2023 Recruiting

[GT65_UGA89]

From the Ohio St thing I wonder if that number is not higher than 95%.

Ohio State is consistently ranked in the top 5 of college footballs richest programs, so yes, if NIL is becoming a problem for them, it’s more than likely a problem for >95% of all college football programs.

 

[RoanokeJacket]

Ohio State is consistently ranked in the top 5 of college footballs richest programs, so yes, if NIL is becoming a problem for them, it’s more than likely a problem for >95% of all college football programs.

and one of the two that it isn't is our rival

FML

 

[TechRush]

I live in the fantasy realm where GT is not a feeder school for the top 5% of big time programs. It is real to me, dammit!

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

NIL is going to have to be reigned in. If the factory schools are already having issues something has to gve at some point soon. https://scarletandgame.com/2022/12/08/ohio-state-football-gene-smith-begging-nil-money-bad-look/

Tennessee just opened up NIL for high school players. What could go wrong?

 

[ibeattetris]

College football will implode at some point. What’s happening now is not sustainable for 95%+ of the programs. Will the 95% just continue to be feeder programs for a few schools with unlimited money? Maybe… or maybe some start to pull the plug.

Also, where are all the advertisements with these college kids? I thought NIL was a payment for marketing services? It’s so blatantly not… it’s straight up pay to play and no one tries to hide it.

It doesn’t have to be advertisements. Honestly it’s enough to have them sign autographs.

 

[stinger78]

Folks poo-pooed the “amateur”model, saying wtte: money’s always been in the sport. Yes it has, but it was somewhat controlled at least and schools had to be careful about it. Now there’s no accountability whatsoever and schools will absolutely push it to the limit. It will kill the proverbial goose.

 

[GTCrew4b]

NIL is going to have to be reigned in. If the factory schools are already having issues something has to gve at some point soon. https://scarletandgame.com/2022/12/08/ohio-state-football-gene-smith-begging-nil-money-bad-look/

NIL doesn’t need to be reined in. The prima donna players, and philosophy of what college football is as a sport needs to be reined in. Schools don’t have to pay all this money. They choose to. Just don’t pay and let him take his services elsewhere or nowhere. The pendulum is swinging in the players favor for now but soon it will swing back hard. Then you’ll see the collusion lawsuits as all the schools work to rein in costs. Then maybe we will get minor league football with no connection to the colleges and we can have real college football again.

If people want to pay to watch kids play minor league football, great! Do it. I would like to watch a team of football players made up of tea students of the college I also attended. People I have a legitimate connection to/with. I will not participate in whatever this is.

 

[RoanokeJacket]

I would like to watch a team of football players made up of tea students of the college I also attended. People I have a legitimate connection to/with.

Cheerio mate!

 

[OptionJacket]

NIL doesn’t need to be reined in. The prima donna players, and philosophy of what college football is as a sport needs to be reined in. Schools don’t have to pay all this money. They choose to. Just don’t pay and let him take his services elsewhere or nowhere. The pendulum is swinging in the players favor for now but soon it will swing back hard. Then you’ll see the collusion lawsuits as all the schools work to rein in costs. Then maybe we will get minor league football with no connection to the colleges and we can have real college football again.

If people want to pay to watch kids play minor league football, great! Do it. I would like to watch a team of football players made up of tea students of the college I also attended. People I have a legitimate connection to/with. I will not participate in whatever this is.

Bingo. I have no issue with NIL or the portal. Schools can choose to participate or not. No different than in the Camaro era or bags of money era or fake majors era. I’ve been wanting GT to play the game for a long time because I want to see GT succeed in whatever endeavors it takes part in whether it’s engineering/business rankings or sports rankings. GT will do what it takes to get high academic rankings (poaching professors, paying salaries, only taking the top students, etc) yet in athletics GT is just making excuses. If our engineering rankings dropped as far as our football rankings have you would have folks fired and alumni marching on campus. I still wish we had bogus majors and bags of money because I’m tired of having to root for GT and then a school who actually wants to win. GT has plenty of money to compete we just choose not to use it.

