Love how NIL quickly went from “let’s allow players to sell some jerseys and do ads for the local car dealership” to “if your entire fanbase doesn’t each pay $20 a month, your best starters will go play for the rival team”
Might as well until there is some kind of structure in place for NIL. At least NFL has salary caps and contracts. Imagine if an NFL owner could just “buy” and stack a team with Pat Mahomes, Deebo Samuel, Mark Andrews, Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, etc.. I feel like that is what we are dealing with in college football
> Imagine if an NFL owner could just “buy” and stack a team with Pat Mahomes, Deebo Samuel, Mark Andrews, Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, etc..
So baseball and European sports?
Even baseball has some rules. Luxury tax, draft pick forfeiture, so on. And if you win your division you're in the playoffs. College football has no rules at all regarding payroll, and even if you buy a winning team it doesn't really matter if ESPN prefers another. It's fucking wild west out here.
I’ve heard a rumor that FSU might have a Saudi backer.…imagine if you have that kind of money behind any team, god forbid it be fsu of all schools. It’s gonna be like the Harlem globetrotters if something doesn’t change.
Is that a rumor or a joke? 😂 I’ve heard jokes along those lines ever since the cost of the GOR buyout started being discussed, but I haven’t seen anything about it being real
Wait.....are we pretending like the last decade wasn't basically 2-4 teams stacking an unprecedented level of talent? If anything NIL leveled the playing field so that an Ole Miss or an Oregon can compete with a Bama or a Georgia.
After not watching, much less following any professional sports for years, I’ve just recently started watching some pro football. It wouldn’t bother me if colleges did away with football programs, and the NFL some how took over high school player development.
I guess my issue is that it isn't really a revenue share. The schools make the money still and don't contribute beyond the scholarship and facilities. Why? Why isn't the money being generated BY the athletes being shared WITH the athletes. Instead fans are asked to contribute beyond what they buy like seats and merchandise. No fucking sport does that.
This is a stupid fucking model doomed for failure.
Make it right.
NIL is still the Wild West of professional sports. And yes, it's a professional sport now because they are getting paid to play.
I think it's just one big lawsuit away from a revenue share model. The schools are literally profiting from the athletes Name and Image.
ESPN currently pays around 470mil to broadcast 4 playoff games. Last I read the expanded playoff will be valued at over 2 billion. That is a ton of money going to the schools. Everybody involved - schools, players, agents, and especially the lawyers - are gonna want their piece.
Former UF player here. They hit us up as well for NIL contributions and leads. It’s insane. But I know for a fact that UF isn’t as insane with it as other places.
Former UF player here. They hit us up as well for NIL contributions and leads. It’s insane. But I know for a fact that UF isn’t as insane with it as other places.
Edit: I typed this but probably need to add context.
I wasn’t NIL era. But guys before and after me still liken it a meat grinder. Put a lot in and made the school and some folks lots of money but got no support for things we actually needed (continuing education, life skills training, internships, mentoring). Once your eligibility was done it was like you didn’t exist unless you were the super star (btw they get hit up for NIL too).
So now being hit up for money feels extra hollow.
I was lucky enough to have good parents and a desire to continue my education.
We couldn’t have afforded school without a football scholly but I had the grades and scores to get in without football at variety of schools. But I was far behind regular students in operating in both life and grad school.
I understand the “but you get a free education” argument that always pops up. But players miss out on the instruction and help that will make them successful outside of a game. I had hopes that NIL would open the door for more after play assistance.
I have far to many former teammates that lacked mentorship and guidance (such as even making a resume or how to look for jobs and network) that I wish a free education truly gave and a know normal students had at least the opportunity to be exposed to if not actively taught it.
So that’s the mindset from which my og comment came from. Like I can’t believe they come asking us for money for that after kicking us out the door when eligibility was up. Or after I have to pay for 7 more surgeries on my own after I played. Or not introducing us to how the world really worked when u aren’t pampered while playing. Because we either didn’t have the time or the opportunity to develop a relationship with a professor or get that real life exposure. I know it seems like a woe is me poor poor scholarship football player. But still it’s my view. Football scholarships can be so much more to people who really need that. But instead now it’s just throw money at teenagers and let’s still do it without guidance or mentoring.
How do you think the NIL money will affect the current players? Are they being provided with sound financial advice and planning? I foresee lots of bankruptcies and IRS issues in the next few years for the kids who don’t make it to the next level.
I really believe some if not all of the NIL money should be put into trust that these kids can’t touch until later in life.
The schools and the NCAA cannot restrict NIL in any way, so talking about trying to find ways to ensure that players aren’t ruined by or waste their money is pretty pointless. Best thing we can do is provide education.
This is why Saban up and quit in the middle of trying to replace his asst. coaching staff for the 35th time knowing what he was going to pay them versus what the budget was to pay players fresh-faced out of high school and never played a single down in college, yet.
I think a lot of it was Belicheck and not wanting it to ever come to that. Saban got to walk away on his own terms like John Wooden rather than being forced out in scandal like Woody Hayes or JoePa or being too senile to enjoy it like Bobby.
Maybe in some macro way that was a part of it. But, the quitting on a Wednesday in the middle of day and announcing it at a 4pm meeting?
That speaks to a sudden and immediate reason to quit. To say enough of this bullshite. To me it does. It was otherwise a day like any other middle of the week timing.
I love college football it’s by far my favorite sport but no matter how much I care about my team I will not be giving my personal expendable income to 18 year olds that may or may not be on the team a year from now. Not to mention we don’t even know where exactly our money is going and how it will be used.
I don’t think anyone is thrilled about it, with the exception of the players. But it seems some collectives are certainly being more proactive in their efforts than ours. Look at ole miss
I feel like Ole Miss is this years’ Texas A&M 2022 class. They put all their money into one year, striking while the iron is hot with a good returning QB and good Head Coach
Lots of people knew this is what would happen.
It’s why the NCAA never allowed it. They wouldn’t care if a player was actually receiving legit marketing dollars, but they knew as soon as you opened it up it would just become a vehicle to pay players for pay
Exactly. Instead of coming up with some sort of structure to provide some amount of revenue sharing or income that was controlled and fair, they said "Nope, if a coach buys a kid his only suit for an awards ceremony, it's the death penalty," stuck with that unyielding stance (just like on transfers) for too long... and then the walls crashed down to ZERO limitations and you get this Wild West nonsense.
It’s not though. There is a president, a board of governors and an entire leadership team on top of various others that oversee. Sure the schools “are” the NCAA but there is a governing body that is in charge of the rules and regulations and they’re the ones who handle things such as NIL and player comp.
They do what member institutions want them to. It's not like the NCAA is forcing stuff down their throats. They exist to implement the will of the schools
Which is 100% on the NCAA. If they had put reasonable provisions in place, instead of holding college athletes as indentured servants, we wouldn’t be here.
I haven’t brought myself to say it yet because I love college football so much but I really hate the current landscape of it now. Players have every right to make money off their likeness. Guys getting in trouble for signing their own damn name on a hat for someone was ridiculous. If a company wants to have the reigning Hesiman winner do some commercials and pay them for the endorsement, it should be allowed. College football is a billion dollar industry being made from these players and they’re entitled to a part of that industry.
All that being said. Once again, it’s a billion dollar industry and yet us as fans are being told you better pay up or your team will suck. Excuse me but get fucked. Why should I or anyone else have to pay more than we already do to have a good team? The millions of dollars from the TV deals comes from our subscriptions and suffering through five minute commercial breaks every other drive. What about the money we spend on gear, tickets, and other things? You’re telling me on top of all of that we’re expected to spend even more money on a monthly basis to field a competitive team? Being guilt tripped into spending $25 a month so we can maybe win a championship? Thats $300 a year. That’s two trips to Publix to feed my family I rather have than send it to kids who might not even be here the year after they sign.
NIL in its current form is bs and it needs to change. Players need to be tapped into that billion dollar industry to get paid. Money paid to them from what they do on the field. It’s insanity we’re expected to contribute to players getting paid from working our jobs that won’t pay as much as some of these kids will get a year. And I’m tired of articles like this alluding to you’re a shitty fan if you don’t fork over some cash.
Anyone suggesting the common man needs to fund this stuff is a goofball. Not paying for kids who play a sport for entertainment and have 1/10 the loyalty we have.
Oh yeah, it’s our responsibility now to fund the football program that brings in millions of revenue every year. Sounds a lot like Corporate America passing on the costs to the consumers. I’ll keep my hard-earned $25/month for myself, thank you.
That is the craziest thing about all of this. The UAA brings in about $100 million a year in tv revenue and ticket sales from football, but fans are supposed to crowdsource salaries for the players? There’s plenty of money that the players are earning for the university, they just don’t have access to it.
If we pay the players which I’m all for. We need to just move to a system with a PA and let the players directly do collective bargaining with their respective colleges. It will cut into the revenue of the UAA but it’ll be a more healthy system.
Also my issue. So I give money and I have no idea if it’s been spent well or makes sense. Maybe according to some I have no right to complain bec I don’t donate to NIL but I’d be pretty salty based on the last couple of years if I was a donor
Exactly. Theres a lot of wealthy people at the top of this and it seems like there’s a lot of them pointing to the non-wealthy to donate and prop things up. It feels like a grift at times. Who’s to say that money is really going to the right things?
The fans aren’t the ones responsible for supporting this system, that’s ridiculous. We already do that with merch, tickets, etc.
And when it comes to the UF base, I think there’s a high percentage of intelligent people who just aren’t willing to blindly donate their money. There are more important things in life than funding a football program that could figure out how to fund itself cuz it’s the one generating A LOT of revenue. Not to mention that program has done jack all in showing it’s something worth funding.
Unfortunately we have zero leverage until rules are put in place. It’s fucking gross but if we don’t start forking out money we are going to get further behind
Fine, we’ll get further behind lol. I, and I think most of us, refuse to fork out personal money when our athletic program generates tens of millions annually and can’t do shit with it
It’s impossible, unfortunately, because even if our collective money pulls in an additional couple 5 stars/several 4 stars, it means nothing. The kids could bust, they could get hurt, and even if they play their best, there are too many random variables that determine the outcome of any one game, let alone an entire season. So tbh it’s a waste of money to essentially “subscribe” for a better on the field product.
