The portal opens on December 4th, and the Hokies still trail the big boys, but things are trending positively. I made a $55.17 donation to Triumph in honor of enjoying my film review Sunday so much. I don't have insight on which NIL has the best ROI for getting top players, but if you want to retain good talent and address gaps, before December 4th is the time to contribute.
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And they have T-Shirts to celebrate the win.
They know their audience. This is amazing.
I rounded up in honor of 55 points against UVA
Procured
I hope they sell 1000s of these. Hoos won't be able to look anywhere without being reminded.
I'm doing my part. Just ordered mine
I believe The Hokie Way NIL is matching donations right now. Not sure about Triumph NIL.
Just an FYI, for those that don't follow such things:
Triumph is not tax deductible. Triumph is the direct connection to the athletes.
Hokie Way is tax deductible. Hokie way uses Triumph to get athletes into their various nonprofits. Either way, the money gets where it's going. Just gets there differently.
$55.17 donated and t-shirt bought!
What a great idea, $55.17! Some smart folks should market this idea to the alumni base. Annual donation based on LOLUVA score each year. $38.00 for oldtimers. Or donate weekly the score of each game. Or donate the season total score. Or round it all up to $1k. This should be a thing.
They have a donate per td scored option on hokie club where you agree to pay whatever amount you want per TD, I did it this year
Or 48-0 for really oldtimers. Most fun I ever had at a football game. In hooville too.
Ditto! Though holding the Commonwealth Cup in the stands a few years back comes close.
Also a Triumph subscriber/giver - one cool thing that you can get is you can have an athlete design a workout for you. There's also t-shirts and stuff, but it seems like there aren't many people who know how NIL works at Triumph, so figured I'd share.
So, Triumph is best at getting funds directly to athletes?
I bet there are bagmen that are still better than triumph
I don't have their phone numbers.
Ahem Eric Kumah
*cough cough* Mehul Sangani
Also in for 55.17 I'd throw the shirt in too but $35 is steep even in its a "donation" that's like a $34 additional donation.
Won't share names due to paywall, but apparently a starter is entering the portal and some of our best players are receiving competitive NIL offers (100% tampering exists) even though they are not in the portal.
Really hard to be a developmental program if every time you develop a 3/4* into a top tier player they leave for a bag. Not sure this is "good for college football" in the short or long run but we won't see change for years I'm sure as there are no real governing bodies in the current system.
Hope to see us retain our top talent with all the talk of VT having competitive NIL.
BourbonSt alluded to a similar situation occurring on his UVA preview other on TSL for two of our key starters. Will be interesting to keep an eye on to see if Pry can get the culture buy-in to ward off the bigger programs/paychecks.
We just need to go all in on contracts for the players. Since there are no rules in place to prevent tampering, need to disincentivize it. You want to tamper and try to take players from other teams? Ok you have to buy out their contract with their current team.
I hate to agree because it kills the parts of college sports I've always loved- having a player at a school for 3-5 years and really become engrained in the school's culture and program... but at the same time I love that we've benefitted from the portal/NIL culture. No idea what the solution is long-term but the model is really not feeling like college sports anymore.
Gotta be Delane. 2 for 1 to get his brother in the boat
This is sad
It cuts both ways though - VT landed Tuten, Jennings, Lane, Drones, Canteen, etc. We can pull from lower levels too and pull partially developed players from there.
I think it's more about being 'good for players' than 'good for the sport'
Within the next 3 years, I think NIL will be overhauled. There's 2 court cases going on. The NCAA is lobbying congress. And the NLRB is investigating. NCAA needs to go undefeated in these areas to maintain status quo. Don't see that happening.
Edit: despite everything I said above, I get that (a) NIL has created a lot of messy situations for players (see Jalen Rashada) and (b) it still sucks seeing productive Hokies leave and go elsewhere.
I dont know. I think its just as likely that Congress won't do squat, the court cases will provide little direction on governance, and I just don't see the NLRB doing anything of significance. We'll see though.
