Negative national sentiments coming?

[BD]

National columnist chimes in.

Also I’ve seen some negative X comments from Baylor fans and Alabama fans. I’ve heard that there was a reddit thread with some negative things said by national fans but I didn’t read what reddit comments were saying.

https://x.com/DanWolken/status/1910379539567456729?s=19

[Ute Dub]

People don’t like it when you beat them in recruiting? Weird.

[Rick Walker]

lol. Never the highest bidder except for every mediocre LDS recruit

[Roy Rangum]

I thought Clark Gilbert would have learned from when he said BYU wouldn’t pay to play…

While I see nothing wrong with BYU playing the same NIL game that everyone else is, pretending that you aren’t playing the game when you in fact are is such a stupid stance.

[Uteanooga]

Negative national sentiments will come if they win. No one will care if they lose.

[Utah#1]

The issue I have with TDS is they’ve always prided themselves of being morally superior to the institutions and schools in and out of the state of Utah, especially superior to the UofU in every facet of the game, specifically religion. Don’t know why? UofU could careless about religion, the #1 thing for them is bragging rights in the state, which IMO, Utah owns regardless of the Mormon faith.

TDS fell way behind in national recognition and football dominance in the state of Utah. All of a sudden, NIL was born and here came the TDS alumni and fan support with deep pockets. They pride themselves of being holier than thou and boasting about integrity, morals and values? Now they are doing the opposite. The TDS fanbased criticized Utah’s NIL program and the state legislature even audited Utah and other schools NIL programs, now BYU is in the same boat and getting exposed! Tampering with other school’s players and denying it. Now people are calling them out on their bulls*** and TDS fans trying to downplay it and say its all been blown out of proportion. BYU fans called Utah fans liars and delusional and BYU is being called on the nefarious activities because they got caught.

There’s a scripture verse that comes to mind, 1 Timothy 6:10 – “the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil…”

[BD]

Baylor transfer Rob Wright breaks his contract with Baylor and signs with byu – get this – even before he visits byu. His visit is still to come.

I mean if byu fans are to be believed and he chose byu not because of NIL money but because of the “love”, “atmosphere” etc, he must have felt all those things from his phone 1,300 miles away. Pretty cool.

Again, I don’t care if byu offers lots of NIL – they can do what they want. But they aren’t owning up to it being against what the Clark Gilbert – church commissioner over education has clearly stated. And they refuse to believe that players going there are primarily doing it for NIL money.

Lots of negative comments against byu here. And byu fans with low IQ comments trying to save face.

https://x.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1910443173437989313?s=19

[JGore]

It’s nice to see out of state programs seeing TDS for what they really are.

It was hilarious to watch the BYU-B12 love fest when they first arrived in the conference. Anyone who knows how BYU rolls knew that it would only be a matter of time before it blew up in everyone’s face. The NIL era is only gonna make it worse for them considering that they unsurprisingly have ZERO idea on how to handle it. You’ve got high level donors going on record saying TDS bball will “NEVER” be outbid on a prospect while at the same time a high ranking LDS Church & BYU official goes on a morality rant via social media touting BYU’s integrity and claims they’ll “never” be the highest bidder on ANY prospect.

Provo will NEVER be able to navigate the NIL era successfully because not only do they not possess the savvy necessary, they’re constantly at cross purposes with themselves. The rich alumni can’t help themselves, they have to tell the world that they’re funneling million$ into NIL and pound their chests that they won’t be outbid for players. Meanwhile, the church can’t let people think that, so they’ll continue to push the moral superiority agenda while claiming that the BYU experience- and not money is what’s luring all these athletes to Provo. And at the EXACT same time those 2 completely different narratives are being pushed, TDS will be busy tampering with opposing players while also using money and religious blackmail to illegally recruit athletes on missions who didn’t choose Provo the first time,

On top of all that, being an independent for 11 years allowed people to forget about just how high maintenance TDS is as a conference member. Ask MWC officials who were so sick of dealing with Provo by the time they left their conference, that NOBODY was sad to see them go even though it came on the heels of losing Utah and TCU to power conferences. Hell, MWC officials couldn’t get Provo out and Boise State in fast enough.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Great post JGore. So true. Everyone liked them when they were at the bottom and giving free ice cream to visiting fans. Id be curious to what Baylor and the other Big12 fans think now. It only took 2 years for the blue goggles to come out of the closet. I’ll bet there is a lot of circles on the dates when everyone plays BYU this year in FB and BB.

