I heard that BYU’s basketball team is one if the highest paid in America

Welcome to Ute Hub › Forums › They So Poo Poo › I heard that BYU’s basketball team is one if the highest paid in America

Viewing 6 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • 03/27/2025 at 2:43 PM #242318
      4
      ProudUte
      Participant

      BYU is a private school and will not dislose anything.

      I find this all interesting since the church authorities said they would not get involved in pay-to-play when NIL came out. I guess if a few rich billionaires pay the bill – they don’t have a problem with it. The only thing I know for sure is that the top recruit in the country that will play next year is being paid 7.5 million. Some have suggested that BYU may be the highest-paid team in the country in the 25-26 season.

      Why does this concern me? We compete with BYU in a lot of things not on the court or the field, i.e., fans, TV revenue, TV time, donors, recruits, and more. BYU’s basketball program is in a much better place than ours. I love Jensen as the new head coach, but we will need much more. We need people like Gail Miller, John Huntsman Jr., and others to pony up.

      I would say that I would boycott the Jazz since most of BYU’s money comes from the owner. The only problem is that I have not watched a minute of the Jazz in at least five years. 🙂

    • 03/27/2025 at 2:48 PM #242319
      6
      Kellso
      Participant

      Who?

    • 03/27/2025 at 3:22 PM #242320
      1
      Larry B
      Participant

      Just wait until that money starts flowing into their football program. The current state of NIL and the transfer portal is our path to irrelevance.

      Like you mentioned, Jensen is an awesome hire for our basketball team. But until the donors start really competing in NIL, the coach won’t matter.

      • 03/27/2025 at 3:31 PM #242321
        3
        torgy4three
        Participant

        I don’t believe Jensen would take the job without a substantial increase in NIL compensation. Several reports have indicated that the NIL has been significantly enhanced.

    • 03/27/2025 at 3:32 PM #242322
      1 3
      FountainofUte
      Participant

      I feel that some Ute fans have made a boogeyman out of Ryan Smith. He’s not the head of the snake. If you removed every penny he donates to BYU you’d still have the same problem.

      So, boycott the Jazz and UHC. If you’re into those at all you’re kinda only spiting yourself.

      Yes, NIL could be problematic for the U. It kinda is what it is. I think we’ll compete okay, but we can’t keep up with the deepest pockets in the NCAA.

      • 03/27/2025 at 7:10 PM #242326
        Rick Walker
        Participant

        Yes he is. Ryan Smith is definitely not the only donor but he is the biggest and most influential. You really think Smith didn’t convince a bunch of his buddies from school to pony up some money? Ryan Smith is the guy that literally stated he’d be pay for Kevin young and now their basketball coach makes than their football coach. That’s not just from athletic department revenue.

        • 03/27/2025 at 8:48 PM #242329
          Virginia Ute
          Participant

          Smith is not even close to the biggest BYU donor, sadly. I’ve heard from a friend who knows their CFO who said that they tons of donors that do more than him and wish he’d do more.

          The overall point of this thread still stands, though, Smith or no Smith.

        • 03/27/2025 at 8:48 PM #242330
          Virginia Ute
          Participant

          Smith is not even close to the biggest BYU donor, sadly. I’ve heard from a friend who knows their CFO who said that they tons of donors that do more than him and wish he’d do more.

          The overall point of this thread still stands, though, Smith or no Smith.

    • 03/27/2025 at 5:33 PM #242324
      1
      Tony (admin)
      Keymaster

      Moved to the They So Poo Poo category.

    • 03/27/2025 at 6:09 PM #242325
      4
      bopahull
      Participant

      I think you have to admit, whatever TSPP is doing it sure seems to be working. Congrats to them for their first sweet sixteen in a long while.

      Hopefully we will be back there soon.

    • 03/27/2025 at 8:50 PM #242331
      3
      TomahawkCruise
      Participant

      Yeah I share some mild concern for the influx of money to BYU athletics, but not a lot.

      The reason is, buying a bunch of players to come to BYU doesn’t guarantee them any success. If it did, a LOT of big schools who are already playing that game would be killing it. They’re not. Only some are.

      Yeah, you have to pay to be competitive, but that’s it. And Utah will pay to be competitive. After that, a lot depends on the coaches and other things like location, environment and personal connections. And don’t forget that Provo is still a tough sell for non LDS players and the honor code will never not be an issue.

      BYU did well with their moves this year, and making the Sweet Sixteen is nothing to sneeze at. However, they got curbstomped by another team tonight and will probably continue to get beat this deep in the tourney. Maybe a very occasional season they could do better, but they aren’t gonna be THAT much better off than Utah.

      I don’t care what BYU does, I only care about what Utah does. And that’s as far as my concern goes. And right now Utah is doing a lot to right the ship, and that will pay off in the near future.

      • 03/28/2025 at 7:55 AM #242340
        1
        ProudUte
        Participant

        I don’t care bout BYU unless it affects us. My point is that we compete with BYU off the court for many things, like:

        Donors (this is huge; we need John Hunstman Jr. to step up like his dad did.)
        Fans (When Utah was on top of the world in 1998, many fans who were on the fence, became Utah fans. We need butts in the seats.)
        TV time (In football and basketball, BYU got a lot of media time locally and nationally. This affects the two items above.)
        Games on TV – (We want our games to be on ESPN, Fox, ABC, etc. If we are not playing well we end up in ESPN+.)
        Recruits (We still recruit many of the same kids, especially in football.)

        I do not like it – but face it, we have to compete with BYU every day, especially now that we are in the same conference. Competing on the field is one thing, but we are two institutions 40 miles apart that are both in the same metro area and TV market. Most rivals are not in the same situation we are. Of course, there are some, like UCLA and USC, but there aren’t a lot.

        I would prefer not to be concerned or thinking about BYU, but we have to, and I know Utah’s administration is concerned about the items listed above.

        On a side note – I think the Eccles money we have received is beginning to fizzle because the next generation of Eccles are not as interested in pouring money into Utah athletics.

        • 03/28/2025 at 11:34 AM #242347
          1
          TomahawkCruise
          Participant

          If Utah was still going down the apathetic Craig Smith-type road, I’d share your concern more. But I don’t think they are.

          If in three years the disparity remains the same, I’ll reconsider my outlook. But I don’t think it will be.

          And I’m not remotely concerned about football. Utah administrators and donors know how important it is to be relevant there.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 6 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.