“We can never become a place where the culture is pay to play.”

[BD]

Something is off here.

Either that church leader that made that statement is not aware of Ryan Smith’s current endeavors (I doubt it) to make BYU exactly that (pay to play) or Smith and the university are turning a blind eye to a church General Authority. (A big No-No if you’re BYU.)

DesNews article

[Ute Dub]

"You can buy anything in this world with money."

– BYU basketball https://t.co/KHaFTOMoYT

— Spencer Horton (@SpencerHort_) October 23, 2024

[Rick Walker]

I’m sure whatever Ryan Smith did to bring Kevin young here technically follows their rules but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was paying the coach out of his own billionaire pocket on top of whatever the school can pay him. But BYU also does a good job getting people to their athletic events and selling cougar tails so they could very easily have good salaries on top of that.

[Roy Rangum]

It’s interesting to me that Gilbert would directly say: “Coaches’ salaries are internally funded. They are not funded by donors despite all the rumors and all the speculation,” Elder Gilbert said. “They are funded by athletics and from athletic revenue and are completely under the control of the university.”

I’m not sure BYU basketball brings in enough revenue to cover Kevin young’s 30 million dollar contract plus all the other expenditures for basketball, which means that either the basketball team is being subsidized by the football team, or, school money from outside athletics is funding it (which suggests tithing could be going towards the salary).

Of all the ways to look at it, to me it’s the least problematic to say, “yup, we have a wealthy donor that wants to pay this guys salary”.

And if a donor wants to pay the coaches salary, why not let them? I have no problems with a rich guy supporting his Alma Mater. I just wish we had more rich guys of our own supporting the U.

[RustyShackleford]

The church is not using tithing dollars to to fund athletics. However that is the issue with BYU having big NIL money. People are going to say that they are using tithing dollars no matter what. It’s bad press for the church. I wouldn’t be surprised that if it becomes a big enough story that they put a cap on it or something. I just wish we had someone like smith willing to pump millions and millions into the program!

[Roy Rangum]

I agree that I believe the LDS church when they say they aren’t using tithing for sports. That said, to pretend that donors aren’t playing a role in Kevin young’s salary is not a smart take in my opinion, as if it’s not donors, people will rightfully ask where else it is coming from.

[BSC8]

I think there is a difference between “pay to play” and “pay for play.” Ryan Smith and the collectives are paying the players for play. Paying to play would imply players are allowed to play at BYU for money reasons when they wouldn’t otherwise be eligible.

[BD]

Seems to me byu donors are tying to get this guy to come to byu to play. They are offering up to $4.5 million. I have a hard time thinking this isn’t some form of “pay to play”.

Multiple sources tell @On3sports that No. 1 recruit AJ Dybantsa is expected to land an NIL package north of $3M and could get as high as $4M.

A source close to BYU said, “4 to $4.5 million is what they are prepared to pay.”

More: https://t.co/C5kyg92zQV pic.twitter.com/YrfXsECWVo

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) October 22, 2024

[chinngiskhaan]

his just being nitpicky about your word usage. Pay to play is typically a phrase used for games/events that require you to pay to participate, or require you to pay to actually have a chance to compete (Again, as a player). Pay FOR play, according to BSC8 would mean teams paying players in exchange FOR them playing for BYU.

Its a useless distinction, but that was his argument.

[TomK]

“Paying to play would imply players are allowed to play at BYU for money reasons when they wouldn’t otherwise be eligible.

I would say:

Paying to play would imply players choose to play at BYU for money reasons when they wouldn’t otherwise choose to play at BYU.

No way that guy chooses BYU if not for the NIL money.

Yes its pay to play.

[UTE98]

Pay for play? I’d love it if Cam were paid NIL money for playing the past two seasons. I said it last year and got lambasted. JJ contributed more to Utah’s success last year than Rising, which is an easy claim when Rising never played but collected NIL. I was told Cam’s potential was why he was getting paid and he’d make more difference. Well I admit he did. Positively, he played two games worth AND he was part of the reason JJ left, reportedly. I admit I did not consider Cam’s potential negative impact and I was wrong.

[NorthernUte]

Majority of this thread reeks of jealousy… let’s not stoop down to their level.

[RoboUte]

I don’t think this thread would’ve been started if it wasn’t BYU but this sort of thing still has fans of college sports feeling very unsure. I also don’t think that’s out of line, I have doubts surrounding how conducive to competitive sports the NIL is in its current state.

[lgt4141]

Aren’t fans of every team except the blue bloods worried about how NIL will affect their team?