[Utah#1]

yup but i think there’s more than half of the Big12 that will turn a blind eye to any NIL evil TDS does because they like having the TDS in the Big12. the other half will circle the date and hope to destroy TDS at the home or away game to send a message you can’t buy victories no matter how much money you have, and…this is payback biotch!!!

[Ute Squatch]

Objectively, TDS has had a really great year across the board. That sucks. But it’s reality. I think some are grasping at straws with some of this stuff. I’ve seen people (elsewhere) knowingly pushing a false narrative that the church is paying for these players in the hope that such talk causes them to freak out and shut down BYU sports. We can’t beat them so let’s make stuff up in hopes we can make them go away is embarrassing. It’s crazy ex wife type behavior. I don’t think they “tampered” whatever that even means now. This Wright kid played a game at the Marriott this year. The environment was probably pretty dang good. He sees them sending a guy pro this year (probably lottery). He sees a former NBA coach who backed up the talk this year. He sees himself playing next year with the #1 player in the country and the unreal exposure that will be centered on every game. And yes, he sees a top notch NIL.

Utah had had 1 less than ideal year in football. You know what, basketball honestly was far above expectations in my opinion and we just (hopefully) upgraded our coaching staff and resources. Football was an injury filled aberration last year. We have to look in the mirror a bit. Attendance at most bb games was unacceptable. Some players alluded to it after the season. I was there. We have way too much tradition to have such paltry support for a team that was actually pretty good. TDS is playing the game with NIL by the wild rules that currently exist. We need to stop crying and play the dang game with NIL. We need to police some of our Twitter fans a big because we come off crazy and irrational by an extremely LOUD minority. I guess this looks like a lecture and I’m in no place to give a lecture. Sorry. It’s pretty much the same talk I give my son when he tries to complain they lost the game because of the refs and how it’s “not fair”. I just want to see us direct our frustration in a more useful direction like supporting the Utes.

Soapbox stepped off of.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I agree with most of your statements Squatch. BYU football achieved its success through hard work and proving to the conference they belong. Credit KS for the turn around. Basketball is a little different. It’s the hypocrisy of saying everyone wants the BYU experience and we won’t pay for players to come. Church leaders saying we won’t be the highest bidders then “allegedly” paying a kid already signed for 1 million at Baylor 3 million to come to BYU. Why not just say we have the donors and means to buy a championship. Thats no different than any other school.

Ute fans had to endure many years of BYU success in football (70s-80s) and the fallout from it being shoved in your face for many years. Payback was in the 2000’s when things turned the other way in our favor and we took the same opportunity to retaliate. The older Ute fans can relate to the hate that gets built up over many years. BYU fans are finally getting their payback. No different than us when we started beating them every year. The big difference is social media where people hide behind a phone or computer to spew hate and bigotry to the other fan bases. Every fan base has idiots that don’t represent the majority and say stupid things to get everyone riled. I’m on Ute hub because this site represents my fan experience and I enjoy interacting with like minded people. Thank Tony!!

[Ute Squatch]

Agree. I just wish we didn’t talk about them so much. I know rivals and all that but I really like threads like those on favorite Ute team or favorite Ute player or ANY factual update or news on practice, players the program. Other fan bases legitimately make fun of us because of the petty, loud, jaded ex voices that we don’t police.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Nobody cared when we weren’t in the same conference and we were winning. Personally I felt vindicated for the past when we joined the pac12 and beat them every year. It’s an unhealthy rivalry because of religion. Growing up in Salt Lake as a non- Mormon i witnessed bigotry from BOTH sides.

It sometimes puts Ute LDS fans in an awkward position. Do you root for the school you attended or is in your backyard or based on your under garments? I love our LDS fans and have great respect for them. They have to deal with both sides in their daily lives. They are able to separate church and entertainment. We can all do better to do the same.

