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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" 
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable"
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" I have been saying for about a year now, I expect the entire system to crash and burn in less than 5 years (4 now).
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" Professional as is "players getting paid to play the sport and they don't need another job to support their love of sports".
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" This is too late. Color me shocked that Tim Sands is late to the party on something regarding athletics
Nah. You can't let a revenue sport die on the vine or else there's a very good chance you will never get it back. If you do, its gonna take an even greater investment down the road than what it would require to just keep it properly funding presently. If the numbers VT claims they are investing into the athletic department are accurate (I'm skeptical) where we have something like a top 20 to top 30 AD budget nationwide, there's enough money to successfully fund your revenue sports in football and men's basketball. I'd toss women's hoops in there as well because popularity is exploding enough to where its going to be able to stand upright moreso than other collegiate sports. That is, its possible if you have an athletic department that actually knows what its doing and not a country club racket looking out for their own interests. If the money is there, you can carve the pie to make it work. Money goes farther in basketball. You can land one player can be the difference for a successful season. So even just a modest bump can make the difference.
The VT fanbase has been trained for decades to expect mediocrity. If any sport other than football goes .500, its "Oh well. Good enough I guess". It's not really important just make sure football is good. Football being good won't save everything. We've been good at football before and the trickle down effect didn't matter. Those other sports trophy cases stayed empty. You're good where you invest (theoretically at least). If we really need every single cent to go to football in hopes of making it to the P2, I've got some bad news for you. We're too far gone. Both hoops programs aren't far off from where they need to be. The women are positioned better than the men but its not worth it to strip everything to bare essentials all for football. Just a modest boost from where we're at now I believe would keep the women as a tournament team most of the time and the men a tournament team half the time. Both are reasonable goals. It's not like I'm asking for enough money to be contenders in everything.
The state of college athletics sucks.
Agree pretty much wholeheartedly. The other thing that really bothers me with Will Wade is everybody just excusing the fact that he was an unrepentant cheater just because what he was doing then is legal now.
He knew the rules, broke them intentionally and did so so ham-handedly that he got caught on a wiretap.
Dude wasn't "before his time," he was a sleazeball cheater who's never taken a team beyond The Sweet 16.
100% expected and probably better for both sides.
If Neo is a better player than what he showed on the court this year, a fresh start and a new system is probably needed.
If he's not, there is no reason for VT to foot the NIL bill for a guy putting up 7-8th man numbers.
But per VT's luck, he'll go on to average 24/8/5 next year...lol.
Honestly interested to see his landing spot and how much P4 interest there is...
There's 2 kinds of coaches. Coaches that see a player's skillset, adapt their coaching to boost that player's skill set and how it fits into the larger team profile. They still have an overall vision for the style they want to play, but they adjust the recipe given the ingredients available so to speak. The other kind of coach is rigid. Everyone adapts to the system the coach wants no matter what. If the pieces fit, great, it works well. If they don't fit, that square peg is getting jammed into the round hole. Mike Young is the latter. This is why throughout his tenure, even before the portal really took off where teams routinely lose like half their roster, you would see players leave and play better elsewhere. And its usually always more higher touted players well because Mike Young's system is good at elevating undertalented rosters, but it puts limits on those with raw talent. Both types of coaches can be successful and I don't feel like debating the pros and cons of each, just saying what it is.
FROSTY IS A BEAR
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" "The other aspect of the hypocrisy is that universities at large are more expensive than ever before (and that's not just due to athletics fees). VT tuition is not affordable for most middle class Virginians (google tells me that the median household income in Virginia is between $92k and 93k, but VT tuition + board is $33k). So arguing that we real in spending on Athletics, without finding ways to decrease cost of attendance, while the university's endowment approaches $3B... It's just a lot to untangle, and a lot of it is much much bigger than athletics."
And to see the proof of this, all you have to do is look at the small liberal arts colleges that do not have expensive sports programs but are still $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a year. Like you, I'm all for cutting athletic spending. But The Educational-Industrial Complex as a whole needs to rein in a whole lot more than just athletic spending.
He enrolled August 1st. Three months before the season started. That's not a lot of time for the coaching staff to have a pre-season impact and get him to adapt from Euro basketball to NCAA. When he transfers, he will have 7 months at the new school before the season starts. That, plus his experience in season one of the ACC will have more to do with future success than pinning his less than ideal performance on the VT coaching staff.
Liked the IBM sequence, hopefully that mentality spreads
I think we already have, and that this is what that looks like.
HOKIE HOOPS WIZ
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" ...and Sands position in all this puts us further at odds with P2, making it less likely we get included in what they are working on. Not sure if that's good or bad anymore....
BEARDS > PEOPLE
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" You and me both. If I did, I would
My soon-to-be BIL got me the same hoodie that Foster is wearing. It's pretty slick.
ATLIEN
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" Mehhh I think they're all playing by the same rules. Some schools have the money, most don't
'_'
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" Becomes?
I thought we were already there
ATLIEN
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" Finally reading this piece...
If you agree with the premise that an entirely unregulated spending environment would be the demise of college athletics as we have known it, then you understand that we need some sensible and enforceable spending guardrails
I really like how he didn't make this about athlete compensation, but instead made it about Athletic spending as whole. I know how painful the 'weights all weigh the same' comment is, but its absolutely ridiculous that the facilities need to be upgraded every five years. And we're not talking repainted, or maintained...
