Eyes Wide Open - What Does and What Will a College Football Team Cost?

Reality...very sad state of college athletics...I mean college pro sports. GO POKES!!!

Programs like ours that relied on development over time and doing so conservatively monetarily were knocked out and put at a severe disadvantage by pay for play. It takes money and a lot of it and there are no more Boone Pickens' or even thousands of fairly deep donors for the Oklahoma State Cowboys if you believe what has been reported.

Small population states with conservative fan bases aren't likely to produce really competitive programs in this new era. The money difference takes away advantages you may have had in development, coaching and great talent evaluation with overlooked players. Teams just buy excellence already demonstrated elsewhere.

Here today and gone tomorrow means development and education take a back seat to the here and now and THE driving force is MONEY to pay for demonstrated excellence. That's why you will see haves and have nots in conference races during this new era. Proof is what we experienced last year as we stood pat with our roster and got smoked by the whole league that spent to upgrade their rosters more than we upgraded ours. The result? Winless in the league and dead last for the Pokes.

We all pray we'll collectively decide to play the game as it currently exists and provide resources in amounts good enough to buy a competitive roster of proven players with demonstrated success elsewhere. Most believe we came up short of that again this year. We shall see but our university has a long history of trying to force square pegs into round holes. To say we're obstinate and hard headed would be an understatement. We often have to be hit with a two by four to the forehead( big losses again) to see the light!

PistolD said:

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Programs like ours that relied on development over time and doing so conservatively monetarily were knocked out and put at a severe disadvantage by pay for play. It takes money and a lot of it and there are no more Boone Pickens' or even thousands of fairly deep donors for the Oklahoma State Cowboys if you believe what has been reported.

Small population states with conservative fan bases aren't likely to produce really competitive programs in this new era. The money difference takes away advantages you may have had in development, coaching and great talent evaluation with overlooked players. Teams just buy excellence already demonstrated elsewhere.

Here today and gone tomorrow means development and education take a back seat to the here and now and THE driving force is MONEY to pay for demonstrated excellence. That's why you will see haves and have nots in conference races during this new era. Proof is what we experienced last year as we stood pat with our roster and got smoked by the whole league that spent to upgrade their rosters more than we upgraded ours. The result? Winless in the league and dead last for the Pokes.

We all pray we'll collectively decide to play the game as it currently exists and provide resources in amounts good enough to buy a competitive roster of proven players with demonstrated success elsewhere. Most believe we came up short of that again this year. We shall see but our university has a long history of trying to force square pegs into round holes. To say we're obstinate and hard headed would be an understatement. We often have to be hit with a two by four to the forehead( big losses again) to see the light!

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Yup, been saying this for a while. If changes aren't put in place, programs like OSU will not have much of a chance to compete. Showing up to a gun fight with a knife.

I don't know what the answer is, throwing more money at it won't fix it…it may patch it up some. If schools like OSU spend $20M on a roster, then schools like Texas will start to spend $40-50M and it will end up in the same place. The whole idea of paying these kids the amounts of money being talked about is just insane to me. Might as well watch pro sports, better players and an actual system that sorta works.

OSU does not have a a"tech billionaire" I know of willing to spend money like Uncle Boone, during the "facility arms race" era, to keep OSU up with the "blue bloods" in this "buy a team" era. Without any rules, regs and structure, OSU is on the outside looking in. I hope someone gets this under control or OSU could be pushed down to the Missouri Valley Conference.

Does anyone know how engaged Garth Brooks is? Know he did a concert couple of years ago. I posed this in another post so thought I would here as well. He has the money to move the needle - but don't know if he's inclined to or not. Maybe no one else knows either - but any rumors of Weiberg and team trying to open communication channels?

TUSKAPOKE said:

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OSU does not have a a"tech billionaire" I know of willing to spend money like Uncle Boone, during the "facility arms race" era, to keep OSU up with the "blue bloods" in this "buy a team" era. Without any rules, regs and structure, OSU is on the outside looking in. I hope someone gets this under control or OSU could be pushed down to the Missouri Valley Conference.

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IMO, OSU had a chance to take a step to that next level when Boone was dumping money into facilities, was one of the earlier teams to adopt the rotating uniforms , and a high octane offense that was easy to sell. Kinda like a poor man's Oregon. Sadly, I think Gundy got a bit lazy about the same time and more conservative on offense. Rather than taking a step forward, OSU took a step, and now probably 2 steps back.

TUSKAPOKE said:

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OSU does not have a a"tech billionaire" I know of willing to spend money like Uncle Boone, during the "facility arms race" era, to keep OSU up with the "blue bloods" in this "buy a team" era. Without any rules, regs and structure, OSU is on the outside looking in. I hope someone gets this under control or OSU could be pushed down to the Missouri Valley Conference.

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Closest thing OSU would have to a deep,pocket benefactor would probably be Chad Richson! He is the sole reason David Taylor is our wrestling coach plus his willingness to invest millions in an Olympic training facility much like they currently have up at Penn State! Probably need to see if there is a way to tap into those resources in the current NIL landscape especially concerning both football and basketball!!!

Richeson isn't an OSU grad. He's a wrestling fan. He offered money to ou first to upgrade their program. Then offered OSU.

I am not saying that we do not have a plan or the people in place now to raise the additional funding. I am not on the inside anymore.

What I am saying is that Alumni and Friends need to step up more.

What I am saying is the Oklahoma businesses need to step up. Tulsa area in particular. Tulsa U. football is on life support. Let it go by the wayside. Tulsa area businesses need get past their Tulsa little brother syndrome and support OSU. We have 2 campuses there and OSU grads are in high positions all over the area.

OKC and other areas of the state need to step up to help. Casinos, Indian tribes, oil and gas, large employers, Ag companies, friends, etc. can be asked to sponsor and donate more effectively.

We need a Brett Yomark type person at OSU. Yes I know he is unique and those kinda folks don't grow on trees, but we need to upgrade our development and marketing staff or get the ones we have to execute better.

Speaking for myself………

I'm not contributing (beyond season tickets) to this madness until two things happen:
1) a reasonable salary cap is instituted across all P4 conferences, and
2) transfers are prohibited and/or severely limited.

I'll be happy to pay up for good entertainment - when it becomes good and fair entertainment.