Saturday: What Will Texas Do Given New NIL Ruling?

[Randy Crownover]

If I had a vote, I say get the lawyering done this week and offers go out by the weekend. The law seems to be settling in this area: standard EOR-EEE law.

[FLHorn17]

On 2/24/2024 at 9:04 AM, tsip92 said:

Texas needs to make sure that we don’t spend too much time trying to figure out the nuances of the situation while our friends in B/CS, Oxford, Eugene, Baton Rouge, Norman… are acting.  Say what you want, but a large part of the massive recruiting success of that ‘22 Aggy class was because they were ready to go and taking an active approach while Texas was still talking to lawyers and trying to figure out how they wanted to do things.  The horse is so far out of the barn now that doing anything less than a full frontal assault is really putting yourself at a disadvantage versus the rest of the field. 

How did that 22 class work for aggy though?  They went about it the wrong way, imo, and it has come back to bite them(multiple players in trouble and kicked off, transfers, poor culture, lack of on field success, etc.).  Using money to bring in kids who otherwise would have never came to your school won't ever work. Money(NIL) matters, but should be the closer when the recruit also likes your school for all the other reasons. 

[tsip92]

20 hours ago, David Latiolais said:

Just wait until the kids decide to go on strike for more money and we lose a season of football. This will get bad in my opinion.

I disagree.  I think a players union is the only way the legal madness stops.  The SEC/BIG need someone to negotiate with so that they, along with their media partners, can develop something that sticks.  The universities can’t create a lasting system that doesn’t include the “employees” and right now it’s negotiating with a large number of players (85 x 28 teams, excluding the other 100+ “minor league D1 teams).   We’re headed towards a pro sports format and it’s just a matter of time.  
 

If Texas football was a professional franchise it would be a billion dollar plus business.  The players are going to get a piece of that through TV package revenue including the huge CFP contract payday. 

[Hermanator]

Immediately after going to a model where the playera are considered employees with contracts they're going to demand they no longer be required to go to school to play for the team. Then another hornet's nest is opened. It makes it more difficult that this really only applies to football and every other collegiate sport would have to stay under an NCAA type system with scholarships and NIL. 

I don't know how much money the football program delivers to the academic side of the university but will that diminish greatly? 

I personally do not want to see a football program where the players don't attend school at the university and that may ruin a lot of the joy in the game for me. Won't know until it happens. 

Edited February 25 by Hermanator

[Burnt Orange Horn]

23 hours ago, David Latiolais said:

Just wait until the kids decide to go on strike for more money and we lose a season of football. This will get bad in my opinion.

The difference in pay scale between flipping burgers and making a few hundred thousand each year will prevent that, I am willing to bet.

[Burnt Orange Horn]

18 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

Immediately after going to a model where the playera are considered employees with contracts they're going to demand they no longer be required to go to school to play for the team. Then another hornet's nest is opened. It makes it more difficult that this really only applies to football and every other collegiate sport would have to stay under an NCAA type system with scholarships and NIL. 

I don't know how much money the football program delivers to the academic side of the university but will that diminish greatly? 

Scholarships should ameliorate the hire for play only trend.  Otherwise self funding football is just another minor league sport.

Athletics has returned $7M - $10M to the UT general fund over the last few years.  2020 took a big hit with COVID but future years should be well into the upper teens with the increase in revenue that will occur.

[TTown]

8 hours ago, harveycmd said:

For those who think this is just some lowly judge, and it's temporary, and we don't know yet, etc., you must take into account the federal court system and the legal principal of precedent. Precedent is the key. The 2021 Supreme Court decision that opened NIL was very strongly worded. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion basically warning the NCAA that they had better change, and they better not come back to the federal judiciary trying to protect their monopoly (this is where the "anti-trust" stuff comes in). Thus, when the NCAA went after the Vols for the NIL payments to Nico during recruiting, all the legal experts immediately chimed in and said there is no way the NCAA can win this battle in court because the Supreme Court already told them no. This district judge from eastern Tennessee is merely following that precedent. It will stand: bet on it, mark it down, take it to the bank, however you want to describe it. It's over for the NCAA. They must accept this and try to adapt, or they will go the way of the dinosaurs. The only question of import left now is, "Should the SEC and Big 10 wait and see if the NCAA will get its act together?" Given the facts of NCAA long term and recent history, the answer to that question is no, and it's clearly time to move forward without them.

Excellent post and my point all along. Yes know it is a temporary Injunction that still could take months before it changes. The Supreme Court has signaled where this is headed in the 2021 Alston ruling. Anybody that can't see that is delusional.

Plus there are other antitrust suits out there as well NIL back pay in Cali, and transfer limits. So full speed ahead to Collectives and hopefully we take full advantage. Great post to the point👍

[codaxx]

Wondering if @Gerry Hamilton, @Bobby Burton, or someone else has good handle of the tiers of NIL among Universities. I believe Texas is in that top tier. I am just wondering who has the backing and organization to be competitive long term in this new world. Who is in that first 5-10 and who is behind? That doesn’t preclude a school from going out and paying above market for a singular class or a 5 star. We saw that in the old bag game, though I not sure there is any way to fight that now (hi, Ole Miss).