End of June Update

[CoffeeTiger 5,089]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

Lol and we aren't going hard as far as the NIL why? It's funny to me everybody having a problem that recruits are getting money. It's all the same money but now it's divided up different and now people have a problem because the people that actually put in the work is getting paid. 

People should get it right, the end of college football was when suits at different colleges were splitting up billions of dollars and nobody cared

 

Yep. College football hasn't been about 'armature athletics' for decades. It's just that people felt a lot better about it when it was only the coaches and administrators getting wealthy off the proceeds. 

The only reason we're in the "wild west of NIL" now is because the Universities and the NCAA never had any plans or ideas of how NIL would work. They fully intended to keep college athletes locked out of the monetary benefits of college athletics forever and when the courts told them they can't do that then suddenly they are left without direction, flapping in the wind. 

 

The NCAA should have had a NIL framework and regulations  set up years ago and we wouldn't be having this problem.

 

As for AU if we aren't willing to play the NIL game then I guess we'd better get used to competing with Vandy, MIS ST, Mizz, and Kentucky to see who's the "worst of the worse" in the SEC every year. 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[Beaker 2,457]

3 hours ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Until there is regulation from Congress, the NCAA is powerless, it will be the HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS. I agree with the 2nd point, When Mr 5 * takes a NIL deal and bolts after 1 year that will cause the big money folks to take a pause. I'm shocked it didn't happen when Quinn Ewers left Ohio St.

How do you know it didn't?   Couldn't a Texas booster have just paid off an OSU booster / NIL dealmaker?   That seems more likely to have happened. Also, there can escalator clauses and such in these NIL agreements.  There is protection for the NIL booster.

[Beaker 2,457]

15 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

 

As for AU if we aren't willing to play the NIL game then I guess we'd be better be prepared to be  content competing with Vandy, MIS ST, Mizz, and Kentucky to see who's the "worst of the worse" in the SEC every year. 

 

I said this when NIL was announced: the rich will get richer.   I am very concerned for Auburn long term.   And for all the mid sized major univ / football programs.    I feel it is an arms race we can't compete in long term.  When the all the big programs who are decent start hiring the intellectual capital from programs like bama, Texas A&M, thuga, - NIL will help them become elite on the field.  It will take only a few years.

Who am I talking about?

A major univ with lots of money/alumni and who just can't compete for a Natty right now:  Michigan, Penn State, USC, Oregon, TAMU (you see how they are turning the tables),  Texas, Oklahoma, Tenn, Wisc -  basically big, big alumi bases with football pedigrees.  Maybe Mich State...

- Let me show you what I mean: 

Texas hires an SEC OC who appears to be quite successful.  Pays SEC money...  Now Texas hasn't done anything since the 70's or early 80's if you remove the anomaly that was Vince Young.   Texas has like one skin on the wall for last 40 yrs... Now they have Quinn Ewers and just landed Arch Manning.  Arguably the two best QBs of their respective classes.   If they can hire those two kids, they will be successful buying the needed kids to play in the trenches.  You think TAMU has money?  Texas is saying, "step aside Jethro and hold my beer".  Texas has been the butt of a lot of jokes for over a decade, but they are assembling a scary program using NIL mostly. 

 

Basically, big money programs will be poaching key people from elite SEC programs who know how to make NIL work above and below the table.  

And I don't believe Auburn can compete in an arms race once everyone figures out NIL.  This is why I am concerned long term. 

 

Facilities used to 'wow kids,'  now they are just a requisite.  

Edited June 27, 2022 by Beaker

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

Lol and we aren't going hard as far as the NIL why? It's funny to me everybody having a problem that recruits are getting money. It's all the same money but now it's divided up different and now people have a problem because the people that actually put in the work is getting paid. 

People should get it right, the end of college football was when suits at different colleges were splitting up billions of dollars and nobody cared

 

I get what your saying. But what is the end game in your opinion. This model isn't sustainable.  If it keeps going as it is. Alot of programs are gonna get squeezed out. Which will in turn hurt many athletes from being able to profit. You add that to the fact that the athletic dept, boosters and administration at AU are already dysfunctional on a good day and it spells disaster for AU. I'm all for people profiting off their NIL, but it's being abused now which will further diminish other athletes being able to profit.  It's just a mess.