 

[LongforDodd]

Bingo. I have no issue with NIL or the portal. Schools can choose to participate or not. No different than in the Camaro era or bags of money era or fake majors era. I’ve been wanting GT to play the game for a long time because I want to see GT succeed in whatever endeavors it takes part in whether it’s engineering/business rankings or sports rankings. GT will do what it takes to get high academic rankings (poaching professors, paying salaries, only taking the top students, etc) yet in athletics GT is just making excuses. If our engineering rankings dropped as far as our football rankings have you would have folks fired and alumni marching on campus. I still wish we had bogus majors and bags of money because I’m tired of having to root for GT and then a school who actually wants to win. GT has plenty of money to compete we just choose not to use it.

Not meaning to be confrontational but where do you think we’d rank in available NIL money, if that’s what you’re referring to wrt to “plenty of money”? Or are you referring to money for coaching salaries and recruiting budgets?

 

[OptionJacket]

GT has billions yet they want us to believe we are broke. I stopped buying the story a long time ago. At this point it’s almost like they are purposely playing alum for suckers. You think UGA or Bama types would let their programs fall into such disarray as ours while sitting on billions? Those schools all pull in the same direction. We’ll see if Cabrera is serious or not. Something tells me he’s not and in a decade from now they’ll still be playing us for suckers. And I’m sure folks will soon be here to tell me the GTAA is separate from the school. Then I simply ask why do the helmets say GT and not GTAA? It’s all a joke so the academics can keep all the money.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

I don't know if any prospective football players would particularly relate to this, but I'm sure at least a few of them would. It's this kind of thing that Tech should be capitalizing on when recruiting, because it certainly sells the school.

 

[GT98]

GT has billions yet they want us to believe we are broke

GT, the school has $$$. The GTAA needs to get out from under bad contracts and debt.

The school can’t just ledger $ over and clear those things. Need more contributors to the GTAA. Buy tickets.

 

[stinger78]

GT, the school has $$$. The GTAA needs to get out from under bad contracts and debt.

The school can’t just ledger $ over and clear those things. Need more contributors to the GTAA. Buy tickets.

If they could just shift money, they would simply apply some of the AI2020 campaign money and wipe out a bunch of debt, but they cannot. There are laws at play that prohibit that action without certain prerequisite actions. Like it or not, the GTAA is suffering from a series of marginal capital improvement and bad coaching contract decisions.

 

[stinger78]

If they could just shift money, they would simply apply some of the AI2020 campaign money and wipe out a bunch of debt, but they cannot. There are laws at play that prohibit that action without certain prerequisite actions. Like it or not, the GTAA is suffering from a series of marginal capital improvement and bad coaching contract decisions.

Actually, if I may, I don't think the capital improvements have been bad in themselves, we just couldn't afford them. For some reason, and to my knowledge in my lifetime, it appears that the GTAA has not budgeted sufficiently to cover maintenance costs of its many aging facilities. With a stadium that was established over 100 years ago and a basketball arena that is now over 65 years old, these costs are necessarily high.

Untended maintenance falls into the category of deferred maintenance. For the most part, though, maintenance is never cheaper to do than it is today. So, these are bad decisions just on face value. Much of the deferred maintenance has been addressed under the capital improvements we have made, but that's often an even more expensive option. Not only are we improving said facility, but now we have to address code or other deferred maintenance issues making expensive improvements even more expensive.

IMPO, the solution lies in proper budgeting and fund management. The GTAA first needs to budget sufficiently for annual maintenance of its facilities. It's about $175M worth of facilities, so that won't be cheap, but as the loans are amortized, a portion of the amount currently slotted for debt service would progressively establish a very nice budget item for maintenance that could be built. The next action (likely simultaneous) would be to create funds for capital improvement (like part of the AI2020 fund is earmarked), and deferred maintenance. I would let the AI2020 fund handle needed capital improvements, and I might red-light the "new Edge" for now.

When I hear that the Foundation is going to step up, I think the biggest step they could take may be to establish a significant fund for deferred maintenance that goes hand-in-hand with establishing - over time - that budgeted item sufficient for maintenance. If the GTAA and Foundation could get this straightened out it may make life much cheaper going forward in the areas of maintenance and capital improvements, and it may help provide a hedge against things spinning out of control. Ultimately this may allow more resources to be applied toward the exploding cost of coaches' salaries without breaking the bank. It could create a roadmap toward a successful and solvent future.

