OT: Charlie Batch straight offering $1M for Caleb Williams to EMU
"But you can't straight out offer NIL money to induce players to your school!!! RULES!"
The wild wild west is going to be fun. I don't know if Charlie has any association with EMU other than alumni. p.s. TJ Lang of Packers and Lions (and EMU) is backing this up as well.
Unless rules change if a player is a wildly successful freshman or RS freshman many will immediately hit the portal and sell themselves to the highest bidder. There is no salary cap and a lot of hungry investors.
What if ABC team had a billionaire with F*** you money (i.e $50M a year is chump change) who through back channels let CJ Stroud know $8M is the price if they want to move on over. Free markets are fun. It's happening... just not through the churches in South Carolina anymore.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:45 PM ^
Meanwhile, BYU is being investigated for NIL violations.....
January 6th, 2022 at 1:20 AM ^
What on God's green earth could you possibly do to violate NIL in today's rule-less environment? If there is a rule to be broken Texas A&M has already done it publicly and with gusto.
January 6th, 2022 at 7:15 AM ^
They made the offer on a Sunday.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:46 PM ^
The highest I can go is like $20
January 6th, 2022 at 6:56 AM ^
and a Casio
January 6th, 2022 at 8:04 AM ^
Brilliant three word reference to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:49 PM ^
I think Harbaugh loves Michigan and would love to stay there if he can build a winner on an equal playing field. I mostly dismissed all the "HARBAUGH to NFL" talk this week as the usual hawt takes by media desperate for content and clicks.
That said, if this is the direction CFB is going, and there is no structure and it's basically bagmen^10, I could actually see Jim growing disillusioned with what's going on.
Harbaugh is a straight shooter and wants to compete on an equal playing field. He has also long been a proponent of student-athlete compensation and benefits. I don't, however, believe Harbaugh would be comfortable with this unstructured wild west approach to CFB. Beyond believing in the student-athlete experience, Jim is about structure and a meritocracy....I know he the rumor is he wants a competitive NIL program, but if this is where the sport is going, not sure he can pull it off with any bounds or structure.
TLDR: I mostly dismissed the Harbaugh to NFL rumors, but after the UGA game and seeing the craziness of where NIL and pay for players is going, I actually wouldn't be surprised to see Jim move on if he sees it all as too unstructured and sleazy. Neg away.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:57 PM ^
If what John Bacon alluded to on Twitter is correct, the NFL rumors are Harbaugh’s ploy to get Michigan to dive into the NIL money game.
January 6th, 2022 at 1:22 AM ^
Hell, I'll contribute a couple hundred dollars a year, every year.
Who's our NIL guy?
January 5th, 2022 at 10:59 PM ^
I'm actually in violent agreement of this. The NFL is a lot fairer and competitive than CFB. If you are a good coach, then you are wasting your time in college.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:10 PM ^
I see it just the opposite.
Harbaugh has always pushed the envelope in regards to rules and despised cheating that provided an unfair advantage.
NIL does two things he believes in. Takes care of the kids. And if utilized to its fullest allows him to put together talent that can compete with anyone.
I lean towards the theory he is saying to leadership give me the tools or I’m gone.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:57 PM ^
So Harbaugh might be disillusioned by a league in which players are paid what they're worth so he might....go to the higher league where players are paid what they're worth?
January 6th, 2022 at 2:28 AM ^
No.
There’s no salary cap.
There’s no contracts.
The stakeholders are convoluted here. University? Coach? Random car dealer in Mississippi?
January 5th, 2022 at 10:56 PM ^
CFB is a joke... I'm not a fan of this.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:02 PM ^
Can Stephen Ross in theory be the de facto owner of Michigan football? I do wonder what’s in it for the “payee”. I get an NFL owner paying free agents and good players. Winning is good for business, but does the car dealer in Mobil Alabama gain much financially other than the satisfaction of beating their rival? I can’t figure how the payer benefits unless the university is backing it. The universities are the ones who will benefit from any on field success and the windfall from winning. The car dealership may sell a few more cars but that’s about it. I don’t get it. What’s the Texas A&M financiers getting for their money?
January 5th, 2022 at 11:11 PM ^
Who do you think was fronting the money on Mel Tucker's new contract? There's no real difference, other than Williams nine career wins for $1M, compared to Tucker's $9.5M for 18 career wins, seems to be a comparative bargain.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:32 PM ^
Also, they get influence and access. It’s probably a lot of fun hanging with Saban and the squad, especially since they’re indebted to you for helping with recruiting
January 6th, 2022 at 12:02 AM ^
Whoa...every heard of Nike? Signed a young man named Michael Jordan. Worked out pretty well for both parties. Plenty of benefit from the actual sponsors.
Sure the independently wealthy aren't benefitting and yes, they're de facto owners. They like Michigan (or T A&M) football and want to play players. Why is this a problem. Really rich people are giving underpaid people money for working hard and being good at something, it's great!