I agree... but the NCAA is lobbying congress to keep athletes as students, not employees.
If Biden gets reelected, expect the NLRB to do something. If a Republican gets elected, then NLRB leadership will change, and it's fair to assume the replacement won't be focused on this.
This, I agree. Court Cases will basically say 'yes, revenue sport athletes are employees, treat them as such' and then schools will scramble to appeal and figure it out. Every AD worth a damn knows this is coming down the pipe, and they ar preparing for it. Whit has alluded to it on multiple interviews.
Like I said, if the NCAA takes an L in Congress, the NLRB, OR any court case, then things change. NCAA has to go 3-0, Athletes just have to win one.
sorry, Im not sure I follow. so what exactly is overhauling the NIL?
TL;DR - NIL (in it's current iteration) will go away when the courts/government force NCAA member institutions to treat revenue sport athletes as employees.
Longer version:
Matt Brown is far more informed and eloquent than I am on these things. Here's a good piece explaining it.
People: YOU MUST FORGIVE MY STUDENT LOANS OMG IM POOR...Same People: 4 year scholarships aren't of any value and that's not really compensating athletes for their work.
I won't touch the student loan forgiveness comment, but:
Well it's not an artificial cap of course. Minor league baseball players don't make as much money as big leaguers. If interns on wall street want to stay interns, they don't make as much as partners. You want to let the free market dictate college football? fine. Peter Moore will make virginia's minimum wage. Is that an artifical cap? no it's not.
I think he'll make more than that... I think a new world, a mid-level P5 specialist could earn $40k-$60k/year. That's not bad for not having a college degree....
Using English Soccer as an example... In a country with a population of 60 million, there are 5 levels of fully professional soccer. The top level (premeire league) has 20 teams. The next 4 levels each have 24 teams. That's 120 teams that have players making at least $60k/year. If you assume that FBS football could also stratify into about five levels with 20-25 teams each, I think the market would be similar.
Where is the money coming from? Ironically that is about what a bench WNBA player makes- which is 100% subsidized by the NBA- 100%. So an NFL team is going to sponsor the Hokies and pay Moore 60K? or are they going to raise tuition for the students that aren't entitled to millions to pay for Moore? who goes to VT for free? Should work out.
The WNBA is a perfect example - Isn't Moore making more now than she would as a WNBA player?
Do you think the student athletes for revenue sports will be better off if they are treated as employees? Not a gotcha question. Serious inquiry because I'm having a tough time thinking through all the 2nd and 3rd order consequences.
No they won't be. Their will be a corporate food chain where they are flat cut/released for performance. Salary inequity will disrupt the team dynamic - just like it does in the NFL.
It's a legitimate question, and I don't have a good answer. I do know that there will be some players who are better off, and others that are worse off. I don't know what the split will be.
We went from a complete black-market (100% 'amateurism') to a grey-market (NIL/collectives). I think that is progress, but the system is still broken. It's a complete facade; we're saying that these kids are students, but they are incentivized (financially, mentally, and emotionally) to be athletes first, a brand second, and a student (at best) third.
I do think the best solution would be to make it a minor league sport. Football teams are decoupled from universities (so the Blacksburg Hokies instead of the VT Hokies). Add promotion and relegation, etc. Part of the (optional) compensation for a player can be free degree at the local university, but that is up to the player.
I get that it's really easy to shake my fist and say 'this system is broken!' without acknowledging the complexities and intricacies of what a new system would look like. But, that's exactly what the courts will do if they rule on the Johnson case the way everything thinks they will.
