I’m going to be really sad if we only get one year

He might go first round. That is a lot of money and College athletics is basically post Civil War apprenticeship slavery.  I hope he goes and makes bank. 

It wouldn’t shock me if all three guys stay for Utah (Lowell, Bolles, Marcus Williams). 

Let me break it down for you peeps. Top 15 picks get about 15-20 million dollars guaranteed.

Picks 15-30 get approx 10 million dollars guaranteed.

Second round picks get 4 million guaranteed.

Third round picks get a 4 year, 2.5 million-ish deal with zero guaranteed money. 

So, if you have first round potential, which Marcus, Bolles and Lowell have, but aren’t slated to go first round, you come back. The money is too big to leave early (look at Sealver Siliga, if he would have come back and played next to Star, he’d been a first round pick. Instead he bounced around the NFL for years on practice squads). 

All three players have first round potential, but none will go first round this year for different reasons.

Lowell – Big time disappointing season. Maybe we expect too much of him, but he had a very good season. First round picks should have amazing seasons. 

Bolles – His footwork is terrible. Which is a testament to how good he is. Plus, he has a very, very, VERY checkered past. His past alone probably keeps him from the first round. Another year to show that he has changed and also show improvement would make him a potential top 3 pick. Bolles is the perfect example of my money example above. If he leaves early, he is a second to third round pick. That’s about $0-4 million he will take if his career doesn’t pan out. If he comes back and blows up like he should, he’d be a top 3 pick and get 25+ million guaranteed. That’s life changing money. 

Marcus – He needs to improve his body. Everything else is there. Athleticism, smarts, ability. He’s just a little small. If he gets bigger, he’d be a first round pick. 

So, it wouldn’t shock me if all three come back. And if they do…whoa. Look at our DL:

Fitts, Anae, Lowell, Mokofisi…wow. 

Our LB’ers would be stacked as well with Chase Hansen, Luafatasaga (who has been unreal the last couple of games), Thompson and Hamilton. 

We could have the best front seven in the conference next year. 

Same with our OL. We’d bring back Bolles, Uhatafe, Falemaka, and Barton. Holy s**t. 

Then add in Moss and Shyne and our WR’s are improving as well. 

And then Troy Williams. 

Really good discussion of the potential for each of these guys declaring on one of the pay sites. The take on Bolles is that right now he would project as a RG or RT, and a project at LT (which is where the real money is). That would put him at a second or third round pick. Much better for HIM to stay and develop with another year at D1 level and go in as an LT the following year.

How much do Universities and the NCAA make off these kids relative to what they make them do? I don’t blame anyone that leaves for money over staying in the ridiculous NCAA. 

Also they punish kids who want to leave programs. Make them sit out a year. Yet if Whitt or Sitake or any of them want to leave for money they face nothing in way of punishment.  

How do you change it? Do you let kids transfer whenever they want? Those universities put a lot of money into kids. Teachers, meals, plane flights, gyms, etc. 

If you allow kids to transfer whenever they want, then they all end up at 4-5 schools and you have kids transferring every year. It would be chaos and would defeat the whole “student” part of the student athlete. 

Whitt can leave for any reason at any time, provided he pays the penalties for doing so. 

Now, I’m ok with paying players, but the simple reality is this: Football brings in a s**t ton of money. BUT, a lot of that money is used to support the Olympic sports. If you started to pay players, you have to pay all the players, from football down to women’s lacrosse or whatever. When you do the math on that, there isn’t that much left over. 

There are a couple schools that make money hand over fist. Most don’t. The only way to do what you want to do is to form a semi-pro league, have revenue sharing, and make players sign contracts. But, if that were to happen, you’d lose a lot of what makes college great and players would still be bound to the team they play for, and probably more so than they are now. 

So, we wouldn’t really solve anything (except that players would get paid. BUT, what good is $30,000 a year for four years when compared to an education? You’d probably be smarter to NOT get paid and get a free degree instead). 

My problem with the NCAA is that they don’t allow the kids to sell their likeness. That is borderline unconstitutional.

The TV money is getting ridiculous for College Football but maybe it will fix itself. Personally what I know about concussions I am not letting my kids play Football. Crazy reality is that Football won’t exist in 20 years maybe.  Maybe that is why the NFL ratings are getting lower in combination with other factors. 

Reality is those top 30-40 schools can afford to have kids transfer repeatedly. I think if a coach is fired or leaves a school those kids can look around and decide to leave just like the Coach did. Many kids commit to the school and value a degree. Those top 20% of athletes commit to a school because it is an avenue to the NFL. You think DT prospects commit to Utah for the education or because they get drafted first or second round from Whitts program?