If Michigan refuses to adapt to the current NIL landscape, Warde Manuel needs to be fired.
The whole "Michigan will not become a transactional experience" is so ridiculous.
People can hand wave the concerns we have about recruiting all we want, but Michigan cannot sustain success by getting classes ranked 30-40, and relying on development.
My feelings as well.
Old enough to remember when we were waiting with baited breath for NIL because UM alums had the deepest pockets in the nation and the "money cannon" would obliterate all of college football (and basketball)
Those were the days.
Why can’t all of our rich people get together and decide to pay recruits outside of the sphere of the university?
The boosters don’t really need UM’s blessing, right?
I don’t have any inside knowledge, but since we’re all speculating here…I’ll offer up a potential explanation why Michigan appears to be tiptoeing on NIL. Instead of the “Michigan Way” or “Michigan Arrogance” (which could explain the current situation and may simply be the case), perhaps the institution has done a risk/reward analysis and decided not to be overly aggressive on NIL. They’ve analyzed the laws in place, looked at the wording of NIL guidance (no pay-to-play) and decided that it’s not worth being on the wrong side of history if this is reigned in. Yes, that’s a big “if” and may not materialize. Perhaps there’s some institutional memory around the Fab Five fiasco and the impact on the BB program and the university’s image/brand. Maybe “transformational vs transactional” is just a front for “we think the risk that aggressive NIL blows up in our face isn’t worth the reward down the road.” Could that assumption prove incorrect? Absolutely, but when Nick Saban and Ryan Day are complaining about the current state of NIL…it’s not a terrible assumption IMHO. We shall see.
Saban and Day are complaining about the current state of NIL because now a lot more schools can compete in the same recruiting game they have been for years with impunity. What Bama and OSU were doing for years was against the rules (i.e. cheating), but now it's perfectly compliant for the most part, so now Saban and Day have to compete harder for recruits that were easy for them to get. That's why you hear Day saying he needs $13m to keep his roster intact. He's signalling that things are getting more competitive and needs a lot of money to stave off that competition.
Agreed, but the point is that they’re complaining. See: Harbaugh and satellite camps,
I agree. Well said. I assume the smart people at the University (both inside and outside the athletic department) are spending a lot of time thinking about how to deal with this. Weird that each Tom Dick and Harry on the street is convinced we know much more about what they should be doing.
This isn't Warde's doing. It's the university's. Calm the fuck down. This is like Brian claiming he was gonna run for office because of Dave Brandon.
Hold the phones…
It's June dude.
Calm TF down.
I hate what has happened to college athletics. Absolutely hate it.
Well, this is can of worms NIL brought with it. Now we're essentially into bidding wars for 18-year olds. Some kids will value the educational experience of the institutions they attend, but many won't and will put NIL at the top of their priority list.
I really don’t see this all being on Warde.
Lot to love about Michigan, but it is getting ridiculous as to the snob attitudes at Michigan. From admissions to NIL. It is very sad.
It's interesting what's going on.
Now I think Harbaugh interviewing for the NFL and us losing both coordinators is affecting recruiting a lot. But I don't think we can really know the full story on NIL Isn't NIL supposed to be kind of out of the hands with the staff and AD? Aren't there rules around staffs and athletic departments not being able to direct NIL deals? Furthermore, if Michigan boosters want to start offering recruits multi million dollar NIL deals to go to Michigan, there's nothing Harbaugh or Warde Manuel can do to stop it right?
I think Harbaugh making public statements against NIL is hurting the perception out there, we may have a robust NIL program, but those statements are leading to some kids not even considering us.
And we're in on some really good recruits still, but the numbers of them aren't what we're used to. When you're in on 35 4 star kids, you can expect to land 7-12 of those type of guys, I don't see us in on as many as we usually are. I see less than 10 4 stars we are currently in the mix for for 2023, if we land half of those, our class would probably be top 25ish.
What is the transformational experience harbaugh receives at Michigan? The one where he chased a coaching job at Minnesota of all places? Was that the non-transaction experience, because he loved Michigan so much he jumped on a plane after getting his stock up to command an interview to get out of dodge? How many recruiting failures will it take before Michigan says what everyone knows they are going to say in the future, how much do you need to sign with Michigan? Being out recruited by MSU is not sustainable and Michigan will turn into northwestern. MSU will own the rivalry this century, but thank goodness our alumni didn’t have to lose too much money using a tax deduction.
I'm glad we beat OSU in 2021 and made it to the playoff's. That's likely the ceiling for us at this point, at least for those of us over 45.
I know my position isn't popular, but I've always viewed NIL as a slippery slope. This is just going to get uglier. We are turning college football into a wild west, free agency model with very few manageable and enforceable rules that vary state to state. This is a can of worms that is begging for abuses to occur.
That having been said, the genie is out of the bottle. You either figure out a better way, or you eventually become increasingly irrelevant as a program since most kids will see those dollar signs as the big incentive and academics will play a far lesser role in their decision making process. To me it's very sad to see. Plus, given the transfer portal scenario, the stability of rosters will become far more volatile and it will be much harder for head coaches to build successful programs. Especially those hellbent on operating above the fray.