You BOT?
Not a bad idea.
And your way leads to Notre Dame becoming a football factory with no individuality. If you don't care about the university outside of football, then just go root for Bama. You'll have a much better time.
The thing is that it doesn't have to be the school. We just need a bunch of wealthy alumni and boosters to get together and drop bags...I mean...offer NIL deals for recruits. The school won't be able to control that.
Tried that this year and they lost to Tennessee…. Misery follows me.
I don't blame the kids if they take the money for the family. But at the same time, if they look at just money over other qualities of life, then they're not going to make the tremendous "impact" at ND you assume.
Would it change your mind if ND (school, boosters/alumni, etc.) promised kids money, but in exchange they had to do some volunteer work during their free time? Such as volunteering at locals hospitals, schools, best buddy programs, special Olympics, etc.? At least the players would be doing something to help out the community as opposed to other schools who just offer it to get their signature.
Possibly, but how does that get structured? Is it we give them all of the money up front and withhold it if they don't keep their word? Guess that would really test whether those kids are ND kids or just there for the money. FUND is currently structured to reward people for doing things like that, but you have to be on campus first.
Agree completely, which is why still you have to recruit for fit, and (somehow) find the kids who will remain driven enough to do the work to be great student-athletes even after they’ve got $500K (or whatever) in the bank at age 18.
But that's where the term "ND kid" just becomes so subjective. I'm honestly torn about a kid taking money upfront being an "ND kid." Taking the money is the road that's commonly traveled, whereas not taking it up front is the road less traveled. Seems like Freeman wants the road less traveled type kids to make up the majority of the classes. I.e. Kids who knowingly choose the harder path upfront because it's worth investing in yourself long term
There's technically still rules about no boosters... lol
I know. I mentioned that in my post. But who the hell is enforcing that? Seems like no one.
Exactly. And if the NCAA singles out ND then our players can bring the receipts (texts, DM's) from other schools where they were offered payment to sign with them or hit the transfer portal.
Who's enforcing?
I think there is something to be said for those young men having more success in the end at ND, anyways.
While I agree with this sentiment fully....Dante Moore, Keon Keeley, and Peyton Bowen are all ND kids through and through. We HAVE to have a better answer to HS NIL deals than what we're doing currently.
I think the fact that they're choosing the other schools after being given every opportunity to come to ND, unlike with Kelly who didn't put for the effort to convince them, says otherwise. The point of the post is that if a recruit chooses his GF, money, or proximity to home over ND after Freeman and company gave the full court press, they likely weren't going to succeed at ND even if they signed here.
There doesn't have to be anything inherently wrong with a kid or his family for that to happen. That is not mutually exclusive with the fact that the kids and families that want that usually don't last long at ND. Point is. If we start playing that game, we'd also have to change a lot of other things about the program. Mainly these kids going to school, living situations, etc. The kid that takes ND's money to come to ND, probably doesn't like the rest of what comes with ND. Therefore does not maximize his talents in South Bend.
I don’t really agree with this. We don’t need to be paying players to pick up the phone, we just need to be able to match offers for highly rated kids that are already RKGs. Peyton Bowen and Keon Keeley are takes, just because in the end we had to give each of them $100k or whatever doesn’t change that. It’s not the same as the big game hunting A&M/Miami/etc are doing.
If that was the solution then maybe but it's not. Not even close. You think Keeley's mamma put out a tweet about 1M and Bama got him to de-commit for 100k that ND refused to pay?
ND kids don't leverage schools they have no intention of going to against each other to create a bigger payday.
Dante Moore is an elite football player and a national honors society student. Keon Keeley is an elite football player and a good student at a high level prep school. Peyton Bowen is (for now) still committed to ND. The main reason that those guys aren't still committed is NIL deals. ND must address that situation and quickly.
You may be right about Dante Moore, but Keeley had every intention of going to ND. So did Peyton Bowen.