Recent Comments

Eddie Royal

IM is different type of WR than either JH or IF. Vt staff knows it doesnt make sense to add both Ford and IM if Harrison indicates he is solid to VT. However, we will end up with 2 of the three .. timing is key.

Would be interesting if VT knows by Feb 4th that we are choice of all 3, Scott, Nnadi AND Minor has qualifying SAT. Would a Frank Beamer - led VT pull 1-2 offers from current verbals?

I hope VT never becomes a school that doesnt honor a verbal .. and, ftr, I am not saying we will, at least not with Frank at the helm.

I am not saying that schools should be paid money from players professional salary. I am saying if players want merchandising revenue then schools should a seek return on the investment they put in to that player's development. The player didn't coach themselves for 4 - 5 years and make them a better player capable of playing in the NFL and NBA. (NBA kids that can go directly to the league is a unique case) Universities should be able to seek monetary benefits from that free coaching one way or the other.

Regarding, TV exposure. Again I am not saying that they should monetize this but you can't say that playing on a national stage and getting that level of exposure doesn't give you a distinct advantage when draft day comes and the level of salary you can negotiate for. That is a value provided to players freely by universities, conference and the NCAA. One that has not been mentioned in the comments on this thread so far.

The school is being compensated from a third party and benefits more so the better the athlete does.

this is exactly the point. Schools benefit from this and can provide athletes things like indoor practice fields, audacious locker rooms, etc. Schools get A LOT of monetary benefit from it.

But I think it's shortsighted to say players don't benefit. Look at how player salaries have ballooned since 1990. At this point college football started to make a monumental shift whereby it became a national sport where remote engineering schools set in rural VA could become a national recognized brand. The added exposure to college football only served to increase the value of the NFL, because now fans have been watching their favorite player for years beforehand. And with that change the salaries players could negotiate also increased dramatically.

Compare the highest paid NFL player in 1990, Randall Cunningham had a 5 year extension for 15 million
In 2013, Aaron Rodgers, 110 million for 5 years

As a rookie Bradford signed a 6 year, 76 million dollar deal. With 50 million guaranteed.
As a rookie in 1990 Jeff George signed a 6 year, 15 million dollar deal. this was the highest salary ever paid for a rookie at the time.

Players are given an enormous benefit with television exposure. A venue the university provides freely precisely because it is getting revenue. If players start tapping into that then schools should start to tap into these 80 million dollar deals as well.

Not every player gets a deal like that but all salaries have gone up and it's directly due to exposure.

What level would that end at though? PeeWee football for getting kids on Friday Night Tykes? High schools where kids don't technically pay coaches? I would argue that the television side is a value provided by ESPN and other television networks. The school is being compensated from a third party and benefits more so the better the athlete does. See BCS bowl payouts. The school is actually contractually obligated to provide a team of players so without the student athlete the school would be in breach.

I don't know if that even works short term. If JJ deserves to go than he should be gone. We would look almost as ludicrous in the press for this as we did with how we handled Seths firing. I would much rather Babcock make a decision early enough that he can work up a solid list of potential candidates and then proceed to find the right fit.

They still have the right to form a union but with right to work the state also has the right to terminate their employment.

He'll get the same practice time every other player enrolled at Tech will get. Same situation that Facyson had last spring as an early enrollee.

With him enrolling in the Spring, what exactly does he get to participate in? I'd assume he gets several extra months to look at the playbook, conditioning, and just getting to know fellow players. But what about practice and time with Lefty to work on technique?

I think the biggest reason of the timing, wasn't that they were going to fire him no matter what that off season, but that the exit interview that JJ gave, really put to light a lot of the concerns that Weaver and the rest of the administrators had. The fact that coaches weren't going to "greener pastures" and instead were leaving just to get the hell away said a lot about Seth. If they really knew the depth of everything, Seth probably would have been let go the previous year. Unfortunately for the program, the tipping point was during an inopportune time.
At this point, blame can be pointed in many directions, but it will be up to the new AD to put in his solution. Babcock seems to know what he is doing and had plenty of experience hiring and firing at Cincy, so I'm sure he will make the right decision accordingly.

Gray was in Lakeland, FL today (javon harrison's hometown - via Gray's twitter), so i seriously doubt he's interested in upsetting our #1 wr prospect.

McKenzie. Ford can join the family, right now Mckenzie can't unless he wants to walk on.