January 6th, 2022 at 5:10 AM ^
Eh that was beneficial for both parties because Nike is a sports apparel company who hired Mike to be the face of their brand. There’s a direct connection there. I have a hard time finding a similar connection with video game companies, car dealerships, etc.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:04 PM ^
The NCAA is like Niedermeyer trying to calm the crowd in Animal House. Remain calm.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:37 PM ^
That’s not Neidermeyer.
January 6th, 2022 at 1:01 AM ^
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
January 5th, 2022 at 11:07 PM ^
This is all fun and games until some nameless bagman lures one of our highly productive players into the portal with riches and promises.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:01 AM ^
After UGA loses Monday, Kirby Smart should ask Coca-Cola to poach JJ McCarthy for him. The Bulldogs have always had everything but the right QB.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:59 AM ^
Yeah, I mean this is the thing that Harbaugh now needs to be concerned about with the transfer portal and NIL. Not only does he (and his staff) need to work his ass off to get the flippity floppity highly ranked high school player enrolled at Michigan, now he has to RE-recruit his players every year and make sure they're all happy campers along the way. I love this wild wild west because Michigan is better positioned than most universities with its popularity and money cannon. But I also see the pitfalls and dangers brewing.
And BTW, Georgia is going to win easily on Monday night. Give the points because I don't think it's going to be particularly close.
January 6th, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
UGA still has a Bryce Young problem. People can buy into Stetson Bennett if they want to, but Bama will have the best offensive and defensive player in the game.
January 6th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ^
I have a hunch Harbaugh has no problem working harder than the next coach
January 6th, 2022 at 1:27 AM ^
If that happens we'll get Stephen Ross, Tom Brady, et al to poach CJ Stroud.
We are not unarmed in this fight.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:07 PM ^
I’m not going to overreact here. The NIL era has hardly started, and there is so much still to be worked out. In the end, we will have a handful of methods and strategies to handle getting NIL money to players that will be adopted by everyone. We are just starting to figure out the value of a good player at each position. This is the growing pains period.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:16 PM ^
If a 5* QB fell into "The Factory" (EMU's Rynearson Stadium) and nobody was there to see it, did it actually really happen?
January 5th, 2022 at 11:56 PM ^
As we watch the clock tick down on Eastern Michigan's dominating national championship performance over Alabama in the 2028 National Championship Game, we'll think back to where it all started in this post.
Of all the NIL side effects we considered, did anyone have "EMU becomes recruiting powerhouse thanks to Charlie Batch" on their bingo card? I sure as hell didn't.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:57 PM ^
Turns out it’s Monopoly money.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:10 AM ^
I started thinking about a salary cap like some of the pro sports…on second thought, bombs away. Although it ruins CFB a little for me as fan, I’m very curious to see how high some schools would be willing to go for players.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:11 AM ^
This is the end
January 6th, 2022 at 12:24 AM ^
Wouldn't it have been easier to just pay every player on the team like $20,000? That would have been $2 million a year per team and would have put off this farce for a long time.
I am not against players getting money. But if this is the direction things are going--unfettered yearly free agency, the sport is going to self-destruct.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:58 AM ^
The best thing about college sports is that players only playing for a couple years, because they sit out their first 2 years and then play for 2 years and leave for the NFL, or just graduate out. In that time, they become really beloved by fans that started following them when they were 16 or 17 in high school, and when they leave they go to a different league that never competes with the school they went to. Like Tom Brady has been playing for 60 years since he left Michigan, but he’s still a “Michigan Man”.
If we have a world where every player on the team is there because that’s the place he could make the most money, and he’s willing to leave if he gets a better offer, and many players are only there for a year, then it’s going to be a lot harder to feel excited or happy for a player. Think about how we feel about Shea vs Cade.
January 6th, 2022 at 7:23 AM ^
Great point. Without some kind of common sense rules in place, this NIL stuff will destroy the college football a lot of us love.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:52 AM ^
If the future is players that show up on campus in March, play one season, probably only attend school for 1 or 2 real semesters, and then immediately look to leave. I’m probably gonna take a step back. I don’t think this is the future, and I really hope not. This situation is unique because the coach left.
Some of these NIL ideas are good ways to kill a sport.
Also, EMU people pissing money away to try to win the MAC seems like a giant waste of money, but if your company can be the main sponsor of a team, especially if you’re the first company to do it, I could see that generating a lot of publicity.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:55 AM ^
I don't know what to think. Maybe the entire notion of college football being a great way to earn a scholarship and a bunch of young men growing together and playing a game largely for the love of it and tradition was never real. Maybe it was exploitative. What's happening now might be way more fair, but it's not more enjoyable for the fan. There's something beautiful (even if it was only a facade) about playing a game for pure fun, competition, and rivalry. That facade is gone now. Maybe it was never the sport we thought but was, but whatever that feeling was is gone. I don't really care if Harbaugh leaves. Michigan Football died a while ago. We're hanging on to the memories that the new generation will never experience. I think Brian can sense that as well. I think If Jim leaves it only confirms it. This season was a great little oasis, but it's the end of CFB.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:44 AM ^
Yes, and I'm glad it ended for me walking on that field one last time. Pure joy, at least I had that. Done with CFB now. Too old for this new BS.
