Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Why Cooper Flagg fits UConn’s model of ‘basketball people'

[husky429]

Pro leagues have salary caps; only restraint on the colleges is the depth of their donors pockets.

Pros don't have a limit on endorsement/appearance money. Which is exactly what NIL is. You're comparing apples to celery.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Setting aside whether we're going to actually get Cooper or whether we actually did pay for him to visit... hypothetically it would be a very smart thing to do.

Consider how much earned media, goodwill, recruiting cache, and fan engagement this has generated. Unless it was an absurd cost, it has likely paid for itself.

Unless it comes out that you paid. Then you look small, like a school that can't compete for recruits without paying them to visit.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Thanks, that's pretty clear. NIL might have made a lot of sense but I think the pendulum has swung a bit too far. So by the NIL rules, money for a visit has to come from an unaffiliated third party, no? Or is a recruit even subject to NIL rules when he's not yet a college athlete. Everything that used to be under the table is now over the table. It's smart that these coaches are saying "athletes are asking" and not "we are paying", but you have to think they wouldn't be asking if some weren't getting paid. Pro leagues have salary caps; only restraint on the colleges is the depth of their donors pockets. In the immortal words of Cyndi Lauper, "Money Changes Everything".

From my understanding, I think pretty much all NIL money comes from the collectives. How exactly it works to make sure it’s ‘legal’ I have no idea.

I agree that college sports is turning into pro leagues except a little more crazy because there’s no contracts to keep you on a team. An open transfer portal makes it a little messier.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Pros don't have a limit on endorsement/appearance money. Which is exactly what NIL is. You're comparing apples to celery.

Except that NIL isn't supposed to come from the school; so now we're letting NIL sponsors tell us what visits they'll pay for? A pro athletes sponsors may tell him what offers he should take but they don't have to collude with the teams...

 

[CL82]

Unless it comes out that you paid. Then you look small, like a school that can't compete for recruits without paying them to visit.

Alternatively, if you start a rumor about another school paying for a recruiting visit for a kid that has been a fan of your school forever, but end up losing that kid, you look pathetic.

Just sayin'

 

[OkaForPrez]

Alternatively, if you start a rumor about another school paying for a recruiting visit for a kid that has been a fan of your school forever, but end up losing that kid, you look pathetic.

Just sayin'

then you just double down with “they paid gross NIL money, kids a sell out. Could have been Brotherhood for life, short term decision making stupidity!” Et Al.

 

[aburks41]

Still no announcement of a commitment date...Me thinks that if he had committed to Duke this past weekend, something would have leaked by now, or the announcement would have been made.

Maybe that rumor of Flagg taking one more unofficial to Storrs on November 6th is true. Hmmm

 

[August_West]

Unless it comes out that you paid. Then you look small, like a school that can't compete for recruits without paying them to visit.

I dunno. I think it actually may be the opposite. The highest stake players are the only ones who can get anything significant (if anything) out of the process. And the highest stake players usually have the same 8 schools on their list. I mean didn't Kansas pay Zion and he still ended up at Dook? I also know Kansas paid Ayton and he ended up at Zona.

 

[August_West]

Still no announcement of a commitment date...Me thinks that if he had committed to Duke this past weekend, something would have leaked by now, or the announcement would have been made.

Maybe that rumor of Flagg taking one more unofficial to Storrs on November 6th is true. Hmmm

Today and Tomorrow are huge. If no commitment announcement, or just a scheduling of the commitment announcement by then (and we have a lot of time to burn in the next 2 days still) it is game on in my opinion. If we hear anything in next two days, I think it favors Duke. But who the heck knows. I don't.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I dunno. I think it actually may be the opposite. The highest stake players are the only ones who can get anything significant (if anything) out of the process. And the highest stake players usually have the same 8 schools on their list. I mean didn't Kansas pay Zion and he still ended up at Dook? I also know Kansas paid Ayton and he ended up at Zona.

Yeah it’s really a game only the big boys play.

Could always be like Michigan and lose guys like Hunter Dickenson and have football recruiting classes that can’t finish top 10 despite going to 2 (going on 3) CFP because they feel like they’re too good to play the NIL game. Lol

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Still no announcement of a commitment date...Me thinks that if he had committed to Duke this past weekend, something would have leaked by now, or the announcement would have been made.

Maybe that rumor of Flagg taking one more unofficial to Storrs on November 6th is true. Hmmm

If there’s no announcement tonight then I’ll bet he is coming back to Storrs for an unofficial.

 

[superjohn]

Yeah it’s really a game only the big boys play.

