SEC Needs a Draft

[BlinghamptonVol]

If any type of ‘draft‘ happened, most likely it would just be that you had to go to a university in the same state that you graduated high school. Florida, California, and Texas schools would dominate the rest of us. A positive side note would be that UT and Vandy would probably spend money towards public schools in Memphis. Lord knows we need it.

 

[Vol8188]

So the answer is to force players to attend a specific school because you’re afraid a school with one of the largest national fanbases won’t be able to compete financially?

I think you need to think this one over

 

[DaddyChad]

If I own an NFL team - that's probably going to be my focus - certainly a much better return than throwing away money with NIL. Also, our boosters don't have as much or more than most programs in the SEC. As a matter of fact it's not even close. The AD only receives 20 M annually in donations and they solicit 24/7. Donations are down something like $4 M annually, the recruiting budget was cut pretty dramatically - I would assume donations to the University at large are also down - Tennessee has historically had more of a blue collar fan base and not many mega rich donors. I don't think that is a bad thing, it is actually one of the things I love about UT, but that doesn't allow for you to compete with Texas and Texas A and M who's boosters actually do have more money than the other programs in the SEC. imho.

Texas and A&M are on a different level for sure. Tennessee can compete with Bama and Georgia if they actually have competent people in charge

 

[Fullfillmer]

Texas and A&M are on a different level for sure. Tennessee can compete with Bama and Georgia if they actually have competent people in charge

Alabama's qb is getting something like 2 M annually in NIL -- we are working on deals involving Petro's and Calhouns. Not sure how competent people get in charge of our NIL program to compete with some of the things that I am witnessing around the country.

 

[Vol8188]

Alabama's qb is getting something like 2 M annually in NIL -- we are working on deals involving Petro's and Calhouns. Not sure how competent people get in charge of our NIL program to compete with some of the things that I am witnessing around the country.

He’s also going to be the number one pick in the nfl draft a year from now and won a heisman trophy. He’s not just making 2 mil because he’s bama’s qb.

 

[AllThingsTN]

NIL has completely changed the landscape and my concern is Tennessee could be left behind. It's absurd because Tennessee would be number 1 or 2 in terms of revenue in most conferences, but in the SEC we are middle of the pack. Not going to be able to compete with paying players like what TAM, bama, and uga can do. Texas will add to the difficulties and programs like Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma, historically strong programs with deep pockets will be middle of the road.

I don't really think a draft is right, but perhaps the conference can limit signees by star rating. Maybe max 3 five stars and max 15 four stars? At a conference level there may be the opportunity to maintain parity and reward coaching. Even Kirby said great coaching didn't win their championship its simply having the best players.

Think about if the NFL had the current CFB system. Cowboys and Giants would win every year, maybe even Washington since Snyder loves to overpay players. Instead look at the parity, Titans are the largest AFC media market remaining and Nashville ranks 25th. Modern CFB is rewarding recruiting over coaching and hard work, its given us a boring system where only 2-3 teams have a chance to win the title every year. What is the fix?

Limiting recruiting based on “star ratings”, which are made by recruiting service websites, who are only out to make money….yeah I can’t see how that would get even more sketchy than NIL .

It’s a different age in college sports, like it or not, we have to keep up or get left behind. Trying to implement rules to make it more “fair” is only “fair” to the teams getting left behind. We are better than that. Even though the past decade has been mostly sh**, we are better than that.

 

[Atlanta917]

NIL has completely changed the landscape and my concern is Tennessee could be left behind. It's absurd because Tennessee would be number 1 or 2 in terms of revenue in most conferences, but in the SEC we are middle of the pack. Not going to be able to compete with paying players like what TAM, bama, and uga can do. Texas will add to the difficulties and programs like Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma, historically strong programs with deep pockets will be middle of the road.

I don't really think a draft is right, but perhaps the conference can limit signees by star rating. Maybe max 3 five stars and max 15 four stars? At a conference level there may be the opportunity to maintain parity and reward coaching. Even Kirby said great coaching didn't win their championship its simply having the best players.

Think about if the NFL had the current CFB system. Cowboys and Giants would win every year, maybe even Washington since Snyder loves to overpay players. Instead look at the parity, Titans are the largest AFC media market remaining and Nashville ranks 25th. Modern CFB is rewarding recruiting over coaching and hard work, its given us a boring system where only 2-3 teams have a chance to win the title every year. What is the fix?

