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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. Why would you read it that way? It looks like she's trying to hand over more ammunition and cover for him to go through with the purges already planned. I mean, in any organization about loyalty over competency the greatest competency is being able to finger scapegoats, and the best way to be promoted is to successfully torpedo the career (in many cases the life) of the people above you. But this seems more like documenting and making public the rationale for various career beheadings within the FBI. You know as an institution there are going to be a lot of people trying to conduct some kind of guerilla warfare to protect their organization. This seems like an attempt to root some of that out as ruthlessly as possible.
  2. I think you're the one being obtuse. There's nothing special about Deloitte Touche that makes them or their enforcement mechanisms free from antitrust law. Your analogy about the bugatti is not a good one. If someone wants to buy the $2m Bugatti for $3m the state of Texas isn't going to bat an eye. The market will keep shifting upwards and what a realistic deal for a college athlete looks like will shift upwards as well. What would be nice is to have more transparency, so that all actors have a better idea of the actual pricing rather than rumor and innuendo often setting markets. Not that people are all making decisions in a vacuum, but there's a lack of coherent pricing information that means the market can't work as efficiently as it otherwise could, which presents all kinds of arbitrage opportunities all the way around. And those arbitrage opportunities help create new market pricing. So I'm hopeful the House settlement will help in that regard. But there's still going to be a problem that the value of a college player is not directly tied to how much sheer market value they have from an endorsement perspective, but rather the emotional return on investment provided by helping the alma mater be more competitive in football games and hopefully win a national championship. The House Settlement isn't going to change that, and I personally don't believe any enforcement mechanisms attempted are going to actually work. It will simply end up in more court cases, none of which will go to trial. They'll just keep kicking the can down the street because all parties involved are scared shitless of the triple damages a losing verdict would entail. Rightfully so, IMO. All I know is that the housing industry had all kinds of steps to help ensure fair market value was being paid to protect global institutional lenders investing in the pooled mortgage notes. It was purposefully circumvented at an institutional level. So will anything coming out of the House Settlement. When demand is greater than supply - which is the case in terms of highly skilled athletes capable of being the difference between winning the national championship and not - then the market is going to continually find ways around whatever strictures are put in place unless those strictures are severely enforced with a repressive institution and draconian penalties. The House Settlement isn't going to solve any of that.
  3. I mean, it's right there in the post. I felt confident Trump wouldn't have done it, and here we are with Trump behaving in exactly the way he said he would.
  4. Biden didn't have limited congressional support. It was a tiny group of representatives in the House that successfully prevented any bill from reaching the floor by threatening to upend the Speaker of the House and throw the House into chaos. Once it reached the floor it was passed with an overwhelming majority in both houses. He could have done any number of things to put his support of Ukraine front and center. The fact he was such an unpopular president and foreign assistance is rarely going to garner populist acclaim handicapped him, but the fact is he never tried to make a case for support of Ukraine. He depended on the members of congress to do that, and told them so. I hate Trump. I think he's an extremely dangerous president. I fear for the future of our democracy. But Trump would have found a way to send more arms, and more lethal arms, to Ukraine in a way the Biden administration refused to do so for fear of escalating the conflict. It's practically the Democratic playbook since WWII. I'm still grateful for the support that was sent because I felt confident Trump wouldn't have done it, and here we are with Trump behaving in exactly the way he said he would. Biden gets kudos from me for galvanizing the world, and Europe in particular, to support Ukraine to the extent they have. He never went far enough, and that was a continuous source of frustration for me. It doesn't change my gratitude for what he did do, but claiming that his hands were tied as president and he couldn't do any more than he did is a falsehood. He didn't want to go all in. And while the reasons for it are certainly there for anyone to see, it was still a choice he made. He wasn't forced into it by anyone, much less a group of less than a dozen house of representative congressmen.
  5. I read that as "even if she shits the bed" and thought, "you're a better man than me."
  6. It's a realistic reason why they weren't able to compete even with resources and a fan base. You seem angry at me for pointing that out. Comparing a podunk out in the middle of nowhere university specializing in engineering and agriculture, providing a higher education to young males who often had no other realistic alternative because they came from rural non monied backgrounds, to Annapolis and West Point is beyond silly. I feel no need to defend A&M. But I'd like to at least be a little realistic when we're criticizing them. For most of their existence they had no real shot at being consistently competitive. That's not a good excuse now, but for most of their history it is. They're still a weird cult that mythologizes themselves, and have throughout their existence.
