Many years ago, I wrote a ten part series for Barking Carnival about the history of cheating in recruiting. The premise was that recruits differentiate among offers based on perceived value. In a world where there are no illegal inducements, a scholarship to the University of Texas, to play football, has greater value than the same from any of our regional (and most of our national) peers. Bags are needed to overcome that, and it’s no coincidence that so many of our rivals were dirty as hell. Around 1982, Texas had to decide if it was going to compete in recruiting (requiring bags) and the Tower decided, “No, we aren’t doing that”, and we had those miserable years result. I think the subsequent period of NCAA prnalizationnof OU and the SWC, along with realignment, controlled the bag game for a while and Texas ascended again.
In 2020, with NIL and the portal, Texas had to make a decision again- compete or basically relegate ourselves. This time, the Tower decided to compete, and that is the world we live in.
I enjoy the recruiting success. I don’t enjoy calling for our most successful boosters to fund recruiting out of their personal largesse- that makes me feel small as a fan. I absolutely am thankful for their contributions and wish they could have more recognition for it.
Immamac has alluded to a future where about $15M (from “the House Settlement”) would be allocated to football (the same as other P4 schools), and that would be the baseline pay. Stars would get more pay from corporate (“real”) NIL, and the idea is that the Austin economy is vibrant enough that Texas will still be super-competitive in pay for play. I hope that works well.