January 6th, 2022 at 11:17 AM ^
I think there is a reason you don't see secondary education and athletics mixed together anywhere else around the world. The system was always flawed, and isn't meant to work. It worked for so long because there was a system in place that did its best to cover that up and obscure the reality of high-level collegiate athletics. People who are bitching about the end of CFB were probably okay with coaches salaries ballooning, with millions were being spent on upgrading perfectly adequate facilities, and TV deals that began to provide tens of millions of dollars of revenue to the athletic department.
It just so happens that quite a few people could still lie to themselves about what college athletics had become despite those changes. It seems that players receiving compensation finally made it impossible to continue that lie going forward. It sucks for the fans who had their heads in the sand, but the writing has been on the wall for a while, and all you had to do is pay attention to see it.
January 6th, 2022 at 12:54 PM ^
Yes, these kids werent getting what they were worth.
No, it wasnt a "bad deal" for them.
The alternative is that they can pay out of pocket for a lower tier college that they actually get in on academic merit rather than ability to carry a piece of leather.
Look, I'm all for these kids getting paid, they are adults and "working" for a school.
But I'm not going to pay for it. I dont pay to watch the NFL, dont buy merch, dont give one fuck. I'm sure as shit not doing it for worse-NFL.
January 6th, 2022 at 1:05 AM ^
I am of two minds:
1) This is a bizarre insane system that is going to eventually implode. It's unlimited free agency with no salary cap. It's not just Wild West, it's Mad Max.
2) Holy shit, this bizarre insane system actually BENEFITS US AT MICHIGAN!!
This is ground we can compete on and dominate.
That never happens to us. We are always fighting against the weather or declining demographics or adhering to the actual rules or some such stuff.
But here we have a legal system that allows what we are good at: The Michigan Money Cannon.
So I say, Fuck it. Until they change these bizarre insane rules, if ever, let's unleash our resources in an unholy rain of shock and awe that will make Texas A&M blush.
You can belittle us when it comes to our quaint adherence to academics and traditions and Midwestern values, but don't ever fuck with us when it comes to money. We are merciless killers there.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:35 AM ^
I keep hearing about this Michigan money cannon but genuinely am unaware of it ever being deployed at scale. Is it in a back room being polished or something? Or are there legit examples of it being used that I'm just oblivious to?
Yes, I saw Cade"s NIL deal. And Corums, etc. But those are nothing I'd say put UM at a competitive advantage over any of the teams consistently outrecruting them.
January 6th, 2022 at 7:35 AM ^
It was used here a few years ago on a really small scale when Vincent Smith was fundraising for his Pahokee garden. :)
Seriously, Michigan has a huge alum base that's generally into football. Lots of high- and middle-income people, too. I'd guess that our cannon compares favorably to most others.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:31 PM ^
For example:
"Michigan-Georgia drew an audience of 17.2 million people on ESPN (peaking at 20.5M), making the Orange Bowl the most-viewed non-NFL sporting event across any network in 2021.
Michigan can now claim to have played in four of the six most-watched college football games last year."
We have a very large, affluent, engaged fan base, with some huge $$$ boosters in it as well.
January 6th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
This site's readers gave Ace over $100,000 a few years ago and should have no trouble raising more than that to help Michigan football.
January 6th, 2022 at 9:05 AM ^
So this gets us to the point of never having to say student athletes again.
Players are going to play school, opt out for the next offer. Unrestricted free agency with no rules/structure.
Hell, probably deals to be made that allow players to never attend classes, grades fixed in advance. Or just admit the 5* guys don't need course work in exchange for their commitment.
Maybe a fair percentage of this has always existed.
Naively thought NIL would create an equal footing with compensation for the players, with say 25-75K for all, with the biggest names open to sponsor deals to add-on.
The players earn the Schools, networks, local business a ton of $, and they rightfully deserve compensation above scholarships.
What is evolving doesn't create the equal footing across-the-board, resolving the bag-man advantage.
Look at the headlines in just one week.
This will become all out mercenary tactics as ground rules. Player poaching networks will exist. Hell, the players will have buy-outs soon
You can't have it both ways, academic moral high ground vs the money cannon.
This is starting to look pretty slimey from the jump.
We shall see what this path leads to.
Certain Universities are not going to further bend their standards to play NIL to the levels that others do, and in the end you likely end up with same core group of top 10 Schools.
January 6th, 2022 at 1:14 AM ^
So their offer is a milly?