[cole256 17,042]

13 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

I get what your saying. But what is the end game in your opinion. This model isn't sustainable.  If it keeps going as it is. Alot of programs are gonna get squeezed out. Which will in turn hurt many athletes from being able to profit. You add that to the fact that the athletic dept, boosters and administration at AU are already dysfunctional on a good day and it spells disaster for AU. I'm all for people profiting off their NIL, but it's being abused now which will further diminish other athletes being able to profit.  It's just a mess.

Well no matter what, all the players aren't going to go to the same school.  We basically have to stop trying to pocket so much money and actually spend it. As far as Auburn we're literally in the same spot we've always been in. There's no point in us crying, that doesn't even make sense. We weren't ever getting all the 5 star recruits, why would our fan base care as to why other people get them? At least now we have more control than we ever did. If we don't want to spend money well that's on us then.....be mad at leadership. Before we weren't getting guys because we wouldn't spend money on facilities and such.

It's dumb to be like it's not fair! As if we have ever shown any capability of being a leading program. We will never be a hip cool school. And it's not what a good portion of our fan base want.

One good thing I notice you do is you'll always ask the end game. You always have in your mind what are you wanting overall. So let's use the message board as an example, do we really think we can be the top program in the country with the ideology and vision they want to push? Don't want players talking, hate blm and social movements, hate Nike, super conservative on everything, don't talk on the field, always want to be the underdog. Hell this school doesn't even root for their 5 stars, we are going to root for that little country kid that was a walk on......

In actuality we don't really want to be a top program, we don't even want to recruit really. Those kids are pampered and should be happy with a meal card right? I mean in the 50's when most of this board was in college they worked 3 jobs while getting their degree or they were in the band and they know what real dedication is. Or my favorite their kid is in school now and their kid didn't get an athletic scholarship!

Edited June 27, 2022 by cole256

[cbo 7,823]

How many schools do we honestly believe can put more money behind their football program than Auburn? Everyone is acting like we are UAB or something. Just because we don't have Texas money doesn't mean we can't compete. Money will make it very difficult for some schools to compete in the NIL era, but this is nothing new. The only difference is some of the money is finally going to the people who deserve it. 

Look at it this way. Auburn is 15th all time in win percentage. Auburn is around 10th in annual revenue. We have very wealthy boosters. NIL should not take us down one bit. 

It would have been nice if even a little bit of thought went into how NIL would operate, but it shouldn't be hurting Auburn. If it is, it is likely because of leadership and HC. 

 

[Gowebb11 9,313]

1 hour ago, Beaker said:

I said this when NIL was announced: the rich will get richer.   I am very concerned for Auburn long term.   And for all the mid sized major univ / football programs.  

I agree with this. But this is exactly how it felt to be a Kansas State, TCU, or Minnesota fan the past few years. How are those schools supposed to compete within the Power 5 with everything stacked in favor of the Tide, the Buckeyes, and the Sooners? CFB has slowly been shaped into a sport with 4 or 5 legit contenders and a handful of next level programs. Then it’s the leftovers and left behinds. Nothing has really changed in relative terms. Except programs like AU are now being pushed to where Nebraska and BYU got pushed a few years ago. 

[au302 2,669]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

Well no matter what, all the players aren't going to go to the same school.  We basically have to stop trying to pocket so much money and actually spend it. As far as Auburn we're literally in the same spot we've always been in. There's no point in us crying, that doesn't even make sense. We weren't ever getting all the 5 star recruits, why would our fan base care as to why other people get them? At least now we have more control than we ever did. If we don't want to spend money well that's on us then.....be mad at leadership. Before we weren't getting guys because we wouldn't spend money on facilities and such.

It's dumb to be like it's not fair! As if we have ever shown any capability of being a leading program. We will never be a hip cool school. And it's not what a good portion of our fan base want.