[Ute Squatch]

“Do you root for the school you attended or is in your backyard or based on your under garments? I love our LDS fans and have great respect for them.”

Your first sentence would denote anything but respect for our LDS fans. Geez man.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

What is so disrespectful? “We can’t beat them so let’s make stuff up to make them go away” Your words not mine. My point being wearing garments doesn’t make you a BYU fan. I have many friends that went to the U or grew up in Salt Lake being Utah fans that are LDS. Many on this site. BYU fans mocking LDS fans for going to the U or rooting for the U is disrespectful. Ask Krindor. Geez man.

[GameForAnyFuss]

As one of those ALUFs – as they like to call my kind – I have never once felt awkward about supporting Utah or disliking BYU-Provo Campus. The distinction between belief and school affiliation is very black and white in my mind.

[JGore]

Squatch,

I agree that it’s been a great run for BYU recently, but that’s about all I can agree with. I honestly don’t know anybody personally that actually thinks making up stuff about BYU will lead the church to freak out and shut it down. That’s some next level, tinfoil hat stuff right there if there’s folks out there that really believe that’s a thing.

As far as the basketball player from Baylor is concerned, it’s not Ute fans or Baylor fans pushing a false agenda due to sour grapes. There’s media members reporting that prior to entering the portal, this young man had already signed a $1 million NIL deal to return to Baylor for next season before being contacted by BYU and being told that they’d pay him $3 million if he walked away from his deal with Baylor and jumped to BYU. NIL deals are non binding so the kid gladly took the extra $2 million to come to Provo.

I understand that alot of schools are doing exactly what BYU is doing, but as is almost always the case, BYU does it while actively denying that’s how they operate and is all too quick to act persecuted and outraged when they’re outed. It’s an old and tired act and they deserve to be called out for it.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Well said.

[HATUman]

Let me be blunt: I’m not going to hand over my hard-earned money so some 20-year-old kid can get a six-figure payout to play college ball. I already support my team the way any real fan should—by showing up when I can, buying tickets, wearing the gear, and staying loyal through wins and losses. But now we’re being told that if we really care, we need to cough up more cash to pay players? No thanks.

These athletes already get more than most college students could dream of: full scholarships, top-tier facilities, training, meals, housing, and access to massive future earning potential. And now, some are pulling in hundreds of thousands—millions, even—because the system’s turned into a free-for-all bidding war? It’s out of control.

If BYU or any other fanbase wants to turn their program into a minor league team funded by desperate donors, let them. I’m not playing that game. You can’t shame me or guilt me into thinking I owe these athletes anything more than the support I’ve already been giving for years.

Call me old school, call me stubborn—I don’t care. Until there’s some structure, some sanity, and a shred of fairness brought back to college sports, don’t expect me to treat NIL like a church donation plate.

[TomahawkCruise]

Agree 100%.

This is basically what I mean when I say I don’t want Utah to be one of these teams that tries to spend their way to relevance. If BYU wants to do that, be my guest. It’s not a good look for any program, much less one that exists (on paper at least) to support a church’s mission.

[utefansince79]

Social media brings out the very worst qualities in many people.

[Central Coast Ute]

Honestly, it might take a smaller school with rich donors to get the big boys to make some rules. Like it or not, it was byu that made it impossible for other schools to win the natty in football after 1984. If they keep pumping out money to kids that other schools want, they may to put a cap on NIL. Who knows, I’m probably wrong.

[The Miami Ute]

I would agree with you but for the fact that I see no legal way for big institutions to put a cap on NIL. I’m not a lawyer, but if the bluebloods tried doing that, it would surely be challenged in court with threats of antitrust, prevention of commerce, etc…arguments. I always thought that once the genie was out of the bottle, the potential for unintended consequences would increase at a geometric rate. My take is, for example, that most of the SEC teams are located in some of the poorest states in the nation and that the infusion of outside money would be the great equalizer in the quest for talent acquisition. The way the system is set up now, a guy like Larry Ellison could make the University of Illinois the most powerful college football program in the nation, and there’s really little anyone could do about it because you’re not going to outbid Larry Ellison unless you’re the Saudi Sovereign Fund…

[Central Coast Ute]

Ok so maybe I should not have said NIL. What they can do is go to a pro model since this is a pro sport now. Have the players sign contracts and make them employees. At least then you don’t have kids holding teams hostage.