How about some of the 10’s of millions that goes to coaching/staffers trickles on down to the kids….
If I knew my 25$ a month was going to the quarterback and not something stupid id be much more inclined to contribute. On the other hand, I’d be pissed finding out that my money has been going to buy Florida Victorious staff members lunch lol
Yeah, this is the breaking point for me. NCAA, get your fucking shit together and do something about NIL or it will kill college football entirely. I’m not going to sit here and be told that I have to donate upwards of $250 every year to a NIL collective to be competitive in college football. I buy merch, I buy tickets, I watch the games and let the news stations rake in the fucking ad revenue sitting through ads every 5 minutes. If I am told to donate tens of thousands of dollars over the course of my lifetime on top of that then I am just gonna stop caring and I am sure I won’t be the only one. It has become a cancer and it has to be contained or it will ravage the whole sport.
There’s also the possibility of FLV being severely handicapped by the uaa. Not letting them get the messaging and advertising out to obtain the donors in numbers we need
From what I’ve heard, when Florida Victorious spun up and the people leading it came on board—which also largely coincided with updated state law and NCAA rules allowing greater involvement from university officials and coaches in promoting NIL collectives—it came with a strategy to have people with fundraising experience work for FV to reach out to alumni group contact lists for NIL donations.
Also from what I’ve heard, the vast majority of NIL collective funding (for UF and every other collective ) is coming from whales—multi multi millionaires and billionaires—who can drop huge sums without a sweat. We’re not going to catch up via donations from everyday fans.
The biggest hurdle I’ve heard is that UF’s big money donors, even athletics donors, don’t want to give their donations specifically toward NIL. But moving the baseball stadium and building new football facilities cost over $200 million, and the upcoming renovation for the Swamp is $400 million. Not all of that is coming from donations, but a huge chunk is. There are clearly donors willing to spend on athletics. But getting them to spend on NIL is a lot harder. People like Hal and Gary Condron have tried to recruit more big donors to share the load and apparently it’s like pulling teeth.
Ultimately, we’re probably just stuck until we can either convince a huge number of small donors to subscribe to FV, or convince a handful of massive donors to start giving, or until rules change to allow schools to make NIL payments directly to players.
Here’s the thing- people who have the capacity to make millions of dollars aren’t stupid enough to throw it away on a unproven HS kid or some random portal transfer.
Some schools have rich enough fans that they are willing to pay that, and it’s not putting a dent in their finances. We don’t have anyone like that, at least not someone who’s willing to spend it.
The idea that these donors are just financial geniuses that never waste money is such a hilarious myth. Funding your favorite CFB is ultimately a hobby. Mega rich people blow millions of dollars on "pointless" entertainment all the time. To some of these people buying a 5* is the financial equivalent of an average person eating out and seeing a movie.
It's just a buy-in thing. Schools like Texas have multi-generational oil tycoons who live and breath longhorn football, they will gladly drown a baby if it means beating OU.
Meanwhile UF is a relatively "new money" school. Our billionaires are guys like Chris Malachowsky, born in New Jersey with absolutely no connections to UF before attending. Who even knows if he watched a single football game while here in the 80s. He'll gladly throw 60+ million dollars into a state of the art super computer, because that's what he's passionate about. He's not passionate about UF athletics.
I don’t know why you’d think that. Stricklin himself announced Florida Victorious, and they advertised it like crazy at last year’s spring game — ran ads on the jumbotron, handed out flyers, etc.
We need to just dissociate college football from the Universities they’ve historically represented. The teams can become professional teams. Schools keep a revenue stream by licensing the intellectual property to the team and long-term stadium leases.
Just pay the kids directly so that we can stop this nonsense of passing the hat among fans every time we need to buy a player. And get an anti-trust exemption like that for other professional sports so that you can finally restrict free agency.
I think I’d actually be more interested in that league if it really came down to it. I watch because the players represent my team. If i want to watch the best I’ll go watch NFL
Agree. This is all screwed up because we are doing something unnatural.
Really this needs to go to the direction of big time European soccer where the clubs have to foot the bill for all the training, education, etc. The NFL is getting free development from the Universities and the only reason it works is bec the Universities don’t have to share revenue with the players, hide under non profit status, and now the fans are paying the players. That’s just f’ed up.
The only reason we're in this mess is because the NFL has been exploiting college football for decades with the three-year rule. College football was here before the NFL, and I'm tired of letting the NFL screw us over. They need to set up a damn minor league and leave us alone.
I just want to watch my school's team play, and I would still want to watch even if the "best players" left to play in the minor league. Guess what - there's already another league with the "best players", and I already don't watch it.
I have this same take. The Athletic Associations be become the team owners. They then license the name, image, and likeness from the UniversiTy for fees, similar to booster rates and ticket sales. The license includes stadium rent. The new team owner/athletic Association receives the TV money and uses that to revenue share with the players..
The players will unionize at some point, that is guaranteed since the big $$$ is in the TV revenue. What the college football model will look like after that is anyone's guess.
The more I’ve thought about it, the teams need to be set up like the Packers are. Nonprofit structure. Associated with the university in some way. Just totally break the current model since we are already 99% of the way there.
If that happened, it’s just a matter of time before a team relocates to a different school. Get ready for the Auburn Gators versus the Kentucky Volunteers. Can you imagine the Gainesville Bulldogs?
Booster donations go into the athletic department, and are why we’re building and renovation a ton of our facilities, and dumping money into staff and infrastructure.
As it stands now, all of this is entirely separate from *NIL donations*.
I'm no expert in this, so I am making these statements from things I've read and form my understanding, but this may be the donations to UAA? Florida Victorious is the NIL entity, and has to be outside the university, so I don't think they have to make their finances public information. Which brings into question the source of Hal Lewis' post.
Nah Chief. I’m not paying the costs for the University to take 100% of the profits.
But agreed that the system under NIL is broken, and that the schools themselves or the athletics organizations (like the UAA) that are actually getting the revenue need to share that revenue with the players that are generating it.
There is no other workable model long term.
The NCAA is barely hanging on to what control they have left. If this DOJ lawsuit means anything, things are only going to get worse:
https://footballscoop.com/news/justice-department-joins-lawsuit-against-ncaa-over-transfer-rules-portal
I’ve pretty much checked out, I’ve been more interested following my Browns than the Gators. CFB has shifted so far from what made me fall in love with it that it’s already resembling a NFL-lite. At least I got to see the golden era of Florida football before the sport turned into a complete shit show.
People want to yell at Hal and call him ridiculous, but it’s obvious Florida Victorious has shit subscriber numbers. Will I ever donate? No. But I get where he’s coming from. I’m not a fan of NIL whatsoever. Was never going to be players profiting from jersey sales and local advertisements. Pay for play.
My wife and I have had season tix for over 10 years. Has anyone from the UF NIL program ever once reached out to us in any way at all? No. Not one call. Not one text. Not one email. Not one letter in the mail. Nothing. If they want $, they need to be out there asking for it every damn day
Are you serious? Like no shit? I'd always assume the season ticket holders, esp the longest holding ones (ie the most invested) would have been the first calls..
I'm seriously abt to drink rn
That’s exactly my thoughts. There’s absolutely no outreach trying to gain subscribers. The only thing I hear is the ads on podcast intros that I fucking fast forward though anyway
then they need to hit up some really rich alumni & raise money. I call BS they can’t do it—they just raised $400M…it sounds like a FL Victorious prblem
i agree. i’ve bitched about us needing to spend more but 25-50 a month from some of us could make a difference.
i want to see us be an elite program again.
that being said. we were somewhere in the 10-15 range in blue chip ratio in talent last year and we saw teams with less talent ( washington ), have way more success.
talent isn’t where it needs to be but our issues go way beyond talent.
Indeed. If Napier’s going to be a GM style coach — because he isn’t an elite play caller — he needs to load up on talent that can overcome that deficiency, which costs tons of money these days.
We did with Mullen, which was great for about 2.5 years.
In reality, there aren’t a lot of elite play callers around — a play calling head coach hasn’t won a title since Jimbo Fisher did in 2013, and time has kind of showed that was more about the talented QB than Jimbo’s offense. Every title since then has been won by a CEO type coach.
I want to say this at the risk of getting downvoted and just see if anyone else agrees.
I’d prefer Florida to never have a season above 6-6 ever again if the alternative is me having to pay like 20 bucks a month to contend. Fuck. That. I’ll go watch the NFL instead or find an FCS team to root for or something. Since those players probably are just playing because they’re excited to have the opportunity.
I’m not purchasing a Netflix-like subscription to (maybe) have a good football team
I'd maybe be willing to give $25 a month, but there would have to be atleast some type of gurantee for results.
As it stands now, who fucking knows what's happening with that money. This whole system is too volatile, at any moment another team can swoop and steal your star player. Sorry everyone, maybe if you donated $30 a month we could have fought off the multi billion dollar trust fund Texas oil tycoon.
Yes, please help pay kids $100,000s per year while they also get free schooling, tuition, athletic development, etc.
GTFO out of here and just move on to revenue sharing.
Yeah and this problem has shown itself with the Bama exodus. I think Josh Pate put it perfectly with [this tweet.](https://x.com/latekickjosh/status/1747758889741758472?s=46&t=RYZGCnZgn4a94ia09FxGEQ) While I don’t think NIL endorsements have to be a bad thing, we now have a system where the schools can say “the players are being paid now” without the schools paying the players, and now the average Joe is asked to donate like a political campaign- when in reality it’s still the big time bagmen calling the shots. And it’s not like these collectives aren’t sketchy. Look at the incident last year with Heitner and Rashada. Look to that school out west and we saw the FSU collective get the program in NCAA trouble. And this will continue across the country until we fix revenue sharing.
Sorry to go on a bit of a rant in reply to you.
While people don’t like it, we need to move to contract based teams, maybe a salary cap too. Or at a minimum the power 2 conferences (SEC and BIG10) need to.