Disagree- we went from very near real amateurism where 10-12 scum schools paid players and cheated at every turn to an emotional decision to pretend that "what's a little autograph money" wouldn't quickly spiral into 7 figure payouts to freshman football players that never played a CFB down before. To pretend that VT football was a total sham and paid players under the table and the kids never went to class anyway is simply not true. UNC hoops? yes. VT hoops? - that couldn't get players cleared to play academically? nah. Kentucky hoops? yes. Point is that it -basically- was amateur sports and academics were in fact a factor at 90% of the schools. But instead of fixing Auburn paying their QB 250K to sign, we just said fuck it and let's make it NFL part 2. If you think people are going to show up on a cold saturday morning to tailgate to root on the blacksburg hokies where the kids have no affiliation with the school, you are smoking crack. If you think Mehul Sanghani- who I worked for and know personally- is going to donate millions to non-students you are smoking crack. this went to a total shit show that WILL destroy "college" football very quickly. But of course what the world needs is more black friday pro football games instead of just one. We need 2 NFLS. lol.
Yea this is where we aren't aligned. I don't think 'real amateurism' was ever a thing at any team that dreamed of competing for a national title in the last 30+ years. The degree of compensation has changed - it went from hundred dollar handshakes, a employment for a family member or two, and fixing your car for free to free cars and unlimited tabs, to just outright paying players for social media - but players have been picking schools based on financial incentives for decades now.
"any team that dreamed of competing for a national title" exactly. Not very many realistically. I know for a fact Beamer and Fuente punished players for not going to class, etc. Brandon Ore would have stayed at VT if we were in the category you described for example. There were/are a handful of schools that were scum. We emotionally addressed the exception not the rule, and within 5 years, it will simply be an NFL minor league with no pretenses. Congrats. Maurice Clarrett deserved money- the horror- so here we are.
IMO The problem with the NFL isn't that it's a corporation, or that players make money - the problem with the NFL is that every franchise is basically the same with different colors. There's nothing that weird or unique about any team. I think college football can keep the weirdness, the off field drama, etc while also paying players.
While I am sympathetic on some levels with D1 college athletes desiring additional compensation, a ruling in their favor could be the perfect example of be careful what you ask for. They currently get an education and NIL, a ruling in their favor could leave them without either. There is wide misperception from the players and the public that empowers the argument that because it is the players playing the sport that they are the primary value creators in the business. The players are no more the value creators than the workers in the distribution centers for amazon. For college athletics the value creation is as complex as fandom itself. There is so much more to the product of college football than the players and very few players (Vick, Reggie Bush, Manziel come to mind) actually sell the product.
I don't buy the minor league sport solution as a viable solution. It is an oversimplification to say, the model for soccer works in professional soccer in Europe we should just implement that. I can't imagine the NFL would have any desire to expand its business with a minor league farm system. The universities and the athletic departments are attached at the hip. *Break them up to the demise of both where everyone is worse off.
*(whispers) unless you are like me and are so fed up with the scam of universities that you are willing to accept the sports teams as collateral damage in the popping of the higher education bubble.
I would disagree... I think Amazon workers are pretty replacable. There's millions of americans who are capable of doing that job. That is not the case in college football.
It is a drastic oversimplification. I don't think it will ever happen for a variety of practical, political, or cultural reasons. But, if we were to redesign the sport from the ground up, completely blue sky, I think that's the model to consider.
Just because you're replaceable in your work place doesn't mean you don't create value!
Wild take:
But people aren't paid based on the value they generate; they're compensated based on the marginal utility they provide. What's the difference between you and the next best available person? That's how much you can make.
💯💯💯
Was the point who could do the job, or was it what happens if nobody does the job? For example, say there are college players, but no coaches, what kind of product would we get? By saying the players provide the value, I think the point is the players could play and you'd get the same value as you would with no coaches, no training staff, no support staff, no resources in facilities, etc.
So, for the Amazon distribution center employees, what happens if they weren't there. You wouldn't get the product you ordered, so they add value because they are also there, similarly to us likely getting more value if there are coaches, so therefore you can't say the players are the only people providing value.
Not sure if that was the point or not or what you do with that information, but it sounded more like that was the point to me.
