inject some sanity back into college athletics. However, Nick Saban is hardly in a position to sound the alarm about the corrupting influence of money in college sports. His $11 million salary and the salaries of other high-paid coaches point to the excesses in college athletics. In 1963, Doug Dickey came to Tennessee as head football coach at an annual salary of $16,000. In today's dollars, that would be just over $160,000, according to an online inflation calculator. There are high school football coaches in Texas who make more than that today.

ABSOLUTELY AGREE!! Even on top of Saban’s fat contract — he was (is) doing NIL himself with that AFLAC commercial along side Deion Sanders. Am sure he has other business deals as well - too lazy to check. Give us a break — Saban is the point-man in all this. OK — he’s a businessman making money where he can. But, did these high paid college coaches and schools think they could continue grabbing all these sports media millions unnoticed? Surprised it has taken this long for the players to want in on some of this action as they did the math and observed that only 1.6% are drafted by the NFL and 1.2% by the NBA. Of course money controls the high-major conferences in that they are able to negotiate these multi-million sports media deals — gobbling up more and more — thus affording to start paying their players. But, where does this leave the mid-major schools that cannot afford to pay their players beyond the athletic scholarships already being funded - significant portions of which come from student athletic fees?

(03-22-2024 12:50 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(03-22-2024 09:55 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Sanders's comments:

https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/etsu-ad-...uc-sports/

Hello there - the money man here beating that dead horse. Well, that dead horse has been resuscitated into a monster that’s about to devour mid-major college sports. Doc is being very guarded with his assessment - but underneath he’s seething. Sure — the big folks — who are monopolizing all the media money — will come through this just fine — of course some (SEC-Big 10) better than others. But — ETSU and the like — NOT MUCH GOOD CAN COME OUT OF THIS. The NCAA must post-haste drop the minimum number of teams required for Division I membership- certainly for the mid-major schools — so the chopping and athletic budget adjustments can commence.

Funny thing, I've been looking up UT's basketball schedules on wikipedia.

Tennessee, both the Vols and Lady Vols, each average roughly 6 games a year against mid majors, or teams low enough down that they're essentially treated as such.

Kill off all the mid majors, and I'm sure both the Vols and Lady Vols could find 6 teams to fill in their schedules.

The thing about that is, yeah, it might improve your strength of schedule. On the flip side, keep a similar sized schedule but do away with the mid major home games, you might keep a full schedule, and have some big names, but now instead of 6 guaranteed home games, you're likely looking a 3 home games and 3 road games. Between both mens and womens teams thats roughly 6 less home games a year.

Travel and hotel expenses are gonna go up. Ticket sales will be lost. A lot of area business near the UT campus that thrive off the extra business that comes with home football or basketball games aren't gonna be too happy if suddenly Thompson Bowling Arena is sitting dark and empty 6 extra days a year.

Speaking of TBA, ever see how Food City recently stuck their name on the building? They're not doing that just because they're Tennessee fans. They're doing that so they can promote their brand and get people to shop at their stores, not Walmart or online via Amazon. If Tennessee has a home game against ETSU or Tennessee Tech, even those games the last few years have consistently seen TBA at or over 3/4 capacity. Those home games may also be on the SEC Network, where anyone in the country that has the SEC Network available can tune in and see UT games and see Food City advertisements all over the place.

Kill that game off and replace it with a road game where Rick Barnes and his team fly off to beat up Minnesota or TCU, and Food City, or anyone else that sponsors UT basketball and has their signage up all over TBA isn't making anything if the arena is sitting dark and empty and the game is on the Big Ten Network.

A small decrease in the number of home games with an increase in road games isn't gonna see Food City or any other company drop UT, but if they went into an agreement based on certain factors, such as the number of home games UT hosts every year, and then UT comes and says there will be some modest changes to that because they might have to be on the road a bit more and less time in Knoxville, that might cause various businesses that advertise through UT to reassess their agreements. Nobody would terminate any agreements with UT, but they might reduce the amount they pay UT.

If they’re not careful, they’re going to screw around and end up killing the Golden Goose known as March Madness. People watch to see if David can still kill Goliath. Get rid of the mid-majors and that tournament isn’t nearly as popular. How many people do you think were talking about Oakland and Kentucky the past few days? I guarantee you way more than talked about Oregon beating South Carolina. But they’re greedy, and they’ll end up killing it off if they’re not careful.

(03-25-2024 07:54 PM)Efan Wrote:  If they’re not careful, they’re going to screw around and end up killing the Golden Goose known as March Madness. People watch to see if David can still kill Goliath. Get rid of the mid-majors and that tournament isn’t nearly as popular. How many people do you think were talking about Oakland and Kentucky the past few days? I guarantee you way more than talked about Oregon beating South Carolina. But they’re greedy, and they’ll end up killing it off if they’re not careful.

