Should The Gators Over-pay for Players?

It takes money to make money. If they spent 30 mil on the roster and made 271 mil like Texas, do the math. We still sold out good games last year but that won’t last. They have to put an elite product on the field if they want elite profits.

 

He did great recruiting and the bags weren’t delivered. That’s not on Napier. He’s having growing pains on the field no doubt but if the bags were delivered, he’d have delivered a great class.

 

I'll give him that. We're getting more looks by 5* and 4* than we have had in years.

I guess the 7 million/year will keep him around until his termination and buy out. I know if I went to
work every day knowing the deck was stacked against me, I'd want to get out.

I was program director of an underfunded radio station (with 2 cokehead owners) across the street from a 50K watt powerhouse. The day I left there was the happiest day of my life.

 

He’s getting lifechanging money for generations to come so he isn’t too bummed. I’m sure he’d rather be given every advantage to win though. Our ad and coach isn’t being given what Kirby has to work with so it’s not even fair to compare them. I’d say by year five, it would be fair to expect a ranked team every year. It wouldn’t be fair to expect him to have a winning record against the teams that provide top 5 talent every year. Those should usually be losses.

 

That was a really good article. Thanks for posting.

 

It’s never a good idea to overpay for anything. Plus, If it is true that the administration has guaranteed CBN two more seasons, as some posters here keep saying, just bid the minimum?

 

Maybe. Vaught-Hemingway already had a major upgrade in 2016. The last major upgrade to Ben Hill Griffin was in 2003, not counting minor upgrades in 2008, 2011, and 2016. BHG also has some must-pay repairs and statutory upgrades. Throw in the large empty space that needs to be recapitalized due to the move to the standalone facility. The final limitation is the contract scope. The contract team has until the end of January to stand up and begin scoping and pricing the work. Whenever that is completed, UF Facilities can choose to exercise a subset of the contract line items (CLINs) or do a contract modification. You can look at the basic requirements at facilities.ufl.edu.

Minor correction to your statement: the $400M is not sitting in the UAA bank accounts. The University of Florida itself, not the UF Athletic Association, will seek donations and find investors in public bonds. The difference seems trivial, but it is actually a big difference to businessmen throwing tens and hundreds of millions of dollars into a public investment.

Could donors choose to fund 10% less to endowments for research, facilities, and fundraisers? Sure. Gary Condron sends hundreds of millions to UF for academic facilities & athletic facilities in addition to serving as a member of the board at Florida Victorious. I am not going to approach him to ask him to match my $15 a month with $10M for mercenary football players. Who on this forum is going to do that?

 

The way the regulations exist puts the onus on the fans. I don’t think that is sustainable. Hard to ask families to pony up when the coach with a losing record is making multi seven figures. It will be interesting to see how things look in 5 to 10 years. Will there be a profit sharing model? I don’t think NIL will go away, but I don’t think its current model is what was originally intended.

 

I'm not sure what Florida victorious is but I'd rather fold my $15 into an origami boat, light it on fire and set it sail on lake Alice than give it to an nil group.

As a Florida man who lives in Tennessee now if I wanted to watch professionals sports I'd just watch the jaguars, buccaneers, dolphins or titans and not have to pay their salaries.

 

Exactly. Ole Miss, Auburn, and others are beating Florida because more of their fans pay into the collective. Tennessee, Oregon, and Arkansas are beating Florida because they have millionaires who are also football fans. The solution is not to get all 5.9 million fans donating $15 a month, but to get a sizeable chunk of the fanbase donating $15 to $99 a month. Maybe if more of us poor fans grew the collective, the board at Florida Victorious might be able to stand up a better version of Gator Guard and get funds from the richest alumni. Note that Hugh Hathcock, the one behind Gator Guard, is currently on the board for Florida Victorious. Someone like him could sway some of these rich alumni if they are still active in philanthropy and sports fandom:

• Syed Moiz Balkhi (OptinMonster and passionate cricket fan)
• Alan Stephenson Boyd (retired president of Amtrak and Airbus)
• Robert Carter (CEO of FedEx)
• Alan Cohen (owner of Florida Panthers, former owner of Best Generics and Abrika Pharmaceuticals)
• JJ Dianel (former owner of law firm, Florida Times-Union)
• Mark Erstling (former producter at WJCT, WPSX, and WPSU television and radio stations)
• Aaron Kemmer (co-founder of Made in Space, Magic virtial assistant service, and Bettir blood pressure app)
• Jack Massey (launched Kentucky Fried Chicken, Hospital Corporation, and Winners Corporation on New York Stock Exchange). He already donates to other causes.
• Harry Wismer (former part owner of Detroit Lions)
• Stephen Ross (majority owner of Miami Dolphins, stakeholder in Equinox fitness, and successful realtor)
• James Bradford (former CEO or board member of several companies, including Genesco and Cracker Barrel)
• Joie Chitwood (former president of Daytona International Speedway)
• Howie Roseman (executive VP of football operations for the Philadelphia Eagles)
• Manuel Fernandez (founder of Gavilan Computers, former CEO of Gartner)
• Mason Hawkins (founder of Southeastern Asset Management)
• R. Preston McAfee (former VP or research fellow at Yahoo, Microsoft; professor of economics at University of Texas)
• Larry Hoffman (founder of a law firm and other legal practices around the world)
• Jack Katz (founder of Panama Jack)

Source: Money Inc. “The 20 Most Notable UF Alumni in Business”.

