Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

I wouldn't say it's a failure on our athletic department necessarily. The rules are not nationally uniform it's by state. Until it's standardized there will always be advantages for some...... like idk maybe a state of Oklahoma.

 

Elizabeth Hightower going to FSU.

 

Gator softball players do get a modest amount of NIL money that’s divided equally amongst all team members. Obviously the NIL money didn’t prevent Jocey Erickson, Korbe Otis and Brooke Barnard from transferring to UF nor Coach Walton from recruiting highly ranked classes this season and next.

 

The only thing I worry about is retaining these players.

 

The high school players will be looking for money soon too, and those top ranked hs classes will be harder to pull. The top players are going to be offered far more than an equal split by other schools.

Some folks want to blame the administration for NIL deficiencies, but they’re just trying to shift the weight off their own shoulders, which is where the blame really lies. The administration doesn’t write these checks. You don’t have to like it, but that’s the way it works.

 

The seven freshman now former high school players knew exactly how much NIL money the Gators and other schools vying for their services were offering them. Some may come from families where money isn’t an issue, some may just want be part of the Gator softball tradition of competing for championships while getting a high quality education and degree and some may want to play for Coach Walton because of his coaching experience with Team USA and have an eye towards the 2028 Olympics.

 

I just gave to Softball NIL through Florida Victorious today and I give monthly to Gator Softball NIL Club. I am doing my part, knowing that NCAA limits the scholarships to 12. We have a really good team. It has the potential of being great. I hope these ladies will stay and earn those prestigious degrees. They will never regret it.

 

So take my hard earned money and give it directly to kids who are already getting a free education in addition to supporting them indirectly through the school (alumni) and UAA (tickets and concessions, watching free and subscription broadcasts) or don't complain and watch our program(s) become non-competitive? I think I've been sufficiently encouraged to devote my time, passion and money elsewhere, thanks. It was a fun ride I guess.

 

Write your legislature. They made the laws. You could complain about the NCAA (schools themselves) letting it get to this point, but you’re just yelling at the clouds, because we’re here now. Complaining about what could have been is useless at this point.

I don’t see how it ever gets fixed at this point. You’d like to think, just have the schools pay salaries with the money we already give them and then you can cap them, right? Nope, not really. A salary cap would require a cba, and the athletes have zero reason to negotiate one. They hold all the cards right now and have no reason to negotiate.

Say you do get the laws changed, get the schools to pay salaries, and get the athletes to agree to a cap. All of that still doesn’t eliminate NIL money and that money cannot and will not be capped. The system is already in place to circumvent any type of salary cap. The fan bases that want the best players will continue to buy them, salary cap or not. Also, having the schools pay salaries is going to bring title nine into the equation. If that happens, I think you’ll see schools cutting all the non revenue sports they can. You’ll have football, men’s basketball, and whatever the cheapest women’s sports you can keep to balance the numbers are.

Like it or not, that’s what it is. Complaining about the administration is just trying to shift blame. The teams are funded by the fanbases. I’m not buying players, you’re not buying players. If other schools fans are putting up more money, I can’t blame our administrators or anyone else but myself. If others want to fund our rosters and keep us competitive, I’ll be appreciative. I’m not going to cry if we get outbid though. If the team stops entertaining me, I’ll find another way to occupy my time.

 

Wishful thinking, imo. The top hs kids will be looking for top dollar soon enough. I will be surprised if you don’t start to see a change this upcoming cycle.

 

And the coach in whatever sport will take the Blame from ignorant fans

 

The only hope is that the market corrects itself....donor fatigue would seem likely at some point. Will become miserable at some point paying a kid who doesn't contribute/doesn't work hard/ doesn't represent the school well.
Somehow limiting transfer eligibilty would help re the poaching of atletes via the portal

 

I thought it would simmer down a bit after the first few million dollar flops, but it seems to still be getting worse at this point. TAMU just blew a few hundred million, started over, and appear to be diving in head first again. Now we’re talking about 5-10k just to take visits? This shit is B A N A N A S

Rich folks don’t like being outbid.

 

And open the NCAA for antitrust litigation, restraint of trade, collusion, etc..

How about this contract with the athletes when they sign: you can go anywhere you want anytime you want. But if you leave then you owe us for the millions in exposure we gave you on national television, a portion of the millions we paid the head coach, a portion of the millions we spent on facilities, training you, etc.

In other words, you breach your end of the contract, then we want the money we put into you back.

 

Have to figure out something ala "no compete" clauses in the real world. Of course that would require all schools to incorporate or kids would just go places that don't force them to sign a no compete. The same logic would apply to your suggestion

 

My guess is we already have seen the change with the recruiting of 2025 kids since the first of September. At least to some extent. I had a list of what I felt were our top 21 recruiting interests. Yes, it was my list but I am confident it was reasonably accurate reading the available tea leaves. We got nobody off that list. FSU got a couple. I don't know what they are doing with their NIL money. I can give a complete rundown of where every one of those 21 kids went. Oklahoma got six off that list of kids we were pursuing. Six. That's with their already stacked roster and Gasso's penchant for constantly taking several top level and experienced transfers every June portal. Each of these kids likely believe they will be the special one who will come in and play. Highly unlikely. If a player of Jocey's caliber can't consistently crack the starting lineup...good luck with these kids. We know Oklahoma softball has money flowing out of their eyeballs. While it is only my suspicion as I don't have the inside facts, I strongly suspect NIL money to these six high school kids as an inducement for only a commitment, not even a signed NLI, was a factor for these six kids.

 

Curious as to who was on your list and where they ended up. Thanks in advance!

 

Boy, you want me to do a lot of typing. I'll try to do it easier in a word doc and post that but I can't promise how soon I can get to it. It was simple to create and, based on how I did it, it was 100% accurate. Tim is very good at following prospects on twitter. You can go through who he follows in each class. For this list, it was only kids he was actively following. Late in August, Gator Softball also began following almost all of them. Francesca started following a couple also just before the first of September making me think those were the very top priorities. Tim, 100% of the time, immediately stops following a kid almost instantly when he finds out they are going elsewhere. He drops quite a few even before they make an official announcement leading me to believe they contacted him and told him they weren't coming. Sure enough, a couple days later they make an official to someone else. This is the same for some of the portal entries....exactly the way it worked with Storako, Vawter and Maxwell. As I said, this approach has never failed. Not once.

 

I think you’ll continue to see it get worse in the next cycle. Bigger offers thrown at kids late in the process. More late commitments and late flips. You’ve seen it in football and basketball already, then baseball and gymnastics. It’s coming for softball too. As long as there’s Oklahoma’s out there spending truckloads of money, you’re going to have others continuing to up their offers in order to compete with them. I don’t see any way we continue to be competitive with the top players in the NIL market with 10-15k offers (using the 200k split evenly numbers touted on this forum).