From the money man here — you nailed it.

Been saying this a while now. Here's just a couple of examples from "way back when":

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (4-15-2018):

"My sense is that somewhere along the way (and I've thought this a while).........somebody's going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg(s)."

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (2-19-2019):

"I'm just asking the questions, and I think they're important questions. Is it not a legitimate question to ask, if the 'power' of the Power 5 conferences is too great? And I'm not speaking for just "the rest of us", but for the sport in general. A golden goose will only get so big before it will quit being the golden goose - and history has shown us over and over again that when that point comes, it will only be recognized in hindsight."

(03-26-2024 12:40 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Been saying this a while now. Here's just a couple of examples from "way back when":

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (4-15-2018):

"My sense is that somewhere along the way (and I've thought this a while).........somebody's going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg(s)."

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (2-19-2019):

"I'm just asking the questions, and I think they're important questions. Is it not a legitimate question to ask, if the 'power' of the Power 5 conferences is too great? And I'm not speaking for just "the rest of us", but for the sport in general. A golden goose will only get so big before it will quit being the golden goose - and history has shown us over and over again that when that point comes, it will only be recognized in hindsight."

Well, seems so at the present trajectory. And, will the NCAA eligibility rules be next to go once unionization is established and players become employees? A school can pay a player for as long as both the player and school have a contract?

(03-27-2024 11:23 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(03-26-2024 12:40 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Been saying this a while now. Here's just a couple of examples from "way back when":

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (4-15-2018):

"My sense is that somewhere along the way (and I've thought this a while).........somebody's going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg(s)."

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (2-19-2019):

"I'm just asking the questions, and I think they're important questions. Is it not a legitimate question to ask, if the 'power' of the Power 5 conferences is too great? And I'm not speaking for just "the rest of us", but for the sport in general. A golden goose will only get so big before it will quit being the golden goose - and history has shown us over and over again that when that point comes, it will only be recognized in hindsight."

Well, seems so at the present trajectory. And, will the NCAA eligibility rules be next to go once unionization is established and players become employees? A school can pay a player for as long as both the player and school have a contract?

Employer/Employee relationship brings OSHA into the equation. Be interesting to see how OSHA views football :)

(03-27-2024 07:25 PM)BucDoctor Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 11:23 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(03-26-2024 12:40 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Been saying this a while now. Here's just a couple of examples from "way back when":

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (4-15-2018):

"My sense is that somewhere along the way (and I've thought this a while).........somebody's going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg(s)."

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (2-19-2019):

"I'm just asking the questions, and I think they're important questions. Is it not a legitimate question to ask, if the 'power' of the Power 5 conferences is too great? And I'm not speaking for just "the rest of us", but for the sport in general. A golden goose will only get so big before it will quit being the golden goose - and history has shown us over and over again that when that point comes, it will only be recognized in hindsight."

Well, seems so at the present trajectory. And, will the NCAA eligibility rules be next to go once unionization is established and players become employees? A school can pay a player for as long as both the player and school have a contract?

Employer/Employee relationship brings OSHA into the equation. Be interesting to see how OSHA views football :)

Interesting. We are not there yet but would it not be similar to the NFL?

(03-27-2024 08:48 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 07:25 PM)BucDoctor Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 11:23 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(03-26-2024 12:40 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Been saying this a while now. Here's just a couple of examples from "way back when":

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (4-15-2018):

"My sense is that somewhere along the way (and I've thought this a while).........somebody's going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg(s)."

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (2-19-2019):

"I'm just asking the questions, and I think they're important questions. Is it not a legitimate question to ask, if the 'power' of the Power 5 conferences is too great? And I'm not speaking for just "the rest of us", but for the sport in general. A golden goose will only get so big before it will quit being the golden goose - and history has shown us over and over again that when that point comes, it will only be recognized in hindsight."

Well, seems so at the present trajectory. And, will the NCAA eligibility rules be next to go once unionization is established and players become employees? A school can pay a player for as long as both the player and school have a contract?

Employer/Employee relationship brings OSHA into the equation. Be interesting to see how OSHA views football :)

Interesting. We are not there yet but would it not be similar to the NFL?

Good question and I don't know the answer.

(03-27-2024 08:48 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 07:25 PM)BucDoctor Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 11:23 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(03-26-2024 12:40 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Been saying this a while now. Here's just a couple of examples from "way back when":

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (4-15-2018):

"My sense is that somewhere along the way (and I've thought this a while).........somebody's going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg(s)."

posterformerlyknownasthedoctor (2-19-2019):

"I'm just asking the questions, and I think they're important questions. Is it not a legitimate question to ask, if the 'power' of the Power 5 conferences is too great? And I'm not speaking for just "the rest of us", but for the sport in general. A golden goose will only get so big before it will quit being the golden goose - and history has shown us over and over again that when that point comes, it will only be recognized in hindsight."

