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Stanford gets a two-out solo shot in the top of the fourth. 3-1 hokies
Great day for baseball here in WS! Hoping the bats stay hot
Followed up with a single to score 2 before a strike out (2nd strike call was well outside the zone). Hokies up 3-0 after one
Starting strong with bats again. Up 3-0 after top of 1st
HBP reviewed as looked close to just hitting the knob of the bat. Might have been better to sell it more, but still the call is upheld. Next batter drilled in the back. Hokies up 1-0
Hokies already chased the starter with 2 outs in the first. But still 0-0 with runners on first and second
and first batter HBP so bases loaded
Looks like a good crowd there. Great to see and looks like a beautiful day for softball
that the vast majority of D1 athletes still play for the school and the opportunity vs. the Derrick Queens... the very tops guys- yeah they are pros that play for the bag.
Even at the top level, it's not just guys (or gals) chasing the bag; they're looking for culture fit, development, etc. It's just like a regular person looking for a job: yea, comp is a big piece of it, but it's not the only piece.
That's my point. They are one season at a school, then done, and the one to the next. Repeating the process until they run out of eligibility
4pm on ACC Network Ladies now 26-5 on the season
4pm ACCNX Now 18-8 on season
There is a difference in the numbers. The NCAA has put roster limits in place but nothing mandates the school to provide that many scholarships.
I would, also maybe naively, agree, in most of the ither sports that aren't revenue sports you're not seeing the NIL and transfer portal wreck havoc. Sure we lost our top recruit from wrestling but not to some rich school that is just out bidding everyone even though they suck, we lost them to the best program there is right now. PSU might have paid them way to much but at the same time, they lap everyone at nationals and have for years. Losing football recruits to nick saban never bothered me, losing them to Dabo and James Franklin does. We lost recruits to Clemson before they won a national title and thay sucked, because we were just as good a program. Now, Bama, VT is no where close to Bama as a program.
I'm sure the top athletes in every sport get something, but it's not from schools like VT paying to steal all of UVAs women's swim team (which we should do). It's UVA giving the top female swimmers something extra to not think about the other top schools.
His statement to the reporters was that he didn't short basketball for football and those that believed that were reading too much social media but in the same conversation says we were 70% off Clemson NIL for basketball.
He is either lying about what he put in football or his staff clearly were clueless on what it would take to fund basketball. Either way it's a bad look. Quite frankly, it was just another blunder in a long line of dumb shit that has come out of his mouth.
Who in prepping for this conversation thought it was a good idea to even disclose that we were 70% short of Clemson? In no way shape or form does that give a good look for HIS athletic department or positively impact the fan base view of how things are being managed.
Do I think he does a terrible job every day? No. Do I think he routinely doesn't seem prepared for these conversations he set up? Absolutely.
Up until thos coming year most didn't recieve even that. Swimming is increasing by 20 scholarships for women and I want to say UF had to cut half their team. There was 9.9 and 14 scholarships for mens and womens swimming respectively this past year, now each get 30. So 60 total and half the team has to quit. That is insane for multiple reasons. Every sport is like that, players got cut because of the limits that are more than enough for a team.
Unless you played football, basketball, women's gymnastics or women's volleyball its very unlikely you got a full ride. I would say we have a lot of work to do to compensate ncaa athletes to 90%
"One and Done per school" sport. We are seeing kids stay in college longer in basketball but hopping around.
In the end, the whole thing is killing the goose that once was college basketball. And for what? Apathy and disgruntlement? I'll repeat...nobody I know thinks this is anything but disgusting and sad.
It's also an arms race I am not willing to get into when the players I have "invested" in are likely to leave after each year. Athletic donations are not going to the next generation of Hokies, they are going to free agents who probably won't consider themselves alumni even if they graduate from Tech. I will give my money to the college of engineering to help Hokies.
We all like Mike. He's committed and asking for our commitment. What's missing is the commitment of the players.
I think the difficulty is that there is no budget for NIL Football MBB, WBB. Let alone BaseB softball and Olympic. We don't have the volume of alumni for it.
Someone is going to have to pick winners and losers sports. I do not envy that guy at all.
It's worse than I anticipated and that's pretty difficult.
The last part is almost laughably wrong lol
Yes there were the bagmen and all that and that it was pay-for-play, but the NCAA was using amateurism rules to absolutely and indiscriminately ruin kids for the "true NIL" -- signing autographs for money, monetizing a youtube channel, blah blah blah in addition to the bagmen pay-for-play like the Reggie Bush punishment
It was the legal challenges on the "true NIL" grounds that opened up the floodgates to legitimize the thinly veiled pay-for-play compensation
The inability to separate them is what has led to the current mess, and the NCAA having a heavy hand on the common sense "true NIL" things is what led to court rulings against them. But how you codify it in a way that is both legal and enforceable is very sticky precisely because of how easy it is turn "true NIL" into "pay for play".
I mean, I knew I would have some degree of disenchantment in college sports due to the reshuffling decks we call basketball rosters, but it's a perfect visual showcasing that it's nearly impossible to build any human identity for one's team to root for. There's zero human connection. We've all said NIL/Portal will kill college sports (meaning fan interest/participation), but man, this fast? It's so bad that I don't seemingly care anymore. That outlook took two seasons to set in.
I've barely watched March Madness this year. If so, mainly due to having nothing else to do so why not? That's about it.
And...it sucks. It's sad and unfortunate.
EDIT: College basketball has now become a universal "One and Done" sport.
And they were sinking our WW1 era pups, keeping it essentially even. Our industry didn't kick in until after Dec '41.
Hokies lead 7-0 in top of 3rd