Because the value that is being provided is to viewers, and indirectly to companies who sell ads for things to influence the viewers. If there were no viewers, would football players still play? Maybe, but you sure as hell wouldn't pay them anything.
Do you think the annual turnover rate on the roster is higher than the annual turnover of employees at a distribution center?
The players are by definition replaceable as they have eligibility limits.
I think the question you're getting to is 'who is creating the value for players; the school or the player?' It's a chicken/egg thing, I get that. Rereading your post above, I totally agree with this point:
I don't think that players are entitled to money by nature of being on a roster, but I think their entitled to chase it.
I also don't think the only way to have a college football governing body that can enforce rules prevent schools from getting an unfair advantage is too professionalize the sport, share revenue, and allow collective bargaining. If the NCAA tries to do any policing of it's member institutions, it will get sued into oblivion, due to a variety of anti-trust laws out there (hence why Charlie Baker is seeking an anti-trust exemption from congress).
I don't think that players are entitled to money by nature of being on a roster, but I think their entitled to chase it
I 100% agree. Players should not be deprived from using their popularity to earn money. It has been handled terribly but I agree with the premise of NIL. Otherwise I'm not sure the system is broken and needs to be rebuilt. Or at least every time I go down that rabbit hole, the existing structure still seems to be the best for all parties.
Hypothetically next year, each ACC team's roster was replaced with a Division 3 roster, what would happen to fan interest? I've wondered this myself, and I don't have a strong opinion either way.
The games would still be competitive although the caliber of player is lower.
But that's what college football is anyway. If you want to watch the best quality of football, the NFL beats 99% of college football games. All of the things that make college football fun and "weird" would still be there
If the rest of FBS remained unchanged? The ACC would plummet (over time).
More interesting question is what if the NFL opened the draft to 18 year olds? I think that *could* be one of the best things to happen in college football.
I always use the Johnny Football example. OMG, he must be paid, he's so valuable to aTm, oh my he's bigger than the school. OK, they have sold out every game since he left and expanded the stadium after he was gone. It's the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.
But a decade later and people know exactly who you're talking about when you say "johnny football" -- why shouldn't he be allowed to capitalize on that popularity and sell autographs?
Funny, because he did exactly that- and never attended a class at aTm - Kingsbury said so. So spare me the Manziel was exploited thing when he was paid to play and was not a student there.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/9609389/johnny-manziel-...
lmao- He himself said he received 6 figures in a miami hotel room in the documentary. But ESPN is right. lol
At a previous job i had an engineer that graduated from AtM while Manziel was there. He said you would see him around campus sometimes but that he was always escorted by security and police
Total Sham. Their punishement? he sits a half
High school athletes create zero value- Nil, none. In fact they need fundraisers to pay for cleats. Hoops players included. Now is Bronny James valuable as his own brand? maybe but not if he sucks and his value is 100% tied to his dad. If he was Bronny Smith with the same stats, you wouldn't know who he was. Typically across the world, businesses don't like losing money. They only put up with it for so long. They aren't charities. The vast majority of these NIL deals lose money. Was Arch Manning worth 7 figures this year? Did he make his collective any money, not playing a down? If you answer yes, you are lying.
Ya know, you say this, but there are soccer clubs that lose money. There are mega boosters like T. Boone Pickens who are willing to part with tens of millions of dollars. Do you think T. Boone gave that money because he's a generous man? Fuck no. He basically decided that seeing OkSt win a lot of games would bring him a lot of happiness, thus he decided to send a bunch of money to OkSt in hopes that he could find more happiness. It's not altruistic; people want to brag about how good their team is and how they helped make that happen.
I think there's a lot of people who would pay for a national title. Good players are necessary to reach that end. Thus, there is a market for good players. College football can either accept that fact and lean into it, or, they can pretend that's false, try to put guard rails up everywhere, and try to enforce their rules. The latter requires an insane amount of effort and, IMO, just is not practical.
