Our roster is a 22 million dollar one

[megablue]

Every Kentucky coaches under a huge pressure to win big.

With $22,000,000, you are not building a program … you are buying one. Yes, always pressure to win at UK, but with this level of money, the pressure is heavier and more immediate. There is no honeymoon period. Barring injuries, there are no excuses and far less patience. Pope understands … he knows the assignment.

 

[Kentucky15]

This ridiculously false $$$# is being put out for 2 reasons…

1. If UK wins it all, they bought the title.
2. If UK doesn’t win the title, they wasted the money.

I can guarantee you that Duke spent as much or more money than UK, and you will never hear anything like this associated with them!

Because UK is the top of the MCBB mountain, not dUKe

Duke has a lot of back door money pouring in from places other than where it should. Totally corrupt institution. But you don’t hear anything about it.

Kentucky is was and always will be Darth Vader of college basketball. None of it ever made sense, the fan base is reasonable and not at all like a Tennessee type fanbase. I’ve lived with both, vast differences. But being a southern program in a sport that’s dominated by northeast and east coast media has driven it. It will never stop and never has.

We’re the Yankees but we aren’t Yankees. And they hate it.

 

[Kentucky15]

I personally think you are on to something. Stop NIL completely as an unadministered sweepstakes. Call it a damn salary payable through the university with binding language. This is much like a coaches salary is paid today. Any NIL contribution must leverage the school and be controlled by whatever language the NCAA and school deem appropriate. What we have is a judicially legislated disaster.

If we don’t do something about the NIL it will ruin this sport for good. I remember arguing Gonzo constantly and he told me I was nuts. We made a deal, he claimed the NIL would change nothing. Believe we made a money bet.

“It’s already happening it will just be above the table if it happens”.

Totally ridiculous excuse. Almost as bad as the take some had “let’m sign some autographs for money”. Who in their right mind thought it would stop there lol.

Teams were cheating back when but nothing like this, and they had to temper it. This isn’t something that was always below the table, this is all out corruption in full force.

And of course he isn’t here to see how wrong he’s been. The NIL is the death knell of college sports.

 

[megablue]

If we don’t do something about the NIL it will ruin this sport for good. I remember arguing Gonzo constantly and he told me I was nuts. We made a deal, he claimed the NIL would change nothing. Believe we made a money bet.

“It’s already happening it will just be above the table if it happens”.

Totally ridiculous excuse. Almost as bad as the take some had “let’m sign some autographs for money”. Who in their right mind thought it would stop there lol.

Teams were cheating back when but nothing like this, and they had to temper it. This isn’t something that was always below the table, this is all out corruption in full force.

And of course he isn’t here to see how wrong he’s been. The NIL is the death knell of college sports.

Unfortunately, the toothpaste is out of the tube ...

 

[Kentucky15]

Unfortunately, the toothpaste is out of the tube ...

I remain more optimistic than some. I get it, the Supreme Court went balls out but I don’t believe they fully considered how corrupt the universities and athletic departments were. They make congress look like priests. I’m not sure there are many more corrupt institutions than these universities and their sports departments. I would say the military industrial complex (Lockheed Martin / Black rock) are more corrupt but honestly probably similar just a different level.

There must be a way. The issue is universities like Tennessee and Auburn wouldn’t play by any set of rules even if we came up with something.

 

[DelkBowl]

Here’s a crazy thought how about for 22 million we get a backup point card

 

[yoshukai]

I guarantee Cals roster cost way more than 6 million dollars. I’d be willing to be the two five star guards cost 4 million alone plus whatever Wagner, Knox, Richmond, and Brazile got to return. They are the core and each of them got a million at least. I’d bet Knox and DJ get upwards of that easy. Right there you are at 8 million at least. Then whatever Ewin got to transfer as he was a top 50ish transfer, Pringle was an SEC starter, and another local four star kid, Isiah Sealy who was composite #69 probably got a decent offer being from the state. Then you have 3 international guys who came in. Let’s say another 4 million for all those guys. That’s 12 million conservatively.

Chicken man loudly proclaimed he would give Cal “everything he wants “ to build his team. I seriously doubt that Cal would stop at 6 mil. Unless someone lied.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

It’s a free market. And should be.

Before I sold my company I wrote NIL checks. And no could tell me how much to make the checks nor to whom.

And had they done so then I probably would not have participated.

I encouraged the new owners to continue and they have.

It’s a bit the Wild West right now but so what?

The market will correct itself if it needs to.

No one will ever legislate this to everyone’s satisfaction.

Look at the NBA with their hard cap and now the word is out there on the side deals to circumvent the cap because of the Kwai Leonard outing.

There’s 100’s of those deals out there.

Put a cap on it and all that happens is it goes out of the public eye.

It’s just business 101. If the people writing the checks don’t feel they are getting value then they stop writing checks.

No hand wringing will change that.

 

[Woodrow24]

If salary cap is put in place it will bring back cheating with payment bags under the table or other means to compensate players and their families like a few years back.

Yeah thats true

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

It’s a free market. And should be.

Before I sold my company I wrote NIL checks. And no could tell me how much to make the checks nor to whom.

And had they done so then I probably would not have participated.

