Masked_rebel said:

Gonzaga is a privately funded university and Im sure if they had actually wanted to develop a football program, they could find the financial money to field a pretty good program. Our WSU friends on this board might not like that- proximity to their campuses and all, but somewhere along the way they decided to not return the football program, like other religious institutions like BYU or ND(no idea the reason why since WW2 they never tried to re-establish a football program. Probably didnt care once their basketball program became relevant before all this football centric TV deals)..
SJSU on the other hand has the problem of their location and system. Seems like outside the USC/UCLA programs, the entire California sports systems are mostly mediocre outside Olympic sports. SJSU got left out of the big boys table of their neighbors in Stanford and Berkley and it created that weird apathy for their programs.

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We can't be Gonzaga for several reasons.

We have no where to go in terms of conferences. We couldn't stay in the MW if we dropped basketball, and it is one of the better if not the best non power basketball conferences.

We can't go to the WCC as a public, non faith based school.

Then there is the ridiculous thought of being a large state school without football. That's not a good look either. Nearly unprecedented.

Leaving this "crappy MW conference" would put us in a bad bind. In conference competition would go into the crapper. Our guaranteed TV revenue would be a fraction of what it is. We would more likely drop further as a basketball program, let alone our other sports, then reclaim what we did back in the 70's and 80's. The college sports world has changed. I don't think that could happen again.

Talking about a $14million deal and no lawyers or contracts involved. Oh yeah, this NIL stuff is definately all above board and righteous.

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Loyal Coug1 said:

Do you mean Tammy Lauren or Tomi Lahren? Both are smoking hot. Probably Lahren. I see she has a dog that apparently hasn't been shot in the head with a shotgun yet, so she didn't learn much by interning for Kristi Noem.

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Yes Tomi!

Loyal Coug1 said:

FB at Gonzaga would and will never happen at any level. For starters, they are a small school. Not enough fan base, and no way enough money to even consider it. Second, they would have to build a new way-off campus stadium, as Spokane tore down the old Jo Albi (Cougs used to play a lot of games there, I think it held 30K but needed a LOT of work) and built a 5,000 seat stadium downtown for HS, etc. 3rd, they have WSU 75 miles down the road to follow in FB. A lot of Spokanites are Coug FB fans and Gonzaga BB fans (to which any good Goug says F-you). And nearby Whitworth and EWU play football, further diluting the potential market.

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Right, they're too far down the single sport road to try anything now and who knows, in 10 years if they see a down cycle in their program, they might return to your average non-football mid-major school because of it. There really isnt a good argument for bringing basketball only programs into the P4 conferences who know football is driving the TV deals and trying to figure out a worthwhile revenue sharing agreement that includes "basketball" would be a non-starter for most, given there are plenty of football programs that do both. Some might entertain the name brand aspect of Gonzaga as a "basketball only" member, but does that name drive enough $$ in TV negotiations to share?

Masked_rebel said:

Gonzaga is a privately funded university and Im sure if they had actually wanted to develop a football program, they could find the financial money to field a pretty good program. Our WSU friends on this board might not like that- proximity to their campuses and all, but somewhere along the way they decided to not return the football program, like other religious institutions like BYU or ND(no idea the reason why since WW2 they never tried to re-establish a football program. Probably didnt care once their basketball program became relevant before all this football centric TV deals)..
SJSU on the other hand has the problem of their location and system. Seems like outside the USC/UCLA programs, the entire California sports systems are mostly mediocre outside Olympic sports. SJSU got left out of the big boys table of their neighbors in Stanford and Berkley and it created that weird apathy for their programs.

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FB at Gonzaga would and will never happen at any level. For starters, they are a small school. Not enough fan base, and no way enough money to even consider it. Second, they would have to build a new way-off campus stadium, as Spokane tore down the old Jo Albi (Cougs used to play a lot of games there, I think it held 30K but needed a LOT of work) and built a 5,000 seat stadium downtown for HS, etc. 3rd, they have WSU 75 miles down the road to follow in FB. A lot of Spokanites are Coug FB fans and Gonzaga BB fans (to which any good Goug says F-you). And nearby Whitworth and EWU play football, further diluting the potential market.

Loyal Coug1 said:

The article does say that "the quarterback received a letter on Dec. 6 saying his deal had been terminated". Seems funny that he would get a letter if nothing had previously been signed, but court discovery will show all.