[NorthernUte]

Agreed, as do I. I do enjoy, despite not loving all the changes, talks about how NIL will play a role in the landscape of college sports as well, but just didn’t love that we started a thread about how TSPP is “breaking their own rules”

[BD]

” just didn’t love that we started a thread about how TSPP is “breaking their own rules”

BYU fans trash LDS Ute fans all the time. When BYU “breaks their own rules” it is utter hypocrisy when their fans support it.

[NorthernUte]

Therefore proving my point from my post earlier, let’s not stoop down to their level.

[BD]

Maybe you can ask Tony to eliminate the “They So Poo Poo” category so we can pat ourselves on the back as we don’t “stoop down to their level”.

Come on, this is what the TSPP category is for. We actually don’t have too many posts in this category as compared to all the others.

[Tony (admin)]

Fetching fetchers.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

It’s gone from the BYU experience and not paying players to here’s a few million and you only have to deal with our quirky rules for a year or less. Just sayin.

[Stone]

Lots of the criticisms here seem to be envy and a misunderstanding of NIL.

I think every fan base wishes they had a Phil Knight or Ryan Smith as a booster. I sure do. That said, I think NIL has caused my interest in college sports to diminish–I am still a HUGE fan, but my interest has certainly not increased since NIL. Because the genie is never going back into the bottle, at this point, I would prefer college football just become a semi-pro league that is affiliated with a university, and make the players employees with salaries and contracts. Although, technically, that would not necessarily change the NIL payments because those are separate from salaries, the same way sponsorships and salaries are separate for NFL and NBA players. Which goes to my next point.

As for the statement that BYU will not pay to play, people need to remember that NIL is not a school paying players to play. It is a booster paying the player as a sponsor. BYU can legitimately claim that they are not paying players to play. Utah can make the same claim. But that does not mean players are not being paid. NIL simply means that players are free to make contracts outside of the school for use of their Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) with anyone. I find nothing contradictory with the statement by the BYU dude.

[BD]

“I find nothing contradictory with the statement by the BYU dude.”

He’s actually not a “BYU dude”. He’s a high-ranking church leader that has “stewardship” over BYU and other church educational endeavors – at least it appears to me.

You’re right in that BYU doesn’t directly pay. That isn’t the point.

The point is that the high-ranking church leader said “culture of pay to play”. While that is somewhat of a vague statement, I can’t see how a player choosing to play at BYU because the BYU boosters won a bidding war over other programs isn’t BYU participating in a “culture of pay to play” regardless of who does the paying. It absolutely is exactly that – a culture of it regardless of who is actually paying.

The point is that BYU is appearing to go against one of their church leaders, and their fans are fully supporting it. That’s not something they do very often.

[Utah]

It gets worse. BYU leaders can step in and not allow Ryan Smith to throw money at this kid.

This is BYU/LDS Church. Take the moral high ground, have someone else toss money around, and tell people YOU didn’t pay the money and YOU are still moral…

This is straight out of Gordon B Hinkley’s playbook.

[Uteanooga]

Sounds about right. 3 mil to go somewhere good or 4.5 mil to go to BYU. Yep.

[silverliningsurfer]

Like many things the church says, it’s pretty two-faced and surface level. They are so desperate to project a certain image while their actions tell a different story.

Definitely wish Utah had NIL donors like Ainge and Smith seem to be becoming for BYU, especially for basketball, but let’s not pretend a future top-10 NBA draft pick would ever willingly go to Provo if he wasn’t being paid. I wouldn’t care as much if they were honest about this, but the fact that they try to sell one thing and do another is really irritating, imo. They’re not doing anything that other schools aren’t, but it’s just another example of the “holier than thou” moral high ground nonsense they try to sell.

[Utah]

This is who the LDS Church is. They are a PR machine that knows how to make a lot of money.

[NorthernUte]

Someone sounds a little bitter lol

[utefansince79]

Could get very ugly. The transfer from Real Madrid (hoops not soccer, and they are a damned good professional basketball squad considered to be one of the very best European teams) will likely be paid far more in Provo then he made with his former team.

College sports, in particular hoops, are going to be about which schools have donors/sponsors with the most $$$$ to pay their athletes.

Last spring while following one of the March Madness Facebook pages, there was one posting after another saying a player from a mid major which had finished making a run in the tourney was transferring to a team from a major conference. (I seem to recall one of the Indiana State players who lit us up back in Hinkle Fieldhouse was one of those transfers).

[TruckStopTerrors]

I really have no opinion on what will or will not happen. What I do wonder is if Ryan Smith keeps putting his finger on the scales, will Utah fans decide to stop supporting the Jazz and the new hockey team? To be clear, I’m not advocating for that. I am just wondering about other fans opinions on the matter. I read an article directly related to this NIL tweet with the same question.

[Author]

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