Signing Day 2021 Megathread

[Dale]

Yeah that’s the one. Again I’d be rather confident that tweet is just made up but it’s a pretty reasonable dart to throw. That person is just peddling their trading newsletter lol

 

[Dale]

I don't understand it. Barstool is not some alumni booster, it's a business decision for them and I don't know how you justify "millions" to some kid at Jackson State.

Deion is an employee/partnered. They already did S1 of the documentary series

 

[NDty9]

Reese absolutely killed that presser! Especially the last questions by Sampson, " you're role isnt defined on this team yet, because youre not here yet!"

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

I don't understand it. Barstool is not some alumni booster, it's a business decision for them and I don't know how you justify "millions" to some kid at Jackson State.

They’re getting publicity from these headlines. As for why Jackson State, I assume it’s because the head coach never saw a camera he didn’t love and is more than cooperative about giving them access.

 

[rtrn2glory]

I think he just genuinely loves being at ND. Love that guy.

This and I really think the wifey and kids love it as much or even more. Which in the end I have a feeling was the driving force to rooting him in South Bend.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Barstool culture is the worst. Absolutely vile.

 

[tussin]

They’re getting publicity from these headlines. As for why Jackson State, I assume it’s because the head coach never saw a camera he didn’t love and is more than cooperative about giving them access.

Barstool does not hurt for publicity. It makes absolutely no sense to throw millions (allegedly) at a guy who 95% of football fans will not see play once. He will be making more than some of the high profile personalities that work at Barstool.

 

[GowerND11]

Barstool culture is the worst. Absolutely vile.

Eh... VIVA LA STOOL

 

[IrishRazor82]

Haha, I love it. Barstool is disrupting the stale status quo.

Absolutely hilarious - they should take over all broadcasting too.

 

[zelezo vlk]

So this has to be worse than the Jacksonville State loss for FSU, right? Noles losing to 2 JSUs this year, dang...

 

[Dale]

Barstool doesn't not hurt for publicity. It makes absolutely no sense to throw millions (allegedly) at a guy who 95% of football fans will not see play once. He will be making more than some of the high profile personalities that work at Barstool.

Deal doesn’t have to stop when he gets drafted. If Hunter is as good as his ranking it’d possibly be an inroad to their biggest athlete brand deal they’ve ever have. Podcast, merch etc

 

[ryno 24]

Yeah his answer was pretty surprising and fresh. Basically said it wasn't "loyalty" to anyone, it's that he makes family first decisions. Said he turns down all kinds of other jobs because he has two teenagers daughters (one of whom is a top fencer) that are entrenched here + want to go to Notre Dame.

He did say those things. However, maybe I am interpreting this wrong. But he sounded much more dejected and tired than the others being interviewed. He did talk about how hard it is to get kids to Notre Dame. And not glitz or glammer. This is different than what Freeman has been preaching. Interesting how it was said at least how I took it

Tommy sounded great once again at the podium.

 

[tussin]

Deal doesn’t have to stop when he gets drafted. If Hunter is as good as his ranking it’d possibly be an inroad to their biggest athlete brand deal they’ve ever have. Podcast, merch etc

This feels a bit like the early days of HS-to-NBA when there was a graveyard of top picks wasted on random high school kids with a 40-inch vertical. Most of these deals will be huge wastes of money and the market will correct itself within 5 years.

Barstool could probably use an equivalent amount of money and go sign the top CB in the NFL right now (Xavien Howard, apparently). There is maybe a 5% chance that Hunter turns into an equivalent player and Howard is likely not getting endorsements as sizable as what this deal is rumored to be for.

 

[dublinirish]

Barstool culture is the worst. Absolutely vile.

100% anyone who consumes or enjoys their "content" is a fucking moron

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

100% anyone who consumes or enjoys their "content" is a fucking moron

Frat stars and mouth breathers

 

[Dale]

This feels a bit like the early days of HS-to-NBA when there was a graveyard of top picks wasted on random high school kids with a 40-inch vertical. Most of these deals will be huge wastes of money and the market will correct itself within 5 years.

Barstool could probably use an equivalent amount of money and go sign the top CB in the NFL right now (Xavien Howard, apparently). There is maybe a 5% chance that Hunter turns into an equivalent player and Howard is likely not getting endorsements as sizable as what this deal is rumored to be for.

If the number is high, I wouldn’t even say as rumored those tweets are literally just fake, it’s probably mostly out of Portnoy’s personal pocket. But overall yes, the deal is probably going to be way premature, an overpay and Hunter thinking it’ll work out for him to not play FBS was also likely pre-mature and not the best decision possible (neither was going to FSU though lol). Happy NIL!

 

[BobbyMac]

I don't understand it. Barstool is not some alumni booster, it's a business decision for them and I don't know how you justify "millions" to some kid at Jackson State.

Disruption. Marketing. Portnoy can now say hes the most influencial force in recruiting. Can't believe he beat Shannon Terry to the punch.

Just wait until you see how much he paid Walker to jack over ND for the flip to his alma mater. Italics?

 

[ACamp1900]

Can any help me here, I feel lost (yes, more than usual) : at a point I got disgusted and stopped paying direct attention. Can someone give me a quick run down of what is and isn’t legal now? Barstool as in barstool sports is paying kids to commit?? What’s going on here?? Big thanks in advance to anyone who can help clarify this ordeal. Some kid got millions to play for Primetime?? Really??

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Can any help me here, I feel lost (yes, more than usual) : at a point I got disgusted and stopped paying direct attention. Can someone give me a quick run down of what is and isn’t legal now? Barstool as in barstool sports is paying kids to commit?? What’s going on here?? Big thanks in advance to anyone who can help clarify this ordeal. Some kid got millions to play for Primetime?? Really??