One good thing I notice you do is you'll always ask the end game. You always have in your mind what are you wanting overall. So let's use the message board as an example, do we really think we can be the top program in the country with the ideology and vision they want to push? Don't want players talking, hate blm and social movements, hate Nike, super conservative on everything, don't talk on the field, always want to be the underdog. Hell this school doesn't even root for their 5 stars, we are going to root for that little country kid that was a walk on......

In actuality we don't really want to be a top program, we don't even want to recruit really. Those kids are pampered and should be happy with a meal card right? I mean in the 50's when most of this board was in college they worked 3 jobs while getting their degree or they were in the band and they know what real dedication is. Or my favorite their kid is in school now and their kid didn't get an athletic scholarship!

We've had a lot of chirpers and emotional players on the field recently. Nix, Seth, Smoke, etc. We also have the race relations handshake thing on all of our jerseys. I'm sure a lot of fans wouldn't like that, but they do it. Gus and the team also marched for blm. Again, fans probably didn't like that, but they did it to support the players.

Fans will always cheer for the walk-ons because they are the example of the working man finding success. I don't think it's a race thing. I mean I guess everything is nowadays, right, if you look at it that way. But I think people just enjoy seeing guys find success the hard way. People freaking love Sean Jackson. He may have a more vocal fan club than Tank, lol. Auburn has always been a blue collar school, so it makes sense that they identify with walk-ons having to go at it the hard way. 

[Zeek 16,643]

4* RB Jeremiah Cobb will announce his commitment Friday. It is my expectation that he will pick Auburn. Hoping maybe this gets the ball rolling a little bit. 

[Beaker 2,457]

8 minutes ago, Zeek said:

4* RB Jeremiah Cobb will announce his commitment Friday. It is my expectation that he will pick Auburn. Hoping maybe this gets the ball rolling a little bit. 

Yeah we need a domino to fall our way. 

And losing the QB is not the end of the world.   But we must hit on the kid for the 2024 class that we want so badly.  

[Beaker 2,457]

47 minutes ago, cbo said:

How many schools do we honestly believe can put more money behind their football program than Auburn? Everyone is acting like we are UAB or something. Just because we don't have Texas money doesn't mean we can't compete. Money will make it very difficult for some schools to compete in the NIL era, but this is nothing new. The only difference is some of the money is finally going to the people who deserve it. 

Look at it this way. Auburn is 15th all time in win percentage. Auburn is around 10th in annual revenue. We have very wealthy boosters. NIL should not take us down one bit. 

It would have been nice if even a little bit of thought went into how NIL would operate, but it shouldn't be hurting Auburn. If it is, it is likely because of leadership and HC. 

 

I get your assumptions, but we have no idea how much cash our NIL coffers have compared to our competition.   You make a good point, but you are assuming our NIL is halfway competitive and right now, reading the tea leaves, it does not appear to be so.  And just because we raked in top 10 money, that money does not go to our NIL bucket.   

 TAMU reportedly paid $30 mil for their class.  Did they?  I doubt it, but you think Auburn is gonna pay $10 mil for a class?  Heck, we argued for yrs over Gus's buyout and it was $7 per year.  

Until I see something to prove me wrong, it feels like we are miles behind our competition in the NIL game. 

 

 

[cbo 7,823]

7 minutes ago, Beaker said:

I get your assumptions, but we have no idea how much cash our NIL coffers have compared to our competition.   You make a good point, but you are assuming our NIL is halfway competitive and right now, reading the tea leaves, it does not appear to be so.  And just because we raked in top 10 money, that money does not go to our NIL bucket.   

 TAMU reportedly paid $30 mil for their class.  Did they?  I doubt it, but you think Auburn is gonna pay $10 mil for a class?  Heck, we argued for yrs over Gus's buyout and it was $7 per year.  

Until I see something to prove me wrong, it feels like we are miles behind our competition in the NIL game. 

 

 

You make good points as well. The fact is we have no idea how our NIL program is operating, nor do we know what other schools are actually doing. 

As recently as today, one of our insiders said we are currently throwing NIL money around. Is that true? I have no clue.