I think T Boone Pickens needed a tax write off and money shelter beyond paying millions in capitol gains every year. Yes, he wanted to see OSU win, sure and he was generous in that regard, but let's not pretend he didn't have other motives. You don't make his wealth wasting money and being dumb.
There's a limit to the amount of money that can be deducted by donating, and usually it has to be to a non- or not-for profit. From just reading the IRS publication, I doubt it would be deductible at all, but even if it were, you can only deduct a portion of your income. Meaning if you are paid a salary of 100,000 but had $50 billion in investments (for the sake of this, that don't have dividends or anything), the most you could deduct is 60% of the $100,000 (there are some limitations that reduce the percentage as well).
All that being said, he's likely donating for wins with zero to do about deductions.
T Boone Pickins could donate $50 million and never worry about how much he has left.
I understand what you're going for and you make good points. But why should the inherent framework of CFB structure be viewed as one of "business" with return on investment etc?
Manning actually played this weekend but your point is still valid to a point. I do believe Manning did provide some value to local businesses with advertising as his face is so well known in the Texas footprint but was it comparable to what he was paid, probably not.
I was surprised he played but it turned out the backup QB got hurt without even being in the game. He got run into by a player coming off the field and hurt his non throwing shoulder so Manning was next man up when the starters got pulled.
We'll ultimately see when it come through, most specifically Johnson v. NCAA, but the courts won't provide any governance. But, I still don't think the courts provide a final verdict on players as employees within 3 years.
If the courts say they are employees I wonder if the players would even have to be students. It could basically just become minor league pro football at that point.
This is the thread that (in my humble opinion) no one wants to pull. It makes no sense for an institution whose stated purpose is higher education to sponsor sports teams that create hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue (and then spend it all each year in an effort to report zero profits and maintain not-for-profit status).
What specific school makes "hundreds of millions in revenue"? Bama football? Duke Basketball? use real numbers. It helps the argument.
Here's the top 25 highest revenue earning college athletic departments in the country. The 25th highest revenue earning is UW at nearly $150m in FY 22. In the same Fiscal Year, VT pulled in $112m (source). I think it's a fair assumption that there at least 40 athletic departments earning 9 figures per year.
So Ohio State nets 25 million after expenses- which don't disappear in the new world and don't include player salaries. So if they have 400 student athletes there- you have to pay them all- that's 64K each. OK great. Is Arch Manning going to play for 64K per year?
I actually disagree with this too. You no longer have to overhaul your weight room every 10 years. You can settle for the cheapest travel option. You can choose to pay coaches less and players more (if you think that's wise).
I don't think you pay them all - We all know that revenue is driven by 1, at most 3 programs, at any given school - most athletes will get partial (or no) scholarships, and also have the opportunity to build their NIL brand.
Additionally, those revenues also don't account for what collectives are paying players. The OSU collectives pay $13m a year to football players. There is clearly a market here.
Bad example, since he has family money, he would probably take a short term financial sacrifice to put himself in the best position for the NFL. He'll also have access to advertisers that most players will not.
You are kidding, right? Unless college football implements a draft- the arms race will get bigger not smaller. How is Bama going to get the best players? with a shitty weight room? Just pay them more? If you go full on pro sports, the only way the arms race stops is if there is a draft.
Yes.
Drafts and salary caps are pretty unique to american sports leagues.
College football doesn't need to be parody everywhere. It's not supposed to be an even playing field. There's supposed to be 40 point underdogs each week. That's what makes the upsets exciting.
yeah, when VT football players are not required to be VT students in good standing, I'm done.
You are not alone I suspect. I thought it was just me being old and inflexible again. Super frustrating to see things evolve negatively, from my perspective.
Just curious, why weren't you done when coaches stopped being students or professors? I mean besides the fact that it was before you were alive. (Alonzo Stagg was the first for those unaware)
Everyone talks about this being amateur sports but we pay coaches millions. High school doesn't do that, where I went every coach had to be a registered teacher in the state (substitute teachers could coach). Coaches didn't get paid to coach, they got a stipend that didn't even cover gas money to and from practice.