[Uteanooga]

NIL can not be capped any more than Lebron’s endorsements. It is that simple. The previous rules limiting college athlete’s ability to control their name and likeness were deemed illegal by the judicial system.

New rules would have to take some other form- but endorsement money is out of the barn, running around the neighborhood, and isn’t going back into the barn.

[TomahawkCruise]

I couldn’t care less what BYU is doing. I only care about what Utah is doing.

It really is that simple for me, and I encourage the rest of you folks to adopt that mindset.

It’s OK to talk BYU if it’s before or after we play them, but beyond that I just don’t see the point.

Let them do whatever they want, so what? They wanna try and act like Duke or North Carolina? Let them. It’s very unlikely it will be worth the ROI.

I said it several weeks ago, about NIL and basketball players, and so I’ll repeat. I actually don’t want Utah paying insane amounts to blue chip one and done’ers or top transfers. The optics on it are bad and it doesn’t guarantee you a thing, except that that player will head for the exit at this time next year. If some blue blood schools wanna play that way, fine, that’s always the type of program they’ve been anyway. If BYU wants to try and buy their way to “blue blood” basketball status, fine. It won’t work. They are still BYU and nobody will ever confuse them for a blue blood. But that’s just not who Utah is, and it never has been.

I’d prefer we just try to excel at what we’ve been successful at doing. Developing a culture that can sustain long term success and respectability while putting good players on the court sprinkled in here and there with a potential nba prospect.

Some of you may not believe me, but if their top recruit guy next year (don’t remember his name) came out publicly and said he will flip from BYU to Utah if Utah matches the BYU offer, my position would be that I’d hope Utah says no. I’m sure he will be valuable to BYU next season in various ways, but it’s a virtual certainty that he won’t be worth the money they’ll be paying him.

A lot of negatives come with trying to play fast and loose with the system and it’s virtually impossible to get by unscathed, as the folks in Provo are starting to find out. The bottom line is, Utah is my alma mater, I care about the institution, and I want them to succeed in athletics as much as anyone. But not in the lazy, ham-handed, flippant, open-checkbook fashion that BYU is attempting right now.

[Utah#1]

AMEN! GO UTES!!!

[Utah#1]

My hope for the 2025 season is for Whitt, Jason Beck and Morgan Scalley field the best Utah football team in years, go into LES undefeated (or with 1 loss) and embarrass the hell out of the Big12 prima donas on their home field and show the college football world it doesn’t pay to lie, cheat and steal from your rival or anyone else for that matter.

[BD]

Seeing more and more of this. Funny.

https://x.com/stanbino7/status/1910493875757600785?s=19

[MDUte]

Hey all, it’s been a minute since I was last on UteHub. I’m not sure if anyone will find my post helpful or not but I’ve noticed a lot of misinformation on social media in regards to NIL. I know there’s been a lot of hand wringing towards TSPP because of their splashy additions to their basketball team…I get it. But don’t confuse that to mean TSPP has an NIL advantage over Utah. Yes, the big TSPP donors have chosen to go all in on MBB. However, that is NOT the case in football. Utah has a 3 to 1 advantage in NIL when it comes to football. Our NIL is close to $14M whereas TSPP’s collective has been reported to be around $5M or just shy thereof. And it shows when you look at the avg/recruit talent rating across both rosters. Look no further than QB (the most important position on the field) and they decided to bring in a QB from the JC route who’s only real opportunity to play D1 was TSPP. He went to Provo for free just to have an opp. Utah was paying Cam $2M and is now paying Dampiers around $1.5M.