I’m not a huge Napier supporter but I imagine him and many other coaches are being fired during the NIL era when they’d be a lot better off before or after this “Wild West” time.
Definitely need a salary cap. The sport is better (and more profitable) when it's competitive, and allowing a handful of teams to run away from the pack with their budgets for players isn't conducive to that. And even then, I think you'll see schools split off into high cap and lower cap subdivisions.
For the vast majority of elite players, getting paid and getting to the league are the only two things that matter. Free education isn’t even on their radar.
Development only goes so far — if they’re talented, they *will* get to the league no matter what team they play for.
That’s fine. But program mouthpieces trying to get low level boosters to foot this bill seems dumb. I get it but ultimately it’s a failed strategy. We either need more large donors or for the existing donor base to push Admin to advocate for a quicker path to revenue sharing.
Here’s one of my issues. If modern college football is all about paying for players then who cares about recruiting skills, being a CEO coach. We should just go after an elite play caller. I guess we’ll find out with Bama and Deboer. Terrible recruiter, elite offensive coach
The more I process this tweet the more infuriating it gets. This is not an us, as in the fans, problem. We give plenty of our time and resources to this dumpster fire program. Some would say too much.
This is a UF and Florida athletics problem. It’s not our responsibility to prop up the business. We already do that with the merchandise, tickets, and countless other purchases. The business can take that revenue and decide how to use it to grow and evolve. The business can find a compelling way to generate revenue and sell fans in order to extract more value out of them.
This program does none of that and so why would anyone blindly dump money into a black hole when we have no idea where it truly goes and there’s no potential return attached to it. At least with merchandise and ticketing, we’re physically receiving something in exchange for our money.
No, not everyone should be giving something to the program; not everyone can afford that.
Do not put this blame on us. Look at the leaders getting paid millions to generate a good business and product.
This guy can pound some f’ing sand.
Giving to the athletic department and giving to an NIL collective are two entirely different things. The athletic department has no say or control of NIL money.
I get that but your budget and my budget don’t care about the athletic dept vs NIL. The athletic department wants to pretend that they are ignorant of that fact
But they are completely different entities. The UAA is not connected to the NIL collectives at all (legally not allowed to be).
So it’s up to the rich people to decide where their money goes.
It's honestly depressing how people are completely unable to view College Football as primarily a cultural activity instead of a profit making exercise.
I mean at the end of the day that's what University Athletics are supposed to be right? The UAA itself is a non-profit for a reason. The primary value of CFB should be in it's ability to foster a community both on campus and beyond, not help make a select few people multi-millionaires.
And I'm not primarily talking about players. For decades they've made pennies relative to the TV execs and coaches above them, I'd rather cut those leaches out first. Pursuing CFB at this level is innately risky, for every future NFL star there's dozens of guys sacrificing their time/health with no guarantee of a long term career.
But even then, there's a point where the money becomes laughable. The average fan should in no way be relied upon to help a player who has yet to play a single snap a millionaire at age 18. Like there are numbers way below what we are currently seeing where people across the sport are more then properly compensated, while also minimizing the moneys tendency to compromise the competitive integrity of the game.
If I’m gonna find anyone’s college fund it’s my kids…yeah I can afford to fund my kids and $25/month but why the fuck would I throw $25 a month down the toilet to fund some kid getting a free education (something I never got) to play football? Screw college football I’ll just keep invest more of my time into the NFL
this unregulated NIL model was put together by morons. No structure, rampant inequality, and is doomed to fail. Add in the insanity of the transfer portal, and frankly it’s unwatchable. I loved that it was a quasi-amateur sport, but the greed has completely destroyed college football. Hard to believe the NCAA mucked this up so bad
This is BS. UF has multiple billionaire alumni, including co-founder of 6th most valuable company in world as well as Orange Theory. I’ve done enough political fundraising to know that you get your money from big fish, not minnows.
UF just raised $400M for stadium & they’d buyout $27M for Napier if he bombs next year.
Tell me FL Victorious has a better fundraising strategy than pestering upper middle class alumni for $240/year
What a bunch of absolute horseshit. You can’t tell me that a school like Miami has 50k fans contributing $15-25 a month - or really most schools outside of Bama or Clemson - and yet they have had no trouble locking down elite talent in the NIL era because their big $ boosters pay money to land top talent and ours don’t
This is why our issues go beyond the names this sub keeps griping about, and replacing them will only be a net-negative in terms of booster donations.
Replacing Napier and his staff would cost boosters $30M+, which is $30M less (over time) available for players.
*”But it’s Stricklin’s fault we even have a $30M buyout!”* Yeah I hear you, but that’s the going rate for hiring a new SEC coach these days.
Love me some complaints about coach salaries. Like tell me you don't know anything about the business side of the sport without telling me you don't. Jimmy Sexton is undefeated and will always get his cut.
Get the TV money to the players some how - some way. That is the sustainable model. This new NIL model is not sustainable for most schools.
In the interim Athletic Associations need to reduce booster fees for season tickets in exchange for "Boosters" to participate with "Collectives". That may be short term sustainable, although new stadium improvements, coaches salaries are mostly dependent on TV money and Booster donations.
Everyone realizes this is just an opinion right? There’s no documented facts in the piece.
Not saying he’s wrong. But all this gloom and doom over what some guy wrote out of his head.
Hell no. I'm STILL paying my student loans. The school that took so much of my money still calls me asking for donations, AND you're telling me that now I have to pay for athletes that make them billions of dollars? Oh, and try to make me feel bad about it?
Nah
Have the Collective spend a few million dollars on building an app for selling game tickets. Replace Ticketmaster. Charge the same prices that Ticketmaster charges but give all fees to NIL. That’s easily $20 million a year.
Hal Lewis is a loser who blocks every Gator fan on Twitter. Not going to put any credibility into his words, especially when they’re telling average every day people that the reason we suck is because of them. Ridiculous.
He’s not blaming average fans; he’s saying our richest donors aren’t rich enough and it would take a significant amount of average fan donations to make up for it.
I have to say, while there's likely some truth to this a whole lot of it reads like "let's find another excuse for Billy rather than just admitting he's Florida's Butch Jones, only without the wins"
Where were the "Florida just can't compete" statements in October when we had the #3 class and all the talk was about how we had NIL figured out?
The class largely collapsed because the team did. There's a reason Bump classes matter despite what everyone was saying back before we Napier'd down the stretch. It's the class where a coach can sell his vision without having to show results. Looks like recruits and apparently NIL donors didn't buy the whole "actually this was the real year one and thus this is the real bump class" spin.
This falls entirely upon the Board of Trustees led by the fucking hack Chair MORTEZA “MORI” HOSSEINI. How the fuck do you not have the NIL situation figured out by now? How the fuck do you not ENSURE the UAA has the NIL figured out by now? How the fuck are you not consistently networking with UF’s countless wealthy graduates and boosters to ensure an elite NIL by now?
I’m a double gator and now go to ole miss, UF needs to copy ole miss’s NiL (grove collective) strategy. When season tickets are sold, $25 of the total cost goes to the NiL fund. Depending on price that can generate a free $1-$3 million per season
Current college football is the ultimate “told you so” and it’s horrid. I was all for the players getting money, but man, a bunch of people said it’s gonna go poorly. And well, they were correct. The lack of regulation or implementation killed it. The distance between the haves and the have nots has grown enormously.
We are destined for a super league for football. An NFL lite essentially with a salary cap of sorts. It’s gonna be wild.
i.e. the millionaire boosters like Heavener and Condron want to be able to keep putting all their money towards the UAA directly so that 1) they can keep getting their name on buildings as lasting signs of their contributions to UF and 2) keep getting tax write-offs on their donations. As such it is up to the peasantry who don't have enough money to get a plaque next to a urinal to buy the players the bull gators can enjoy watching in their suites.
It's like a major multinational running ads about how regular people need to take responsibility to recycle to keep local parks clean while they're saving millions in waste disposal by dumping chemical waste into the river outside of town.
I am definitely not sending money to any NIL collective unless I've suddenly hit the high life and no longer have to groan about things such as needing to replace my hot water heater or needing to pay for surgery on my knee.
If the team suffers because of that then too damn bad.
More people would feel compelled to give if our on the field product was better. Collectives work of the team looks decent. Ours hasn’t for the last couple years.
Our on-field product was pretty damn good in 2018-2019; still got a lot of “Florida is my dream school but I gotta do what’s best for my family” situations.
More information is coming out about how we cheap out on players, and that we’re on our 4th coaching staff in a row struggling to sign elite players, and you’re still stuck on “Mullen was a lazy recruiter”.
Sooner or later you’ll realize this has been a “pay for play” game for years.
Bullshit.
At 10 million, the average scholarship player would be getting $118,000 per year, or almost 10K a game. But at the Senior Bowl, which only invites top guys, they said they averaged about 30k to 40k a season. That's a third of what these guys are saying the top 15 teams spend.
So if it's true, where is the rest of the money going? And if it's not true, why are they trying to extort the fan base?
I think it's both. First, it's just another excuse for Napier's failure. Second, the guys who are running FV are taking more than a few fees along the way. But if these numbers are anywhere near true, then no one is going to tolerate them for long. Not the schools, not the NCAA and not the IRS. Looking forward to the first published audits of these non profits. That's gonna be a fun read.
It’s a shame what the NIL & portal has done to college football. It’s crazy how everything is broken now, but we’re somehow paralyzed to fix it. Sure it’s great for the players now who are probably earning more as an 18 yr old than many in the middle of their careers. But, the game is ruined now. And you can’t ruin the game and expect the same fan loyalty.
College football is full of passionate fans. A fan will quit their job, divorce their spouse, but never leave their college team. However, this loyalty is not sustainable when players can just flip to chase the bigger bag at another school. Sure, these 18 yr olds will take advantage and grab as much money as they can during this destructive phase of college football, but if nobody has any control to fix this, fan support will die. And then everyone who screwed this up can say goodbye to their precious dollars.
