I don’t know that we have staff whose job it is to make these deals happen. It was only very recently the state even allowed the school to point the kids in the right direction. We have staff that helps the kids manage the money and deals once they have them.
Up until recently, they weren’t even allowed to direct them to [specific NIL]. Now they can, and probably do, but I’m not sure I’d call that having “staff that makes these deals happen”. I’d call it staff that point them in the direction of the people who make these deals happen. The staff itself still has very little control over these deals, by law. They can’t broker the deals. I agree that we should have staff recruiting the big money. We always have, but now we have to convince them to donate their money to kids who may or may not pan out, and they’ll now have to give their money away without getting their name on a building somewhere. They also won’t be racking up any booster points for these donations.
Bingo...it's a difficult proposition. Not too mention the UAA still needs their income as well so point those revenue sources in another direction is a fine line as well
I made a post on a separate thread that no coach has done more with less than Larranaga over the last 20 years. Well, CMW is on the opposite end of the spectrum for me in that regard. I'll leave it at that - I have an unwritten rule that I don't talk about ex's - and I just broke that rule. lol
I saw a great example of NIL the other day on a D.C. tv station. It was a UVA basketball player doing a commercial for The Good Feet Store in a UVA basketball uniform. Is that sort of NIL permitted in Florida?
Billy's culture of winning with high character kids who loved playing for UF is dead. All of the top players wanted a check, under the table. Billy saw the wave of greed overwhelming the sport and bolted. These players still do, now over the table and will transfer with their parents and handlers encouraging them to "show me the money". No one will watch this year's Final Four. Book it. Like NASCAR, the NBA and last year's golf collapse, the sport is dying.
UF has a NIL rule that any athlete using the Gator logo or uniform or similar image must get it approved first.
Your points are valid, but I think viewership will be great despite the lack of big market teams and big name teams. Cbb regular season will continue to be ignored, maybe even more so, but March is a spectacle that people absolutely love.
Not willing to risk KJ's life is not being a coward. the arrogant fans of pUKe will disagree since if UK is not in the Final 4 and winning championships on a regular basis, just making the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 is decidedly "mediocre".
The school isn’t risking KJ’s life, he is risking his life. Every athlete is risking injury or death when they step on the court, to varying degrees. Why must we use such hyperbolic language? Is a school forcing him to play against his will? Clearly, he was more than healthy enough to play and thrive this year, so I think it’s time for you to accept that this was the wrong position. As far as UK fans, I don’t really care what they think.
He got 7 years to improve and never did. He was also snakebit with injuries and bad luck, however, so that might have had an impact.
The law applied to all schools equally, public or private. The difference is which institutions or boosters decided to willfully ignore a toothless law.
How many top 5 seeds did he get? That is a top 25 regular season. Solid although we need a couple top 2-3 seeds sprinkled in there. 6-7-10 seeds… meaning top 40-50… is not a good season. That should be a down season for most
I think the difficulty in evaluating Coach White is that he seemed to do less with more- but on the other hand, he did a pretty good job of getting the “more” to come to UF in the first place. So overall, results were above average, but we ( at least I ) was increasingly left with the nagging feeling that we underperformed, and that the results were trending downward
You have to be patient. These things are cyclical. As long as you are consistently in there, that is top level stuff. I think we tend to have unrealistic expectations that you must be a perennial Elite 8 team to be elite. No. In college basketball, elite is consistent tournament appearances and occasional deep runs.
We lost our best player (KJ) the year we looked like White was about to turn the corner. That matters.