Talent/recruiting isn’t the reason Tennessee has been down.

 

[Atlanta917]

No what I want is what college football used to be. State pride, college education, amateurs. With the amount of money being paid it is laughable to compare a football player to a women's soccer player. But we can't go back so the question is how do we move forward and is it good for the SEC or CFB as a whole for there to be 2-5 teams that can win it all and the rest are competing for the cheez-it bowl?

First, when has college football ever been a crapshoot? There has always been the haves and have nots. There has always been a couple of elite teams each decade with a few surprises thrown in. Honestly, this year is one of the few in recent memory with new teams. This year half of the playoff consisted of first time teams, including a G5. The team that eventually won it won their first title in 4 decades.

If I told you before the season started that Clemson and OSU wouldn’t make the playoffs, 2 teams would make it for the first time and one of them would be a G5, and the team to win it all would be breaking a 40+ year drought, I seriously doubt you’d consider it just another year of the same old college football.

 

[LAVol1]

aTm overpaid for a coach to hopefully lock him in.
aTm aggressively developed NIL quickly.
aTm has a huge stadium and first class facilities.

aTm is doing their best to buy success. We'll see how that works for them but they're obviously putting major money into football.

I went to the Vols/TAM game a few years ago. Playing golf on the TAM golf course on Friday, I was astounded by the number of jets flying into College Station. I would venture to say there were more jets flying in than boats docked on the river at UT on game day. They've got a lot more booster $$ than any SEC school and it is showing in the money they've spent to hire Jimbo and the recruits they signed this year. Results will follow. To beat TAM in the future, you'll have to out-coach them because no one is going to out-recruit them.

 

[LAVol1]

Perhaps the NCAA could mandate that no NIL deals can have any monetary relations with a university. We know a lot of schools who will do it anyway and get away with it, but it’s something

Maybe it's time to give athletes a lesson in "equality" and "fairness". Rather than the top players getting lucrative NIL deals, all NIL money should go into a "pot" and divided among the team. After all, the #75 kid on the roster theoretically works just as hard as the ultra-talented players, so shouldn't he get "paid" the same? Isn't that "equality" and "fairness" that so many athletes are demanding of society?

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

I went to the Vols/TAM game a few years ago. Playing golf on the TAM golf course on Friday I was astounded by the number of jets flying into College Station. I would venture to say there were more jets flying in than boats docked on the river at UT on game day. They've got a lot more booster $$ than any SEC school and it is showing in the money they've spent to hire Jimbo and the recruits they signed this year. Results will follow. To beat TAM in the future, you'll have to out-coach them because no one is going to out-recruit them.

aTm is also a huge school, well over double the size of UT, with a lot of oil money.

Oil money is historically stubborn about "one upping" the competition so TX and aTm are going to spend like power drunk oil tycoons. Luckily Sark can't coach but Jimbo is a problem.

 

[LSU-SIU]

NIL has completely changed the landscape and my concern is Tennessee could be left behind. It's absurd because Tennessee would be number 1 or 2 in terms of revenue in most conferences, but in the SEC we are middle of the pack. Not going to be able to compete with paying players like what TAM, bama, and uga can do. Texas will add to the difficulties and programs like Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma, historically strong programs with deep pockets will be middle of the road.

I don't really think a draft is right, but perhaps the conference can limit signees by star rating. Maybe max 3 five stars and max 15 four stars? At a conference level there may be the opportunity to maintain parity and reward coaching. Even Kirby said great coaching didn't win their championship its simply having the best players.

Think about if the NFL had the current CFB system. Cowboys and Giants would win every year, maybe even Washington since Snyder loves to overpay players. Instead look at the parity, Titans are the largest AFC media market remaining and Nashville ranks 25th. Modern CFB is rewarding recruiting over coaching and hard work, its given us a boring system where only 2-3 teams have a chance to win the title every year. What is the fix?

Let me get this right. You have a draft for one conference. Each school gets X number of picks. Say 20 out of your 25 picks don't come?

The players would clearly be defined as "employees" eventually this will probably happen in some cases anyway but...

Also, NIL has really nothing to do with anything, I have no idea what the obsession is with NIL.... its really about compensation from any source and any reason now.