The most important point is that what is and isn't against the rules seems to be irrelevant at the moment. The NCAA released an interim policy which is vague as hell.

Schools can't pay directly. They NIL deals are not supposed to be conditional on attending a particular school. It's supposed to be a bona fide endorsement and can't be tied to performance.

 

[IrishLax]

Can any help me here, I feel lost (yes, more than usual) : at a point I got disgusted and stopped paying direct attention. Can someone give me a quick run down of what is and isn’t legal now? Barstool as in barstool sports is paying kids to commit?? What’s going on here?? Big thanks in advance to anyone who can help clarify this ordeal. Some kid got millions to play for Primetime?? Really??

Basically, the only rule -- and it's very easy to get around -- is that schools cannot facilitate or coordinate money to student athletes. Everything else is legal as long as the payment is structured correctly -- i.e. $X for some form of rights to their name, image, or likeness (NIL). This can be as crazy as giving someone $1 million in cash for a signed jersey. That isn't happening, but it's hypothetically possible.

What most schools are doing is getting booster clubs to fund sham charitable organizations or other shell companies that then put significant financial commitments behind recruits or current players. Then the school can say things like "well, here is the compensation our OL is getting from these sources." And then the prospect/parent/agent goes and talks to those sources (or others) about compensation after signing with the school. They don't give them the money upfront, because it's also technically against the rules to condition certain things like $$ per touchdown or "sign here for $X". In short, there are some vague rules, but they are so oblique that they are comically easy for any lawyer to get around the spirit of the rules.

Notre Dame -- as far as I'm aware right now -- is not doing that, and is honoring the actual spirit of NIL. Their branding/NIL presentation is great, and when they put it out they were ahead of curve. But Texas A&M and Texas in particular... and others are following suit quickly... went straight for "what is the biggest loophole we can exploit in order to buy the best roster that we can."

Michigan, for example, was way behind but has in recent months started trying to emulate aggressive NIL schools. USC allegedly intends to start being more aggressive after Domani Jackson came to them with a SHOW ME THE MONEY attitude.

All of this will be reformed within a few years, but for now it's the wild west.

 

[Dale]

I’d also take any amount of odds he doesn’t do 3 years at JSU. Bama or Georgia or somewhere eventually

 

[tussin]

All of this will be reformed within a few years, but for now it's the wild west.

Do you have a view on what the end game is?

 

[Huntr]

I’d also take any amount of odds he doesn’t do 3 years at JSU. Bama or Georgia or somewhere eventually

At FSU in 2 years when Norvell gets fired and they hire Prime. Hunter comes with him.

Only sorta kidding...

 

[beryirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1471205612759494660[/TWEET]

 

[beryirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1471178989402492929[/TWEET]

 

[beryirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1471181324962889728[/TWEET]

 

[beryirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1471194781988667394[/TWEET]

 

[beryirish]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1471202447658037252[/TWEET]

 

[IrishLax]

Do you have a view on what the end game is?

This isn't from any good NCAA source but people "in the know" tend to think this is how things are trending:
-FBS Football will become a self-governed entity within D1 sports. It's possible that it will further split into Power 5 being a self-governed entity with a full on commissioner elected by the member institutions. It is possible -- but unlikely, unless things get way out of control -- that any legislation/reform will be passed before this point because they will have to do it all over again. The sticking point though is that if it DOES get out of control you may not be able to put the genie back in the bottle. So we'll see.
-This self-governance and playoff expansion are 3-5 years away.
-The legal cases that went against the NCAA accelerated NIL and immediate transfer eligibility, and may accelerate the self-governance. It also may slow down the playoff expansion until it's all sorted. But it won't go past 2025.
-The NCAA wanted to lobby Congress to pass laws that reform the way amateur sports are handled because everything was getting untenable and it was clear that they were going to lose in court. The NCAA is a garbage institution and was operating on borrowed time. Unfortunately, with the political chaos of the past few years, even with all of the money and influence that these schools have there is basically no traction on something getting done. They are busy with other stuff. So the NCAA lost their "easy out."

Once they get to self-governance...
-NIL (if it stays in its current form at all) is likely to become more restricted with an NIL clearinghouse for all NIL compensation. There would basically some form of arbitration/fairness doctrine stuff where if a player is selling signed cleats they need to be at "NFL market rate" not a million dollars a shoe. Same thing for the sham corporations Texas and Texas A&M are setting up.
-Nobody wants to see players as employees of the schools, they think that will kill the golden goose. They may try to thread the needle where eligibility is conditioned on signing an LOI that is more of a contract that entitles the player to more "benefits" while also being harder to break except for in certain windows of time // if mutually severed by both parties. I'm skeptical it will go this route.
-Another idea is to only have immediate eligibility for transfers who have completed at least two years at their first institution and in good standing. The idea would be that more emphasis needs to be put back on education and the changes of the past year have wholly undermined that.
-Finally, they want to put in restrictions on coaches. I've heard they may try to structure contact rules similar to the NFL and make it so that coaches cannot be hired until after the season. There are potential pros and cons to this. They also may make it so that you cannot hire a coach under contract with another school in the "self-governed" division unless that school agrees to it OR it is a promotion. I'm skeptical that this will happen, but there are a lot of people who think that the current situation is untenable especially when coupled with free transfers and NIL. And they're considering all options to reform it.
-Early signing day may be entirely eliminated OR they may move it all the way up to August. They feel that with the "free transfer" (or a provision to get out of LOI with a head coaching change if the free transfer goes away) that an August signing day has little downside. They do not think that the December signing day is working well.

 

[NDohio]

Reese absolutely killed that presser! Especially the last questions by Sampson, " you're role isnt defined on this team yet, because youre not here yet!"

TR will be a head coach somewhere soon...