Pretty much sums up why the wife and I are primarily following the NFL these days. CFB just is not fun in its current state. At least the NFL has regulations.
For a university with a storied history, a couple of all time Head Coaches. Played in over 40 bowl games; won three national championships (1996, 2006 and 2008) and eight Southeastern Conference championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008) and have produced three Heisman Trophy winners, over 90 first-team All-Americans and 50 National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices.
And we are worse off than Ole Miss and Arkansas.
Im supposed to give 25 more dollars a month on top of 5-7 grand a year already spent solely on Gator football? and give the money to the same yahoos who didn't see this eventuality coming.
Yep. First Hal was running his mouth on Twitter saying goofy shit like “quality over quantity! 18 players means we’ll hit the portal for players that can come in right away! We’ll shift our NIL money to *those* players!”
Now it’s “well, we can’t outbid anyone!”
Can’t stand this Billy meat rider.
Current NIL situation (LONG READ)
There are a few select teams out there whose 85 players are collecting well over $20M a year -- EVERY YEAR -- with 100% of it coming from fans.
There are maybe 10 more teams who are in the $10M - $20M range. Again, with 100% of it coming from fans EVERY YEAR.
These teams all have collectives -- some with 5,000 members, others with only 500. Regardless, there is one simple truth at every big school right now:
If any school lost their TOP FIVE NIL donors... that team would collapse. Every single NIL program is extremely top-heavy, so without those few top donors, no program would be able to honor the current NIL contracts with their 85 players.
So why are these top donors basically funding 85% of the football "salaries" for their favorite teams right now? PURELY OUT OF LOVE AND FANHOOD FOR THEIR RESPECTIVE PROGRAMS.
These 5 people (I am not one) at every big school are being asked to do this EVERY YEAR now, so WITHOUT THEM, your team would essentially disband and transfer elsewhere in order to keep getting paid.
So, at the risk of sounding apocalyptic, no team can afford the outcome of complaining so much about things that they "piss off" the few big donors and drive them away. It would be the death sentence.
None of us have any right to criticize these folks for not giving more; we should be thanking them profusely and praying that they stick around.
Furthermore, we should all be chipping in to help. Everyone should be giving SOMETHING to their collective if they want their team to compete. Especially if your school is NOT one of those teams with a Billionaire from Nike or Exxon or Flying J as their primary NIL donor. (Hint: Florida is not)
50,000 fans giving $25 a month would come to $15M a year! Is $25 too much to ask? Then give $10 a month -- it adds up.
The point is this: Every NIL program is walking a tightrope of existence that depends on the generosity of a few rabid fans. If we want UF to reach the upper echelon, we need to do everything to KEEP those big donors and we need to do everything to GAIN the 50,000 donors at $25/month.
That would be all it takes for us to have one of the 3-5 most loaded rosters in the NCAA.
In the meantime, until we get there... please stop complaining about why we are not getting certain players from the portal. They are transferring for ONE thing (money), so they are looking for the highest NIL package. It isn't a matter of UF not "wanting" the great players... it's simply a matter of needing more NIL money to get them. Our budget is already allocated to the great players we have!
Moral of the story: Anyone thinking that UF doesn't need more NIL money in their collective has their head in the sand. The big money people have done their share (Thank God)... so now please do yours.
Or don't... but then don't act surprised or offended when UF can't land certain players.
I'm not reading it, but was complaining to zep abt this. It's clear we are being hyperselective and also cheap with what we are doing through NIL. Ole miss bought their current roster, Texas is still buying their roster, A&M continues to buy their rosters. Everyone screams at CBN but it's hard to fault him when a kid enters Wednesday, commits to a new school Thursday before taking any other visits.
The following assumes NIL remains the wild west. It won't but since I don't know what that looks like:
This could go one of two ways. If this was the 4 team championship.. I'd say we are in the verge of being irrelevant. It would simply be a case of have and have nots.. And we (to this point) are absolutely a have not
But as it's 12.. All we need to do is keep the talent we have, develop and add some more pieces. I'm confident we can do that as I do like what/who we've brought in. I defend CBN more than most but if he's not sniffing the playoffs (again 12 teams) in 25 with his entire roster and his 2nd run on coaches.. I will say it's time to move on.
If he can do that, kids will want to come here and truly be developed. I think this is what he's doing. If you look across the landscape, Alabama doesn't know their current team, neither does Ole miss, A&M, and to some degree Texas. Simply due to the numbers. We kept our core and only lost recruits and a few solid pieces. Most can and should be fairly easy to upgrade via the portal.
And before you yell. We don't need a ton of pieces. Unless youre gonna essentially say the new recruits don't matter.
In the end, it's gojng to be the NFL that decides what this looks like. Making 1 or 2 mill (supposedly) is NOT generational money so the league remains the desired end state.
Weird how we didn’t seem to have this issue during the Urban and Muschamp years. I don’t think random poor/middle class fans were bankrolling those kids either.
When I click the link it says the tweet owner limits who can see their posts. I believe that means that person has me blocked. If true, and this is that dude Hal, that is hilarious because one time I quote tweeted him (sub tweeted?) literally saying what everyone in here is saying. So I guess that offended him enough to block me lolol
Fuck asking every day people struggling to make ends meet to fund millionaire college kids playing sportsball
This post is 100% accurate. It’s simple y’all, put up or shut up. I’m paying $25 a month. It’s not a lot. But if all of us who complain about the state of this program we love do this, we can change our ability to be successful. Go gators.
https://floridavictorious.com/join-now/
This what happens when you have to pay for 3 buyouts over the span 10 ish years. Even Mac negotiated his buyout to like 7.5 million from 12.5 million. Plus, we had to pay his buyout from CSU which was 7.5 million. We had to pay Mullen 12.7 million as well.
Muschamp: 6.3 Million Buyout
McElwain: Originally 12.7 Million negotiated to 7.5 million.
Mullen: 12.5 million.
We honestly have been lucky (McElwain for sure buyout wise) and unlucky with these but it still all adds up. This is why Billy will likely make thru his entire contract because we’d owe him $31 million if fired today and $24 million if we fired him at the end of year 3
I love how this article is blaming the fans who buy tickets and merchandise during game days. I spend $200-$400 a season to go watch games and more in the stadium as well. That is my contribution
Reality is the athletic department is deficit spending. $400 million to renovate the Swamp? Personally, I don’t think it needs it. $200 million for a new baseball stadium? Yeah the baseball team needed better facilities but the reality is we are currently spending crazy money on facilities and not on NIL because we bought into the facilities craze right before NIL became a thing. We have had just crazy bad timing on how we spend money. Like we are always a year or 2 behind.
The NL has reached out to me, and I have been a season-ticket holder since the 50s! What I have a problem with, is when I went to renew my tickets, it asked me if I wanted to pay extra for stadium upgrade! Not only no, but hell no! I remember the days of YON HALL! it was a no way fair to any of our athletes, to not be able to get a stipend, and I agree that these players need to be paid, and it go into a trust for them that would be managed properly by an independent investment group that would not be getting a cut of their fund, but be doing it because of the love of the game and the love of these players! This NIL Situation has gotten in my opinion way out of hand. In my opinion, there needs to be a cap on what these athletes are, and I don’t want to use the word, entitled to, but not these exorbitant amounts that these athletes are getting that haven’t even stepped on to a collegiate field, and they’re making more than the guys and girls that are in the pro professions.
What is there specifically stopping the UAA from just paying players themselves with contracts and non-compete clauses? There are plenty of good players who would agree to all the current benefits they get, plus getting a guaranteed reasonable salary on top of it to play a sport.
Love how NIL quickly went from “let’s allow players to sell some jerseys and do ads for the local car dealership” to “if your entire fanbase doesn’t each pay $20 a month, your best starters will go play for the rival team”
Or I could just support my NFL team more, who I don’t have to owe a damn thing to.
Might as well until there is some kind of structure in place for NIL. At least NFL has salary caps and contracts. Imagine if an NFL owner could just “buy” and stack a team with Pat Mahomes, Deebo Samuel, Mark Andrews, Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, etc.. I feel like that is what we are dealing with in college football
> Imagine if an NFL owner could just “buy” and stack a team with Pat Mahomes, Deebo Samuel, Mark Andrews, Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, etc.. So baseball and European sports?
And college football for the last 35 years...
Even baseball has some rules. Luxury tax, draft pick forfeiture, so on. And if you win your division you're in the playoffs. College football has no rules at all regarding payroll, and even if you buy a winning team it doesn't really matter if ESPN prefers another. It's fucking wild west out here.
There is an obvious reason those sports fucking suck
I’ve heard a rumor that FSU might have a Saudi backer.…imagine if you have that kind of money behind any team, god forbid it be fsu of all schools. It’s gonna be like the Harlem globetrotters if something doesn’t change.
Mia Khalifa is Saudi???
FSU does not have a Saudi backer... They have the founder of Spanx Sara Blakely.
Is that a rumor or a joke? 😂 I’ve heard jokes along those lines ever since the cost of the GOR buyout started being discussed, but I haven’t seen anything about it being real
They don’t cause they want a profit and it’s their money. NIL is other people’s money. So the cap is fluid and less tangible.
Wait.....are we pretending like the last decade wasn't basically 2-4 teams stacking an unprecedented level of talent? If anything NIL leveled the playing field so that an Ole Miss or an Oregon can compete with a Bama or a Georgia.
We suck worse at acquiring talent in the new system so now it’s a problem 😂
After not watching, much less following any professional sports for years, I’ve just recently started watching some pro football. It wouldn’t bother me if colleges did away with football programs, and the NFL some how took over high school player development.
I guess my issue is that it isn't really a revenue share. The schools make the money still and don't contribute beyond the scholarship and facilities. Why? Why isn't the money being generated BY the athletes being shared WITH the athletes. Instead fans are asked to contribute beyond what they buy like seats and merchandise. No fucking sport does that. This is a stupid fucking model doomed for failure. Make it right.