I agree with you that I made some tenuous connections. Revenue does not necessarily equal NIL money. But logic dictates that a school like Auburn is at least in the top 20 in ability to provide NIL money. It's not like we haven't paid for recruits before, just like every other major program. We have big time boosters. Yet our recruiting is nowhere near top 20. 

Ever since Harsin was hired, we've heard endless excuses for the recruiting woes. And for a long time, I've felt the most obvious explanation is probably the most accurate. Harsin's staff are not the recruiters we need for the southeast. 

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

Well no matter what, all the players aren't going to go to the same school.  We basically have to stop trying to pocket so much money and actually spend it. As far as Auburn we're literally in the same spot we've always been in. There's no point in us crying, that doesn't even make sense. We weren't ever getting all the 5 star recruits, why would our fan base care as to why other people get them? At least now we have more control than we ever did. If we don't want to spend money well that's on us then.....be mad at leadership. Before we weren't getting guys because we wouldn't spend money on facilities and such.

It's dumb to be like it's not fair! As if we have ever shown any capability of being a leading program. We will never be a hip cool school. And it's not what a good portion of our fan base want.

One good thing I notice you do is you'll always ask the end game. You always have in your mind what are you wanting overall. So let's use the message board as an example, do we really think we can be the top program in the country with the ideology and vision they want to push? Don't want players talking, hate blm and social movements, hate Nike, super conservative on everything, don't talk on the field, always want to be the underdog. Hell this school doesn't even root for their 5 stars, we are going to root for that little country kid that was a walk on......

In actuality we don't really want to be a top program, we don't even want to recruit really. Those kids are pampered and should be happy with a meal card right? I mean in the 50's when most of this board was in college they worked 3 jobs while getting their degree or they were in the band and they know what real dedication is. Or my favorite their kid is in school now and their kid didn't get an athletic scholarship!

I'm trying to wrap my head around this NIL thing. Is it an AU incompetence thing? A lack of leadership thing? Scared to put our toe in the water cause of the Cam fiasco? Are other schools struggling as much as we seem to be? I wish the season started tomorrow to have something else to duscuss

[augolf1716 21,101]

44 minutes ago, Zeek said:

4* RB Jeremiah Cobb will announce his commitment Friday. It is my expectation that he will pick Auburn. Hoping maybe this gets the ball rolling a little bit. 

I would bet he does

[cole256 17,042]

9 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

I'm trying to wrap my head around this NIL thing. Is it an AU incompetence thing? A lack of leadership thing? Scared to put our toe in the water cause of the Cam fiasco? Are other schools struggling as much as we seem to be? I wish the season started tomorrow to have something else to duscuss

I will probably be the only person to admit this but I have absolutely no idea why we as a school pretend that we are broke and don't have any money

[cole256 17,042]

1 hour ago, au302 said:

We've had a lot of chirpers and emotional players on the field recently. Nix, Seth, Smoke, etc. We also have the race relations handshake thing on all of our jerseys. I'm sure a lot of fans wouldn't like that, but they do it. Gus and the team also marched for blm. Again, fans probably didn't like that, but they did it to support the players.

Fans will always cheer for the walk-ons because they are the example of the working man finding success. I don't think it's a race thing. I mean I guess everything is nowadays, right, if you look at it that way. But I think people just enjoy seeing guys find success the hard way. People freaking love Sean Jackson. He may have a more vocal fan club than Tank, lol. Auburn has always been a blue collar school, so it makes sense that they identify with walk-ons having to go at it the hard way. 

I didn't say anything about being a race thing.  You had to go out of your way to try to think of exceptions to what I said and that's my point. It's the culture here. But that's not going to shake anything up and that's not ever going to be in or cool. That's not Auburn. So constantly crying about not being top is stupid. You say Deion on this board 80% hate him. When Kodi was here he was trash....but these are super stars everywhere else. What I'm saying we are what we want to be

[cbo 7,823]

1 hour ago, au302 said:

I don't think it's a race thing. I mean I guess everything is nowadays, right, if you look at it that way. 

You're a good poster, but I don't know what you mean by this. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

26 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I will probably be the only person to admit this but I have absolutely no idea why we as a school pretend that we are broke and don't have any money

Lil brother syndrome. 