Well, seems so at the present trajectory. And, will the NCAA eligibility rules be next to go once unionization is established and players become employees? A school can pay a player for as long as both the player and school have a contract?

Employer/Employee relationship brings OSHA into the equation. Be interesting to see how OSHA views football :)

Interesting. We are not there yet but would it not be similar to the NFL?

Good question and I don't know the answer.

Now — as this thing grows, do any of you folks know anyone that has gone into the agency business representing college players and negotiating deals for them? Seems there’s money to be made there. And, since this is ALL ABOUT MONEY - can’t imagine this not happening.


“March Madness with star athletes competing on the biggest stage of the season with their teams, while sponsors are capitalizing on the occasion with NIL deals for standout players.”| Fox Business

(03-28-2024 07:21 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  Now — as this thing grows, do any of you folks know anyone that has gone into the agency business representing college players and negotiating deals for them? Seems there’s money to be made there. And, since this is ALL ABOUT MONEY - can’t imagine this not happening.


“March Madness with star athletes competing on the biggest stage of the season with their teams, while sponsors are capitalizing on the occasion with NIL deals for standout players.”| Fox Business

There's already 'big' agencies that have sprouted up that offer turnkey management. One of the biggest ones, if not *the* biggest one, already has agreements with 50+ colleges - and is gathering steam. Don't know how many players they represent, but obviously they have to play both sides so that the parties can meet in the middle. Point being, there's lots of aggregation going on already. I posted a link discussing all that some weeks ago.

If you think just a tiny bit deeply about it...............most of the players aren't gonna know how to navigate this new world - or at least do so wisely. Yes, the most 'valuable' ones will already have personal "agents", but most players won't have that "luxury". So these agencies, altho perhaps unseemly on first glance, do serve a useful purpose for what's likely a majority of players.
Let's say you're Ebby Asamoah, or Jaden Seymour. How would you go about finding an agent, negotiating a deal, etc.? May not be a very straightforward investigation to find that right person or agency. So.........that's where the schools themselves are linking up with these agencies - to give a format/template for the "student-athletes" to move forward and monetize their talents. The schools can't be involved in the deals - but they can get the parties together and facilitate things.

Heck, if I was ETSU/Sander, I'd see if whatever agency they're using might be interested in offering Mister Jennings or Calvin Talford gear. One-stop shopping. :)

(03-28-2024 01:01 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  

(03-28-2024 07:21 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  Now — as this thing grows, do any of you folks know anyone that has gone into the agency business representing college players and negotiating deals for them? Seems there’s money to be made there. And, since this is ALL ABOUT MONEY - can’t imagine this not happening.


“March Madness with star athletes competing on the biggest stage of the season with their teams, while sponsors are capitalizing on the occasion with NIL deals for standout players.”| Fox Business

There's already 'big' agencies that have sprouted up that offer turnkey management. One of the biggest ones, if not *the* biggest one, already has agreements with 50+ colleges - and is gathering steam. Don't know how many players they represent, but obviously they have to play both sides so that the parties can meet in the middle. Point being, there's lots of aggregation going on already. I posted a link discussing all that some weeks ago.

If you think just a tiny bit deeply about it...............most of the players aren't gonna know how to navigate this new world - or at least do so wisely. Yes, the most 'valuable' ones will already have personal "agents", but most players won't have that "luxury". So these agencies, altho perhaps unseemly on first glance, do serve a useful purpose for what's likely a majority of players.
Let's say you're Ebby Asamoah, or Jaden Seymour. How would you go about finding an agent, negotiating a deal, etc.? May not be a very straightforward investigation to find that right person or agency. So.........that's where the schools themselves are linking up with these agencies - to give a format/template for the "student-athletes" to move forward and monetize their talents. The schools can't be involved in the deals - but they can get the parties together and facilitate things.

Heck, if I was ETSU/Sander, I'd see if whatever agency they're using might be interested in offering Mister Jennings or Calvin Talford gear. One-stop shopping. :)

Who is regulating these agencies? With all the scams of today — seems these young people could be targets for scammers with all sorts of promises and schemes. To me, all this can be so short sighted. What happened to the American dream of earning a college degree for a career, for the long term, for a better quality life? It just seems a stretch to foresee the NIL, the Transfer Portal, and the long range working smoothly together for the end goal of benefiting these young students, and only them.