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.

GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

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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.

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Totally agree. A governing body, named something other than NCAA, is needed to put some rules in place with contracts. That is the only way the transfer rules will change, otherwise the athletes will sue for limiting their earning potential and judges will continue to rule in their favor.

I'm all about giving it a "good college try", and this just ain't it.

buying your way to the top just doesn't seem like it's in the collegiate spirit.

I'm absolutely disgusted.

You tap every damn resource that may be available!

Joe Khatib said:

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You tap every damn resource that may be available!

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yeah, but ANNUAL, it's set up so that every player exhausts his eligibility with a paid for college education, and at least $2 M in the bank.

I believe they have crossed that line that is not reasonable, rational, or sustainable.

IMO, it's time for the 80% of college teams to separate from the new XFL that is growing within the SEC and BigX. They should form a new American Collegiate Association with competitive rules, player and coach salaries and playoff divisions/conferences. By rule, ACA teams must absolutely refuse to schedule "win fodder" games with either the SEC or BigX conference (XFL) and let those two conferences beat only each other up and have half their teams finish with losing records every year. Maybe Vandy and Michigan State and others will soon tire of that situation and bail to the ACA too at some point.

The remaining XFL will end up having even fewer teams and/or picking a few ACA replacement members who think they can actually get the support to possibly compete (an Arizona State or Clemson). TV market realities/advertising dollars will form around the fact that 75%+ of college fans won't care much about nor watch the XFL on TV...as it doesn't include their alma mater, rival or playoff teams and it's at most just more of an NFL farm team curiosity for most college fans. A players union will likely form in both the ACA and XFL, and perhaps at some point, the finances and schedules will make merger possible (NFC/AFC). LSU, OU and Ohio State don't want to lose those "easy games" on their schedules forever, or they lose fans and viewership.

First and key step....quit scheduling with XFL teams that have completely unfair TV contract competitive advantages compared to 80% of college teams.

Is the House Settlement even final yet? Last I heard there were pending court cases challenging it...


NCAA Settlement Faces 88 Objections as Deadline Looms
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ncaa-settlement-faces-88-objections-as-5786020/

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Joe Khatib said:

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You tap every damn resource that may be available!

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RodeoPoke said:

yeah, but ANNUAL, it's set up so that every player exhausts his eligibility with a paid for college education, and at least $2 M in the bank.

I believe they have crossed that line that is not reasonable, rational, or sustainable.

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What does that have to do with trying to chase down every potential donor to increase revenue???

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+ 1 more quotes (click to expand)

Joe Khatib said:

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You tap every damn resource that may be available!

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RodeoPoke said:

yeah, but ANNUAL, it's set up so that every player exhausts his eligibility with a paid for college education, and at least $2 M in the bank.

I believe they have crossed that line that is not reasonable, rational, or sustainable.

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Joe Khatib said:

What does that have to do with trying to chase down every potential donor to increase revenue???

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well, that would be the ANNUAL part of my statement.

After you chase down every potential donor, not many make huge annual donations.

if you top every damn resource that may be available, then what do you do next year, and the year after? Or were you suggesting increasing revenue by increasing ticket and donor prices? (of course that would be one option, but not the solution).

Personally, I don't believe that it can be done at OSU without immense generosity from a few donors that set up an athletics endowment fund that can be drawn from annually.

I suppose we'll see what happens - my eyes will on the courts first, to see if the legal challenges are effective in stopping this nonsense.