Everyone acts like we're broke yet we sling buyouts like it's nothing 

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

42 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I didn't say anything about being a race thing.  You had to go out of your way to try to think of exceptions to what I said and that's my point. It's the culture here. But that's not going to shake anything up and that's not ever going to be in or cool. That's not Auburn. So constantly crying about not being top is stupid. You say Deion on this board 80% hate him. When Kodi was here he was trash....but these are super stars everywhere else. What I'm saying we are what we want to be

Deion Sanders intrigues me. Don't get me wrong , It's best for AU for Harsin to succeed. But, someone at a Power 5 is gonna give Deion a shot.  I hope it's not in the SEC . Don't want to compete against him and his on field coaching is under rated as well.

[Beaker 2,457]

1 hour ago, cbo said:

 

Ever since Harsin was hired, we've heard endless excuses for the recruiting woes. And for a long time, I've felt the most obvious explanation is probably the most accurate. Harsin's staff are not the recruiters we need for the southeast. 

And when Gus recruited, we criticized his methodology and some of the results....I think we will always pick apart the coach on the recruiting front now that we have more information and pay sites.  I would have probably questioned John Heisman if I could have seen the players he missed on.   

As for Harsin's staff - some are and some are not.   I think if we landed a desired OT and even one that we "just liked"  folks like you and me wouldn't be so nervous about recruiting, figuring it would sort itself out. 

I just don't think we can look at the entire staff and say, they can't recruit well.   Caddy, the LB coach from FL, Brumbaugh, Etheridge have all proven they can coach and recruit.  We know the WR coach can flat out coach and I've read he seems to making in roads in recruiting.   I list each to say this - something is amiss when it seems like every one of them is struggling to gain a commitment.   Could it be NIL and effective negative recruiting?   I fear it might be.   If it is NIL and effective negative recruiting from the 'colostomy we had in  Feb' - I doubt any staff can overcome that before we tack up an impressive win or two. 

 

I have to go pack for vaca....hold the fort down and go fill a McDonald's bag will ya!

 

 

[au302 2,669]

1 hour ago, cbo said:

You're a good poster, but I don't know what you mean by this. 

Well he said they hate black lives matter, which I was pointing out is not true since they marched for that and put patches on the jerseys. They would never have allowed that if they hated blm and social movements 

[steeleagle 2,945]

2 hours ago, Beaker said:

Yeah we need a domino to fall our way. 

And losing the QB is not the end of the world.   But we must hit on the kid for the 2024 class that we want so badly.  

Didn’t we say the same thing about this sinking 2023 class for us to survive recruiting?

[cole256 17,042]

47 minutes ago, au302 said:

Well he said they hate black lives matter, which I was pointing out is not true since they marched for that and put patches on the jerseys. They would never have allowed that if they hated blm and social movements 

You misread or misunderstood that part of my post. But even if you didn't if I'm talking about our fan base and you point out instance that doesn't mean what I said isn't true. 

If I said we made horrible play calls then you say when we played ole miss this particular play call was good, that doesn't change the fact that we still made some dumb play calls

Edited June 28, 2022 by cole256

[cole256 17,042]

1 hour ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Deion Sanders intrigues me. Don't get me wrong , It's best for AU for Harsin to succeed. But, someone at a Power 5 is gonna give Deion a shot.  I hope it's not in the SEC . Don't want to compete against him and his on field coaching is under rated as well.

I don't think he's even an option, but I'm pretty sure if he was we would have many, maybe even a majority against him. But as far as recruiting my point is it would take someone like him to make our brand here to be somewhat cool. 

[au302 2,669]

3 minutes ago, cole256 said:

You misread or misunderstood that part of my post. But even if you didn't if I'm talking about our fan base and you point out instance that doesn't mean what I said isn't true. 

If I said we made said play calls then you say when we played ole miss this particular play call was good, that doesn't change the fact that we still made some dumb play calls

Very possibly misread, and if so, my bad. I do agree that we need to continue modernizing the program and appealing to the younger generation. That is one thing about this staff as a whole that I like. They seem to get that a little bit more than the former staff.