It's a good strategy until you don't have any good players to keep because you didn't buy them up front out of high school.
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Valid point.
But I can answer that question...it's no one. We are at the bottom of the list, at this point in time. Realistically, we're a very small school.
From the conversations that I've had, Mississippi State does not have the numbers to be competitive from a dollar to dollar point of view. We will never be able to compete on that level.
That being said, the Yankees haven't won a world series in a while, so there's a lot more than just buying the players.
Nobody knows what other initiatives really have and where we are in the standings. The most accurate statement anyone can make is we are somewhere in the bottom tier for football but men's basketball and baseball is very competitive if not top half of the league. Football is getting better but a long way to go to catch up. Anyone making a definite claim we are last in the league is just making it up and not considering Vandy. Charlie and a select few inside that circle actually know what we have.
Rumor from a connected friend of mine is that if you donate $25K or more to NIL, you get inside information. I don't know anyone in that type position to verify this. Maybe one of you can. Hail State!
What most people don't realize is that there is no "right way" of dealing with NIL and getting players. Here is why - No one knows what actually works. Look at A&M. Go back and look at their number 1 class from 2022 (I think) and see how many of those kids have already left. How much money did that cost them? How many wins did it get them?
Sure there are a few schools out there that they can throw away 5-10 million in NIL money and not blink an eye. We aren't one of those schools and the bears aren't either.
This is all so new that no one knows what will actually work. UGA used NIL money to keep their roster intact, but most of the guys that carried them to a title signed pre NIL money and it was just old school cheating.
All i know is that if you go back and look at schools that are in the same position as us NIL wise and look at their recruiting classes the last few years and really look to see who is still on that campus, I think you would be stunned.
Not to be pedantic but there IS a "right way" to do it. The fact we don't have enough data to statistically probe what the "right way" is doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
There's multiple "right ways" to do it depending on how much money you have. The best way for UGA will be different from the best strategy we could have. But there's still a "right way" for both of us
To a degree, this is true. But, the definite "right way" to do NIL is to not have your head in the sand hoping it will go away. Cohen, and I think to a degree Lemonis and Leach, seemed to have done that and it has bitten us in the ass.
I know straight from a high level UGA donor that Kirby mentions NIL and how important it is at every single donor function and that the AD staff constantly stresses it and approaches them about opportunities. We have to be doing that as well - even if our methods and amounts of giving are different.