This is why I may just quit watching college sports

[ProudUte]

PK Article on ksl.com

This article is about BYU. My problem is not about BYU specifically. It’s about how NIL and the portal have blown up into something totally out of control. College sports, specifically basketball, will be controlled by the schools with the deepest pockets. In BYU’s case, they have a few donors who will give 10s of millions just to see BYU succeed. One donor said, “We will not be outbid.”

At least in pro sports, there are salary caps prohibiting the biggest cities from controlling the sports. Look at the NFL; Small market teams like Kansas City and Buffalo can thrive. Look at the NBA, the smallest market, OKC, is dominating this season.

There are no controls or limits to donors in college sports. I do not blame the kids at all. They would be stupid to not take advantage of what they can get. We all know that teams are negotiating with players at other schools during the season. UConn’s coach said (during the season) that half of his players would be going into the portal, and half of those already know where they will be playing. The NCAA does nothing about this. Alabama offered Kinkaid a million to play his senior year there. Kincaid was never in the portal.

I have loved college football since I was a kid over 60 years ago. But, I am not sure that I can have the same passion about college football that I have had.

As far as BYU goes, they are doing what a number of other schools are doing, and they have the rich donors to do it. I just find it hypocritical for them since they once said they would not participate in pay-for-play. As long as rich donors pay, then it is okay. Since they are a private school, they will never disclose anything. They are spinning things in an attempt to not look as bad.

I will now get off my soapbox. 🙂

[Ute Dub]

Stop. There were very few of us pushing back against players getting paid. You guys wanted this, you cried about it, you cried for it, and you pushed ahead with this as the solution.

The players were already getting paid especially when valuing their schollie, food, room and board, training, coaching, travel, swag, and a myriad other free stuff and benefits all paid for by the school and not by their parents after tax dollars.

Now you have the cat out of the bag and you think you’re going to reign in an outside the school payment system? I’m sorry, it’s delusional to think it gets reigned back in, in my opinion.

[snorkerelli]

I agree with proudute. NIL has completely destroyed college athletics. There could have been a middle ground. Paid as employees of the school supported with donor or advertising dollars and 100k salary cap for everyone. That would have created parity and everyone could compete. And, the players would have been paid a very reasonable sum for a college kid. It’s now a free for all sh*t show and not really in line with any semblance of sportsmanship. The previous system was not fair to many players. The new system sucks balls.

[ProudUte]

I agree that the concept of NIL was good. But, it is now out of control. I do think that Ute Dub is right that we will likely not be able to reign in this mess. This is why college sports is becoming less appealing to me.

[Tony (admin)]

I wonder if/when some rich donors will stop giving the big money because of the lack of ROI or other reasons. OR do they just have so much money they could give forever and it wouldn’t matter?

[ProudUte]

I do believe that there are some people who will donate forever. Ryan Smith’s wealth is estimated at 1.4 billion and growing. If he invested 200 million an account that made him 10%, he could donate 20 million per year without feeling it. He is totally invested in BYU basketball, making BYU one of the top 5 highest paid teams in the country.

Would I be happy if Utah had a sugar daddy like Smith? I don’t think so. We always needed donors like Huntsman and Eccles for facilities, scholarships, etc. But, paying kids to be one-and-done is not good for college sports IMO.

[AZUTE]

BYU’s total basketball NIL for next season could be 25 mil or more depending on how they finish in the transfer market.

That’s basically pocket change to their wealthy boosters.

The ncaa has taken a “be careful what you wish for” approach with NIL. They completely step away from it and any regulation to govern it.

They have grabbed a bag of popcorn to watch it all burn down.

They are waiting to say “told you so” and “now you need us”.

It’s beyond out of control.

Tenn QB is holding out of spring practice for more NIL because a couple transfer QB got more money.

It’s not even really what NIL was intended for and it’s become just straight pay for play. Nobody’s name image or likeness is being used for anything.

The NCAA is just sitting back arms folding laughing their asses off.

[ProudUte]

Well said AZUTE.

[//r00t4Utes]

That TEN QB is going to be entering the portal when it opens, saw the alert from ESPN.

I am not smart enough to know how it could’ve been done, BUT I’ve always felt that the NCAA could’ve done this right way. It felt like they were so opposed and unwilling for the change that allowed players to make some money instead of taking the time and helping. They let it become this mess and wanted it to become this mess so they could sit back and throw their hands up and say, “What can we do? You got what you wanted.””