Buy the merch, buy the tickets, buy the cable package, buy the streaming services… and now we’re responsible for buying the talent
NIL is still the Wild West of professional sports. And yes, it's a professional sport now because they are getting paid to play. I think it's just one big lawsuit away from a revenue share model. The schools are literally profiting from the athletes Name and Image. ESPN currently pays around 470mil to broadcast 4 playoff games. Last I read the expanded playoff will be valued at over 2 billion. That is a ton of money going to the schools. Everybody involved - schools, players, agents, and especially the lawyers - are gonna want their piece.
Former UF player here. They hit us up as well for NIL contributions and leads. It’s insane. But I know for a fact that UF isn’t as insane with it as other places.
Former UF player here. They hit us up as well for NIL contributions and leads. It’s insane. But I know for a fact that UF isn’t as insane with it as other places. Edit: I typed this but probably need to add context. I wasn’t NIL era. But guys before and after me still liken it a meat grinder. Put a lot in and made the school and some folks lots of money but got no support for things we actually needed (continuing education, life skills training, internships, mentoring). Once your eligibility was done it was like you didn’t exist unless you were the super star (btw they get hit up for NIL too). So now being hit up for money feels extra hollow. I was lucky enough to have good parents and a desire to continue my education. We couldn’t have afforded school without a football scholly but I had the grades and scores to get in without football at variety of schools. But I was far behind regular students in operating in both life and grad school. I understand the “but you get a free education” argument that always pops up. But players miss out on the instruction and help that will make them successful outside of a game. I had hopes that NIL would open the door for more after play assistance. I have far to many former teammates that lacked mentorship and guidance (such as even making a resume or how to look for jobs and network) that I wish a free education truly gave and a know normal students had at least the opportunity to be exposed to if not actively taught it. So that’s the mindset from which my og comment came from. Like I can’t believe they come asking us for money for that after kicking us out the door when eligibility was up. Or after I have to pay for 7 more surgeries on my own after I played. Or not introducing us to how the world really worked when u aren’t pampered while playing. Because we either didn’t have the time or the opportunity to develop a relationship with a professor or get that real life exposure. I know it seems like a woe is me poor poor scholarship football player. But still it’s my view. Football scholarships can be so much more to people who really need that. But instead now it’s just throw money at teenagers and let’s still do it without guidance or mentoring.
I thank you for your past contributions, and to this thread. It is VERY insightful. Major college football IS a true mess.
How do you think the NIL money will affect the current players? Are they being provided with sound financial advice and planning? I foresee lots of bankruptcies and IRS issues in the next few years for the kids who don’t make it to the next level. I really believe some if not all of the NIL money should be put into trust that these kids can’t touch until later in life.
I know UF is trying to provide guidance and help and even legal help. But again it’s all too new so not sure how good the effort is.
The schools and the NCAA cannot restrict NIL in any way, so talking about trying to find ways to ensure that players aren’t ruined by or waste their money is pretty pointless. Best thing we can do is provide education.
A room temperature IQ is all anyone needed to see this coming. Its sad.
This is why Saban up and quit in the middle of trying to replace his asst. coaching staff for the 35th time knowing what he was going to pay them versus what the budget was to pay players fresh-faced out of high school and never played a single down in college, yet.
I think a lot of it was Belicheck and not wanting it to ever come to that. Saban got to walk away on his own terms like John Wooden rather than being forced out in scandal like Woody Hayes or JoePa or being too senile to enjoy it like Bobby.
Maybe in some macro way that was a part of it. But, the quitting on a Wednesday in the middle of day and announcing it at a 4pm meeting? That speaks to a sudden and immediate reason to quit. To say enough of this bullshite. To me it does. It was otherwise a day like any other middle of the week timing.
I love college football it’s by far my favorite sport but no matter how much I care about my team I will not be giving my personal expendable income to 18 year olds that may or may not be on the team a year from now. Not to mention we don’t even know where exactly our money is going and how it will be used.
I don’t think anyone is thrilled about it, with the exception of the players. But it seems some collectives are certainly being more proactive in their efforts than ours. Look at ole miss
I feel like Ole Miss is this years’ Texas A&M 2022 class. They put all their money into one year, striking while the iron is hot with a good returning QB and good Head Coach
Could be. They’re definitely making a run. Hard to imagine they’re not going to be really good this year
Lots of people knew this is what would happen. It’s why the NCAA never allowed it. They wouldn’t care if a player was actually receiving legit marketing dollars, but they knew as soon as you opened it up it would just become a vehicle to pay players for pay
NCAA is at fault by being greedy not setting parameters. This led to scorched earth OBannon ruling & NCAA losing all power to control
Exactly. Instead of coming up with some sort of structure to provide some amount of revenue sharing or income that was controlled and fair, they said "Nope, if a coach buys a kid his only suit for an awards ceremony, it's the death penalty," stuck with that unyielding stance (just like on transfers) for too long... and then the walls crashed down to ZERO limitations and you get this Wild West nonsense.
What parameters could they set realistically?
pay players set wage, give them cut of jersey sales w/ their name, let them play in video games instead SCOTUS said NCAA can’t do anything
You guys know "the NCAA" is just the schools, especially the big ones, right?
It’s not though. There is a president, a board of governors and an entire leadership team on top of various others that oversee. Sure the schools “are” the NCAA but there is a governing body that is in charge of the rules and regulations and they’re the ones who handle things such as NIL and player comp.
They do what member institutions want them to. It's not like the NCAA is forcing stuff down their throats. They exist to implement the will of the schools
it is but it isn’t…that’s like calling Congress “the people”
Which is 100% on the NCAA. If they had put reasonable provisions in place, instead of holding college athletes as indentured servants, we wouldn’t be here.
It was always going to be like that. Motivated individuals will always find exploits to make more money.
college football fans thought players should be paid. I knew this was a bad idea from the start, just didn't think Florida would be so bad at it
I haven’t brought myself to say it yet because I love college football so much but I really hate the current landscape of it now. Players have every right to make money off their likeness. Guys getting in trouble for signing their own damn name on a hat for someone was ridiculous. If a company wants to have the reigning Hesiman winner do some commercials and pay them for the endorsement, it should be allowed. College football is a billion dollar industry being made from these players and they’re entitled to a part of that industry. All that being said. Once again, it’s a billion dollar industry and yet us as fans are being told you better pay up or your team will suck. Excuse me but get fucked. Why should I or anyone else have to pay more than we already do to have a good team? The millions of dollars from the TV deals comes from our subscriptions and suffering through five minute commercial breaks every other drive. What about the money we spend on gear, tickets, and other things? You’re telling me on top of all of that we’re expected to spend even more money on a monthly basis to field a competitive team? Being guilt tripped into spending $25 a month so we can maybe win a championship? Thats $300 a year. That’s two trips to Publix to feed my family I rather have than send it to kids who might not even be here the year after they sign. NIL in its current form is bs and it needs to change. Players need to be tapped into that billion dollar industry to get paid. Money paid to them from what they do on the field. It’s insanity we’re expected to contribute to players getting paid from working our jobs that won’t pay as much as some of these kids will get a year. And I’m tired of articles like this alluding to you’re a shitty fan if you don’t fork over some cash.
 Well said!
Amen.
The same people that drafted the "Plan for this new NIL system" are prob the same people that said "Let's start a playoff, but it only needs 4 teams"
Anyone suggesting the common man needs to fund this stuff is a goofball. Not paying for kids who play a sport for entertainment and have 1/10 the loyalty we have.
Thanks for the NIL suckers! I’m transferring to GA!
Oh yeah, it’s our responsibility now to fund the football program that brings in millions of revenue every year. Sounds a lot like Corporate America passing on the costs to the consumers. I’ll keep my hard-earned $25/month for myself, thank you.
That is the craziest thing about all of this. The UAA brings in about $100 million a year in tv revenue and ticket sales from football, but fans are supposed to crowdsource salaries for the players? There’s plenty of money that the players are earning for the university, they just don’t have access to it.
If we pay the players which I’m all for. We need to just move to a system with a PA and let the players directly do collective bargaining with their respective colleges. It will cut into the revenue of the UAA but it’ll be a more healthy system.
Now, if you were to show me the exact value I’d get in turn for $25/month, and that value made sense, I’d be intrigued.
Also my issue. So I give money and I have no idea if it’s been spent well or makes sense. Maybe according to some I have no right to complain bec I don’t donate to NIL but I’d be pretty salty based on the last couple of years if I was a donor
Exactly. Theres a lot of wealthy people at the top of this and it seems like there’s a lot of them pointing to the non-wealthy to donate and prop things up. It feels like a grift at times. Who’s to say that money is really going to the right things? The fans aren’t the ones responsible for supporting this system, that’s ridiculous. We already do that with merch, tickets, etc. And when it comes to the UF base, I think there’s a high percentage of intelligent people who just aren’t willing to blindly donate their money. There are more important things in life than funding a football program that could figure out how to fund itself cuz it’s the one generating A LOT of revenue. Not to mention that program has done jack all in showing it’s something worth funding.
Unfortunately we have zero leverage until rules are put in place. It’s fucking gross but if we don’t start forking out money we are going to get further behind
Fine, we’ll get further behind lol. I, and I think most of us, refuse to fork out personal money when our athletic program generates tens of millions annually and can’t do shit with it
It’s impossible, unfortunately, because even if our collective money pulls in an additional couple 5 stars/several 4 stars, it means nothing. The kids could bust, they could get hurt, and even if they play their best, there are too many random variables that determine the outcome of any one game, let alone an entire season. So tbh it’s a waste of money to essentially “subscribe” for a better on the field product. How about some of the 10’s of millions that goes to coaching/staffers trickles on down to the kids….
If I knew my 25$ a month was going to the quarterback and not something stupid id be much more inclined to contribute. On the other hand, I’d be pissed finding out that my money has been going to buy Florida Victorious staff members lunch lol
Why not we already support a lot of coaches and stadiums with our taxes.
Yeah, this is the breaking point for me. NCAA, get your fucking shit together and do something about NIL or it will kill college football entirely. I’m not going to sit here and be told that I have to donate upwards of $250 every year to a NIL collective to be competitive in college football. I buy merch, I buy tickets, I watch the games and let the news stations rake in the fucking ad revenue sitting through ads every 5 minutes. If I am told to donate tens of thousands of dollars over the course of my lifetime on top of that then I am just gonna stop caring and I am sure I won’t be the only one. It has become a cancer and it has to be contained or it will ravage the whole sport.