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yeah. I think the part of the "deal has been terminated" was the direct payment by the said boosters company instead of through the NIL collective. Im sure there are reasons behind doing that from a NIL perspective vs just not wanting to pay him what was promised. The part that is also questionable is that he never showed up on campus, didn't enroll early and left Florida hanging while he was "questioning" what was going on. They were trying to also keep their other QB recruit happy and on campus and Im sure there was probably something about that relationship/competition that drove the NIL never getting executed

Rebel1986 said:

When BSU first came into the MWC, they were trying to hold on after TCU, BYU and Utah all left. Then it looked like SDSU and BSU also would move on, and the only way they could keep BSU was to offer them more money. At the time BSU was still at their peak and the MWC was still trying to keep the conference relevant, so they made an agreement with BSU to be paid an extra $1.8 million a year for as long as they stay in the MWC. SDSU got nothing.

Bone of contention: Boise State still gets $1.8 million more than everyone else in Mountain West

For the past decade, the Broncos have received $1.8 million more in TV payouts than their fellow conference members despite declining results in football

www.sandiegouniontribune.com

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You made the point that went over heads.

Masked_rebel said:

I thought in one of the articles I read that he had signed an agreement that was then terminated the following day, however, that may have been his letter of intent, not an NIL agreement. I do agree that the questionable part is the money going to pay off Miami boosters, although that in itself is a weird enough grey zone. The whole NIL front was supposed to be about allowing players to make money off their names and on field performance but has basically turned HS level athletes into pro players before any of their friends and family who are out selling their services know how these arrangements will affect the players. Legalized "cheating" in some cases.

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The article does say that "the quarterback received a letter on Dec. 6 saying his deal had been terminated". Seems funny that he would get a letter if nothing had previously been signed, but court discovery will show all.

j. spilotro said:

I’d rather be Gonzaga (great basketball, no football) than San Jose (bad basketball, decent football). Gonzaga fans are fine not having football because they’re winning big at basketball year to year. But you can’t slip up too much.

At SJSU, they don’t care much about either sport … better to highly excel at one than flounder in two.

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Gonzaga is a privately funded university and Im sure if they had actually wanted to develop a football program, they could find the financial money to field a pretty good program. Our WSU friends on this board might not like that- proximity to their campuses and all, but somewhere along the way they decided to not return the football program, like other religious institutions like BYU or ND(no idea the reason why since WW2 they never tried to re-establish a football program. Probably didnt care once their basketball program became relevant before all this football centric TV deals)..
SJSU on the other hand has the problem of their location and system. Seems like outside the USC/UCLA programs, the entire California sports systems are mostly mediocre outside Olympic sports. SJSU got left out of the big boys table of their neighbors in Stanford and Berkley and it created that weird apathy for their programs.

dcut03 said:

Merger insinuates that 2 existing conferences are joining. Leaving teams out gets dicey.

Like I said Conferences don't kick teams out. My guess is that there are legal issues there, or maybe it is just poor taste.

You are right that a reverse merger that essentially disbands the MW (like the SWC like you mentioned) could remove the Boise bonus. And it could allow for teams to be kicked out. But it wouldn't be the MW kicking teams out, it would be the PAC. That will at least be the perception. If teams are left out, it will be looked at as a new PAC, if all teams are retained it will be a considered a reverse merger.

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You are sort of splitting hairs here. In a merger one entity ceases to exist. In this case the MW. It doesn't "essentially" disband the MW. It disbands it. And no way in hell would any new Conference agreement include anything extra for BSU. Nor should it for the Pac-2. Share and share alike.

9 teams can disband the MW. Yes on paper it would be that the Pac declined to offer a couple of MW schools. But my pristine scenario, assumes open and honest communication among all parties (imagine that!). They (9 MW schools and the Pac-2) tell let's say Reno and NM that look guys we don't need your votes and you aren't going to get a Pac invite. Best of luck to you. And Hawaii - we don't need your vote either, but if you agree to this and that you will get one. And you could also put in standards of performance. Hey you are invited but if you don't achieve this and that (attendance, TV viewership, whatever), we can boot you later.

Does this seem incredibly open and honest thus illogical and idiotic in today's world? Well, reluctantly, yeah. But remind us again of the secret meeting that resulted in the formation of the MW. Open and honest among the 8 teams? I would assume so. A helluva lot more open and honest than some of the Pac traitors sneaking around behind our backs while saying they were all in.

