Glass Joe

Thanks, Blake. Can you project from this season’s roster who you expect to leave for MLB (or who is just out of eligibility). I’m trying to become informed on what next season’s line-up projects to. Thank you for all you do for Texas baseball fans.

1. Alberts didn’t want to pay $3m to make his own mistake (hiring Earley) look even worse 2. Alberts knew he wouldn’t be able to hire a decent HC before the baseball portal opens on Monday, because all the good HCs are still playing right now. 3. Aggy believes keeping Earley will prevent a mass exodus of players to the portal on Monday. Just like last season when tons of aggy players entered the summer portal until to return thanks to NIL raises and Earley being hired. Aggy baseball is like a never-ending spiral of stupidity.

NIL isn’t about telling a kid what they’re worth to play football. NIL is a marketing deal whereby Company X pays a kid to represent or sponsor their product for money. Company X records a marketing expenditure on their books and taxes. There’s also the silly collective charitable functions to funnel money to players, but all now agree that’ll be going away. NIL is not the school paying a fee to play football. As with many commercial marketing agreement, a fair value criteria must be maintained - whether NIL to an athlete or paying an actor to do a commercial or pitch a product. If FMV is violated, the agreement is not valid. And, most importantly, Company X loses the tax deductibility of the marketing expense paid to the player or actor. PWC is being hired to validate the FMV of player NIL deals going forward. Just as PWC values other commercial marketing agreements for their corporate clients every day. PWC is not enforcing anything. They are expressing their professional opinion on the FMV on the agreement. PWC will the report their opinion to NCAA or SEC enforcement for THEM to determine any next steps or penalties for violations. This is what will be called in the post-House settlement landscape of college football as “legitimate NIL”. Such as Quinn Ewers with Dr.Pepper, Caleb Williams with Dr.Pepper, or Arch Manning / Livy Dunne with Vuori. Again, the reason USC is offering 3-year guaranteed contracts if agreed to before House is to avoid exactly the NIL validation process described above by grandfathering these currently INVALID (non-FMV) agreements with athletes. Nobody is denying any athlete the ability to earn as much money as possible legitimately through marketing their Name, Image, and Likeness to corporate sponsors. This is about regulating the pay-for-play schemes that are already running amok at certain schools - USC, Miami, aggy.

Pretty hilarious that Texas and OU would have the top 2 DLs in the SEC after only one season in the conference. SEC old timers must be cringing at the notion that two former Big 12 schools can come in and take over the SEC’s primary calling card (DL play). ”SEC ready”?? Apparently so.

If the SEC (or NCAA) implements a legit enforcement process - such as the proposed NIL deal valuation validation by PWC - than Texas will be just fine in the post-House settlement world. And bogus NIL deals like the garbage we’re seeing now by USC, Miami, and Aggy won’t be allowed in the future. Let’s see how the House settlement is implemented.

He’ll get a 50% payment on June 30th, and as a California resident, he can accept the payment as a high schooler (he’s still 16, IIRC). USC wanted to get this deal done before the House settlement to avoid the NIL deal review process by PWC. This deal is signed and done, there won’t be any de-commitment because the kids dad isn’t paying back millions in December. There’s a difference in USC being able to keep a recruit from California (where the kid can accept the NIL cash immediately), and US. being able to keep a recruit from Georgia (Justice Terry, E.Griffin, Xavier Griffin, etc). Texas and UGA were very smart not to pay this kid $8m-$10m as no college TE is worth that amount, and particularly one who’ll be limited by USC’s QB (J.Maiava for the next 2 years….LOL!). Bowman was a kid shopped nationally to high schools by his father (IMG, SLC, Mater Dei) so this end game is absolutely no surprise.

You should share this link with Brett Yormark. Zero Big 12 teams in the top 20 viewed games of 2024. Impressive!

The timing suggests Landon Barnes.

The key here is the word roster…as in the talent across the entire 85-man roster. LSU may have the highest scoring offense in college football this year, but their defense is well below LSU standards. Similarly, Clemson has some elite guys at key positions across the starting line-up, but what is behind any of those guys, and can the top end guys cover for the less-than-elite other starters? Oregon historically is a very barbelled roster, with some elite talent at various positions, but replacement level at other position groups. I tend to think with the NIL era beginning a few years ago, they now have more talent across their entire roster (even in the two-deep) than they’ve ever had before. That said, we saw what Ohio State’s talent did to Oregon in the Rose Bowl, so there’s still a gap there. I think for 2025, you can put Texas, Penn State, UGA, Ohio State, and Bama 85-man rosters at the top of the list, with LSU, Clemson, and Oregon having enough key talented players (if not depth of talent) to win an NC if the chips fall right for them. Notre Dame and Florida need 1-2 more recruiting classes at the level they’re currently recruiting to make this list.

