OT: D1

[TheBigCat2192]

I don’t know if it’s come up here yet but one of Miami (Florida, not Ohio’s) big NIL boosters, John Ruiz, is facing down some serious money problems because his business (LifeWallet) is in the toilet. He was briefly a big item when he started dishing out NIL to pretty much every Hurricanes FB player and allegedly payed up to bring them some big-time transfers for both basketball teams. I wonder what happens to those NIL deals if the company goes bankrupt or even completely dissolves; and by extension what happens to Miami’s little upswing if that money dries up.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I don’t know if it’s come up here yet but one of Miami (Florida, not Ohio’s) big NIL boosters, John Ruiz, is facing down some serious money problems because his business (LifeWallet) is in the toilet. He was briefly a big item when he started dishing out NIL to pretty much every Hurricanes FB player and allegedly payed up to bring them some big-time transfers for both basketball teams. I wonder what happens to those NIL deals if the company goes bankrupt or even completely dissolves; and by extension what happens to Miami’s little upswing if that money dries up.

Miami is an interesting school.

People my age still look at Miami as this glamourous powerhouse ... the 'bad boys' of college football.

Reality is that era died a long, long time ago. I do wonder what mystique the Hurricanes still have with this younger generation.

[TheBigCat2192]

Miami is an interesting school.

People my age still look at Miami as this glamourous powerhouse ... the 'bad boys' of college football.

Reality is that era died a long, long time ago. I do wonder what mystique the Hurricanes still have with this younger generation.

I’m not sure if they still have the same mystique. I’m just old enough to remember the end of their glory years; I vaguely recall the infamous defensive holding penalty in the Fiesta Bowl and they were good the next three years. They haven’t had a run of sustained high-level play since 2005 though and their best final ranking in the AP or CFP since then was 10th under Mark Richt in 2017. They haven’t won a major bowl game since Larry Coker was in town and today’s recruits weren’t even born then.

[IUP24]

I don’t know if it’s come up here yet but one of Miami (Florida, not Ohio’s) big NIL boosters, John Ruiz, is facing down some serious money problems because his business (LifeWallet) is in the toilet. He was briefly a big item when he started dishing out NIL to pretty much every Hurricanes FB player and allegedly payed up to bring them some big-time transfers for both basketball teams. I wonder what happens to those NIL deals if the company goes bankrupt or even completely dissolves; and by extension what happens to Miami’s little upswing if that money dries up.

My thoughts on NIL are well documented on this message board. I sounded the alarm bell over a year ago about these collectives not being endless supplies of money.

John Ruiz is a great example, but what many also don’t realize is he began to yank his money out of his collective even before LifeWallet started to tank simply because he wasn’t seeing return on his investment. These deals aren’t ironclad and now (following the passing of the House, Hubbard, and Carter cases) they all have to be evaluated by an independent group and approved. Meaning… John Ruiz can’t just go and say, “I’m going to buy the Cavinder Twins to play WBB at Miami for 2 million dollars.” Those days are done with NIL. There now has to be legitimate exchange of services listed on the NIL deal with compensation to be determined based on market value.

All that said, Ruiz and Miami aren’t the only example of money drying up. Texas A&M and their collective were briefly under investigation by the SEC (not the athletic conference) because of how they were handling their collective. They and their donors were essentially saying they could write off the money paid to and through the collective as donations, That interpretation was quickly determined to be not permissible. There is far less oil money in College Station getting thrown around now compared to when they bought a recruiting class in 2021 for 7 million dollars.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Miami (FL) tight end Cam McCormick is entering his ninth season of eligibility with with Hurricanes.

Dude better have two MBAs.


The AP ran a great article today on this topic (hundreds of D1 players in their mid-20s - and older).

[EyeoftheHawk]

Miami (FL) tight end Cam McCormick is entering his ninth season of eligibility with with Hurricanes.

Dude better have two MBAs.


The AP ran a great article today on this topic (hundreds of D1 players in their mid-20s - and older).

Time for this madness to end. That’s insane.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Time for this madness to end. That’s insane.

If you want to see madness, actually look at some D1 rosters. 'Home Grown' is long gone (outside of Clemson and a few others).

I was looking a player up on the Duquesne roster and was blown away by the number of transfers. It is insane. I didn't sit there and count, but I'd guess 75% of the roster started somewhere else.

The Dukes are about as thrilling a D1 program as Mercyhurst and play in a total dump of a stadium.

I do wonder how many of these players -- the program hoppers, per se -- actually graduate (eventually). My guess is a huge number never come close to earning a degree. Students typically lose credits with each transfer. Some of these guys on their 4th school ... Good Lord.

For those who don't follow D2 basketball, there's a good story over there. There's a player who will suit up for his FIFTH program this winter. In order, he played at Cal (Pa), Fairmont State, Kutztown, Shippensburg and now UT-Permian. That's a whole lot of SWAG.

[Ship69]

If you want to see madness, actually look at some D1 rosters. 'Home Grown' is long gone (outside of Clemson and a few others).

