Should The Gators Over-pay for Players?

It’s up to thee guys writing checks. I’ll send my lunch money for the backup long snapper

 

Josh Pate said on his live show tonight that a P5 HC told him recently it would take $7-$9mil to field a top 10 team now, and it’s going up, fast.

Have a nice day.

 

Less than I expected.

 

I could say us Gator Great Unwashed are cheap, but I would postulate that we are "efficient" with our funds. We want a good/great product (let's call it Benz envy) and don't mind buying one if one were to come along, but when what you see coming down the shoot are Pontiac Sunbird wannabes, the credit card gets firmly stuck in the back pocket.

I prefer the Camry model: not elite, but uses the Lexus R&D to be invented well. And in football, I plainly don't see any of those either. Or should I say ones whose price tag doesn't reflect a Mazerati.

 

It is still January. Wait a week.

 

Kind of the chicken or the egg. Fans don’t want to financially support until they see wins, but wins are hard to come by with lesser talent. I think most believe we have also not maximized our talent, but by keeping the card in our pocket we are simply making the future more difficult. Cfb has evolved into a pretty crummy situation

 

Sure, I get that. But someone(s) must be pushing the renovation. It isn’t just stricklin who came up the the idea.

 

There is an interview with Scott Stricklin on a competing forum/ podcast that goes over a lot of the points brought up here.

• UF administration considered all possibilities with respect to stadium upgrades. They considered building a new one at a different location, upsizing at the current location, downsizing at the current location, and doing the bare minimum in cost. The contractors will not respond with their plan until later this year, so any talk of Stricklin being adamant about downsizing or moving the stadium is just hearsay at this point. The podcast host explicitly asked the question and we got an honest response.
• Stricklin gave his thoughts on NIL, applicability of an NFL model to college sports, and the legal challenges with administration participation in NIL. He gave a good defense of UAA and the UF Board of Trustees’ investments in things they are allowed to invest in (which is not NIL).
• Stricklin reiterated the point that with 6 million fans and 500 thousand alumni there is no reason Florida cannot compete in both NIL (fan donations) and endowments (athletic facilities, engineering/ medical research, etc). They are not mutually exclusive, nor are they legally allowed to be linked together

 

Reminds me of a meeting I had with George Steinbrenner back in the 90's when we were doing a renovation to the training facility. We were talking about budget for a therapy pool and he said "I don't want a Chevy, and I don't want a Cadillac, I want a Buick... or an Olds". Spoken just like on Seinfeld.

 

Lots of misinformation floating around here. Stricklin addressed this in an interview with some pointed questions. BHG is one of the oldest stadiums in college sports. The genesis of the 2024 renovations is an aggregate of missed repairs that were ignored since 2003 and the recent move to the standalone football facility.

 

Not a bad take at all. But again, I think we all see, at best, the Camry with a Mazerati sticker. And so, do we buy in, or do we sit? Methinks until further notice, we sit for the prices to come down. JMHO

 

I heard a new stadium was more like a bil

 

IMO, what is being said has very little in the way of real solutions. Double and even triple talk, just to sound profound and up-to-date.

Until I see something WAY more advanced than my mind is currently capable (think private sector space travel and financing), if you want a "modern" stadium at the U of F, you have to build an entirely new one. Otherwise, you are over-suggesting and under-producing. And likely spending HUGE amounts of money for what is best described as structural shoring and paint. The size of the stadium and concrete aisles, floors, and walls IS what limits the possibilities.

 

See, we should have built an erector set like Joke Shambles. Would be much easier to change.

 

Stricklin has been on that podcast before, so you can go through and find his proposed solutions. I will not link those interview here because I think it violates forum rules, but I will summarize the solutions he has proposed from the perspective of what he is allowed to do as an athletic director:

• Problem: the stadium is in need of repairs, and it is desired to seek methods of making use of vacated space (due to the standalone facility) while also considering all possible solutions to maintaining capacity and environment. Solution: let a contract and allow bidders to propose solutions. Action: UF conducted independent studies years ago, which shaped the request for proposal (RFP), UF selected a winning architect in December 2023, and that team will scope the work and provide options to meet that RFP requirements in early CY2024.
• Problem: Florida is losing the NIL bidding wars. Solution: The University of Florida employees will follow NCAA bylaws and not become linked directly to pay-for-play or inducement. Action: UF officials stayed away from Gator Collective and Jaden Rashada, and that may have saved UF from a Level I NCAA violation. At worst, UF could get slapped with a Level III violation...which is why Gator Collective and Gator Guard were scrapped a year ago in favor of Florida Victorious (with better management).

I am not saying that Stricklin can not do more, but he is doing everything he knows he is allowed to do, and that is not enough for Gator fans on message boards who think he has more power.

Stricklin is listed as a partner with Florida Victorious, so he must believe in it. He could be a little more aggressive in pushing it, but I doubt Gator fans are going to like the critical solution with FV. Florida has a rather low NIL participation rate for a school with 500,000 alumni and 6 million fans.

 

Absolutely nothing wrong with what you have posted. I never said he is strictly a double-talker, but what IS transpiring as it relates to the stadium, is not being very sound logically. What you are postulating is basically that they don't want to be the bad guys, and so they are going to go to the "experts" and let THEM be the bad guys via being the messenger. And that is okay, as long as they then don't talk themselves in something akin to structural shoring and paint. Those days are long gone. They get paid the big bucks for a reason.

And since this is more of a NIL thread than stadium issues, I think where plenty of folks here are postulating (and perhaps correctly) is that if all we do is spend money to put lipstick on a pig (non-compliant stadium), maybe the Grand Poobas of financial viability will re-appropriate funds away from "noble" construction causes and towards the new reality of NIL. I can say with absolute certainty that I have NO CLUE as to what is their priorities for their monies. I can only speak for mine.