Trey Metoyer is a rather notorious alum.

The Horns achieved the national #1 ranking in football, baseball, softball, women’s basketball, won the national championship in swimming, and defended the national championship in volleyball.

Shemar is not happy about taking a pay cut this season. Aggy NIL > NFL salary

He’ll go straight from collecting NIL payments to Social Security payments. Recruiting class of 2018. Rising was in the same recruiting class as Joseph Ossai, who will be entering his 5th NFL season this fall.

Lott to Marist and Webb to ULaLa. Confirmed.

Texas has never had any luck with RBs from Arizona. Ever. 😉😁

It’s interesting (to me) because Iowa State football has the top attendance of the historical Big 12 schools (post Texas, OU departures), and is second to only BYU when the new entrants are considered. I completely understand the TV market perspective on ISU being the #2 school in a small farm state with no major TV local market, but it’s a shame for the fans who turn out to support a competitive school that they’ll soon be relegated out of big time college football. If ISU were in the Big 10 West, they’d be competitive peers with ALL the other schools in that division (Iowa, Minn, Ill, Wiscy, Neb, NW, etc.)

I’m pretty sure Cook was kicked out of Texas in the fall semester, and entered the Winter portal to transfer to Washington. He was subsequently kicked out of the UW program, and has now entered the Spring portal. The SEC rule applies to Spring portal entrants being prohibited from playing with another SEC school the following fall. It doesn’t apply to those who left their school in the Winter portal, for example Brad Spence from Arkansas to Texas. That is my understanding anyway.

Syracuse maybe? I recall Elijah Robinson almost landed him at A&M when he was coming out of high school.

Good, we need more from the corner outfielders with Belyeu on the mend.

Nico is welcome to transfer to and attend any school in the SEC, and any SEC school is welcome to pay him whatever amount they’d like to immediately. However, he will be ineligible to play football for another SEC in 2025. Nobody is limiting his ability to attend any schools nor his compensation, they’re limiting his ability to participate (in 2025) because he spent the previous semester playing for another school within the same conference…which provides a strategic advantage to the school accepting his transfer in. If you litigate the ability of an athlete to change schools from semester to semester within a conference, how do you prevent players transferring among schools within the SEC on a weekly basis?

Not that Tech wouldn’t love the publicity, but is Nico really an upgrade over Behren Morton? Morton isn’t great, but he’s a solid veteran who has gone through the offseason and Spring with Tech’s newly-hired OC. Nico has already demonstrated he’s a pretty average passing QB who is challenged by learning basic passing concepts. Tech may be an interesting case study of the money guys wanting one QB, while the coach may want his guy. Should be fun to watch this Nico saga.

Sam Leavitt’s market value just went up…a lot.

Here’s the interesting dynamic of the Nico situation for me. He’s being represented by his uncle (Cord Landers) and he tried the tactic of holding out of practice to force a better NIL deal. However, on the other side, Tennessee football has Jimmy Sexton (most powerful agent in college football) as both a huge program donor and a member of the Board of Trustees of the university. It’s like mortal combat of the agents here 😀. It is also telling that Nico / Uncle Cord are trying to pull this during the Spring portal when some of the deepest pockets programs in college football (SEC schools) can NOT even bid for Nico and have him eligible to play for them in the fall. That really trims down the list of programs that can pay big money for Nico. Memo to Cord Landers: learn the basics of supply and demand before advising your nephew / client to put himself on the market.

No, it’s the kids uncle and the kid’s father driving the drama, but the real question is what school do they have lined-up making a big NIL offer that prompted this game of chicken with Tennessee? I’m guessing USC. FYI, Nico’s uncle is none other than street agent wannabe “Coach” Cordell Landers…yes, the same guy who led the Damonic Williams NIL sweepstakes last year (which turned out to be a lousy investment for OU). “Coach Cord” is a SoCal guy (Fresno area) who got hired as a recruiting analyst by Florida a few years ago, and got immediately fired within months (due to alleged recruiting infractions). LOL. Since the beginning of the NIL era, he’s now playing the role of “agent” for kids he knows from SoCal area, including Nico (his nephew), Damonic Williams, and others.

I’m still thinking USC is behind all this Nico drama. He’s a SoCal kid, and Lincoln Riley has a track record with QBs who offer the run/pass option, even if they lack passing accuracy. USC can’t go into next season with J.Maiava at the starting QB, can they?