Utah is FAR more organized when it comes to Football NIL with a budgeted NIL amount available to spend towards every position group. TSPP is only able to utilize limited NIL resources to bring in a splashy addition here and there at positions of need (ie Tanuvasa). Give them credit for WAY overachieving last year with lower-level talent. And they are seeing an uptick in recruiting this year as a result along with more donors pitching in NIL. But they’re still FAR behind Utah in this regard. We all know why our last 2 years haven’t gone as expected. And we all know Utah would’ve likely won the B12 last year had Cam not gotten hurt…but that’s football. All reports out about Dampiers and the new offense as well as this year’s defense are OUTSTANDING! We have absolutely hit the jackpot with Beck & Dampiers and Utah’s going to bounce right back in a very big way this year…I am completely convinced!

And for all of the basketball lovers on the board, there’s great news to be excited about beyond just the hiring of Alex Jensen. Our biggest basketball donors have stayed on the sidelines for the last several years because they didn’t agree with Harlan’s hiring of Craig Smith. Now that they’ve finally gotten the leverage needed to get Harlan to replace Smith with Alex Jensen, they’ve committed $7.5M to MBB. That might not be what TSPP is spending on MBB but that’s more than enough to jump start next year’s team (before the new Clearinghouse is instituted on July 1st) with an influx of talent and make Utah competitive right away as Alex and staff put together this roster. Bringing Utah basketball back will be exciting for all Utah fans. And the excitement will only continue to grow from here on both with the product on the court as well as Utah building a new Huntsman Center. It’s still and always will be a great day to be a Ute!

First things first…time to have a HUGE year in football! Let’s win us another conference championship and punch our ticket to the CFP…Go Utes!!

[TomahawkCruise]

Great update, thanks for that.

I appreciate the info on basketball, because that is where most of my Utah fandom is. I love FB too, but hoops will always be #1 for me.

Glad to hear things are looking up for Jensen and Co. I’m extremely confident he will be a great coach for us and we will soon be trending up.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Great post! Can you shed any light on what’s going on on the basketball recruiting front? I knew our NIL purse had grown significantly, but it’s nice to see a number. So can you tell me anything about how and when we might see it applied?

[MDUte]

Yes, AJ and Staff are building the roster from scratch. They are focused on bringing in the best talent possible at each position. Getting Terrence Brown was a huge initial piece to get the ball rolling. They have some big headliners scheduled to come in on visits (Elijah Moore, Tyler Betsey, and Kelvin Odih). And they just added another big piece James Okonkwo from Akron. Coach Chillious is one of the best recruiters in the country! And we are bringing in some serious dudes to play at Utah. I realize fans wanted to see some local kids like Whalin stay and be successful. But honestly, we need to think bigger than that and we need to do better than that. And that’s exactly what our coaches are doing! We need a roster that can compete with teams like Houston, Texas Tech, and yes…TSPP. We need DUDES! And they’re coming. Be patient as it’s a work in progress to get the right kids here. But we have until July 1st (when the new Clearinghouse for NIL begins) to spend big on NIL. So that’s a target date to be aware of. I’m completely convinced and optimistic that the program is already well on its way to “coming back”. The goal is to get back to the Tourney in Year 1. Lofty goal for sure but it’s absolutely possible. Go Utes!!

[TomahawkCruise]

I definitely think it’s more than possible to make the tourney in year one. Now more than ever.

Terrence Brown is going to be a star for us. That dude has explosive athleticism and can score in buckets. We have needed a PG like him for a long time and now we have one! I’m excited about him. He was one of the top scorers in the portal.

Okonkwo is also a good addition because he is a rebounding monster. He had several big rebound games last year at Akron, like 13-16 in one game. Think of how great it would be to have a player who cleans up the glass like him and Dawes.

I really am hoping Odih commits to Utah, and with Chillious being his former coach I think we have a good shot at landing him. And he would only be a FRESHMAN. Would love to get such a young talent!

Now is an exciting time to be a Utah basketball fan!

[EagleMountainUte]

I am really thinking about buying tickets to MBB for the first time since 2011. Alex Jensen is what I grew up with and a dream come true because he always seemed like an on court coach.

[EagleMountainUte]

Social media is really unkind to any sort of moral stance an organization attempts to profess anymore. It is just too easy to identify the cognitive dissonance in modernity.

[Author]

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