 

[00Burdell]

Actually, if I may, I don't think the capital improvements have been bad in themselves, we just couldn't afford them. For some reason, and to my knowledge in my lifetime, it appears that the GTAA has not budgeted sufficiently to cover maintenance costs of its many aging facilities. With a stadium that was established over 100 years ago and a basketball arena that is now over 65 years old, these costs are necessarily high.

Untended maintenance falls into the category of deferred maintenance. For the most part, though, maintenance is never cheaper to do than it is today. So, these are bad decisions just on face value. Much of the deferred maintenance has been addressed under the capital improvements we have made, but that's often an even more expensive option. Not only are we improving said facility, but now we have to address code or other deferred maintenance issues making expensive improvements even more expensive.

IMPO, the solution lies in proper budgeting and fund management. The GTAA first needs to budget sufficiently for annual maintenance of its facilities. It's about $175M worth of facilities, so that won't be cheap, but as the loans are amortized, a portion of the amount currently slotted for debt service would progressively establish a very nice budget item for maintenance that could be built. The next action (likely simultaneous) would be to create funds for capital improvement (like part of the AI2020 fund is earmarked), and deferred maintenance. I would let the AI2020 fund handle needed capital improvements, and I might red-light the "new Edge" for now.

When I hear that the Foundation is going to step up, I think the biggest step they could take may be to establish a significant fund for deferred maintenance that goes hand-in-hand with establishing - over time - that budgeted item sufficient for maintenance. If the GTAA and Foundation could get this straightened out it may make life much cheaper going forward in the areas of maintenance and capital improvements, and it may help provide a hedge against things spinning out of control. Ultimately this may allow more resources to be applied toward the exploding cost of coaches' salaries without breaking the bank. It could create a roadmap toward a successful and solvent future.

I would argue that facility maintenance is the responsibility of Georgia Tech and not the GTAA.

If the GTAA, through its own means, wishes to develop a capital asset such as a stadium, arena, etc. then those assets should be transferred to the University at the end of the development process and the University owns that asset going forward, maybe leases it back to the GTAA or some economically sensible arrangement but that the University now includes that asset under all of its capital maintenance sinking fund budgets.

The very idea that our athletic assets are deteriorating over deferred maintenance is unacceptable in any context.

 

[stinger78]

I would argue that facility maintenance is the responsibility of Georgia Tech and not the GTAA.

If the GTAA, through its own means, wishes to develop a capital asset such as a stadium, arena, etc. then those assets should be transferred to the University at the end of the development process and the University owns that asset going forward, maybe leases it back to the GTAA or some economically sensible arrangement but that the University now includes that asset under all of its capital maintenance sinking fund budgets.

The very idea that our athletic assets are deteriorating over deferred maintenance is unacceptable in any context.

I believe I have actually seen a line item in the GTAA's budget for deferred maintenance, so I assume it is considered their cross to bear. I have no idea what the average annual maintenance costs are for all the athletic facilities, but it cannot be cheap, especially with the age of some of the major venues. Even the "newer" swimming and diving facilities are approaching 30 years old now. However, deferred maintenance is only one-third of the whole taco. There's the annual maintenance and capital improvements as well. IMPO, both DM and CI should not be considered operating expenses and should be funded separately. Annual maintenance costs are and should be a significant amount in the operating budget.

How does this tie in to recruiting? Solve these issues and you have more dollars to spend on it.

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

Are there any other departments on campus that fund and maintain their own facilities?

 

[stinger78]

The GTAA is a registered non-profit organization. I’m reasonably sure it is a subsidiary of GT. I think, in that regard, it’s pretty unique. Maybe GTRI is one also?

 

[BigDanT]

I don't know if any prospective football players would particularly relate to this, but I'm sure at least a few of them would. It's this kind of thing that Tech should be capitalizing on when recruiting, because it certainly sells the school.

BRB I’m gonna DM Elon Musk on Twitter to convince him to be a Ga Tech fan.