No. And now *every* coach can do this; not just new coaches. Who has the advantage among the coaches? It's just another arena that a new coach has to compete in. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
The ability to impose employee-related contract obligations. I suppose it's worth considering whether or not athletics departments even want to impose more restrictions; I believe they would if they are more financially invested in the product. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Of course a coach has to compete. Prior to the portal, coaches competed almost exclusively on the recruiting trail. That competition didn’t negate expectations of success. But then… the thinking was- you afford a coach the needed time to recruit; develop his players and allow the team to mature. Now, much of the competition is in the portal… a massive annual turnover. This provides the opportunity to overhaul a roster with veteran players, but ones that also have a shorter shelf life. As such, there is both the expectation and need to win quickly with players you may have for only a couple seasons. Wether or not it this is an “advantage” over pre-portal years… that can be debated. But it absolutely and undeniably has shortened the time needed for a coach to overhaul a roster; as well as shortened the shelf life of most rosters. And so, if fans expect a coach to succeed in talent acquisition… that expectation now comes faster. I am honestly surprised we are debating this.
If I’m picking up what he’s putting down, he’s suggesting salaries and contracts to lock players up for multiple seasons so you can build a team over several years rather than completely rebuilding every year. It’s not even legal at this time and would require lots of law and rule changes, and likely a cba, but I think that’s what he’s hinting at. I could have misunderstood.
“I don't see any other reason to participate in it. Just wait, and the players will be legit employees soon enough. The schools should be the ones paying the players…” -WES I’m not sure what he meant. The above reads as if he feels NIL should and will be replaced by schools… that schools will be “the ones” paying; and that we should wait out this fad. I don’t see NIL being replaced, nor really reigned in. I also don’t think what you described above will happen. I’d like to be wrong in all of this. WES and I may agree in our disdain for the whole situation.
I'm just saying there's not an increased net expectation of success. If one coach gains a competitive advantage, that's necessarily a competitive disadvantage for another coach (distributed among many or otherwise). These things balance out. It's not easier to rebuild now with NIL and portal because now coaches have to defend their rosters against attrition. It's a zero sum game. Unless your perspective is that new coaches have an advantage over existing coaches, I don't see how this activity would have any practical impact on shortening expectations. Everybody can't make their rosters better relative to other teams, there has to be losers in the process. Another counter argument, I suppose, would be that the losers are the smaller conference teams. That is to say, you could potentially go from 5th in the SEC to 8th in the SEC but still have a much better overall team with a better chance at getting a higher postseason seed while also having a worst chance to win the conference. Is that a significant improvement? I suppose it depends on what you are looking for. I know that argument doesn't fly in football; I doubt it would fly in basketball. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
There's a large pot of money that is relatively untouched by the physical talent involved. The pursuit of that money has begun, and it won't go away until an agreement has been reached. Such agreement(s) (in my opinion) will include more money for the players with more restrictions on their mobility and participation (among, presumably, many other aspects of participation and expectations). Regardless of that, I don't think there's any reasonable way you can have a legitimate expectation of a performance-based ROI for any contribution that falls under the label of NIL. Excluding, of course, the few that contribute the many ($$$), I have no idea what is a reasonable expectation for those folks. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
I don’t think NIL will be replaced. I also don’t really think what I posted above will happen. Not anytime soon, anyway. I gave the reasons why in my post. I just thought that’s what he was hinting at. NIL is here and not going away, even if the schools are paying a salary.
the problem with constant roster turnover is that you're not really "building" anything, only maybe your reputation as a school and ability to get players from the portal. The good thing is we do have some good young talent like Condon, but that's only if they choose to stay and not enter the portal. Otherwise constant roster resets create a win-now or try again next year scenario, which isn't exactly program-building. Hope Golden is at least learning from past mistakes and getting better each year...
Yes- of course there are winnners and losers in the portal battles; as there are in recruiting. But if you expect your coach to be a success in talent acquisition… the portal now allows for that expectation to be fulfilled sooner. I think most fans expect their program/coach to be a winner… though not all of em will be right! But the portal has undeniably provided opportunity for “ the winners” to improve rosters faster. And this is important … I am not saying “easier”, but rather “faster”. And so, If you expect to be a winner… you now expect to become one sooner. if you want to argue Florida fans shouldn’t have that expectation … ok
Yeah… and in fairness, this isn’t a Golden issue. It is the reality of college basketball. If coach goes the route of building his program with high school talent… he will either have to take the lumps from playing with a young roster; or face defection when those same freshmen end the year frustrated from not playing. As I said… I think the portal has shortened timelines for everything…. When players expect to play; when coaches expect to turnover a roster and when fans expect to win. It’s a different college sports world, and personally, I hate it.
I think we're talking past each other here. I'm looking at the sum total of fans and what constitutes a reasonable perspective. I think you are looking at just FLORIDA, and to that point, I agree with the bold part. A team needs to have a clear and decisive advantage for that perspective to exist. We haven't seen enough of Golden or even this year's team to know if that exists yet or not. That advantage can exist through prestige, connections, financial means, etc. What does FLORIDA have that indicates that the fans should have an expectation of FLORIDA out-performing, say, it's peer members in the SEC? Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Ok- so we agree the portal allows for the opportunity to succeed sooner; and thus quickened expectations. As to wether or not those expectations are reasonable at Florida… that is the debate. Fair enough. This is a different topic; and one I’ve opined on in the past.
LOL, no. "allows for the opportunity to succeed sooner" does not logically necessitate "quickened expectations." I respectfully do not agree with this sentiment. Change "expectations" to "hope" and I think it's perfect. But "quickened expectations" are a bit presumptuous given "allows for the opportunity...." Just my two bits. Quickened expectations canshould only exist where there is a reasonable perception of an advantage over the competition; increased opportunity for all does not necessitate advantage, and therefore cannot logically lead to quickened expectations. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
People keep talking about the portal as some magic entity. All it did was streamline a process that was already in place. The material change was allowing athletes to be immediately eligible without sitting out a year. That changed the whole paradigm of college sports, once the penalty for leaving was gone everyone was now essentially an annual free agent. NIL put that up to hyper speed.
Of course there are programs with not only a reasonable perception of advantages in recruiting, but tangible ones…. Coach, playing style, program history, facilities, conference, campus, geography, playing opportunity, fan support and…. NIL money! And so, since you acknowledge “quickened expectations should only exist where there is reasonable perception of advantage” …. the only question remaining is whether or not florida is among such group. And again… that is a different topic.
It had far greater impact than simply streamlining a process. The removal of the sit out year resulted in kids making the decision to transfer when they otherwise might not have done so. The amount of transfers has grown exponentially since eliminating the the sit out requirement. So it was not just streamlining, but was also the removal of a strong deterrent.