And I really appreciate him having the balls to mention coaching salaries.
Also, it's bold move to do this right after we hired the guy who is going to push us to spend more than we ever have before... I'm not saying Sands is wrong for pointing this out, but there is a tad bit of hypocrisy here.
If you believe that college athletics untethered from the academic mission is not a viable way to maintain fan interest, then you agree that the student-athlete model should be preserved.
Two (tightly related) things here that really stand out to me:
- His use of the term "student-athlete model" - he never defines the 'student-athlete model', but to his credit, never once used the word 'amateur' - I think he's basically saying that if you want to be an athlete at a university, you should be part of the student community (unlike Carson Beck, for example). I think most people can behind this.
- His choice to focus on fan interest. Certainly a choice that stands pretty stark to Justice Kavanaugh's Concurrent Opinion in Alston (where he writes that 'you can't say your restaurant is better because the chefs work for love of food instead competitive wages')
Booster collectives as they were designed in the presettlement era should not have a meaningful role in true third-party NIL. Presidents and chancellors should use their influence to wind those entities down
Pointing out that this is basically a Prisoner's Dilemma at scale. Everyone wants to wind this down. But if you wind this down and others don't, then you get screwed.
Likewise, circumvention of the revenue-sharing cap by funneling revenues through associated entities without true NIL deals with third parties defeats the purpose of capped revenue sharing, a hard-fought element of the court-mediated settlement that balances the right of student athletes to be paid for their part in generating revenue with the financial sustainability of the college athletics enterprise.
"We have a plan that should work, but we can't be sure because y'all keep fuckin with it, and if y'all keep fuckin with it, then everyone's gonna get fucked"
Overall, I think this is a pretty thoughtful piece. It's not terribly actionable, but as he mentions in the piece, it can't be. I would love to ask him a bunch of question about it, but I think I would need to increase my donations by 100,000x to get that sort of face time lol
Edit: The other aspect of the hypocrisy is that universities at large are more expensive than ever before (and that's not just due to athletics fees). VT tuition is not affordable for most middle class Virginians (google tells me that the median household income in Virginia is between $92k and 93k, but VT tuition + board is $33k). So arguing that we real in spending on Athletics, without finding ways to decrease cost of attendance, while the university's endowment approaches $3B... It's just a lot to untangle, and a lot of it is much much bigger than athletics.
Bummed about Neo... not a good look for our coaching staff... especially when he goes somewhere next year and averages a double/double. This may not be a popular take but one way of evaluating the coaching staff is whether the players are better at the end of the season versus the start. How effective are they in high leverage situations? What is the players' situational awareness? Neo came in full of confidence and flair and is leaving dejected and insecure. That's coaching.
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" Are 'investors' donating millions to these collectives just for the love of the game or do they get a return on their investment?
I wish i had dumb money to throw around like this
FROSTY IS A BEAR
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" That quote was exactly what I zeroed in on too. But you beat me to it. At this point, I am hoping the entire business model collapses. Unfortunately, adding in additional text, the track record of universities reigning in spending on anything is pretty poor. Essentially unlimited student loans backed by the government just allowed them to raise tuition to whatever levels are needed to do the spending. Parents and kids are finally catching on and we are seeing the start of people turn away from a 4-year degree as not being worth it. Universities need to control costs and spending in a lot more than just athletics. Donors are going to stop supporting athletics (some already have) and parents/students are going to stop paying tuition on the academic side too. Whole model will collapse under its own weight if adjustments are not made.
"The result may very well be implosion of the business model, when fans no longer identify with the associated teams with their transient mercenary rosters, and when universities undergo existential financial trauma exacerbated by their unlimited appetite for athletics spending."
I would argue this should read unlimited appetite for all kinds of spending.
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# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" My favorite snippet from all of that:
Wake me up when this is all over.
The conferences and universities are not all playing by the same rules, i think we all knew that. None of this is getting fixed without a proper NCAA players association, a watchdog committee, and a collective bargaining agreement between the players association, NCAA (if it still exists) and the conferences.
🏌️♂️⛳🍀🍺
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" That's why the $EC and B1G are in DC...working on this now.
ATLIEN
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# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" But those are both illegal under US labor/antitrust laws. The only reason other leagues have been able to do this is because of collective bargaining and congress passing laws.
ZIMA SUCKS
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3 months 2 weeks
# | Tim Sands: "Power 4 Leaders Must Act Before College Athletics Becomes Unsustainable" Maybe I don't see all the other moving parts from a person outside looking in, but to me, the fixes seem pretty straightforward...
- Salary cap of some kind for NIL to help even the playing field, and no it won't ever be perfect as some teams will have more money to dish out compared to small schools, and obviously you need some type of governing body for oversight and harsh penalties to keep/punish teams from trying to do under the table deals/cheat the system (again, I know it will still happen in many cases, never a perfect system)
- Number of transfer restrictions (for example - can only transfer after you stay at least 2 years with team you sign with unless coach you signed under leaves for another school. Maybe 1 more transfer after that and possibly a grad transfer)
I am sure there's other things that could be added to the list, but I think those are good starts to ring in this wild wild west we have in college sports (mainly football and basketball).
As much as I agree with you on the potential invite impact, Sands isn't wrong. It is also time somebody stood up and said something.