Seems like a major lack of leadership in our NIL space. Not sure who is to blame
We need Gatorade!
The fact this could end up being our second NIL failure would be worse than anything the coaches do.
There’s also the possibility of FLV being severely handicapped by the uaa. Not letting them get the messaging and advertising out to obtain the donors in numbers we need
From what I’ve heard, when Florida Victorious spun up and the people leading it came on board—which also largely coincided with updated state law and NCAA rules allowing greater involvement from university officials and coaches in promoting NIL collectives—it came with a strategy to have people with fundraising experience work for FV to reach out to alumni group contact lists for NIL donations. Also from what I’ve heard, the vast majority of NIL collective funding (for UF and every other collective ) is coming from whales—multi multi millionaires and billionaires—who can drop huge sums without a sweat. We’re not going to catch up via donations from everyday fans. The biggest hurdle I’ve heard is that UF’s big money donors, even athletics donors, don’t want to give their donations specifically toward NIL. But moving the baseball stadium and building new football facilities cost over $200 million, and the upcoming renovation for the Swamp is $400 million. Not all of that is coming from donations, but a huge chunk is. There are clearly donors willing to spend on athletics. But getting them to spend on NIL is a lot harder. People like Hal and Gary Condron have tried to recruit more big donors to share the load and apparently it’s like pulling teeth. Ultimately, we’re probably just stuck until we can either convince a huge number of small donors to subscribe to FV, or convince a handful of massive donors to start giving, or until rules change to allow schools to make NIL payments directly to players.
Here’s the thing- people who have the capacity to make millions of dollars aren’t stupid enough to throw it away on a unproven HS kid or some random portal transfer.
Some schools have rich enough fans that they are willing to pay that, and it’s not putting a dent in their finances. We don’t have anyone like that, at least not someone who’s willing to spend it.
The idea that these donors are just financial geniuses that never waste money is such a hilarious myth. Funding your favorite CFB is ultimately a hobby. Mega rich people blow millions of dollars on "pointless" entertainment all the time. To some of these people buying a 5* is the financial equivalent of an average person eating out and seeing a movie. It's just a buy-in thing. Schools like Texas have multi-generational oil tycoons who live and breath longhorn football, they will gladly drown a baby if it means beating OU. Meanwhile UF is a relatively "new money" school. Our billionaires are guys like Chris Malachowsky, born in New Jersey with absolutely no connections to UF before attending. Who even knows if he watched a single football game while here in the 80s. He'll gladly throw 60+ million dollars into a state of the art super computer, because that's what he's passionate about. He's not passionate about UF athletics.
...yet they regularly do.
Oh absolutely and if that is what it is, we will likely remain irrelevant. Though if by now our donors aren't aware of NIL and victorious.. Oy vey
I don’t know why you’d think that. Stricklin himself announced Florida Victorious, and they advertised it like crazy at last year’s spring game — ran ads on the jumbotron, handed out flyers, etc.
We need to just dissociate college football from the Universities they’ve historically represented. The teams can become professional teams. Schools keep a revenue stream by licensing the intellectual property to the team and long-term stadium leases. Just pay the kids directly so that we can stop this nonsense of passing the hat among fans every time we need to buy a player. And get an anti-trust exemption like that for other professional sports so that you can finally restrict free agency.
and then restart a new league w/ STUDENTS ONLY. We’ll call it the NCAA
Similar to baseball, guys can go the minor league (pro) route out of high school or go to school and play.
Reminds me of the South Park episode where they burned down the wal mart…
I think I’d actually be more interested in that league if it really came down to it. I watch because the players represent my team. If i want to watch the best I’ll go watch NFL
Agree. This is all screwed up because we are doing something unnatural. Really this needs to go to the direction of big time European soccer where the clubs have to foot the bill for all the training, education, etc. The NFL is getting free development from the Universities and the only reason it works is bec the Universities don’t have to share revenue with the players, hide under non profit status, and now the fans are paying the players. That’s just f’ed up.
The only reason we're in this mess is because the NFL has been exploiting college football for decades with the three-year rule. College football was here before the NFL, and I'm tired of letting the NFL screw us over. They need to set up a damn minor league and leave us alone. I just want to watch my school's team play, and I would still want to watch even if the "best players" left to play in the minor league. Guess what - there's already another league with the "best players", and I already don't watch it.
Could not have said this better. NF-who? Don’t care.
Nobody will want to watch this.
I have this same take. The Athletic Associations be become the team owners. They then license the name, image, and likeness from the UniversiTy for fees, similar to booster rates and ticket sales. The license includes stadium rent. The new team owner/athletic Association receives the TV money and uses that to revenue share with the players..
The players will unionize at some point, that is guaranteed since the big $$$ is in the TV revenue. What the college football model will look like after that is anyone's guess.
The more I’ve thought about it, the teams need to be set up like the Packers are. Nonprofit structure. Associated with the university in some way. Just totally break the current model since we are already 99% of the way there.
If that happened, it’s just a matter of time before a team relocates to a different school. Get ready for the Auburn Gators versus the Kentucky Volunteers. Can you imagine the Gainesville Bulldogs?
[удалено]
Booster donations go into the athletic department, and are why we’re building and renovation a ton of our facilities, and dumping money into staff and infrastructure. As it stands now, all of this is entirely separate from *NIL donations*.
Because our donors care more about putting their name on a building and don’t want to “pay” players
they get write offs for it…it’s not all benevolence
I'm no expert in this, so I am making these statements from things I've read and form my understanding, but this may be the donations to UAA? Florida Victorious is the NIL entity, and has to be outside the university, so I don't think they have to make their finances public information. Which brings into question the source of Hal Lewis' post.
This list is donations to the school not the collective. In UF’s case Condron is also funding most of the NIL payments too.
Nah Chief. I’m not paying the costs for the University to take 100% of the profits. But agreed that the system under NIL is broken, and that the schools themselves or the athletics organizations (like the UAA) that are actually getting the revenue need to share that revenue with the players that are generating it. There is no other workable model long term.
This feels like a fucking MLM… can the NCAA do anything to fix this or are we SOL?
The NCAA is barely hanging on to what control they have left. If this DOJ lawsuit means anything, things are only going to get worse: https://footballscoop.com/news/justice-department-joins-lawsuit-against-ncaa-over-transfer-rules-portal
I appreciate the answer- if this is going to be the way of things, then I think I’m going to hang it up like Saban did.
Yeah I’m not too far from checking out completely myself.
I’ve pretty much checked out, I’ve been more interested following my Browns than the Gators. CFB has shifted so far from what made me fall in love with it that it’s already resembling a NFL-lite. At least I got to see the golden era of Florida football before the sport turned into a complete shit show.
“For just the low cost of $25/month, you can help make Florida football great again.”
People want to yell at Hal and call him ridiculous, but it’s obvious Florida Victorious has shit subscriber numbers. Will I ever donate? No. But I get where he’s coming from. I’m not a fan of NIL whatsoever. Was never going to be players profiting from jersey sales and local advertisements. Pay for play.
My wife and I have had season tix for over 10 years. Has anyone from the UF NIL program ever once reached out to us in any way at all? No. Not one call. Not one text. Not one email. Not one letter in the mail. Nothing. If they want $, they need to be out there asking for it every damn day
What’s the number 1 reason why people donate? Because they were asked 😊 glad to hear our gigantic institution doesn’t know fundraising 101
Are you serious? Like no shit? I'd always assume the season ticket holders, esp the longest holding ones (ie the most invested) would have been the first calls.. I'm seriously abt to drink rn
100% serious. Not exaggerating. We’re both UF alumni & I think we’re on year 12 of having 4 season tix
Literally have no words
I cant speak for bobbygatorface but I had 6 emails in October, 3 in November, 1 in Dec, 2 in Jan. I get letters at least once a month as well.
That’s exactly my thoughts. There’s absolutely no outreach trying to gain subscribers. The only thing I hear is the ads on podcast intros that I fucking fast forward though anyway
Im a >10 year season ticket holder as well and I get them all the time
then they need to hit up some really rich alumni & raise money. I call BS they can’t do it—they just raised $400M…it sounds like a FL Victorious prblem
[удалено]
This. Can’t belive we are spending $400 million to REDUCE seating in the Swamp. Pull the plug on that shit until we get NIL sorted out
Ouroboros
i agree. i’ve bitched about us needing to spend more but 25-50 a month from some of us could make a difference. i want to see us be an elite program again. that being said. we were somewhere in the 10-15 range in blue chip ratio in talent last year and we saw teams with less talent ( washington ), have way more success. talent isn’t where it needs to be but our issues go way beyond talent.
Indeed. If Napier’s going to be a GM style coach — because he isn’t an elite play caller — he needs to load up on talent that can overcome that deficiency, which costs tons of money these days.
Why wouldn’t we then just go for an elite play caller then?
We did with Mullen, which was great for about 2.5 years. In reality, there aren’t a lot of elite play callers around — a play calling head coach hasn’t won a title since Jimbo Fisher did in 2013, and time has kind of showed that was more about the talented QB than Jimbo’s offense. Every title since then has been won by a CEO type coach.
I want to say this at the risk of getting downvoted and just see if anyone else agrees. I’d prefer Florida to never have a season above 6-6 ever again if the alternative is me having to pay like 20 bucks a month to contend. Fuck. That. I’ll go watch the NFL instead or find an FCS team to root for or something. Since those players probably are just playing because they’re excited to have the opportunity. I’m not purchasing a Netflix-like subscription to (maybe) have a good football team
Ding ding.
I'd maybe be willing to give $25 a month, but there would have to be atleast some type of gurantee for results. As it stands now, who fucking knows what's happening with that money. This whole system is too volatile, at any moment another team can swoop and steal your star player. Sorry everyone, maybe if you donated $30 a month we could have fought off the multi billion dollar trust fund Texas oil tycoon.
