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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. "Texas isn't going to run the SEC the way they did the Big 12." Oh, we're running it.
  2. Yeah, I doubt it's strictly over the table. Some of these are relatively substantial amounts, though. Certainly low 6 digits in some cases.
  3. Regardless, it's happening. Let me know when we get the first deportation. I do understand that's a heck of a risk/reward ratio, but it's cash in hand versus uncertain enforcement.
  4. What are you talking about? I'm saying I know international athletes making bank on collective NIL deals when they're not supposed to be. I'm not saying whether it's an NCAA issue or not. I'm saying whoever is responsible for enforcing no NIL for international athletes is not doing any actual enforcement. My guess is it's an IRS deal because it's taxable income and an international student doesn't have a social security number. There's an overall lack of enforcement in college athletics. It's like if all the traffic laws in the country continued to exist, but the police no longer felt empowered to enforce them. Sure, many people would try to obey the law because that's the only way to have a civil society, but some people would disregard the laws at their convenience, and those examples would then empower more people to disregard them, until the system broke down. I'm saying that's what is going to happen in college athletics. That is what is currently happening right now.
  5. Oh, another thing that cracks me up is this idea international players aren't receiving NIL funds. They absolutely are. I'm not sure who is supposed to enforce that to make sure it doesn't happen, but they aren't.
  6. Here is my view on it. While external rules/systems can quite successfully tamp down value in a market - or conversely, push value in a market that wouldn't otherwise have it at that level - at the end of the day market forces are still going to play out. Sports are interesting from an economic point of view, because unlike other enterprises, the end result isn't necessarily profit/loss and market/revenue growth. There's also a matter of winning on the field, which brings its own reward above and beyond any economic value it brings, which can also be substantial. The value of anything is the price two parties are willing to agree to. It's not an algorithm. It's not determined by an expert. Or the state. It fluctuates depending on an incredible number of factors. But perceived value is paramount. The perceived value of a player who is seen as the missing piece to a championship level team isn't easily quantified. Think about how much Minnesota overpaid for Herschel Walker. Or Cleveland for DeShaun Watson. Think about if an executive for a shoe company could go back in time and bid against Nike for Michael Jordan's endorsement. How much more would they have been willing to pay? The numbers are all very fuzzy, and because they're very fuzzy, there's a wide range that can be justified for an organization when going after an outlier. And while outliers are...well...outliers by definition, they're also what sets market prices. In college sports there's no salary cap. The House settlement isn't one either. People want it to be. People are pretending like it's going to serve that function. But in the end it's a temporary stopgap so that athletic departments can feel like they have this thing somewhat under control. But it's quickly going to be like that scene in the Batman movie where Bane asks the city councilman if he feels in control. That's why so many people in college sports are heading to Washington for some legislative relief. They know they have their finger in the dyke and it's bound to spring leaks all over the place. To repeat, there's no salary cap. There's no realistic enforcement mechanism. There's not an intrinsic tie to profit/loss in terms of how much people are willing to pay. There are too many stakeholders to fashion a functioning cabal that would artificially suppress labor costs. Whatever labor cost relief schools experience in the short term is going to quickly be run over like a speed bump as the groups with money they're willing to spend to help their alma mater win at the highest levels...spend it. We think of the Oregons, Ohio States, and Texas of the world as setting the market, and maybe in the aggregate in terms of overall team payroll they do. But there are plenty of alums at schools like Texas Tech, SMU and other places who see an ability to spend their way to a competitive position in ways that weren't necessarily possible previously, and they're willing to let go of a certain percentage of their wealth to do so. And Katy bar the door if people like Larry Ellison truly get involved in NIL.
  7. I believe there's 5 scholarships left. We're just not going to go above 13.
  8. I will now think of that every time his name is mentioned.
  9. Sometimes it takes money. Not all that often for highly rated players, though.
  10. I don't think you're picking up on what texifornia is throwing down.
  11. I hate that kind of shit. There's no transparency, so people can just throw numbers out there and have just as much credibility as the next person. Give me inside information from people who know how much these players are getting paid. This is more of a guessing game than anything else.
  12. My understanding is that we're looking more for a combo guard than a true point guard. Could be looking overseas. I don't have huge concerns about the first year, but part of that is my expectations are pretty low. About like they were for Beard's first year, and I had a lot more fun watching that team improve over the course of the season than many on here did. What I want to see is the program moving in the right direction? Does Miller have a vision for what he wants to see out of his team, and can he create the necessary buy in? Miller's strengths are on offense, so how do we look running more uptempo, and is he able to help the players create open looks? I already know the defense isn't going to be what I want it to be, but can he make up for that in other areas? And then after that first year, how much is he able to upgrade the roster in his second season?
  13. Unless Congress acts - which I guess there's a remote chance - you're off your rocker. There's a reason the Power 4 commissioners are in Washington lobbying Congress to step in. They know how vulnerable they are regardless of the House settlement: Power Four commissioners call on Congress to fix NIL At best it will be a short term fix. The bottom isn't going to drop out of NIL over the long term. Someone somewhere is going to fork over the money to build a potential national championship roster, and then everyone else will have to decide if they want to compete or not. The enforcement of the House settlement will be iffy at best. At the very least it will require going to court to simply enforce it. And the NCAA has shown no appetite for anything but settlements since the Supreme Court depantsing in the Alston case.
  14. Why is it bizarre? One was an expose/memoir by a person who went through the practices and found them abusive, the other was written by an author who in part lifted up the experience as creating a culture of resilient men, despite its horrors (or because of). How you tell the story, and who tells it, makes a huge difference.