Maybe having 2 women Commissioners increases the likelihood of openness and honesty.

Loyal Coug1 said:

I sat down and read the whole article. Don't see anything that tells me he "signed" an agreement. That is huge right there, legally. All these texts are evidence, perhaps more about illegal recruiting than anything else. And I too hope it gets to court.

Funny that the kid supposedly had a "struck" a huge endorsement deal with a Miami booster first, then reneged in favor of a few more millions from Florida. Was that in writing? If so is he liable, and for what? Deals are supposed to go two ways.

Lots to unravel here, hopefully all to the detriment of NIL itself.

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I thought in one of the articles I read that he had signed an agreement that was then terminated the following day, however, that may have been his letter of intent, not an NIL agreement. I do agree that the questionable part is the money going to pay off Miami boosters, although that in itself is a weird enough grey zone. The whole NIL front was supposed to be about allowing players to make money off their names and on field performance but has basically turned HS level athletes into pro players before any of their friends and family who are out selling their services know how these arrangements will affect the players. Legalized "cheating" in some cases.

Masked_rebel said:

I think he signed an agreement with the actual company that was going to fund the NIL offer and then they terminated the agreement a day later. Im not sure if he got the 500k signing bonus that was part of signing the NIL agreement but then the owner sold the company and was going to still fund it directly through the Gator NIL fund. I get he feels like he lost a big windfall, but claiming fraud has huge implications and I suspect that him being at Georgia creates a bit of a conflict of interest for what would become part of the lawsuit discovery process (not a legal expert) as Georgia may be able to gain insider knowledge into at a minimum the funds available for NIL an how Florida creates it NIL packages.. Who they compete directly with

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I sat down and read the whole article. Don't see anything that tells me he "signed" an agreement. That is huge right there, legally. All these texts are evidence, perhaps more about illegal recruiting than anything else. And I too hope it gets to court.

Funny that the kid supposedly had a "struck" a huge endorsement deal with a Miami booster first, then reneged in favor of a few more millions from Florida. Was that in writing? If so is he liable, and for what? Deals are supposed to go two ways.

Lots to unravel here, hopefully all to the detriment of NIL itself.

Loyal Coug1 said:

Not following you here. A new PAC IS the reverse merger. With no higher cut for BSU. How you all let that happen in the first place is beyond me. Here's my scenario (again): The Pac-2 agrees to take the entire Mtn West into the new Pac-12/14. If the Mtn West wants to leave somebody(s) behind, they can call it, and we don't offer them. Hawaii for example. They might not even want to come. But they come with all "major" sports or not at all. Aside from the sports not offered in the Pac. Ex: Stanford has a bunch of low profile sports that the Pac-12 doesn't sponsor. They compete wherever. See link below.

Pac-12 Sports & Championships

pac-12.com

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Merger insinuates that 2 existing conferences are joining. Leaving teams out gets dicey.

Like I said Conferences don't kick teams out. My guess is that there are legal issues there, or maybe it is just poor taste.

You are right that a reverse merger that essentially disbands the MW (like the SWC like you mentioned) could remove the Boise bonus. And it could allow for teams to be kicked out. But it wouldn't be the MW kicking teams out, it would be the PAC. That will at least be the perception. If teams are left out, it will be looked at as a new PAC, if all teams are retained it will be a considered a reverse merger.

yeah Kirby playing mind games with a SEC foe like Florida.

InZoneU said:

I get it. My question is legality of whether these NIL promises are binding after a kid commits, or not. Is it only binding when they sign the NLI? Nobody seems to have a grasp on that. Flipside is a kid can de-commit at any time with no penalty. I mean, maybe that kid de-committing cost that first program money bc he turned out to be AA and led the other school to a NC, so maybe they could sue him? For those reasons I think this case is important. It's a shtshow.

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I think he signed an agreement with the actual company that was going to fund the NIL offer and then they terminated the agreement a day later. Im not sure if he got the 500k signing bonus that was part of signing the NIL agreement but then the owner sold the company and was going to still fund it directly through the Gator NIL fund. I get he feels like he lost a big windfall, but claiming fraud has huge implications and I suspect that him being at Georgia creates a bit of a conflict of interest for what would become part of the lawsuit discovery process (not a legal expert) as Georgia may be able to gain insider knowledge into at a minimum the funds available for NIL an how Florida creates it NIL packages.. Who they compete directly with

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Masked_rebel said:

His claim is that committing to Florida under the pretense of the NIL agreement to pay 13 million affected his final NIL payment at the school he actually wound up playing for. This seems like a sour grapes play now that he is at Georgia and I cant see how he gets any money from Florida other than a quick settlement to keep Florida's NIL funding from entering open record- See Florida Georgia rivalry.