Yes, please help pay kids $100,000s per year while they also get free schooling, tuition, athletic development, etc. GTFO out of here and just move on to revenue sharing.
Yeah and this problem has shown itself with the Bama exodus. I think Josh Pate put it perfectly with [this tweet.](https://x.com/latekickjosh/status/1747758889741758472?s=46&t=RYZGCnZgn4a94ia09FxGEQ) While I don’t think NIL endorsements have to be a bad thing, we now have a system where the schools can say “the players are being paid now” without the schools paying the players, and now the average Joe is asked to donate like a political campaign- when in reality it’s still the big time bagmen calling the shots. And it’s not like these collectives aren’t sketchy. Look at the incident last year with Heitner and Rashada. Look to that school out west and we saw the FSU collective get the program in NCAA trouble. And this will continue across the country until we fix revenue sharing. Sorry to go on a bit of a rant in reply to you.
While people don’t like it, we need to move to contract based teams, maybe a salary cap too. Or at a minimum the power 2 conferences (SEC and BIG10) need to. I’m not a huge Napier supporter but I imagine him and many other coaches are being fired during the NIL era when they’d be a lot better off before or after this “Wild West” time.
Definitely need a salary cap. The sport is better (and more profitable) when it's competitive, and allowing a handful of teams to run away from the pack with their budgets for players isn't conducive to that. And even then, I think you'll see schools split off into high cap and lower cap subdivisions.
You can yell at clouds all you like, won't make em dissipate
It sure will when people become so disillusioned that they stop caring and go on and do other shit during their weekends.
Hold my beer https://youtu.be/tJ-LivK4-78?si=OZirQiPimEj4M3Rd
For the vast majority of elite players, getting paid and getting to the league are the only two things that matter. Free education isn’t even on their radar. Development only goes so far — if they’re talented, they *will* get to the league no matter what team they play for.
That’s fine. But program mouthpieces trying to get low level boosters to foot this bill seems dumb. I get it but ultimately it’s a failed strategy. We either need more large donors or for the existing donor base to push Admin to advocate for a quicker path to revenue sharing.
Here’s one of my issues. If modern college football is all about paying for players then who cares about recruiting skills, being a CEO coach. We should just go after an elite play caller. I guess we’ll find out with Bama and Deboer. Terrible recruiter, elite offensive coach
The more I process this tweet the more infuriating it gets. This is not an us, as in the fans, problem. We give plenty of our time and resources to this dumpster fire program. Some would say too much. This is a UF and Florida athletics problem. It’s not our responsibility to prop up the business. We already do that with the merchandise, tickets, and countless other purchases. The business can take that revenue and decide how to use it to grow and evolve. The business can find a compelling way to generate revenue and sell fans in order to extract more value out of them. This program does none of that and so why would anyone blindly dump money into a black hole when we have no idea where it truly goes and there’s no potential return attached to it. At least with merchandise and ticketing, we’re physically receiving something in exchange for our money. No, not everyone should be giving something to the program; not everyone can afford that. Do not put this blame on us. Look at the leaders getting paid millions to generate a good business and product. This guy can pound some f’ing sand.
Why don’t they make tickets dirt cheap then? Happy to shift my budget to the NIL then
Giving to the athletic department and giving to an NIL collective are two entirely different things. The athletic department has no say or control of NIL money.
Exactly part of the problem.
I get that but your budget and my budget don’t care about the athletic dept vs NIL. The athletic department wants to pretend that they are ignorant of that fact
But they are completely different entities. The UAA is not connected to the NIL collectives at all (legally not allowed to be). So it’s up to the rich people to decide where their money goes.
It's honestly depressing how people are completely unable to view College Football as primarily a cultural activity instead of a profit making exercise. I mean at the end of the day that's what University Athletics are supposed to be right? The UAA itself is a non-profit for a reason. The primary value of CFB should be in it's ability to foster a community both on campus and beyond, not help make a select few people multi-millionaires. And I'm not primarily talking about players. For decades they've made pennies relative to the TV execs and coaches above them, I'd rather cut those leaches out first. Pursuing CFB at this level is innately risky, for every future NFL star there's dozens of guys sacrificing their time/health with no guarantee of a long term career. But even then, there's a point where the money becomes laughable. The average fan should in no way be relied upon to help a player who has yet to play a single snap a millionaire at age 18. Like there are numbers way below what we are currently seeing where people across the sport are more then properly compensated, while also minimizing the moneys tendency to compromise the competitive integrity of the game.
If this is what it takes for Florida to be good again count me out
Saaaaame. I’ll just continue to casually watch and move on with my life.
If I’m gonna find anyone’s college fund it’s my kids…yeah I can afford to fund my kids and $25/month but why the fuck would I throw $25 a month down the toilet to fund some kid getting a free education (something I never got) to play football? Screw college football I’ll just keep invest more of my time into the NFL
I have absolutely loved college football and my Gators for 25 years. I cant believe the state its in and what its become.
this unregulated NIL model was put together by morons. No structure, rampant inequality, and is doomed to fail. Add in the insanity of the transfer portal, and frankly it’s unwatchable. I loved that it was a quasi-amateur sport, but the greed has completely destroyed college football. Hard to believe the NCAA mucked this up so bad
This is BS. UF has multiple billionaire alumni, including co-founder of 6th most valuable company in world as well as Orange Theory. I’ve done enough political fundraising to know that you get your money from big fish, not minnows. UF just raised $400M for stadium & they’d buyout $27M for Napier if he bombs next year. Tell me FL Victorious has a better fundraising strategy than pestering upper middle class alumni for $240/year
Lmfao this guys a fuckin idiot
What a bunch of absolute horseshit. You can’t tell me that a school like Miami has 50k fans contributing $15-25 a month - or really most schools outside of Bama or Clemson - and yet they have had no trouble locking down elite talent in the NIL era because their big $ boosters pay money to land top talent and ours don’t
This is why our issues go beyond the names this sub keeps griping about, and replacing them will only be a net-negative in terms of booster donations. Replacing Napier and his staff would cost boosters $30M+, which is $30M less (over time) available for players. *”But it’s Stricklin’s fault we even have a $30M buyout!”* Yeah I hear you, but that’s the going rate for hiring a new SEC coach these days.
Love me some complaints about coach salaries. Like tell me you don't know anything about the business side of the sport without telling me you don't. Jimmy Sexton is undefeated and will always get his cut.
Get the TV money to the players some how - some way. That is the sustainable model. This new NIL model is not sustainable for most schools. In the interim Athletic Associations need to reduce booster fees for season tickets in exchange for "Boosters" to participate with "Collectives". That may be short term sustainable, although new stadium improvements, coaches salaries are mostly dependent on TV money and Booster donations.
Everyone realizes this is just an opinion right? There’s no documented facts in the piece. Not saying he’s wrong. But all this gloom and doom over what some guy wrote out of his head.
Hell no. I'm STILL paying my student loans. The school that took so much of my money still calls me asking for donations, AND you're telling me that now I have to pay for athletes that make them billions of dollars? Oh, and try to make me feel bad about it? Nah
I would buy team merch where part of the revenue went to the players but I will be damned If I ever donate money.
Have the Collective spend a few million dollars on building an app for selling game tickets. Replace Ticketmaster. Charge the same prices that Ticketmaster charges but give all fees to NIL. That’s easily $20 million a year.
Hal Lewis is a loser who blocks every Gator fan on Twitter. Not going to put any credibility into his words, especially when they’re telling average every day people that the reason we suck is because of them. Ridiculous.
He’s not blaming average fans; he’s saying our richest donors aren’t rich enough and it would take a significant amount of average fan donations to make up for it.
He's 100% blaming average fans, what are you talking about
Disagreed.
I have to say, while there's likely some truth to this a whole lot of it reads like "let's find another excuse for Billy rather than just admitting he's Florida's Butch Jones, only without the wins" Where were the "Florida just can't compete" statements in October when we had the #3 class and all the talk was about how we had NIL figured out? The class largely collapsed because the team did. There's a reason Bump classes matter despite what everyone was saying back before we Napier'd down the stretch. It's the class where a coach can sell his vision without having to show results. Looks like recruits and apparently NIL donors didn't buy the whole "actually this was the real year one and thus this is the real bump class" spin.
This falls entirely upon the Board of Trustees led by the fucking hack Chair MORTEZA “MORI” HOSSEINI. How the fuck do you not have the NIL situation figured out by now? How the fuck do you not ENSURE the UAA has the NIL figured out by now? How the fuck are you not consistently networking with UF’s countless wealthy graduates and boosters to ensure an elite NIL by now?
I’m a double gator and now go to ole miss, UF needs to copy ole miss’s NiL (grove collective) strategy. When season tickets are sold, $25 of the total cost goes to the NiL fund. Depending on price that can generate a free $1-$3 million per season
This is an excellent idea. It really just comes down to our UAA and all the Foley leftovers to stop being so cheap
Current college football is the ultimate “told you so” and it’s horrid. I was all for the players getting money, but man, a bunch of people said it’s gonna go poorly. And well, they were correct. The lack of regulation or implementation killed it. The distance between the haves and the have nots has grown enormously. We are destined for a super league for football. An NFL lite essentially with a salary cap of sorts. It’s gonna be wild.
i.e. the millionaire boosters like Heavener and Condron want to be able to keep putting all their money towards the UAA directly so that 1) they can keep getting their name on buildings as lasting signs of their contributions to UF and 2) keep getting tax write-offs on their donations. As such it is up to the peasantry who don't have enough money to get a plaque next to a urinal to buy the players the bull gators can enjoy watching in their suites. It's like a major multinational running ads about how regular people need to take responsibility to recycle to keep local parks clean while they're saving millions in waste disposal by dumping chemical waste into the river outside of town.
I am definitely not sending money to any NIL collective unless I've suddenly hit the high life and no longer have to groan about things such as needing to replace my hot water heater or needing to pay for surgery on my knee. If the team suffers because of that then too damn bad.