[Tednab]

Yet Ryan Smiths money hasn’t done jack for the Jazz.. you won’t see a title coming out of there anytime soon . They suck D

[Utah#1]

his #1 investment is in his alma mater using his wealth, and I believe im sure in some small measure, some Jazz revenue pouring it all into BYU’s athletic programs and why I think the Jazz suck worse than ever before. something tells me this Ryan Smith-BYU partnership didn’t just suddenly happen or evolve overnight after they joined the Big12, i think this was a plan in the making long before BYU joined the Big12. I believe, if Utah were doing this, the Utah legislature compromised of some BYU alum would be auditing/investigating the UofU’s NIL program again nonstop, but because its the TDS, they get a huge pass. in the end its pure and simple hipocrisy and evil by BYU. who knows as time moves on they could be a big part of the reason why college sports is heading toward destruction. new accusations have been reported by other Big12 teams, not named Utah, of tampering with their players. i recall them calling Utah fans liars and delusional when Utah was the victim of their corrupt activities. so my question to the TDS fanbase is are Utah, Baylor and Texas Tech fans all liars and delusional now?

i see many of you saying they have no problem with BYU doing what they are doing with NIL because everyone is doing it. my question to some of you is, just because everyone is doing it, does it make it right, especially the tampering part?

[UteFan Vineyard]

NBA has a salary cap, and a draft, so even if he wanted to outbid everyone for the Jazz to get the best roster, he wouldn’t be able to.

NIL has no cap. So those willing to pay the most (e.g. Ryan Smith) will get the best players.

[Utah#1]

for the two down votes, if you don’t mind, i’d like to know what you disagree with me on with regard to my post. what is it that you didn’t agree with me on? we agree to disagree.

[Red Son]

People are going to downvote me because they don’t like the Jazz, and this is a tangent post, but I think this is an ignorant post. It is one that someone would say if you didn’t follow.

[homer]

There have been bag men forever.
That said, unless a system is created to reign in this unconstrained mess, there will be fewer interested fans.

[AlohaUte]

I have significantly decreased my college sports watching. I’ll watch the Utes religiously, but gone are my days of watching CFB most of a Saturday.

And I also refuse to watch an SEC or B1G game. It’s my own personal boycott.

[PlainsUte]

I agree, I posted elsewhere about another team I follow where they are replacing all their starters this year and its not the first year for that. College sports once had the attraction of following promising student athletes through their college years, and there was continuity with just a fraction of the starters graduating or, occasionally leaving early for the NBA. While it was unfair to a few players that the schools were benefiting from the star players’ appeal to the fans and the donors and the students were strictly prohibited, the way the NIL deals have been twisted and blown up recently means your favorite team is now just a collection of mercenaries playing on year-to-year contracts. TDS is no different as much as they like to project they’re different, “never the highest bidder” line is laughable. Between this and my local university (I don’t live in Utah) threatening to move their games elsewhere to get the city to pay for a new arena under the guise of “economic development” has really turned me off to college basketball.

[lgt4141]

I think a lot of fans are feeling this way. Ar some point the NIL madness is going to drive fans away which will kill the sport. Just by the fact we are commenting about this I think we all feel it a little bit.

I wonder if this is one reason why the Utah Hickey Club has been so welcomed to the the community. Everyone knows they are getting paid but those guys play hard every game and don’t have an entitlement attitude.

For me following the UHC has been a breath of fresh air for a sports team to follow.

[EagleMountainUte]

I find it hilarious that the Jazz are an absolute dumpster fire while Ryan Smith is investing all them millions in TSPP basketball.

Sports in general unless it is my kids I just don’t care about much anymore. It really didn’t take me long either. I am glad that some kids are getting compensated for being talented and honing their talent. It is lame now.

[ProudUte]

I have posted before that the Jazz must do something next season or they will lose their fanbase. They have been tanking for three years now. This off-season, they must make some significant changes or the fans will no longer show up. This has gone on way too long. They have already lost me. I have not watched a minute of Jazz basketball in the last two seasons.

[//r00t4Utes]

I could post paragraphs on the Jazz as I am still a big fan, but this is a Utes site, so I usually don’t

The NBA is a different beast, and tanking is a part of the game for rebuilding teams, especially small market ones.

Ryan Smith is directly responsible for the rebranding gone wrong, which he started to fix this season and had to pay the nba for to change the uniforms again so quickly. And he’s responsible for hiring Ainge, so he’s indirectly responsible for his decisions.

This is the worst season, by design, in Jazz history all in hopes of getting Cooper Flagg. Let’s hope it pays off.

For the record, the Jazz have never picked first, have never moved up in the lottery (the ping pong balls have not been kind) only stayed in the same spot or moved back, they’ve also never won a coin flip in tie scenarios.

I could go on and get further into specifics, but I’ll stop there, sorry.

[Kellso]

It’s difficult to wrap my mind around completely tanking for three years, alienating a very supportive fan base to hope some ping pong balls fall your way. This isn’t Boston where free agents would love to play. Many more years will show the results, good or bad.

[UteNamedOg]

Does anyone know where you’d be able to find concrete data on NIL spending? There seems to be a distinct difference in payouts, with BYU opting to pay large sums for individual players, and Utah going for more of a moneyball approach. Ryan Smith rightfully gets sh*t for nosediving the Jazz until ~2035, but we may be singing a different tune on the NCAA side of things if our QB didn’t have knees and throwing hands made of yahoo security firewalls. Then we’re likely looking at a football win and a basketball win/loss; going 2 and 1 against the zoobs in widely watched sports.

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