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I get it. My question is legality of whether these NIL promises are binding after a kid commits, or not. Is it only binding when they sign the NLI? Nobody seems to have a grasp on that. Flipside is a kid can de-commit at any time with no penalty. I mean, maybe that kid de-committing cost that first program money bc he turned out to be AA and led the other school to a NC, so maybe they could sue him? For those reasons I think this case is important. It's a shtshow.

Bullmastiff 1 said:

Not saying this in a snarky way. I've been saying this since I joined the board like 20 years ago. I actually got scolded that 'we were a basketball school nobody cared about football' by quite a few on here.

My stance was you better start to care, because if UNLV didn't get football fixed they would get left behind.

You could see the landscape of college athletics was changing as far back as 2007. Football was the driver. Schools started going all in on football. P5 Conferences were just starting to poach schools like UTAH/TCU..And it had everything to do with football and little to do with basketball.

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Same w. me. The drop football crowd for the last 25 years killed me with their ignorance. That was most of UNLV BB fans. We're a BB school after all. Let's just go the Gonzaga route. Genius stuff.

Most schools outside of UNLV knew FB drove the bus for funding athletic programs for the last 30+ years, maybe forever. BB revenue is minimal compared to FB, it does not drive growth in the overall athletic programs. BB success comes along with the FB money, just like all the other title ix programs benefit. Bama and NCSt. were just in the final four. Very few of their fans give a sht about BB,

InZoneU said:

I believe the kid is only suing for the difference in NIL he was promised at the first school vs. what he received at the 2nd school upon signing the NLI. Whatever happens, this whole NLI clusterfck needs to be fixed and hopefully this case is a step in that direction.

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His claim is that committing to Florida under the pretense of the NIL agreement to pay 13 million affected his final NIL payment at the school he actually wound up playing for. This seems like a sour grapes play now that he is at Georgia and I cant see how he gets any money from Florida other than a quick settlement to keep Florida's NIL funding from entering open record- See Florida Georgia rivalry.

In terms of basketball, outside of the Tark situation, the Rice to Menzies saga was pretty much a death sentence as well. I could not believe how that whole thing was handled by the Administration. TKM just could not resist stepping in and ****ing everything up with her verbal diarrhea.

Obviously CKK is getting a lot of rope and given proper leeway to run his program the way he sees fit. So there’s some stability there.

In terms of the program, I think and I’ve said this before but there needs to be a UNLVnow type of project to bring in a new base of fans. As Spilotro said, the old guard isn’t around as much and you cannot rely on them anymore to keep the money flowing. You need to pivot to a more collegiate experience and environment especially with the pro teams saturating the market.

Look at the unlvnow project before it was nuked by big casino. Student housing, shops, restaurants etc. it would have been an absolute culture changer, imo.

1Tripoda said:

What do you want UNLV to focus on? Basketball have tried and tried again. That efforts have fail bombastically and miserably. Time for football to reign. I am all for it. What do you think?

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You cant be singular in approach and expect to be invited to the big kids table. These kind of conversations in the past 10 years about dropping football in favor of basketball dont understand how the landscape of college sports is driven by Football. Conversely, now that football looks to be righting the ship, dropping focus on basketball would be a huge negative to big P4 conferences looking to expand. The market share is very strong for football with regards to TV contracts but how many P4s are interested in one dimensional programs? I think you have to grow both in order to be able to generate the type of excitement around UNLV that would allow it to really have football take off. Im all for football to become a West coast powerhouse and drive the bus, but you have to have basketball come along for the ride as its own bus, rather than as a passenger.

Rebel1986 said:

The simple question is what services has the athlete provided to be paid? We all know that most of these players are now being paid far beyond their actual worth. In most cases the college football players will be lucky if they can make $50K per year playing for a semi pro team, and in most cases they have zero chance of ever being paid once out of college.

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I believe the kid is only suing for the difference in NIL he was promised at the first school vs. what he received at the 2nd school upon signing the NLI. Whatever happens, this whole NLI clusterfck needs to be fixed and hopefully this case is a step in that direction.