Flory Bidunga - 2024 Center (Offered)

Convince my I am wrong, but I stoped looking at future recruits. I used to pay a lot of attention to who we are recruiting. Now, It seems it just doesn't matter. We have an almost completely different team than we did last year. I have no confidence that a 2024 recruit will be around in 2025. I don't like this new game. I guess I will learn to live with it, but I loved watching players develop over the years. It is a different world now. My interest in college basketball has drastically dropped since this portal started. I hope I can come around a bit because I really like college basketball, but so far, not like this.

 

I think that means that any donations needed to build a practice facility would be better allocated to NIL.

 

I think the two can coincide. Some people can’t just get behind NIL yet and that’s their choice. Again, it’s identifying who is willing to give and to what end. We definitely need to take a more scattershot approach to fundraising. But the university has certainly stepped up their game of late to assist in NIL efforts and it’s paying off.


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No doubt about it.

With no direct knowledge of anything-I think there are indicators that were moving in that direction. I am somewhat surprised by that but it’s purchased a bit of my patience.


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Agree with everything you said, but think there’s another caveat here in that I’m not sure that it even makes sense to recruit freshmen.

Like sure maybe some here and there but it feels like a misallocation of resources. Sort of like writing an unsecured line of credit and a pledged one at the same rate.


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Totally agree, the problem is that 95% of teams are thinking that same thing now. They have totally allocated their budget to the portal and only offer a large chunk of cash if you’re an elite high school recruit.

So thus — average to mediocre transfers who averaged 13 PPG at a mid major are asking for a couple hundred thousand and are actually getting it by the law of demand. Outside of a handful of schools that’ll always be able to pay, you’ll start to see some donors chill out when they realize they dished out X amount of money for a player that went on to contribute next to nothing

 

Yeah for sure-the supply and demand curve is reset.

We should still recruit high school kids-but if we recruit a hs kid he should really fit the culture and talent level we need to excel


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Sadly, NIL and the portal have really dampened my enthusiasm for college b-ball. Have no problem paying the kids on scholarship, and in all sports, like a grand or two a month, and even give them a rental car while in college and while on the team. Holy crap, man would they would be living large. And at such a young age. Free education too. And don't even care if a kid transfers (once) without penalty or having to sit out. But transfer again, then sit. This crap has really gotten out of hand. The whole name, image and likeness argument is a fricking joke, IMO. Not sure how we got here. Won't be looking to the NCAA to try to corral this mess either, speaking of a joke. Guess I'll have to learn to live with it. So then Butler needs to go back to printing the game time rosters because who the hell knows who these guys are. Sorry, just not the same, at least for me. But then, I still miss one class HS basketball too. Sorry for the b!tching.

 

If the money were really for the players’ NIL value, that’d be one thing. But in almost every instance, it’s not. There are guys with zero marketing value getting paid a ton of money solely because of their potential value on the court.

In and of itself, there’s certainly nothing *wrong* with that - there’s nothing wrong with pro sports, of course. But what we effectively have now with college sports is pro sports but with…no real rules of any kind. It’s just not a model built for fairness or sustaining fan interest or competitive balance. And because the NCAA is inept, it’s never getting fixed (and even if they weren’t inept, there are legal issues with the potential routes for fixing it).

It’s FUBAR.

 

I hate pay for play-that’s what we have. I think Drcoldest Crawford and Bryce Young, Livvy Dunne and maybe Hailey Van Lithare the only athletes I’ve seen whose likeness was employed seemingly as a decision to grow a business.

What I hate even more is the NCAA kind of but not really having any rules so the ones that try to do it the right way are only imposing limitations on themselves that there is no reward for following.

It’s impossible to have any sort of future when the only equality in rules is the absence of rules altogether.


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To put into perspective just how much money is being thrown around in NIL. The LSU gymnast girl just revealed that she had received 500k from one single source. She is worth millions for a program that brings in minimal dollars for athletics. Just imagine the amount of money from donors who really care and how much they are willing to invest for a top level recruit. It is becoming bidding wars.

 

As has been discussed in a couple of threads, Livvy is one of the very, very few that is the essence of what NIL is supposed to be. Companies are paying her to endorse their products. I can't imagine anyone writing big checks for her to be a gymnast at LSU. She would receive endorsement contracts no matter where she is. A system that allows this type of thing to flourish without being abused by the pay to play or inducements to attend one university vs another is the big challenge.

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And like her deal with Vuori that she signed like the first couple days it was allowed I’m sure paid her well but was probably the best advertising decision that the company has ever made given her ascendence in notability.

I am all for that kind of thing. I don’t know how you legislate “legitimate business endeavors” though. Probably need the irs. (Only somewhat kidding)


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I've had the thought go through my mind more than once that it took the IRS to take down Capone, when it relates to the inducements and pay to play. Is there a single professional team sport where there is no leveling of the playing field from a compensation/salary cap perspective? I'm not talking about the legal difference between pros/employees and college athletes/students, although I do realize it's a factor to be overcome.

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Apparently, Bidunga has canceled remaining visits. I guess Duke,, Kansas, Auburn and Michigan are looking like the finalists. My gut would be Duke as the combination of smaller private school but still big $.

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Outside the USA, sure.

 

Interesting. Do the same teams (the ones who can out spend the others and/or are in a higher visibility/higher endorsement locale) typically dominate the sport(s) or is there parity?

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In the English Premier League (the best soccer league in the world), short of a miracle happening (like 2015/2016 with Leicester City) only six teams have a legit chance each year to win the league:

Manchester City
Manchester United
Liverpool
Arsenal
Tottenham
Chelsea

Although I admit Newcastle is trying to make this a Top 7. No one else has a shot. The other teams fight to be mid table or hope to get a Champions or Europa League spot, or they fight to avoid relegation.

In Germany, really only Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund can win. In Spain it’s either Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, or Barcelona. In Italy it’s Juventus, Inter, AC Milan, Napoli or Roma. In France it’s basically only PSG.

Not a ton of parity. In the American sports leagues, really anyone can win in any given year if they build their teams the right way.

 

That's what I feared.

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MLB?