Why is college amateur with paid staff while in high school it's amateur with volunteers? Why was the line drawn there? Why is college coaching a valid profession but college player isn't?
Coach is a different job and skillset than player. The greatest football coaches of all time in the NFL and College were not great players or players at all. It's a different job/skill, and in college football there are less great coaches than there are great (4/5 star players), so they are paid accordingly- supply/demand. in 2022 Brent Pry was a more valuable talent/skill than the 50 G5 type players we had out there trying to force Duke to punt once. It's not that hard. And "football coach" is more than a full time job, so why would they also need to be professors? They put in more hours than professors as it is.
So you admit playing football is a job.
Playing is more than a full time job, so why would players need to be students?
If part of the team is professionals (coaches) then how can it be an amateur sport? Even if they have a different job and skill set, it is still a job and skill set. I have a very different job and skill set than a lot of them people at my company, we are all employees, we are all (well 99%) professionals, and we all get paid.
Nope- just in the GoACC! (Apparently it must be in the charter or bylaws!)
By suggesting that the ACC By laws seek parity among its members you have made a parody of them.
It doesn't need to be the best weight room, just a sufficient weight room. At that point, the school that's paying more has an edge.
Weights weigh the same. - Wayne Gretzky
Also, Eleanor Roosevelt
I could've sworn this was Mark Twain.
Nah General Patton
Foghorn Leghorn
Yeah, the lack of any real rules or collective bargaining has really caused my interest in big college sports to wane, and if we get to that point I might as well just find an NFL team. I don't think universities need to be in the business of also running multi-million dollar professional sports operations where the players don't even have to be registered as students.
This is where I am right now. I love the Hokies, and I'll root them on whenever they play, but I could not care less about the rest of college football, and have diverted a lot of my football energies towards the NFL, where The NFC South Is The Worst Division, And The Falcons Are The Best Of The Trash. (New single by Taylor Swift to come shortly.)
It's also resulting in more attention to non-rev sports at Tech. Looking forward to baseball/softball season.
....and living in NC I'm forced to watch the biggest steaming pile of shit that division has every week for the next.... well, forever apparently
Oh, like Kentucky basketball is now?
Yep- pay for play is - wink- still illegal. LMAO. NIL is simply pay for play. Professional football.
These situations are almost always fluid. Hopefully Pry/staff and the NIL can get these situations remedied before we lose these players.
We only have a handful of guys on this roster that would likely be worth tampering/NIL hunting from big programs so it's not hard to narrow down the list of who they might be.
I can't really think of any that would make sense for a big program to spend dollars on?
I mean APR or Tuten would immediately stick out
APR leaving for a bag, when he was in line to start at Florida, would be surprising. Only bag I suspect he would leave for would be the NFL right now.
By all accounts we have a pretty decent NIL situation outside of the real big boys in the sport. Guys leaving for NIL is likely also a combo of attention/eyeballs for the next level as well
From everything I've heard we have one of the better ones out there, given we don't have nearly the tv revenue streams that the B1G and SEC pulls in. Get us into those conferences, and we could hold our own.
I guess but what team that has that type of NIL cash flow wouldn't just buy a 5 star.
Tuten and APR just proved they can ball out at this level. A 5* recruit is still just a recruit. Hell, those recruits can just go to another school to get up to collegiate speed, and then the big boys will pay them to transfer in when they're ready to contribute. Let everyone else develop, the big boys then pay the players to reap all the rewards.
Mansoor Delane's little brother Faheem is a 5* safety in the '25 class
So what you are saying is that Faheem is telling whoever recruits him you have to pay my big brother too?
I guess this could be a way around "directly talking to said player" if they're recruiting his brother and saying "oh btw we'll give him 100k to come too"
It's probably not worth trying to figure out the exact specifics, but Mansoor Delane plays a premium position for spot-filling at top programs (Corner), and his younger brother is an elite recruit in the 2025 class.