  7. So now we're comparing the prestige and national reach of Annapolis and West Point to College Station and sticking your arm up a cow's ass for your major? The truth is A&M was an afterthought for Texas fans through most of its history. It couldn't compete. Now it's a diploma mill with a much larger student body than Texas, but they cling to their wacky traditions, most notably their hatred of the tsips, as their bonding agent. I'm just saying it's unsurprising they were unable to compete for most of their history.
  8. Through their entire history? They were a smallish all male school with compulsory ROTC. They did have some resources and a fan base, but when everyone you recruit has to do ROTC drills and there are no women on campus, that's going to be an inherent problem with being competitive. Oh, and majors were very limited. Doesn't change the last 50 years, though.
  9. Not only does America support dictators, but I'd argue in some instances it's been in our best interest. You've already done a mea culpa, so I'm not trying to pile on. I'd also argue that America has never supported a dictator with the means available to them that Russia has, even with their military hobbled by their actions in Ukraine.
  10. Yeah, they're pretty good in basketball, but like Olivia Dunne, that's not their chief value in NIL terms.
  11. They're a pretty big deal in the NIL world. Especially women's basketball and women's sports in general.
  12. Showing my age that I get that reference. Saw them live multiple times including a gig in a record store, which was completely and utterly awesome.
  13. Apparently I live under a rock. I did not realize Beck was dating one of the Cavinder twins. I mean, I don't really give a shit, but I also did not know it.
  14. I'm saying the only reason Chance Mock was ahead of Vince Young at any point in time is because we insisted on criminally misusing him for his first year and a half, until after the Missouri game when Ray Seals drove to Austin and read Mack Brown the riot act about how he was using his high school quarterback.
  15. You have been so awesome on this thread about pushing information. I've appreciated your contributions so much. I feel like we're in a hospital room surrounding a patient we love who is about to be taken off life support and we all wish there was something productive we could do.
  16. Okay, fair enough. But outliers are what sets markets. Even outliers can move the needle. More than that, outliers are often exactly what sets new parameters within markets. At the time, I did compare that signing to what we'd see in old Hollywood. A new executive takes charge of a studio, axes the projects the previous studio head greenlit, because politically he can't afford any of those to reach it to market and become a huge success. He then makes some kind of big splash on a script or with an actor or director, to make the announcement he's now in charge and his studio is ready to spend money, so bring your deals here. The deal for Canady felt in part like an announcement our doors are open and our money is very green. That said, though, that's why the NIL environment is unsustainable. There are going to be plenty of Matador type groups out there that want to make a splash for their alma mater that have nothing to do with profit/loss statements. The return is primarily an emotional one of seeing their alma mater succeed in athletics. How do you put a market price tag on that? Carson Beck getting $4 million for one year at Miami is the same sort of thing. Heck, I'd argue us going in and stealing Terry away from Georgia out of their back yard was similar. I don't know what was paid for him, but it was more than Georgia was willing to pay. We have Phil Knight out there willing to pay a substantial part of his net worth to bring Oregon their first national championship in football. We have Larry Ellison willing to pay an insignificant fraction of his net worth so his wife's alma mater can flip a star quarterback from LSU. We will continue to see more of that, and the numbers will get progressively higher. So when you say it doesn't have much bearing, I would counter that even as a momentary outlier, it has tremendous bearing. It means the next woman athlete who signs a $1 million NIL deal to come play for one season at a school that otherwise would not be competitive for that player's services is merely the second player to do so. It's only the outlier right now because it's the first. But you can't have the second and third player do it until the first player does it. It absolutely helps reset the market. We'll see what happens, but I'm strongly convinced the NIL market is on a hockey stick growth pattern, and one of the only things that's going to slow it down is the perceived collapse of college sports in some ways that forces Congress or the administration to act in a forceful manner in some regard. Mind you, I'm not saying this Congress, or this administration. Could be far into the future. What happens in men's revenue sports trickles down to women's sports, especially the more popular, high visible ones, and especially at positions that can powerfully shift the competitive dynamic, which makes the pitcher in softball somewhat unique. But not completely unique. It is quickly becoming more and more expensive to compete in women's basketball, softball, and volleyball, and the signing of Canady is a sign of what's to come.
