I’m never excited about sign and sends anyway.
Everyone quit whining.
No, there’s not a rule against an NBA owner influencing a recruit.
NILs still can’t be tied directly the way it’s being alleged.
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Basketball makes football look like Sunday School.
If you knew me you’d know I have a low opinion of Sunday School.
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Correct. There are very few rules, but NIL cannot be used as an inducement to attend a particular school and cannot be pay for play.
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Call me curious - I’ve seen hints at Ryan Smith supposedly offering huge money to a kid to go to BYU. Essentially from Utah fans as has been alluded to here.
But I haven’t seen anything else about it anywhere. What’s the story? Does anyone have any more info/details? Or is that first sentence it?
For the record - I’m not sure what to make of the NIL stuff. I love that BYU worked out a deal with Built Bar to essentially provide scholarship benefits for football walk-ons. Love it. But on the whole, NIL just seems potentially problematic to me. I’m glad to see some good things happening - but there are going to be bad things too.
I think it was a rumor, so nothing official. But smoke = fire?
I’m leery of NIL. I don’t know too much about the rules or inner workings, but it seems like it’s the wild west right now. I don’t think it should be used to entice people but rather intended to allow athletes to profit from their name, image, likeness once they are in school. But I guess they can start that in HS as an ‘influencer’ and that’s where it gets fuzzy. I thought it was all to allow stars and others to make some money off their skills, but it just seems to be turning into endorsement deals (e.g. Built Bar/walk-ons - they aren’t really recognizable but now show up to a couple things and great, they get tuition or spending $ which I think is great for them).
I wouldn’t be surprised if some rules come out at some point (and some lawsuits to fight it) either limiting the amount, the timing of deals, etc. But it’s the same as before - boosters will work back channels to work the ‘if you do this, then I’ll do this for you’ to influence. I don’t see how that wouldn’t create some ineligibility but no one knows really how to regulate and it’s going to be a mess.
I guess the market eventually will probably even out (did Spencer Rattler really warrant the $/cars he got?), but the early days are going to be crazy as people figure it out. Or maybe super rich people don’t care and will just throw silly money around.
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Yeah - I get the smoke/fire thing. I have no idea one way or the other - and I won’t say it would be shocking. I don’t know Ryan Smith or how much he supports BYU versus other schools - so I have no idea what he has/hasn’t done in the past as far as financial support or what he may do in the future.
The second part of your comment sums up my beliefs as well. It is the wild west. I love that walk-ons are getting support, but it does feel like this went from “popular college athletes should be compensated for NIL” to “how can we use NIL deals to help us get the best athletes” - with some nuance, of course. I can’t imagine this goes on without some changes.
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Well crap
So, just keeping score here.
So far we have gotten no one…
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Smith has missed every shot he’s taken. A lifelong Ute fan and Pelle from last year’s team, who stuck around long enough to see if he liked the new players and coaches.
Not looking good so far.
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Nick Emery’s free Jetta/Hogwartz trips with his sugar daddy, tell me that byu has been providing NIL deals since before it was cool, or legal.
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In case you missed it, Godfrey committed to Clemson today.
Smith 0/4 on his top prospects.
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I remember in Whittingham’s first recruiting class as head coach he missed on long time Ute fan Mike Hague, who chose BYU over Utah. Many on here predicted a bleak future for Utah football.
Give Smith time. In all honesty the program is so down and the fanbase is so apathetic that there are probably only a handful of coaches who could come in and make a quick turnaround.
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Utah has little to no juice right now. We haven’t been relevant in 5 years, while two other schools in our state have fared better during that time. Our fan base has dwindled. Our history is impressive but low on the priority of an 18-22 year old. But we still have many positives that are attractive, and you don’t need elite talent to be near the top of this conference.
I’d rather be an Oregon St type team with several solid lower supposed talent guys than a UW with multiple first rounders over the years and nothing to show for it.
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I agree, you don’t need *4 players to win games and make hay in the tournament… although it would certainly help.
I guess fans need to accept that Utah Basketball will be starting from scratch, bygone success means nothing.
Very sad this is where it’s at after more than a decade in the Pac12…sigh
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I think that is true in most circumstances but what happens if a kid is in your own backyard? Maybe he grew up a fan of the program. You have to make a run for a kid like that.
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We have watched a once great college basketball program slowly decline. My personal opinion is that the decline set in the year following Utah’s lost to Kentucky for the national championship. The beloved Rick Majerus was never the same, in my opinion. The series of hires that followed Big Rick just accelerated the program’s decline. Yes, there were bright spots in there, that kept us hoping, wishing.
I believed K3 was a terrific hire, and he was part of the transition to a premier conference. He recruited well enough, sometimes hitting it out the park. For a while, that stabilized the program’s decline, until circumstances dictated otherwise. I’m grateful for his tenure and I know a few fans who thought letting him go was a terrible, regrettable decision. But something was amiss in the program, as we have discussed ad nauseam; no need to rehash because what’s done is done. Even so, the decision to fire K3 was not taken lightly.
We now have Coach Craig Smith. What I see is a coach who has moved up the collegiate ranks in increasingly more competitive conferences. He has succeeded everywhere he has coached. He entered a program that is a shadow of its former self. Depleted. Demoralized. With a skeptical fan base who, IMHO, have low expectations. That is to say, from my seat, he is in a major building phase, and honestly, he has little, maybe modest cachet nationally. Like most of us here, I thought with the team he assembled, the Utes would attract better talent. That, given the state of the program, was and is wishful thinking.
Smith has a lot on his plate. I still believe he surrounded himself with good to better coaching talent. I like his overall demeanor. I think he is a decent X and Os guy. If he is able to unite this team of parts and get them to play over their talent base, he will have won hugely. Yet, I will not hide my sense here, he has some steep steps to climb. All I can do is support him, and then hope that incremental success translates into commitments from better players. In short, he does with Utah what he has done elsewhere.
I agree wholeheartedly with @RockerUte when he offers that 4* recruits are not likely, at least presently, to walk through the Utah door. We must be patient…for a bit longer. But I think the bottom has been reached, and its all blue sky from here. Go Utes!
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So, perhaps, if I’m summarizing at least some of the views here. Rebuild a la Rick Majerus did. Don’t go after the “big” name, go after the solid coachable kid. Similar to what McBride did with football too. Get the coachable, build fundamentals, then as you win more, you’ll get the 'names."
I like that idea. I know many of us thought LK was going to be a great coach for us. In the end, it wasn’t to be. We all have a opinions on Giac and Boylen, and what they gave LK. Hopefully Smith can be the McBride, then Whit of the BBall program.