You know what’s the first thing that came to mind when I watched this?
If you manage an SEC football program, there’s a difference between being committed to winning and being financially committed to winning. Everybody wants to win. The hard part is figuring out how to allocate resources to make sure that happens. And, no, that doesn’t mean spending money like a drunken sailor. (We’re looking at you, Tennessee.) It simply means that if you think your rightful place is among the Alabamas, Floridas and LSUs of the world, you’d better take a hard look at what they’re doing and make sure you’re giving your coaching staff the opportunity to keep up with them.
The difference between Richt’s situation and Napier’s is that NIL has been inserted into the equation. Oh, and that Florida is now looking for a way to join the Alabamas and Georgias of the college football world.
Get The Picture 
Auburn, UTe, and gators…the 3 Stooges of SEC entertainment.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Former longtime FU assistant Greg McGarity is close by and should be hired to oversee all AD spending ASAP.
LikeLiked by 7 people
It does seem like a structural issue when you have disinterested 3rd parties calling out their nil collective and admin…but hey, I ain’t bitchin’
You do you, ditch lizards
LikeLiked by 13 people
As their own guy said below, they are an Amid-Tears program. It was tough, but I believe I’ve accepted it and I’m hoping the Gators can find that same peace that I’m experiencing with it. It’s like an endless ice-cold beer we all just have to swallow. Just cope with it one Halloween at a time, Gators. We’ll be there for ya.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Seven years. A great deal can change. But you know what hasn’t changed in 50 years? Out of all those lawnmower beers the absolute best is still an ice cold PBR poured into a frosty mug.
Warm? They’re all horse piss.
LikeLiked by 8 people
A 16 oz Natty Light after a run is pretty good. If you drink it really fast you can’t taste the metal.
LikeLiked by 5 people
I specifically looked for a picture with PBR. (If you’re from Atlanta), Moe’s and Joe’s forever …
LikeLiked by 3 people
Still the best/only reason to go to ATL is the Clermont Lounge.
LikeLiked by 6 people
That’s a little more PBR than my old frame can stand anymore…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I resemble that remark.
The last time Dirty Russ and the boys made the strip circuit through ATL, by the time we got to the Clermont I was like the Bama football team with a minute left in the National Championship game that the Dawgs won 33-18, in case y’all forgot.
I just wanted to
Go
Home.
LikeLiked by 3 people
You tell Blondie Strange, ol Froze says hello…I’ve seen her crush more cans and wail on unsuspecting dudes’ faces than should be allowed by law
LikeLiked by 3 people
Been awhile. Probably won’t be going back. But I will tell you, we didn’t go there for the pretty girls and cheap drinks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Going to the Clermont was the closest you’d ever come to living in Pulp Fiction that didn’t involve actually killing someone. Usually.
LikeLiked by 3 people
You do kind of get that vibe at the Clermont. I took my ATL running buddies to a place called Little Las Vegas out in the boonies on the Broad River. I went in strapped and Gary asked if I was worried they’d search me.
“Naw man, if they search you and you ain’t got a gun? They’ll sell you one.”
That’s a rough place. Like Reno meets Deliverance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Five Paces Inn
LikeLiked by 3 people
I hope Johnny’s Hideaway is still going…I remember Lulu’s Bait Shop in Buckhead, back when there was a real buckhead
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ask Damon Evans if Johnny’s Hideaway is still going.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Too many fishbowls that one night of my bachelor party…
LikeLiked by 2 people
The fishbowls, sunny beach, front porch swing…you could stagger from lulu’s shack to hangovers to makos…it was freaky, but it seemed like you’d alway run into people you knew…it just kept the party going
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gators beer of choice is Natty Light at least in Jacksonville. Years of research and heavy drinking ( no not that piss) in Jacksonville has proven this.
LikeLiked by 2 people
LikeLiked by 6 people
Shallow gene pool? Deep jean pool?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Cut off gene pool” is more like it
LikeLiked by 3 people
Way too much access to jeans and genes in Florida. Way too much Florida, for that matter–though any Florida is too much.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Both too shallow. Jeans should end below the ankles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you must wear jeans, that is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That picture will send the Senator over the edge…he no likely the swill…
As for me and mine, after about 6 I could give a rip…my neighbor beer is a leftover hodgepodge of XX, Miller Lite, Stella, sometimes Fat Tire
Right now I’m stocked up on Oberon…thanks to a sale at Costco
LikeLiked by 2 people
5.8%–that’s a good lawnmower/neighbor beer ABV. Anything below 5.5% might as well be iced tea.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This all looks good to me. Best beer in the world is Free Beer, followed closely by Cold Beer.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ll take that Shiner hiding in the ice bucket, please.
LikeLiked by 3 people
No Gansett?
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can’t necessarily believe rumors, but I’m sure glad there aren’t any rumors out there about a high school student being offered $11 million to come to Georgia and turning it down to take half to go elsewhere. The apparent fact a player would rather take half to not be a Florida Gator is wonderful, hilarious, and a very underrated part of the Summer of Godawgs1701.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Wow…remember the old bumper stickers after 1980? “Some people wouldn’t go to Auburn for a million dollars”…(What Dooley allegedly turned down). If the Football Gods actually made it rain toads on the Plains, in Knox, and in Gainesville, it wouldn’t be much of an escalation at this point.