Could always be like Michigan and lose guys like Hunter Dickenson and have football recruiting classes that can’t finish top 10 despite going to 2 (going on 3) CFP because they feel like they’re too good to play the NIL game. Lol

Yep, Michigan doesn't play the NIL game. Suuuuuuure

 

[runner11]

Yep, Michigan doesn't play the NIL game. Suuuuuuure

Michigan doesn’t recruit HS close to as well a you would expect so this is a pretty common CFB take but almost definitely stems from Harbaugh having one foot out the door every off season. They (and FSU) have been dominating the transfer market and there is no way to do that w/out NIL.

 

[UconnU]

Still no announcement of a commitment date...Me thinks that if he had committed to Duke this past weekend, something would have leaked by now, or the announcement would have been made.

Maybe that rumor of Flagg taking one more unofficial to Storrs on November 6th is true. Hmmm

There’s rumors he’s coming back? Holy cow, if that’s true the recruitment is over.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Yep, Michigan doesn't play the NIL game. Suuuuuuure

I’m not sure why you make comments like these without actually knowing what’s going on.

There’s plenty of quotes and facts out there from players (Hunter Dickenson) to recruiting rankings that back that up. They do it well the “clean” way but are not bag droppers.

@runner11 if you actually saw a lot of the transfers they bring in, 90% were former captains at their last program or had a connection with the program through a coach or current/former player. NIL is not really a part of their transfer portal pitch. All this is verifiable and not even an exaggeration.

 

[CL82]

Today and Tomorrow are huge. If no commitment announcement, or just a scheduling of the commitment announcement by then (and we have a lot of time to burn in the next 2 days still) it is game on in my opinion. If we hear anything in next two days, I think it favors Duke. But who the heck knows. I don't.

I will believe that we are out of it when he says we're out of it. Up until this weekend I thought the kid was Dukes to lose. After this weekend, I wonder if they did just that.

We'll know when we'll know. In the meantime, I am hopeful, but I'm not worrying about it.

 

[aburks41]

There’s rumors he’s coming back? Holy cow, if that’s true the recruitment is over.

Yeah a couple of the guys on spaces said it last week and then again last night said that they heard Cooper had set up an unofficial visit for banner night before he had left his official visit. So we'll see what happens

 

[AntG168]

Yeah a couple of the guys on spaces said it last week and then again last night said that they heard Cooper had set up an unofficial visit for banner night before he had left his official visit. So we'll see what happens

It’d be dope if he came to banner night as a UConn commit already

 

[TheHorde]

Yeah a couple of the guys on spaces said it last week and then again last night said that they heard Cooper had set up an unofficial visit for banner night before he had left his official visit. So we'll see what happens

Would they be paying for that too?

 

[CL82]

Would they be paying for that too?

I don't think the school can pay for it.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Guys. No one pays for a visit. Maybe they throw cash to entice. But just to visit? lol.

UConn won the national title. Is ranked sixth in the nation. Has another top 20 recruit possibly headed here…

They don’t have to pay to get a kid to campus. I mean, are you serious? If I gotta pay you to come take a look, why even bother? Lol.

Cooper’s family isn’t that shady. No chance.

Message board people. 95% of it is BS.

 

[HuskyHawk]

From my understanding, I think pretty much all NIL money comes from the collectives. How exactly it works to make sure it’s ‘legal’ I have no idea.

I agree that college sports is turning into pro leagues except a little more crazy because there’s no contracts to keep you on a team. An open transfer portal makes it a little messier.

It doesn't come from the collectives either. The collectives are just a loose group of companies that agree that they may have NIL deals available for student athletes of those schools. The collective helps arrange the deals, promote opportunities. Instead of just randomly hoping to get a deal, the player can work with the collective, which would reach out and see what deals are out there.

 

[aburks41]

Guys. No one pays for a visit. Maybe they throw cash to entice. But just to visit? lol.

UConn won the national title. Is ranked sixth in the nation. Has another top 20 recruit possibly headed here…

They don’t have to pay to get a kid to campus. I mean, are you serious? If I gotta pay you to come take a look, why even bother? Lol.

Cooper’s family isn’t that shady. No chance.

Message board people. 95% of it is BS.

Duke fans are beyond delusional with this entire recruitment.

 

[TheHorde]

I don't think the school can pay for it.

I know it’s a joke and a shot at the alleged UConn fans who might think the defending national champions would have to pay to get Cooper to visit. If they really think we have that little to offer, are they even true die hard fans that believe in this program?

 

[CL82]

I know it’s a joke and a shot at the alleged UConn fans who might think the defending national champions would have to pay to get Cooper to visit. If they really think we have that little to offer, are they even true die hard fans that believe in this program?