I was looking a player up on the Duquesne roster and was blown away by the number of transfers. It is insane. I didn't sit there and count, but I'd guess 75% of the roster started somewhere else.

The Dukes are about as thrilling a D1 program as Mercyhurst and play in a total dump of a stadium.

I do wonder how many of these players -- the program hoppers, per se -- actually graduate (eventually). My guess is a huge number never come close to earning a degree. Students typically lose credits with each transfer. Some of these guys on their 4th school ... Good Lord.

For those who don't follow D2 basketball, there's a good story over there. There's a player who will suit up for his FIFTH program this winter. In order, he played at Cal (Pa), Fairmont State, Kutztown, Shippensburg and now UT-Permian. That's a whole lot of SWAG.

Right on about the last paragraph. I, for one, would certainly want to know why after four years in the mid-Atlantic that a guy suddenly found the attractions of Odessa, Texas, to be irresistible.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Right on about the last paragraph. I, for one, would certainly want to know why after four years in the mid-Atlantic that a guy suddenly found the attractions of Odessa, Texas, to be irresistible.

Lol. I've spent time in Odessa. Interesting place. I don't think most realize how remote it is.

[Chuck Norris]

If you want to see madness, actually look at some D1 rosters. 'Home Grown' is long gone (outside of Clemson and a few others).

I was looking a player up on the Duquesne roster and was blown away by the number of transfers. It is insane. I didn't sit there and count, but I'd guess 75% of the roster started somewhere else.

The Dukes are about as thrilling a D1 program as Mercyhurst and play in a total dump of a stadium.

I do wonder how many of these players -- the program hoppers, per se -- actually graduate (eventually). My guess is a huge number never come close to earning a degree. Students typically lose credits with each transfer. Some of these guys on their 4th school ... Good Lord.

For those who don't follow D2 basketball, there's a good story over there. There's a player who will suit up for his FIFTH program this winter. In order, he played at Cal (Pa), Fairmont State, Kutztown, Shippensburg and now UT-Permian. That's a whole lot of SWAG.

I was looking for a huge underdog to use my FanDuel ‘No Sweat Bet’ on and briefly considered Duquesne, but with Toledo being a favorite in the MAC I couldn’t pull the trigger. Went with former D2 Abilene Christian to pull off the straight up stunner against Texas Tech. $10 bet pays $300 if I win. Fingers crossed, lol.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I was looking for a huge underdog to use my FanDuel ‘No Sweat Bet’ on and briefly considered Duquesne, but with Toledo being a favorite in the MAC I couldn’t pull the trigger. Went with former D2 Abilene Christian to pull off the straight up stunner against Texas Tech. $10 bet pays $300 if I win. Fingers crossed, lol.

Was Wheeling/Mercyhurst on the board?

[Chuck Norris]

Was Wheeling/Mercyhurst on the board?

I doubt it would pay well if it was. I wonder if Hurst would even be favored?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Pitt AD Heather Lyke is 'under consideration' at Northwestern per the Tribune-Review.

[IUP24]

Time for this madness to end. That’s insane.

It will. This is the last year of the COVID extra year (amazing how quickly time has gone). Today's seniors were freshmen during the pandemic. Currently in the works is the closing of the spring transfer window. This eliminates the Jordan Addison type transfers. You are no longer going to be able to play your spring game and then decide to transfer on April 30th because somebody had a receiver go down for the year with an ACL in spring practice and they found a bunch of NIL money to convince a top flight guy to transfer.

NIL is also starting to get reigned in some as well.

NIL and transfers are not going away. But the current version of it will. It's organically started to get reigned in based on some of the things I provided here in the earlier parts of the summer. Eliminating the spring transfer window and no longer having the extra COVID year will make things drastically better. It will take some time for the NIL piece to level set, but it likely will eventually.

[IUP24]

Pitt AD Heather Lyke is 'under consideration' at Northwestern per the Tribune-Review.

This has been a story for about 8-10 months for those who follow Pitt closely. It just went "public" yesterday.

The inside reports are that Lyke doesn't exactly see eye to eye with the new Pitt chancellor. The massive Victory Heights project (huge athletic facility overhaul on campus) is supposedly not going the way many in the university wanted it to go. Issues with budgets, schedules, other construction related snafus, etc. New chancellor Joan Gabel supposedly wants to reign in things financially, Lyke wants to spend more to keep the project on track, and they are at odds. Her and previous chancellor Pat Gallagher had a phenomenal relationship. Both were aligned very closely on the direction of the university's athletic programs. It's a little over a year into the Gabel tenure, but it's clear her and Lyke aren't aligned.

The inside story of this has been happening for most of the 2024.

At the end of the day, Barry Alvarez tenures at AD are not the norm. Most universities have turnover at the AD job at least once every decade. Lyke was good for Pitt. She did a lot of good in her role. The guy she followed was awful. Permitted they get somebody comparable to Lyke, and not comparable to Scott Barnes, Pitt will be fine.

To edit... Lyke being less than happy with Gabel and the direction of things has been a story for 8-10 months. Her interviewing at Northwestern, obviously, is new.