  17. Couldn't have said it better. We've talked ad nauseum about how one of Russia's chief weaknesses is that they value loyalty over competence. The same dynamic plays out in this administration. Heck, he admires the Russian system in part for that reason. He wants to emulate it. I'm not saying other organizations - including the Democrats - don't practice the same thing. It's a human trait and it's part of the fabric of any organization we create. I'm saying Trump and his administration lean into it in a way we haven't seen before. People are rewarded for blind loyalty and punished for any showing of reluctance regardless of how supportive they might be in other areas. There can be no dissent. Zelensky represents dissent.
  18. Help me to understand your thinking. I look at the thread title. The thread title is NIL Recruiting News Megathread. Canady signed a $1 million contract to play one season of softball in Texas Tech, and yet somehow this doesn't matter in the NIL thread? You don't think a softball player earning $1 million in a year has any bearing on the NIL market?
  19. It all makes me very sad. It's not like we didn't know it was coming. This is what the election was about. I mean, it's not all the election was about, but I am a one issue voter, with my only issue being Ukraine. I haven't been fond of how the Democrats have supported Ukraine, but at least they've been supporting them. It's been obvious for years that Trump's populist stance was going to include eliminating foreign aid of all sorts and pulling back to our borders militarily. The problem is, this is a bell that can't be unrung. I've said it before, but a long time ago I came to the conclusion I didn't leave the Republican Party. It left me. Reagan era/influenced Republicans are the enemy, and must be purged from any kind of leadership in the party.
  20. I'll just keep saying what I've been saying for a while now. If you think things are dark now, just wait! And I'm not talking about Trump, Republicans, or anything along those lines. I'm talking about the fracturing of the US. If and when there's another transfer of power, it's going to be completely reactionary. Regardless of whether it's peaceful or not. You guys keep talking about what a dark day this is and how it will be seen that way in the history books. My point of view is we're just getting started with the dark days. This has all been a long time coming. Heck, Ukraine has had multiple crazy shifts back and forth between the West and Russia, both historically, and since declaring independence. The 2000s were a big back and forth. And prior to the invasion Ukraine and Russia had been in a static war for 8 years, even if no one called it that. The US has been becoming more and more angry and polarized as a country for a couple of decades, whether it's the Tea Party or Occupy movement. Any incident along trigger points could erupt into chaos. The main lesson to learn from all of this, is if you have possession of nuclear weapons - even if you don't have the launch codes - for goodness sakes don't give them up. Even if it might eventually mean the end of human life, or even all life, on the planet. It's the only thing that's going to truly ensure national sovereignty.
  21. What are you talking about? You're reading too much into it. What he's referring to is your jackass fan base insisting to us all offseason that we had no chance in that game, in part for the already referenced reason. There are no changes around that stadium that will change the DNA of your troglodyte fan base that went ape shit on Longhorn fans after that game. But so what? Heck, we're in the SEC now. You guys are the Rothschilds compared to what we see week in and week out now.
  22. I hesitate to reply. I feel like I'm walking into a quagmire of shit posting from which I will never escape. However, in case there are people who are not aware of it, this is a standard phrase of which they're very proud. Aggie Glossary – Austin Texas A&M Mothers' Club Aggieland – The term describing Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. “Aggies never lose, though they may run out of time” – Said after a losing effort implying that the team would have won if the game had gone on longer. Association of Former Students – Rather than being called the Texas A&M alumni association, the words “Former Students” are used because it was felt that the term “alumni” would imply that a graduate would be an “ex-Aggie.” But once an Aggie, always an Aggie, so the word “alumni” was deemed inappropriate. To pile on the "derivative" comments elsewhere on the thread, they don't say it in the above paragraph, but using "former students" rather than "ex" in regards to their alumni base is also derivative to set them apart from the hated T-sips, who call their alumni Texas Exes.
  23. I want a running backs coach that teaches the running backs to fumble to their own team, like Georgia.
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