LikeLiked by 3 people
While no amount of bad news about Florida is enough to satisfy me, the fact lawyers acting as agents for recruits are commenting about NIL collectives in any way shows that college football has been ruined. College football is nothing more than another pro sports league now. The next logical step will be the implementation of some sort of “draft” to insure parity in talent levels across the P5 teams.
LikeLiked by 4 people
The good we see here does not outweigh the bad….
We were sold a bill of goods.
The best idea I’ve heard is: start up a club sport for football that would be made up of actual students.
Someone somewhere needs to get that ball rolling.
LikeLike
We have a Rugby Team that is made up of actual students.
LikeLiked by 1 person
and others… It can be done. Just needs a spark, some time and a little attention.
LikeLike
I don’t really do well with slippery slope arguments or hyperbole. These kids are still students at these universities and as long as they’re required to attend classes you can’t just draft them and choose their school for them (yes, I know, they aren’t all necessarily going to classes in the same way you or I did, but they are still at least doing the bare minimum and there are still plenty of players who are pursuing degrees in earnest). That wouldn’t be a “logical” step at all. Besides, I’m not sure I could point to a single decision that’s been made in college football or college sports in general over the past 20 years that was made with creating roster parity among teams in mind. College football has been ruined? No, it’s simply been changed. It’s still Georgia vs. Florida this Halloween and I suspect we’re all still going to have a great time between the hedges this fall. I don’t know many people who love change, but you’ve got to roll with it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Annual signing limits were put in place in the last 20 years.
A fan in 2022 may not notice anything, but its just going to get worse and worse. Its been a little less than a year (I think) and we’re already hearing about $11 million offer to a kid in HS?
LikeLike
We’re also hearing plenty of discussion over whether that’s sustainable or whether it will be allowed to continue. Either way, “we’re already hearing about $11 million offer to a kid in HS?” does not equal “college football is ruined!” It simply means that there will be a small set of the guys in helmets who are as obscenely rich as the guys coaching them. I was already jealous of college players for other reasons, but it doesn’t really ruin the sport for me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Its not jealously. That teenagers are being literally being bought that is, and ought to be, disturbing. Of course some don’t even notice that part of it so for that segment of fans, they’ll be fine with whatever. With really anything I suppose.
There is not a state in the country where the kids being recruited are old enough to sign a fucking lease for an apartment BUT offer them an 11 million dollar football deal? And the whole college thingy part is pretty much an irrelevancy? Sure why not?
One of these sets of rules and standards is really fucking stupid and misguided. You decide which one.
LikeLike
Man, I bet you’re still lamenting the end of the disco era. Embrace change, Derek!
Dodos are extinct for a reason.
😉
LikeLike
Because they couldn’t fly and ate real good?
LikeLiked by 4 people
😉
LikeLike
My answer would have been…pigs, and that’s why we now have Angry Birds
LikeLiked by 1 person
Europeans sign high dollar pro soccer contracts around the same age, if not younger. Besides, the dollar amounts may have changed but I think we all know at this point that athletes have been paid illegally for decades upon decades in college sports (for the small handful of cases like the million dollar QBs, otherwise the dollar amounts are probably about where they always have been). Personally, I like the fact that the kids who obey the rules, however many of them there actually are, can now cash in as well and do it within the scope of the rules. I’m not “disturbed” in the slightest by a kid at or very close to voting age making a decision based on money – that’s a major factor that will be the deciding factor or one of the deciding factors in every decision they make for the rest of their lives. Besides, even in this hottest moment of NIL, money is still not the only factor being considered by recruits. If the story is true, a kid is apparently taking many millions less to go to the U instead of Florida for all the other glitzy reasons for which kids have always chosen colleges – girls, beaches, logos, swag, or whatever have you. Maybe even because he liked a science teacher down there, who knows?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Making a decision to be a professional is different than making a decision about where to go to college.
I have no problem with minor league baseball.
I would love for someone to start a pro football league that took players out of high school. Do it. Yesterday.
The idea that any person with a functioning nervous system would say that its ok for a 17 year old kid to consider saying no to Stanford and yes to Louisville because that Cardinal(s) is offering more money demonstrates conclusively that the ONLY infinite matter in the universe is in fact human stupidity.
If they want money, go be a pro. If they want to go to college, money dangled in front of them should NOT be a consideration at all, period irrespective of the fact that people break rules. People murder every day. Should we abandon the prohibition because fuck it, it’s happening anyway and stuff???
I would ask any person this:
If your son or daughter had a choice between an Ivy League education OR the money FSU is dangling in front of them would you be happy or pissed the fuck off? Why should quick money be part of the discussion in a matter of that magnitude? It shouldn’t.
If my child was being led down the primrose path by strangers encouraging my kid to make an expedient choice by dangling money in front of I’d give strong consideration to shooting them.
