Not cool dude. I encourage you to delete this post
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Iām Catholic, but weāre not monolithic in who we support in collegiate athletics.
I definitely prefer the University of Utah over any of the nominally Catholic universities and colleges out there.
That said, feel free to say something about Notre Dame. Bet most Notre Dame fans have heard it already.
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There are a lot of other programs with more money. All this fuss about a 45 year old LDS assistant coach for Peteās sake. Nobody else but Utah has ever wanted him. College basketball assistant coach at his age is a dead end job. He brought Keita, who was on the bench much of the second half of the season.
Where are the players? Utahās recruiting year is a lot better than BYUās so far, and BYUās players all bailed. Its football recruiting sucked.
Iām not saying this new system is going to do anything but annihilate Utah. Letās see if Utahās recruits blossom and stay.
Neither program is going to win a money armās race.
I couldnāt care less about bragging rights between third tier collegiate programs.
Right now college sports is like MLB but a lot less parity. No salary cap and no contracts. The big market schools will dominate.
So all the whooping it up about BYU finally not being so cheap is like celebrating getting a good deck chair on the Titanic.
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Perhaps, this is an unpopular opinion, but I hold that bragging rights are bragging rights, no matter the level of competition. Take the greatest rivalry in college football, for example, D-III schools who never sniff a national title.
Teams with generous enthusiastic booster with $$$ to spend will have an advantage the way things stand. Ryan Smith loves sports, loves BYU and deep pockets.
Meanwhile back a few years ago, Huntsman Sr. was close to Majerus, loved the hoops team, and not able to pay money to the players, took to flying them to some of the road games on his private jet (a nice perk). Now the Huntsman family is focused on cancer research (a very worthy endeavor).
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soā¦yes or no? I was raised in Catholic schools, and Iām a yes.
I think youāre understating the problem. This is not just about the Utah-BYU rivalry . Part of the magic of college sports has been the aspiration or hope that your team would at least play on the big stage. This is certainly true for Utah and BYU fans. And occasionally, it happens.
However many enthusiastic boosters a small market program has, there will always be a dozen or so teams who can just buy your best players, unimpeded. And why wouldnāt a player who was a diamond in the rough and is now sparkling just sell himself to the highest bidder? Under the current system, even Huntsman could not have kept Miller or Van Horn.
The problem here is human nature. The tragedy of the commons. If you think I am overstating the problem here, listen to todayās Ezra Klein podcast about the catastrophic consequences of drug decriminalization in the USāsomething he had supported, like I did (Klein is a pretty far left liberal). Without carrots and sticks, we humans canāt stop ourselves from as a mass, destroying valuable institutions. It happens all the time.
You may think this is an off the wall example, but I think these phenomena and the destructive human impulses they have unleashed are kindred.
And as with the problem addressed in the Klein show, the ones hurt the worst will be the most vulnerable. In the long run, the players will be the losers, except the few elites.
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Yes or no what?
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Confirmation
gold star for you.
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Havinā a laugh. What were you thinking?
No one is even suggesting that it is. Looks to me like people here are simply expressing dismay that our formerly cash-strapped rival can now buy players and coaches, including ours, simply because they have a super-wealthy donor. Itās a dispiriting development and it highlights the insanity that unregulated NIL enables.
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āNo one is even suggesting that it is. Looks to me like people here are simply expressing dismay that our formerly cash-strapped rival can now buy players and coaches, including ours, simply because they have a super-wealthy donor. Itās a dispiriting development and it highlights the insanity that unregulated NIL enables.ā
I believe that the there has been a change of opinion at LDS Church headquarters concerning mega-funding of athletics at BYU by donors. I believe that in prior times, the LDS Church discouraged payment of market salaries for athletics coaches because it didnāt fit the picture the Church wanted to paint. With it now common knowledge that the Church has billions and billions of $$$, the picture has changed. I believe there have always been wealthy BYU supporters willing to pay more for coaches.
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Has the church done much new construction on the campus since I was last there in the early 90s?
I remember most buildings had a tired 70s look to them at the time, especially so for the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center, our campus living room.
I donāt know. But BYUās US News ranking has been plummeting. Itās now tied with Utah at 115. It used to be that because Utah had to relax admission standards for in-state, BYU had US News ranking bragging rights.
Maybe buildings are a lesser priority at BYU because research is not a high priority.
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Poor education levels in Utah?
No. Taxpayers, in theory anyway.
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How do you mean?
I am skeptical of this for several reasons.
First, if the LDS Church deployed its mythical $100 billion war chest to BYU winning collegiate national championships, it would be bound to get out (there are some Utes in the COB money management team), and what a PR disaster.
Second, I have yet to see tangible results from this vaunted LDS money spigot BYU is supposed to be enjoying. Its hires and recruits are the usual ho hum BYU stuff. Indeed, its basketball team bailed this year and went to schools with modest NIL resources.
Third, the LDS Church has investment opportunities that are far more lucrative than collegiate sportsālike investing in places of worship for tithe payers.
Finally, while the LDS Church is like all human institutions subject to criticism, I believe its values are not as wrong as you suggest.
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Good grief. This should not be confusing. Utah is required by state statute to admit more Utah citizens and fewer aliens because Utah citizens and their parents pay taxes that help fund the university.
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