On NIL -
Sankey has said, “what we’re seeing is straight pay for play.”
Kirby Smart has said, “recruits are going to the highest bidders.”
Saban has said schools are paying for their entire teams.
Spyre Sports told the Athletic in February that NIL deals are up there at the top among considerations recruits are looking at in choosing where they will sign.
Elite player for years have openly stated in their recruiting process that where they end up is a business decision.
It was reported that Jordan Addison was offered around $3.5 million and the use of a luxury home if he ended up at USC.
lol
NIL isn’t really all that big of a deal and obviously the reports noted above back up that assertion. /snark
Saban is whining because by his own admission last year he only had $3 million in NIL opportunities to offer his team. Alabama is a broke-ass state. If prices rise too much they are not going to be able to compete.
There’s not a single billionaire in the entire state of Alabama, same for Mississippi, so you know where Kiffin is coming from. For Ultra-High Net Worth households in the state (>$30 million wealth), Alabama and Mississippi are at the very bottom of the conference and they have to compete in state with Auburn and Mississippi State, as a minimum. Alabama and Mississippi also have the lowest number of millionaires by state in the conference, by a long shot.
In contrast, Tennessee has at least 10 billionaires and over 3 times as many UHNW households and twice the number of millionaires and Vandy hasn’t yet offered any real instate competition from a NIL perspective.
Back in the day, Tennessee had a tremendous advantage in recruiting because we were among the very few with the absolute best facilities. Then we had a facilities arms race and a lot of schools now have elite facilities. NIL is the new arms race.
Snippets from the Athletic article on Spyre -