The only reason this makes sense to anyone is that they are seen as disposable entertainers and someone else’s kids and someone else’s problem when they’re 28, broke and uneducated. At least you enjoyed that Saturday afternoon, amirite?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very good argument. You swayed me back on the fence. I have no idea how this shakes out but I’m not confident in the ones doing the shaking at the moment. Like most things now, we’re probably gonna have to end up following the money, which is all too common and sad.
LikeLike
“Making a decision to be a professional is different than making a decision about where to go to college.”
For most highly ranked recruits, this is not true. Has been for
many years and we all know it. Where can I go to get me to the NFL? It is as it always was. A stepping stone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Odonto,
The lack of pro options means that there really isn’t a market for HS players in any sense. What there is a market for is making the football team they pull for win trophies. Very few recruits have any inherent value in and of themselves. They are being commoditized at too young an age by people who do not have their long term interests in mind. Which as I see it is the exact opposite of the mission of college sports.
LikeLike
The only reason this makes sense to anyone is that they are seen as disposable entertainers and someone else’s kids and someone else’s problem when they’re 28, broke and uneducated. At least you enjoyed that Saturday afternoon, amirite?
You’re trying to make me feel guilty about watching football players on Saturday afternoon like they’re “disposable entertainers” because I want to see them getting a shit load of money to do it (on top of whatever academic opportunity they are or are not taking advantage of) and you’d prefer that they get paid in knowledge? Because someone might go get their complimentary college degree at a lesser institution than an Ivy or Pac 12 Ivy in order that they can also make a ton of money? Get out of here. NIL makes the enterprise LESS exploitative of college athletes, not moreso. I’m sorry, but if we’re talking about these guys who are suddenly being paid multiple millions of dollars to play college football, I think the Louisville educational outcome starts to get closer to the Stanford outcome. These other colleges also hold classes about stocks and they’ve got law schools and $11 million is one hell of a head start. And if we aren’t talking about millions, it still comes down to a young person making a choice for their future – Louisville already has a whole lot of shiny things that they can induce a recruit to skip Harvard with if that young man doesn’t have someone guiding them. College sports pre-2021 was as pure as the driven snow, sure, so why was Stanford not the national champion? Because most blue-chip athletes had already decided class isn’t their top priority. That does suck, yeah, but if a running back destroys his knee in your world then they walk away with a degree. In mine, they walk away with a degree and more money than I made in the first ten years with my degree. It makes me feel a lot less guilty about being entertained watching them get tackled.
LikeLike
Also, don’t fool yourself, you can’t sign with the military before you’re 18 but they’re definitely recruiting your kids before they turn 18.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If all a kid has going for him is his knee then wtf is he doing at a college?
LikeLike
Do you make a similar argument about the military recruitment of HS seniors? Do you not believe they are capable of understanding their ontological existence and deciding accordingly? If, say, NIL was expanded to include artists, musicians, and writers in colleges, would it be immoral for schools to recruit them as well? If a person cannot reserve a VRBO rental or a rental car under the age of 25, does that mean they are unfit to choose other things for themselves? Or is that number and idea arbitrary? Look, i agree with your reservations about where NIL is heading. It’s messy. And, yes, it affects my appetite as a fan and consumer of my beloved team. But let’s not paint these young men as victims. They simply have a more prominent seat at the table that generations have ensured is so abundantly well provisioned.
It must play itself out. Doesn’t mean we enjoy the process. Yet, these young men and women can speak for themselves, or through representation, without our imposed morality. They are independent in as much as they allow and seek themselves to be. Much like when the military sent you and I that nice Gillette razor on our 18th birthday and asked if we’d consider serving our country in the most difficult and honorable way.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Pretty sure you have to be 18 to join the military.
15 year olds (sometimes younger than that) get recruited.
LikeLike
Yep. That’s why I mentioned HS seniors. Good on ya’, mate. How old were you when you graduated HS?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Can you offer an example of a 15 year old being recruited by the bad NIL men?
LikeLike
I was 17 when I became a college student.
The first rule of NLI is not letting us know what is going on with 15 year olds. I have no doubt that once the “collective” knows there is an interest from the school that there is the beginning of a relationship with the “collective.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
#FTMF! It needed sayin’.
LikeLiked by 3 people
If they can just find Spurrier 2.0, they’ll win and the recruits will follow. Keep looking gators because Billy ain’t the OBC.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This ain’t the Sun Belt Billy.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Right now, FU is currently the guy that puts down the 1st bid on all the silent auction line items, never to return
LikeLiked by 3 people
Has Pat Dooley filed his column explaining to us how this will lead to Kirby Smart being exposed as a second-rate coach and Georgia being relegated to third tier status by Billy Napier’s ascendant program within two seasons? I can’t wait to try to follow along with the logic.
LikeLiked by 4 people
BY GOD THAT’S CHARLIE PELL’S MUSIC!
LikeLike
Mr. stoopnagle,
I am sure very few people got the Charlie Pell reference. I am not going to tell that story, but that is such a great comment.
I am sure Fl. and Clemson appreciate that Pell joke.
LikeLike