I encouraged the new owners to continue and they have.

It’s a bit the Wild West right now but so what?

The market will correct itself if it needs to.

No one will ever legislate this to everyone’s satisfaction.

Look at the NBA with their hard cap and now the word is out there on the side deals to circumvent the cap because of the Kwai Leonard outing.

There’s 100’s of those deals out there.

Put a cap on it and all that happens is it goes out of the public eye.

It’s just business 101. If the people writing the checks don’t feel they are getting value then they stop writing checks.

No hand wringing will change that.

I don’t think there are hundreds of deals of teams paying 30M dollars for no show jobs to players. Certainly won’t be after the league takes the rest of the Clippers first round picks until 2036 if they are smart. I think the 54 million a year compensation for those stars is enough a year.

 

[kybassfan]

If we don’t do something about the NIL it will ruin this sport for good. I remember arguing Gonzo constantly and he told me I was nuts. We made a deal, he claimed the NIL would change nothing. Believe we made a money bet.

“It’s already happening it will just be above the table if it happens”.

Totally ridiculous excuse. Almost as bad as the take some had “let’m sign some autographs for money”. Who in their right mind thought it would stop there lol.

Teams were cheating back when but nothing like this, and they had to temper it. This isn’t something that was always below the table, this is all out corruption in full force.

And of course he isn’t here to see how wrong he’s been. The NIL is the death knell of college sports.

I don’t disagree but I would add that the portal aka revolving door is just as, if not more, disruptive. I basically consider the sport that was college basketball is ended. KY won that era but that’s just engraving on a tombstone now The sport is dead, not ruined. This is a new league. New sport.

Same goes for football and other college athletics that have suffered the corruption of the current program. There were better ways to address this.

 

[Kentucky15]

I don’t disagree but I would add that the portal aka revolving door is just as, if not more, disruptive. I basically consider the sport that was college basketball is ended. KY won that era but that’s just engraving on a tombstone now The sport is dead, not ruined. This is a new league. New sport.

Same goes for football and other college athletics that have suffered the corruption of the current program. There were better ways to address this.

that’s exactly the point I’ve made. Kentucky won the greatest program in history title. That 100 years is over and UK was the greatest program of all time which really isn’t debatable.

The revolving door transfers are making this sport meaningless. Like in pro sports, we’re getting to where we don’t have “faces of the franchise” which means people don’t grow up connecting and bonding to the program. Imagine Tony Delk playing for Tennessee his sophomore year. Imagine Tayshaun Prince playing for ucla and UConn. It’s destroying everything. I’m not even a fan of a guy like Aberdeen leaving his home state and title team to go to Kentucky. To me, you’re a gator man. I hate that but I think it’s true. If he plays consecutive seasons at UK it might change a little but I don’t call guys like that UK family. To me we’ve got family and we’ve got free agents now. They aren’t the same. And it’s going to cause major damage long term. We have to have transfer rules.

 

[philstat]

I expect minimal from JQ this year, originally he was going to be ready very early on, now January is looking more realistic, by then most of the team will have moved on without him, in their own rotational sets. One minor incident of any sort and he will sit for the rest of the year, he’s porcelain at this point.

 

[Vek96]

It’s not anywhere near $22 million. UK is competitive with NIL, but don’t need to overspend to be successful.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

I don’t think there are hundreds of deals of teams paying 30M dollars for no show jobs to players. Certainly won’t be after the league takes the rest of the Clippers first round picks until 2036 if they are smart. I think the 54 million a year compensation for those stars is enough a year.

100’s might be hyperbole?
But it’s not uncommon at all.

You don’t hear the other owners demanding something be done to the Clippers for a reason.

 

[UKAlum84]

Just wait till march madness....there will be some 16 15 14 seeds upsetting those high dollar nil endorsing schools.

Right now, the money is supposed to influence performance and overall winning ability of a team.

I hope Im wrong on this line of thinking, but hard work and learning is more valuable than any amount of currency.

Sure you can buy some ones expertise, but don't think the best nil schools have got rocket science nba style players for a team.

 

[akaukswoosh]

“When you spend $22M on your roster, you get a game without 2 of your 3 most dynamic players and you still go 10-Deep with 10 awesome players”

- @sleepersmedia breaking down Kentucky’s beatdown of #1 Purdue in Rupp.

 

[Runt#1969]

Last year Ohio State's football team was thought to have been in the 20 million zone. I think dUKe and Kentucky will be the two highest paid rosters on average any given year moving forward, so the 20 million mark looks to be status quo / normality to me. In the end, Kentucky will not lose players because of not offering enough money. I'm confident in that.

I'll trust CMP to manage the affairs and roster construction. We're going to be fine in terms of financially keeping up with anyone in college basketball. It's the other teams that are going to look at what the Kentucky's, dUKe's, and Kansas are gonna be spending and try to keep up. It aint gonna be for the bluebloods to get outspent very often.

 

[ORCAT]

Hard to believe that number or that we are the highest paying program either. We don't even have a single top 10 recruit on the roster and we don't have many guys as pre season all Americans (just maybe Oweh and that's it). Some schools have multiple highly ranked recruits and others so hard to see them lower than us.