University pro football league

[flyingtank19]

Dear Lord I thought when it was announced that NIL was going to be a thing I thought it was going to be awesome for Texas ya know, cause it’s a big brand, has a lot of alumni, which means a lot of money. However I am beginning to hate NIL it’s freaking insane how Texas is losing recruits to other colleges after they have an 11-1 season the first year in the SEC and they are going to the SEC championship there first year in the conference and going to the playoffs the second year in a row. Normally if NIL wasn’t around I would believe kids would be begging to go to Texas. Here’s the worst of it we’re losing recruits to programs that are 6-6 or worse. That’s crazy!!!!! Only because the other school upped the offer 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️. What ever happened to going to a place that would develop you so you could go to the NFL? Heck it’s getting close to just canceling the NFL and watch the new pro league university pro football league!!!!! Ugh 😩 Had to get it off my chest.

[Bobby Burton]

College football has never been more popular. They need to get their arms around NIL and what it means.

Texas is prospering regardless. 

[GoHorns1]

Texas is building a team not acquiring talent big difference.

[Glass Joe]

First, this already is professional football sponsored by the nation’s largest universities.  The only thing forcing these players to even play “college football” is the NFL draft rule that entrants must be age 21 or be 3 years post-high school.  

Second, I would encourage everyone to reconsider the value of high school recruiting at all.  Since this is now a true monetary investment in talent, one must consider both the expected return and the RISK for each player (talent) you bring into your program.

And how do you reduce or manage the risk of any investment?  You don’t invest in things that are LESS LIKELY to produce your expected return.  In recruiting terms, that means bringing PROVEN productive players (portal) into your program whenever possible, and not bringing in more speculative / risky players (high schoolers).

I think you’ll soon see a huge bi-furcation in college football between the major P2 schools who largely source their talent from the Portal, and the lesser P4 and G5 schools who rely on high school recruiting for their talent.  Effectively, you’ll have a minor league and a major league within college football.  The Minor league takes high schools recruits and develops players for a year or two, and then the Major league teams grab these proven, developed-but-not-yet-finished players from the Minors through the Portal.

The exception will be those truly elite high school players who can contribute to winning for a Major league program from day one out of high school.  In other words, the true bluest chips.  These elite high schoolers now have agents taking bids from colleges and will place their clients (recruits) with the best combination of immediate playing time and highest bid.  It’s effectively now an auctioning process.  Winning is secondary to the agent & recruit when the primary goal is to get to the NFL draft as quickly and as well-prepared as possible, while maximizing your NIL earnings along the way.

I’m not sure that we aren’t already witnessing this change with Sark / Texas in this 2025 recruiting class and particularly so over the next few days and weeks.  I think Sark is deep sea fishing for only the bluest chips out of high school who project to contribute at Texas immediately (Justus Terry, J.Hilson, J.Ffrench, et al).  

But once the Portal opens, I expect Sark and Texas to grab some huge impact players from other P4 and G5 programs to fill immediate impact needs on the depth chart for 2025 (this is effectively calling up proven college productive players from the Minors to the Majors).

We will have de-facto separation between the truly elite P2 programs, and all other programs in college football.  One is just a talent farm system (Minors) to the other (Majors)

Their may be positional exceptions where in-house, longer term development makes sense to source from the high schools (OL, for example) since these players are often developed more so than true athletic freaks (with a few elite OTs being the exceptions).  But, by and large, why not take an I.Bond into your WR line-up, A. Makuba into your secondary, J.Lole into your DL and not waste valuable resources on non-elite high schoolers who have a much higher washout rate?

[Cujonation83]

6 minutes ago, Glass Joe said:

First, this already is professional football sponsored by the nation’s largest universities.  The only thing forcing these players to even play “college football” is the NFL draft rule that entrants must be age 21 or be 3 years post-high school.  

Second, I would encourage everyone to reconsider the value of high school recruiting at all.  Since this is now a true monetary investment in talent, one must consider both the expected return and the RISK for each player (talent) you bring into your program.

And how do you reduce or manage the risk of any investment?  You don’t invest in things that are LESS LIKELY to produce your expected return.  In recruiting terms, that means bringing PROVEN productive players (portal) into your program whenever possible, and not bringing in more speculative / risky players (high schoolers).

I think you’ll soon see a huge bi-furcation in college football between the major P2 schools who largely source their talent from the Portal, and the lesser P4 and G5 schools who rely on high school recruiting for their talent.  Effectively, you’ll have a minor league and a major league within college football.  The Minor league takes high schools recruits and develops players for a year or two, and then the Major league teams grab these proven, developed-but-not-yet-finished players from the Minors through the Portal.

The exception will be those truly elite high school players who can contribute to winning for a Major league program from day one out of high school.  In other words, the true bluest chips.  These elite high schoolers now have agents taking bids from colleges and will place their clients (recruits) with the best combination of immediate playing time and highest bid.  It’s effectively now an auctioning process.  Winning is secondary to the agent & recruit when the primary goal is to get to the NFL draft as quickly and as well-prepared as possible, while maximizing your NIL earnings along the way.

I’m not sure that we aren’t already witnessing this change with Sark / Texas in this 2025 recruiting class and particularly so over the next few days and weeks.  I think Sark is deep sea fishing for only the bluest chips out of high school who project to contribute at Texas immediately (Justus Terry, J.Hilson, J.Ffrench, et al).  

But once the Portal opens, I expect Sark and Texas to grab some huge impact players from other P4 and G5 programs to fill immediate impact needs on the depth chart for 2025 (this is effectively calling up proven college productive players from the Minors to the Majors).

We will have de-facto separation between the truly elite P2 programs, and all other programs in college football.  One is just a talent farm system (Minors) to the other (Majors)

Their may be positional exceptions where in-house, longer term development makes sense to source from the high schools (OL, for example) since these players are often developed more so than true athletic freaks (with a few elite OTs being the exceptions).  But, by and large, why not take an I.Bond into your WR line-up, A. Makuba into your secondary, J.Lole into your DL and not waste valuable resources on non-elite high schoolers who have a much higher washout rate?

Texas is recruiting fine like you said. Texas will kill it in the transfer portal. As long as Texas keep their current hs class together they will be in great shape.

[TexasMDcoach]

Glass Jo is pretty spot on.  Recruit the best out of high school and fill in spots with the portal.  It is what we have been doing and is working well as long as you skillfully do it like Sark and staff have been doing to keep your culture where you want it.  Be competitive in the NIL realm but don't be crazy in spending way over market value.  You also must develop your players to the max when they are here and let them know their value will pay off if they stay with the program.  Respectfully and honestly communicating well with your players and sending double digit guys to the NFL every year demonstrates that loud and clear.

[Burnt Orange Horn]

Only about 16 football programs are self sustaining.