OT: - Kentucky NIL is out of hand | Page 3 | The Boneyard
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OT: Kentucky NIL is out of hand

ec33 said:
Kirby sells kids on being their path to the NFL (which is far more established than UConn and the NBA).
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Just like Cal does. And refresh my memory, what did GA football do between Herschel and Smart? I'm just a casual CFB follower and nothing comes to my mind.
 
RuffRuff said:
Uggh - modern era please. It is REALLY hard to qualify their 4 titles pre 1958 other than pieces for a museum. I'll even give them the 1978 title as part of the conversation, since they beat Duke.

Yale could brag about having the best college football program of all time with their 18 titles. Get what I'm saying?
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I get it. The quote about no championships for UK I don't agree with. Recently, not much, thanks to Calipari. But Kansas, UNC also have titles that go way back (with recent success also). I just view the history of the game in a different way.
 
ec33 said:
Texas and USC are at the top. OSU spent far more than $20 million last year, that number was just for transfers.
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That's not what any of the articles say. They say the $20 million was for their entire roster. Where did you see that was just for transfers? Imagine being a star player on the team and seeing all the transfers get way more than you're getting? That would be a chemistry nightmare.

As ESPN describes, Ohio State poured the $20 million dollars from its NIL fund into building its 2024 roster, drawing from the transfer portal and recruiting class and also enticing some Buckeye players from going to the NFL.

www.sportingnews.com

Ohio State NIL budget, explained: How Ryan Day built a '$20 million' roster through NIL, transfer portal | Sporting News

Ohio State’s roster is one of the most talented in the nation, from Jeremiah Smith to Quinshon Judkins to Caleb Downs. How did the Buckeyes build it?
www.sportingnews.com www.sportingnews.com

Ohio State AD projects football roster cost 'around $20 million' in NIL money | FOX Sports

Ohio State's estimate of $20 million in NIL money spent on its football roster is believed to be the highest in the nation.
www.foxsports.com www.foxsports.com

rodgersherman.substack.com

Ohio State's $20 million bargain

Everybody seems to think it's ridiculous that Ohio State spent $20 million on their roster. So do I. There's no way a team this good should cost that little.
rodgersherman.substack.com rodgersherman.substack.com
 
I know there are a lot of uber wealthy people in the US and they can allocate their money as they wish. Many of those people made money by investing and getting a return on their investments. I’m just wondering if there will come time when the donors will expect anything more than good seats and a chance their school plays well?
 
rrskyjf said:
I get it. The quote about no championships for UK I don't agree with. Recently, not much, thanks to Calipari. But Kansas, UNC also have titles that go way back (with recent success also). I just view the history of the game in a different way.
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The different way imo is that UConn is the best. They’re relatively late comers who some don’t view as a blue blood (that depends on how you want to define it and that’s fine) but for those that are living and breathing today the Huskies are certifiably the top dogs!
 
It's grotesque and it's money wasted. I don't see it making much of a difference. Basketball has 5 starters and they maybe go up to 5 deep on the bench. Always have, always will. Programs like Kentucky have always had some of the best players so nothing really changes. It's not like paying the best kids more money is going to make them better, or allow you to play more kids in a 40 minute game. I know they'll be able to lure the diamonds in the rough through the portal with NIL so I suppose that could have an impact. If anything, all that cash may have a negative impact on some diaper dandies. It's human nature.
 
cwh20 said:
The different way imo is that UConn is the best. They’re relatively late comers who some don’t view as a blue blood (that depends on how you want to define it and that’s fine) but for those that are living and breathing today the Huskies are certifiably the top dogs!
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I pretty much see it this way too and that’s why I respect Duke’s status substantially more than UCLA, KY, and UNC. Duke has nearly as many championships as UConn in essentially the same timeframe but with more success in the non-championship years.
 
Waquoit said:
Just like Cal does. And refresh my memory, what did GA football do between Herschel and Smart? I'm just a casual CFB follower and nothing comes to my mind.
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Just like Cal or just like Hurley? Landrew just committed -- likely for less -- because Hurley sold him on being his best path to the NBA.

Georgia football was from casual recall typically the second best team in the SEC East to Florida (they did have their bad coaching hire and took time to recover). When Georgia did have their moments and played in the SEC championship game it was against the best team in the best division in college football. So there title hopes ended there because they could never overcome those opponents (and still can't beat Alabama).
 
HooperScooper said:
That's not what any of the articles say. They say the $20 million was for their entire roster. Where did you see that was just for transfers? Imagine being a star player on the team and seeing all the transfers get way more than you're getting? That would be a chemistry nightmare.
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I honestly don't remember where that Spring of 2024 info came from. Of course where these numbers come from and their length of time involved are often sketchy.

Jimbo's last year in Texas A&M had a rumored absurd figure over $50 million attached to their recruiting class. The actual terms are unknown (and the players pretty much all transferred after one failed season so who knows how much illicit money the players actually did see).

You can believe the OSU self-reported number that serves them and it still is a large number (and who knows how accurate the UK number is).

I did see that most schools (including SEC programs) were trying figure out where they are going up with the $20m number for all sports let alone just football or basketball.
 
DRBackup said:
Hasn't been true in quite a long time. The Dodgers have been the biggest spenders in MLB for years. And in 2025 the Dodgers were #2 behind the Mets.
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You know what I'm talking about - over the past 2.5 decades the Yankees have spent the most money and have one chip.
 
DRBackup said:
Hasn't been true in quite a long time. The Dodgers have been the biggest spenders in MLB for years. And in 2025 the Dodgers were #2 behind the Mets.
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Over the past 25 years the Yanks have spent the most money and have one chip to show for it.
 
Gburyhusky said:
As a UConn and Big East fan I am not terribly concerned about the Kentucky NIL because I don't think you can spend yourself into a championship. In professional sports the highest payroll does not directly correlate to the most success. For example in major league baseball (which has no real salary cap and minimal guardrails against organizations looking to outspend the competition) the teams remaining in the playoffs are ranked 2, 5, 16 and 23 in terms of highest payroll. Of the top 10 MLB payrolls in 2025, 4 missed the playoffs entirely, including the team with the highest payroll. Also keep in mind that in college basketball you have a roster of 15, however it's the first 7 to 9 members of the team that will usually determine the success of the team in any given season, so the total payroll may not correlate to amounts needed to pay and retain the top tier of the roster, which is the key to roster construction in the NIL era.
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You can't really compare it to pro sports because pro sports have a draft, arbitration, etc. Most of the biggest baseball stars are under control of the team that drafted them until they're close to 30, so I think the payroll gap in MLB can be a little misleading. Paul Skenes, for instance, made $740K last season and probably something similar this year. Tarik Skubal made $2.5 million last year and $10 million this year despite being worth probably 5x that much on the open market. A lot of times, the small market teams end up getting a player's best years while the big markets pay a premium for declining, broken down stars.

Point is, there are built-in advantages for the have-nots in professional sports that do not exist in college. What concerns me moving forward isn't whether we can get the players, but whether we can keep them. Guys like Calhoun made a career out of nabbing underrated recruits because he essentially had them locked up for 3-4 years once they got to campus. I think UConn men's basketball will always have enough booster support to bring in good players, but to build a champion you're going to need the money to keep them. We seem to be on the right side of that ledger...for now. But schools like FAU and Iona that built championship quality rosters only to be raided by the P2 provide a cautionary tale of what can happen if the gap ever grows too wide.
 

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