 

The money is there whoever’s bank account it is in. Neglect the product on the field and the yearly income that funds everything is diminished. They’ve taken the cheap way out for so long that they’ve hurt the brand. It takes a top ten football team to generate top ten cash. 5-7 isn’t putting people in front of the tv. That tv contract will have to be resigned in a few years. We can take the Vandy approach and let the football schools carry that load or we can just take the check. It seems to me that the big boys spending the money are generating more profits.

 

Overpaying implies that the dollar amount exceeds the perceived value. It’s not a game that is sustainable long-term. I think you are seeing us do it the right way by overpaying at certain key positions like QB and DL.

 

That’s the real rub right there, imho. They (school) wouldn’t be spending $30mil, the fans would, and the school takes in $271mil. The fans are expected to pass the hat now and find new $$$$ to fund straight up buying players. Many are actually ridiculously trying to shame UF fans to kick in more for this. The fans ultimately fund everything, all those millions in TV money the school’s are rolling in now, that’s from the fans also. That’s why I have no problem when fans complain about a lousy product. Without the fans, there is no game.

 

They should judiciously divide the income that they have pooled among the prospects that are being considering based on their assigned value and roster needs. No more, no less. That is all.

 

Well why should a player give loyalty to a university, team, coach and fan base who is more than happy and willing to process them out if they aren't performing to some subjective standard that is put up on them. Bring in the next shiny object..... We see it every day on this site.

Also remember players have been processed out long before the portal and NIL so don't pin loyalty on players when everyone else were chasing players off first.

It's has always been what can the players do to win and if not then process them out for the next recruit.

 

I don't blame them one bit for getting what the market will bring. They're a commodity and when they are injured, worn out, etc, they are tossed in the trash.

I watched it happen to a classmate of mine in 83 who blew out his knee early in his freshman year.

 

Etiene should have been overpaid to stay!

 

Too many fans on message boards are ignoring that part you alluded to. The money is in someone’s account regardless if the team is winning, and the accounts that make the most difference are yours, mine, and the others on this forum who are not millionaires. Too many message board posters are pointing at UAA (not allowed to directly pay players) or a magical billionaire like Oregon’s Phil Knight. Look at my posts above—UF’s richest donors are #4 in endowments ($764M) because that is a sustainable business model for them. NIL is not a sustainable business model for them if we the middle class and poverty class are not willing to trade a Starbucks latte per week for Florida Victorious—win or lose. The rich folks already donate win or lose.

You are right about the Vanderbilt approach. UF generates $5.4B in tuition, research grants, etc—including the aforementioned $764M in endowments. Athletics generates $190M across all 19 sports, with $85M in football alone (FY21 numbers). The only turnips left to squeeze are the discretionary dollars of the 5.9M fans. You are right, the UF Board of Trustees is definitely prioritizing UF’s position as a top public university and research institution—that is a sustainable business model. We the 5.9M fans can choose to make NIL a sustainable business model by buckling down and donating chump change win or lose, but I do not see many message boards saying that. Those bank accounts you refer to are yours, mine, and nearly 6 million other fans’.

 

I will try to not go too "dissertation" on the subject. I will start with a sort of profound line from corporate marketing, "we know we spend twice as much money as we need for marketing, we just don't know what half to cut." Everyone knows they are spending money foolishly, but they are not smart enough to know how to make good cuts.

I use this line to describe what I think is happening at the UAA: they are attempting to be "a little bit pregnant". And we all should know that is usually a misguided concept. The game HAS changed and I do not believe anyone in charge believes it has not, or that it is a fad. But to all the silliness, there are the "creative accountants" who have run things for quite some time at certain universities. And then there are the "wannabes" who have crossed a line or two just because they are tired of the status quo. I would say the most recent example would be the Old Miss - Freeze rendition. And obviously there are plenty of examples in basketball.

But ever since the NCAA "lost" the court case against the NIL, the wannabes have been freed like a bunch of buffalo whose electric fence has been removed: it is stampede time!!! And that IS what we are seeing. But to me, there are several questions.

The first, and to me why the UAA is so "deliberate", is what will transpire in the future because this model patently is NOT sustainable? And that to me is where there are discussions as to what is the definition of "prudent." UF appears to have one and the vast majority of other universities a somewhat different one, at least those who aspire to achieve high levels of success in football (or basketball). I would plainly say that...no one knows.

But then there is an even bigger question and that is, no one other than the more recent incarnation of "elite" (read Clemson and UGa) has won anything of real value. The NIL era is still young and so, will one of the stampeding buffalo actually find the correct path to "the promised land" or will all the stampeding merely tear it all up and so no one actually gets to get it? I realize someone HAS to win each year, I mean can anyone with the desire and a HUGE credit card actually DO IT? We shall see.

And so I will ask this forum, if YOU had a huge credit card and you saw that the slot machines are getting WAY UP THERE in numbers and so you may get a KILLING if you just play enough, would you? Or is it Fool's Gold? Me? I get the siren's song, and I would LOVE to win a huge payout, but I am an enthusiast and not a true fan. I will keep my "awesome credit card" in my wallet. JMHO