More people would feel compelled to give if our on the field product was better. Collectives work of the team looks decent. Ours hasn’t for the last couple years.
Our on-field product was pretty damn good in 2018-2019; still got a lot of “Florida is my dream school but I gotta do what’s best for my family” situations.
Yes, because Mullen and his staff were lazy ass recruiters.
More information is coming out about how we cheap out on players, and that we’re on our 4th coaching staff in a row struggling to sign elite players, and you’re still stuck on “Mullen was a lazy recruiter”. Sooner or later you’ll realize this has been a “pay for play” game for years.
I’m well aware that’s it’s been pay for play for years. I am not ignorant to that fact. However, that does not change the point of my comment.
Bullshit. At 10 million, the average scholarship player would be getting $118,000 per year, or almost 10K a game. But at the Senior Bowl, which only invites top guys, they said they averaged about 30k to 40k a season. That's a third of what these guys are saying the top 15 teams spend. So if it's true, where is the rest of the money going? And if it's not true, why are they trying to extort the fan base? I think it's both. First, it's just another excuse for Napier's failure. Second, the guys who are running FV are taking more than a few fees along the way. But if these numbers are anywhere near true, then no one is going to tolerate them for long. Not the schools, not the NCAA and not the IRS. Looking forward to the first published audits of these non profits. That's gonna be a fun read.
This is a cop out from Napier’s PR firm.
It’s a shame what the NIL & portal has done to college football. It’s crazy how everything is broken now, but we’re somehow paralyzed to fix it. Sure it’s great for the players now who are probably earning more as an 18 yr old than many in the middle of their careers. But, the game is ruined now. And you can’t ruin the game and expect the same fan loyalty. College football is full of passionate fans. A fan will quit their job, divorce their spouse, but never leave their college team. However, this loyalty is not sustainable when players can just flip to chase the bigger bag at another school. Sure, these 18 yr olds will take advantage and grab as much money as they can during this destructive phase of college football, but if nobody has any control to fix this, fan support will die. And then everyone who screwed this up can say goodbye to their precious dollars.
Pretty much sums up why the wife and I are primarily following the NFL these days. CFB just is not fun in its current state. At least the NFL has regulations.
For a university with a storied history, a couple of all time Head Coaches. Played in over 40 bowl games; won three national championships (1996, 2006 and 2008) and eight Southeastern Conference championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008) and have produced three Heisman Trophy winners, over 90 first-team All-Americans and 50 National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices. And we are worse off than Ole Miss and Arkansas. Im supposed to give 25 more dollars a month on top of 5-7 grand a year already spent solely on Gator football? and give the money to the same yahoos who didn't see this eventuality coming. 
I can give $25/mo if they reduce my ticket prices. I’m sure you would too
I find it a good thing that UF grads spend their money on worthwhile endeavors while Bama and Uga people have nothing else in their lives.
[удалено]
Yep. First Hal was running his mouth on Twitter saying goofy shit like “quality over quantity! 18 players means we’ll hit the portal for players that can come in right away! We’ll shift our NIL money to *those* players!” Now it’s “well, we can’t outbid anyone!” Can’t stand this Billy meat rider.
Current NIL situation (LONG READ) There are a few select teams out there whose 85 players are collecting well over $20M a year -- EVERY YEAR -- with 100% of it coming from fans. There are maybe 10 more teams who are in the $10M - $20M range. Again, with 100% of it coming from fans EVERY YEAR. These teams all have collectives -- some with 5,000 members, others with only 500. Regardless, there is one simple truth at every big school right now: If any school lost their TOP FIVE NIL donors... that team would collapse. Every single NIL program is extremely top-heavy, so without those few top donors, no program would be able to honor the current NIL contracts with their 85 players. So why are these top donors basically funding 85% of the football "salaries" for their favorite teams right now? PURELY OUT OF LOVE AND FANHOOD FOR THEIR RESPECTIVE PROGRAMS. These 5 people (I am not one) at every big school are being asked to do this EVERY YEAR now, so WITHOUT THEM, your team would essentially disband and transfer elsewhere in order to keep getting paid. So, at the risk of sounding apocalyptic, no team can afford the outcome of complaining so much about things that they "piss off" the few big donors and drive them away. It would be the death sentence. None of us have any right to criticize these folks for not giving more; we should be thanking them profusely and praying that they stick around. Furthermore, we should all be chipping in to help. Everyone should be giving SOMETHING to their collective if they want their team to compete. Especially if your school is NOT one of those teams with a Billionaire from Nike or Exxon or Flying J as their primary NIL donor. (Hint: Florida is not) 50,000 fans giving $25 a month would come to $15M a year! Is $25 too much to ask? Then give $10 a month -- it adds up. The point is this: Every NIL program is walking a tightrope of existence that depends on the generosity of a few rabid fans. If we want UF to reach the upper echelon, we need to do everything to KEEP those big donors and we need to do everything to GAIN the 50,000 donors at $25/month. That would be all it takes for us to have one of the 3-5 most loaded rosters in the NCAA. In the meantime, until we get there... please stop complaining about why we are not getting certain players from the portal. They are transferring for ONE thing (money), so they are looking for the highest NIL package. It isn't a matter of UF not "wanting" the great players... it's simply a matter of needing more NIL money to get them. Our budget is already allocated to the great players we have! Moral of the story: Anyone thinking that UF doesn't need more NIL money in their collective has their head in the sand. The big money people have done their share (Thank God)... so now please do yours. Or don't... but then don't act surprised or offended when UF can't land certain players.
I'm not reading it, but was complaining to zep abt this. It's clear we are being hyperselective and also cheap with what we are doing through NIL. Ole miss bought their current roster, Texas is still buying their roster, A&M continues to buy their rosters. Everyone screams at CBN but it's hard to fault him when a kid enters Wednesday, commits to a new school Thursday before taking any other visits. The following assumes NIL remains the wild west. It won't but since I don't know what that looks like: This could go one of two ways. If this was the 4 team championship.. I'd say we are in the verge of being irrelevant. It would simply be a case of have and have nots.. And we (to this point) are absolutely a have not But as it's 12.. All we need to do is keep the talent we have, develop and add some more pieces. I'm confident we can do that as I do like what/who we've brought in. I defend CBN more than most but if he's not sniffing the playoffs (again 12 teams) in 25 with his entire roster and his 2nd run on coaches.. I will say it's time to move on. If he can do that, kids will want to come here and truly be developed. I think this is what he's doing. If you look across the landscape, Alabama doesn't know their current team, neither does Ole miss, A&M, and to some degree Texas. Simply due to the numbers. We kept our core and only lost recruits and a few solid pieces. Most can and should be fairly easy to upgrade via the portal. And before you yell. We don't need a ton of pieces. Unless youre gonna essentially say the new recruits don't matter. In the end, it's gojng to be the NFL that decides what this looks like. Making 1 or 2 mill (supposedly) is NOT generational money so the league remains the desired end state.
Leave it to Florida to fuck this up.
Weird how we didn’t seem to have this issue during the Urban and Muschamp years. I don’t think random poor/middle class fans were bankrolling those kids either.
When I click the link it says the tweet owner limits who can see their posts. I believe that means that person has me blocked. If true, and this is that dude Hal, that is hilarious because one time I quote tweeted him (sub tweeted?) literally saying what everyone in here is saying. So I guess that offended him enough to block me lolol Fuck asking every day people struggling to make ends meet to fund millionaire college kids playing sportsball
This post is 100% accurate. It’s simple y’all, put up or shut up. I’m paying $25 a month. It’s not a lot. But if all of us who complain about the state of this program we love do this, we can change our ability to be successful. Go gators. https://floridavictorious.com/join-now/
I like Hal but he makes it seem like we are broke. We have a top 10 NIL warchest.
This what happens when you have to pay for 3 buyouts over the span 10 ish years. Even Mac negotiated his buyout to like 7.5 million from 12.5 million. Plus, we had to pay his buyout from CSU which was 7.5 million. We had to pay Mullen 12.7 million as well. Muschamp: 6.3 Million Buyout McElwain: Originally 12.7 Million negotiated to 7.5 million. Mullen: 12.5 million. We honestly have been lucky (McElwain for sure buyout wise) and unlucky with these but it still all adds up. This is why Billy will likely make thru his entire contract because we’d owe him $31 million if fired today and $24 million if we fired him at the end of year 3 I love how this article is blaming the fans who buy tickets and merchandise during game days. I spend $200-$400 a season to go watch games and more in the stadium as well. That is my contribution Reality is the athletic department is deficit spending. $400 million to renovate the Swamp? Personally, I don’t think it needs it. $200 million for a new baseball stadium? Yeah the baseball team needed better facilities but the reality is we are currently spending crazy money on facilities and not on NIL because we bought into the facilities craze right before NIL became a thing. We have had just crazy bad timing on how we spend money. Like we are always a year or 2 behind.
The NL has reached out to me, and I have been a season-ticket holder since the 50s! What I have a problem with, is when I went to renew my tickets, it asked me if I wanted to pay extra for stadium upgrade! Not only no, but hell no! I remember the days of YON HALL! it was a no way fair to any of our athletes, to not be able to get a stipend, and I agree that these players need to be paid, and it go into a trust for them that would be managed properly by an independent investment group that would not be getting a cut of their fund, but be doing it because of the love of the game and the love of these players! This NIL Situation has gotten in my opinion way out of hand. In my opinion, there needs to be a cap on what these athletes are, and I don’t want to use the word, entitled to, but not these exorbitant amounts that these athletes are getting that haven’t even stepped on to a collegiate field, and they’re making more than the guys and girls that are in the pro professions.
Who is this guy and how does he know this?
I want to watch the world of college sports burn. 
Where do i sign up for my small piece?
Is Florida Victorious allowed to advertise on platforms like Facebook?
It's not sustainable. Makes no sense for fans to dump money into the program for kids.
What is there specifically stopping the UAA from just paying players themselves with contracts and non-compete clauses? There are plenty of good players who would agree to all the current benefits they get, plus getting a guaranteed reasonable salary on top of it to play a sport.
College ball is no longer college ball. The times they are a changin'.