I think both players are desirable in their own right, and pushing for both is worth it in the short term (Mansoor) and the long term (Faheem).
My hope is that we have a competitive enough offer that Mansoor decides it's not worth the hassle of leaving.
If he was going, he would have left when he got offers last year.
Issue is that it's not a hassle at all anymore. Leave whenever, be eligible immediately.
I've been banging this drum for a while now. The combination of NIL and the Transfer Portal have been manipulated in order to simply make it easier for the Blue Bloods to consolidate talent and expel the players that are "taking up space" on their rosters.
They take your 3☆ that you developed and you get their 4☆ that was a disappointment. Great trade.
Teams like VT are going to become glorified AAA baseball teams in this new "system." This will be the norm until it becomes financially disadvantageous to watch the only the same 5-6 programs have legit national championship hopes every year and fan interest dissolves.
this fan's interest is already dissolving, and I know I'm not alone
The system is currently broken, but I am not sure there is a way to fix it before it completely breaks down.
Ugh. This is so depressing because I agree with you 100%. We just have to hope the 4 star cast offs were neglected and we can provide a place for them to excel.
I agree with your general sentiment of the current landscape of college football. But FWIW, the Hokies have been much more of a taker than a victim of the transfer portal so far. We're not getting disappointing 4 stars that failed elsewhere, we've taken a lot of developed talent from smaller schools (Jennings, Lane, Felton, Tuten).
Even the losses (Hooker, Hudson, Nester) during the Fuente era weren't "poached" by bigger schools, they were pushed out the door by Doofus and co.
So far. The portal era is still new, and our recent rosters haven't featured very many players worth poaching. I hope the portal continues to be a net positive for Tech going forward, but that's far from assured.
Absolutely correct. Fuente's recruiting failures left us without many desirable P5 level players. It has been discussed here that nearly all (maybe 100%) of the Portal entrants from last year went to G5 or FCS.
Now that we are starting to accumulate and develop some talent and depth, we will start to see how this process really plays out.
That will commit to Georgia or Bama. Period. He's not coming here. His brother flourishing here or not.
Yeah i get it. Not suggesting that faheem will come here. But if bama or uga wants him badly enough, would they also throw big NIL at Mansoor?
Yes- why? 99% of this NIL money has zero return on investment save for bragging rights for beating Auburn and Tennessee. If Mansoor won't make the Tide money, they don't give a shit. They want to beat Auburn in football. It's more important in that state than food/water.
I saw a tweet about it this morning, so I don't have an issue sharing since its out there. I think it said Wright was already known to be gone?
yeah a lot of assumptions that he's one of the people leaving
When players were getting free education from VT, Free dorm, books, food, exposure on ESPN, world class nutrition, monthly stipend, thousands worth of gear. It wasn't enough. So now, all of our good players will leave for money. Reap/Sow
VT is behind other schools in Hokiebird mascots, Orange and Maroon colors and drillfields as well.
Great idea on the $55.17 donation. Went to do that, but ended up just buying a shirt. Still, like heuplek above said, that's equivalent to a $34 donation!
I get a couple of hours to enjoy Giftory, and BAM!, we got starters jumping ship? This all moves too fast.
I've got plenty of shirts so I just donated directly to ensure the full dollar amount goes to Triumph.
As transfer rules and strict eligibility rules are still a thing of course, DJ Uiagalelei is transferring from Oregon State. Someone is getting a veteran 5 year starter- who has never gotten an injury exemption or redshirted - player here that I thought could only transfer once. Wow.
Also, his freshman year at Clemson was 2020, didn't count. Played 2021 and 2022 at Clemson. Used his 1-time unrestricted transfer to go to Oregon State. Played his 3rd year of eligibility there. Can transfer as a graduate OR as part of team in which the coach has left. Will play his 4th year somewhere else (very likely MSU).