  15. While they're going against one another. That's my favorite part.
  16. Shelby Metcalf was hilarious. Him and Abe Lemons coaching at the same time was better than a comedy show.
  17. Could have been phrased better.
  18. He seems like a complete asshat. It would be hard to root for him anywhere else, but at A&M I think he's doing a terrific job,and deserves a lifetime contract. I consider myself a Trev Alberts fanboy at this stage of his career.
  19. That's my feeling. It also depends on how the House settlement shakes out. I think there's significant NIL fatigue that people are hoping the settlement helps solve to some degree. I think once it's apparent you're still going to have to spend insane amounts above and beyond the cap figures or else you can't compete for talent, and then people realize it's important to them that Texas is competing at the highest level, then more money will be found. But it will help if Miller shows promise right from the get go. Which I believe he will. But I'm really positive about the hire, so I have some bias in that regard. I guess you could call me more hopeful than analytical here.
  20. I'm just being told our NIL commitment is a bit lacking at the moment. There were examples of players given, but I don't want to post anything about it right now. I want to be very clear I'm excited about all our offseason moves thus far. I have no complaints on a personal basis. This is just different people sharing with me their personal opinion. For all I know we're leading the country in NIL commitments. I don't believe that, but I couldn't tell you one way or another on a factual basis.
  21. Yeah, I'm with you. I didn't properly emphasize what I meant. It seems obvious he was told to cut costs, and that's what he's doing. What I don't understand is, was that the sales pitch they used to hire him away from Nebraska? That just seems like such a dumb career move. But I don't understand how badly he wanted to get out of Nebraska, either. I wonder if he was sold a bill of goods on how much resources A&M had available to compete, but by the time he took the job, the job description changed to one of austerity. I don't have any inside scoop. It just seems crazy to leave a pretty cush job, with the opportunity to go someplace with a better budget on down the road, to take a job where you're going to have to slash costs to the bone because of a stupid extension a previous AD decided was a brilliant plan.
  22. So is part of the joke that a Mt., Rushmore involving A&M only has 3 people?
  23. It's not over, yet. Schloss feels like a home run hire (he felt like a home run hire day one to all of us, I'm sure), but the expectations at Texas are extremely high, as Pierce can tell you. Let's see what happens in the postseason. I still think Chris Beard is the best basketball coach to ever coach at Texas, and his first season was underwhelming in the grand scheme of things. I felt like it was a huge success, but under most circumstances a second round exit is nothing to get giddy about. The main thing we're going to see with Miller is an offensive identity built on fast breaks and creating open shots. Coaches love to talk about playing fast, as much for recruiting purposes as anything. Miller has shown throughout his career that's his identity. While basketball is transactional more than it's ever been - and it's always been the most transactional sport - having a system that's fun to play in, showcases offensive talent, and provides a great path to the NBA will help recruiting a ton. It won't bring in the players by itself, but if all other things are equal Texas will be a great destination for talented offensive players. That's going to be blatantly obvious day one. I feel like if we can get another second round season, finish in the top half of a suddenly grueling SEC, that's plenty of reason for excitement. Eventually we'll have to find more money for NIL, but that doesn't have to be there in year one. We'll see how everything shakes out.
  24. I don't know how someone can follow A&M athletics and think, "Man, they really have some wizards they're bringing in as athletic director over there. Just one after another." They all seem like imbeciles on one level or another to me. Yet here they are, at LSU, Ohio State, and Alabama. Talk about failing upwards. Trev Alberts literally left his job at his alma mater to come to A&M. Did he really take this job with the express purpose of being a hatchet man? Because that's what it seems like. All his moves seem so Steve Patterson-ish. I assumed his schtick when covering college football was designed to generate some level of controversy and emotional investment through hating on the guy. It worked for me. I couldn't stand him and did a personal celebration when he changed careers. Now I'm thinking he's just genuinely an asshole, and what I saw on TV was his real personality.
  25. Two things stuck out to me in that article. First, Trev Alberts quote: Free agency was implemented by a collective bargaining agreement, not by a court order. There's a huge difference between the two. Court orders can and will be reshaped by new court orders, and state legislatures can still pass legislation that evokes a different rule set within that state, which will then compel other states to follow suit. It's also unclear how effective the enforcement mechanism will be. My guess is that it will require voluntary compliance on some level, which may or may not occur. The other problem is that compared to the NCAA, the NFL (and the other major sports leagues) are drastically limited in number. The fewer parties involved, the more likely it is that they work in tandem. All it takes is one or two outliers, then everyone else has to decide if they're going to follow suit or relegate themselves to not being as competitive. Another problem is that at the end of the day, the professional sports really are fundamentally about profit/loss and gains in value. The owners most definitely care about the return on investment. There is nothing about Phil Knight's donations or Larry Ellison funding the Bryce Underwood flip that's about return on investment, at least from a monetary standpoint. I'm not saying professional sports teams don't go out and overspend for a shot at a championship, but it's usually a short term deal and then they go back to their previous level of funding. That's not the case with college sports. I do not believe college sports will have a stable labor cost model until/unless Congress gets involved with federal legislation governing college sports. To me the House settlement is going to end up being a blip on the radar as we move to other models which may or may not work out as well. The key thing is this allows college athletes to be paid directly by universities at levels that go well beyond the previous stipends. That's huge. But this is not a solution, IMO. This is simply another step to whatever college sports ends up becoming. And it's not iterative, as Alberts is suggesting in his attempt to compare the college model to the NFL. It's a lurching in one direction or another based on court cases, various settlements, state legislatures putting their two cents in, and then bad actors tilting the model in one direction or another. Second, the valuations of Texas, A&M, and Texas Tech (I should make clear I find these valuations a joke designed to provoke conversation - they're not market tested and it's not clear how they would be): I love how they say Texas Tech's $389 million valuation is a far cry from Texas and A&M, when their valuation is literally closer to A&M than A&M's valuation is to Texas.
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