I don't know but all of these UNM under the table recruiting shenanigans have more intrigue than a Robert Ludlum novel.
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Having people involved that are greedy and looking out only for themselves is the problem. It's always the 3rd party guys that sink the ship. Not the kids. Not the families. Not the coaches. Not the boosters. It's the "advisers," former coaches, and other leaches that blackmail folks in the end. Not saying that's 100% what happened here, but I'll tell you with 100% certainty that it's happened before.
One of the between the lines, but important quotes in Miller's Ole Miss bio is that he is also a "fund raiser." Keep that in mind. That would tend to support the notion that he is the "official" bagman connection between recruits, players, and families.
Interesting Joe.
Thanks for the info.
What we have here stems from a deep rooted issue with the way OM and Bucky have been recruiting these high rated players. Reasons why they should not attempt to recruit the way they have been the last few years.
Tunsil never even had OM on his radar until the 11th hour. He had been a lifelong UGA fan and committed to them for a couple years (maybe not verbally) but he was dead set on playing football for Marl Richt. Then swoops in The Beav and OM wirh their money. They buy away a player who had no ties to the university or program. OM boosters believe they can buy someone's love and passion for a program. Their arrogance and delusion prevent them from seeing the "rented mule" is only loyal to you while you are paying them and until they are finished with you.
A lifelong OM fan who gets cash to play for them will rarely ever roll on them. Their arrogance and delusions of "how amazing" Oxford and UMN are, will lead to their own undoing and demise.
I still don't buy the motives for either party. I know you threw out that $500k number somewhat arbitrarily, but lets look at the actual numbers. Jameis Winston's rookie contract (as the #1 pick in 2015) is worth $4.6 million per year over 5 years. Agents typically get about 10%, so that's $460,000 that Winston's agent made off him in a year. Andrus Peak, as the #13 pick in 2015 (same pick as Tunsil this year), is only making about $2,000,000 per year over that same time period (so, $200,000 per year for his agent). So, you're saying an agent agreed to a finders fee amount for a client that would exceed a year's worth of income off that client in an absolute best case scenario, or possibly more than 2 years worth of income from that client in a slightly sub-optimal draft situation? There is no way any agent would agree to give up that kind of loot just on a finders fee. If there was such a fee, it would likely be in the $100k to $200k range, max.
Now lets flash forward to the booster. You're saying that the booster threw $200k at Tunsil with hopes of recouping the money down the road and then some through some type of agent agreement. You are saying the guy tied up 6 figures worth of dough in the chance that Tunsil might be a 1st round pick, he might not get hurt, might not get upset and transfer out of OM, and, above all, might use the agent that his stepdad told you he would use. All in the hopes that down the road you would get a finders fee that would probably be roughly equal or slightly less than what you put in. That's just entirely too much risk for a very small reward. Hell, even if the $500k was a realistic number, the odds of getting there are probably no better than if you just went to Tunica and put down $200k on black at the roulette table. And it doesn't take 3 years to spin that wheel, either. People that have $200,000 worth of money to just throw around are typically much smarter than that.
Let me be perfectly clear. I totally agree that some booster or collection of boosters put together a very large benefit package in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for Tunsil and his family. I just don't think that they expected anything in return for their efforts unless both the booster and the agent were extraordinarily stupid. But seeing as how much this has blown up in everyone's face, that may be the case.
Yes those numbers (200k and 500k) were just pulled out of the air for examples. However, you are not counting other deals such as endorsements that the agent will be getting his commission for. There is also a signing bonus as well. My example was to show how the process works not how the math adds up. For example, a 150k house has been mentioned several times. Who actually owns the house or is it rented by the "financial advisor" for the players family. We will never know the exact dollar amounts but the process is easy to see.
Just reread the post. Point of clarification: If the agent receives the %, would that not be all up front? So if the booster becomes the agent, that could be big $$ right away. If a "finders fee", could it not be that the individual booster makes a deal that they would get a portion of the contract on top of the agent's fee? Just a thought.
I wish I knew how many of those views were UM fans. You know they have to be foaming at the mouth wishing they could reply.
"Them stoopid MOO U LEGHUMPERS! Lookit what them dum trakter drivin redneks from MOO U er sayin bouts us! (Continue incoherent rant for 45 minutes)..stoopid leghumpers! But I don't care 'cause LSU is arr REAL rival!!!"
"I am not a crook!"
I get what you are saying and I didn't consider the endorsements. However, I still think that whoever blew the lid on this whole thing was a spurned agent out to get Sexton. First video was released to hurt Tunsil's stock and therefore reduce Sexton's payday. Then the instagram photo of the texts was designed as a hit on Sexton's other boy Freeze. If you think about it, Sexton lost a million dollars plus underermined signing bonus money when the gas mask video leaked. Then he possibly loses $500k per year plus endorsement money if Freeze gets shitcanned. I don't think he was affiliated with Ole Miss, or he wouldn't have released the photo of the text messages.
It all makes sense to me. In October, after Miller blew the whistle, the "financial advisor" was ex-communicated (not the official term) from UNM athletics and from Tunsil. Now he is pissed and has NOTHING to LOSE. He cannot even go to games anymore. He is mad at Tunsil and, importantly, mad at UNM for not having his back. So he blows the whole thing up publicly at the draft.
This all gives credence to Coach 34's original post.
If what Coach34 reports is true, it is very similar to what SMU was doing when they got the DP. They went after several players each year that were NFL ready. Enough to give them a shot at winning. They made sure they got those players with an offer they could not refuse.
But, they got caught cheating.
Ole Miss is caught.