Impact and implications of the recruit's 'marketing team'.

I agree that South Carolina is distant to Michigan and Oregon, but Oregon is the birthplace of Nike and is as storied of a track program as Michigan is a football program. Oregon is legit now. It's not 1980.

The decision was his and he made it. That's about all I think about this and every other recruitment.

Is this just a euphemism for opportunistic adults making a buck off the kid?

yes

Will 'marketing team' be a constant with highly coveted recruits?

yes

What the heck do they do exactly?

optimize the $$$ the recruit gets (meaning they also optimize the $ they get)

Does the school then have to run everything by them after the kid is inked for the next 3, 4, 5 years? 

i don't see why they would, but the kid might ask them to (i.e., great idea, have your people call my people)

I’m disappointed in not landing him.  Teenagers make all types decisions that don’t make sense to me

But I think this is an overreaction 

You have know idea what percentage of his decision was based on marketing, or NIL $$$, or friends, or track, style of play.
 

Oregon and Nike plus NIL $$$$ for a person who loves track seemed to be the best fit 

I guess he didn’t look at this as a 40 year decision where we would be the obvious choice 

Good luck to the young man.   Get ready for the evolving world of college football

Either you have deep-tinted maize and blue glasses on, or you’re dramatically oversimplifying how this recruit and others may be calculating their overall value.

Simple example: Maybe Harbor knows he will make more in NIL at SC (short-term revenue) and also believes he’ll have a better opportunity to build his long-term brand value by being the unequivocal superstar on a team where the university brand won’t so thoroughly overwhelm his own (as UM does for almost every player). This gives him a chance to build his own stronger brand and, maybe, maximize his own total returns. This kind of thinking could explain his choice of SC over both UM and Phil Knight’s Nike-gon program…

Just never felt like he was coming here.

There's always the possibility that he was being told by his marketing team that it was a mistake to choose South Carolina and he ignored that advice because he liked it there best. 

Marketing team = people collecting the bag

NIL is a can of worms. Until this is figured out it’s going to be a really interesting few years in big time college sports.  It’s the Wild West.  Anyone who thought we could “just pay the players already!” and not have all these unintended consequences was naive.  This is the world we live in now and it will eventually get figured out….I think.  

so... because he didnt pick Michigan, someone must be doing something sinister or wrong? Not everyone values things the same way as you (or I). Education may be important, but in his own way. NIL, the same. Track, the same. Its the nuance of recruiting and its why despite what we *think* is happening, Bama, OSU, and Georgia dont get EVERY good player.

Michigan - the brand, is well known in academic and athletic circles. But how, exactly, do you see that translating to a football recruit now or in his future? What "opportunities" are there that Michigan provides that others do not?

That's like when we thought the NIL would let Michigan load up the money cannon... how's that worked out? Whether you like that approach or not, is not the point. The point is, Michigan's prowess does not directly translate to opps for the recruits or players. And Michigan is content to keep it that way.. and many here and in our community are okay with that. And that... is okay!

Sounds like an entourage to me.

He wants to be in the Olympics in 2024, which are in July-August.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the football transfer portal by then.  Assuming he makes the Olympic team...as far as I know that doesn't require him to be at any particular school

You mean their agent?  Usually that means ineligibility.

The kid chose where he wanted to go for the next 4 years. We need to move on and wish him well. I for one, don’t think we ever had a realistic chance despite what the $$$ paywall/script pushers were saying on their YouTube shows, looking for revenue and clicks. Focus on the kids who did choose Michigan. 

Once I heard his girlfriend was going to South Carolina there was no way he was going anywhere else. South Carolina had kind of what he wanted albeit nothing compared to Michigan, but Michigan couldn't offer being able to hook up with his girlfriend on a regular basis. I believe he had his mind made up a long time ago but just wanted to have fun with the "process". Quite frankly does anyone really believe he would have been a willing blocker at the tight end position given he really doesn't want to bulk up or risk hurting his track body. That said, good riddance.  

Speaking as someone who works in marketing, I'm going to guess that whoever is shopping themselves as a "marketing team" for a teenage football recruit is uh... let's say, probably not the best in the business to begin with. I don't know the details here, but my guess is that (sadly) this is another zeitgeisty form taken by an eternal archetype: Slick grifters who position themselves near elite young athletes and their families and try to get a cut. The families may think they're savvy about these things, but that's rarely going to be the case, despite their best efforts. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

Why are you worried about Harbor he wasn't going to get significant PT next year. Hes more focused on Track and hes not a good WR. 

I think you care a little too much. Let the coaches recruit, let the kids make the decisions they wanna make, and cheer for the team we have at Michigan on Saturdays in the fall. 

Harbor choosing M would've been awesome, but all this obsession over where 17 year old kids go to school is overboard. 

Honestly, if the guy plays 3-4 years in college, maybe makes an Olympic team, AND plays in the NFL it doesn't matter where he went to school.  I wish him luck and hopefully he'll be happy at SC.  I wouldn't be shocked if he transfered but people getting mad that a high schooler picked a different school than the one they'd like need to chill out.

If a kid has a marketing team he’s focused on himself and not the team. 

My marketing team is a Great Pyranees.  She's worthless... just pretty much sleeps all day and occasionally barks.

Why don't we just wait until he is in the transfer portal and actually shows some on field ability? With the Portal, we have all kinds of time to find more players or even him that the staff can actually evaluate their college level skills.

OP you're getting fired up about nothing. "Marketing team" is a meaningless term. It's like when companies started calling their employees "team members" or "associates". All recruits have had various people advising them, family members, friends etc. Who cares what they call them. Wish the kid well and move on.