If you are a member of the Gator Nation on Twitter (I will never refer to it as X) this week, its been nearly impossible to miss the most dominant topic of discussion - Florida's NIL struggles.
It's impossible to do in one tweet since I'm not a check mark verified user, so I'll share some thoughts on here.
I want to make it perfectly clear, I have no idea what is going on with Florida's NIL, or NIL nationally.
None.
Nada.
Zip.
No idea whatsoever.
This is my uninformed, or misinformed, opinion.
* First off, if you go back 3-to-4 years, I was of the mindset that players didn't need to be paid. They received a free education, medical, dental, food, training, coaching, etc... They were treated like kings in exchange for their football talent. To me, back then, that should have been enough. I started coming around to NIL when I thought it was, as originally portrayed, a chance for players to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. I thought they were receiving proceeds from jersey sales or selling their own merchandise. I believed it would be restricted to current college players, and not trickle down into recruiting. That, of course, hasn't been the case. This has turned into a straight pay-for-play model, an outright bidding war, with players being required to perform some nominal task to justify the payment. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good to NIL as it is. Players being able to do things for themselves and their families. I've seen it firsthand, and that might be the lone positive to the current state of college football.
* No one knows what is going on with these collectives. How much each one has or how much money players are making. I don't believe all of the inflated numbers thrown around. The supposed $30 million Texas A&M paid for the Class of 2022 has been debunked multiple times, including by the players themselves. Some fans were saying that Princely Umanmielen was looking for $1 million a year. He laughed at that while saying that he is making basically the same at Ole Miss that he would have made at UF. He believes he would be better developed there. You have social media chatter that such and such a player is asking for or getting millions, but in their official report, the NCAA said that Georgia starting tackle Amarius Mims, a projected top 20 NFL Draft pick, was getting $15K a month or $180K a year. You're never going to convince me that there are all these players making all this money if an NFL caliber tackle is making under #200K a year. As a matter of fact, two years ago Ohio State coach Ryan Day told a gathering of Buckeye fans that it would cost around $13 million a year to field a championship-caliber roster. He would know. I do believe money plays a part, but it isn't always the driving factor. Look at Alabama. Do you think that the NIL money dried up in the last week? Of course not. Many, if not most, of those players went there to play for and to be developed by Nick Saban.
* It feels like Florida has seen their current window of opportunity open and close. When Billy Napier was first hired, added Corey Raymond and his staff, and signed Shemar James and Kamari Wilson on early signing day, excitement for UF football was at a four or five-year high. I was adding sub after sub. Napier was on a roll. I don't know those who ran the collective back then, but being honest, that was the time to capitalize on it and there were too many questions about them for that to happen. If UF had their NIL house in order at that time they likely would be much further along right now. Instead, that opportunity was wasted, and UF had to push the reset button coming off a losing season, and head into year two (where they had a O/U win total set at 5.5) with a new collective. It is a much harder sell for them. You have to convince fans to throw good money after bad. What has been accomplished with the money they've already brought in? Back-to-back losing seasons. There are probably only going to be two ways to turn this around. Napier has to have an unexpectedly good 2024 season (seven or more wins to show progress and get more buy-in) or there will need to be a coaching change in order to restore hope in the program. I don't see any other way for a reset for total fan buy-in.
* I have no freaking idea what UF pays players or what their obligations to the players are. Last month I asked our Anonymous Player in our Q&A, and he said that players aren't allowed to discuss it. My own feelings, without knowing what the deal is or how much they are paid, when you see these photos they send out from doing 'community service' or that the collective is sending out this week (which are very well done and a good idea for the most part), I feel like there are a good 10-15-20 players who the average fan is likely scratching their head and wondering why they are making anything at all. They haven't contributed yet, and likely wouldn't be a contributor on a winning SEC program. I know that it might be considered rough to say that, but they are paid professionals more than student-athletes at this point - and as such, much like with NFL players, their value is a talking point. If UF cut out 10-12 of them, could they then afford 1-2-3 higher-end players?
* Talking to bowl reps over the years, especially 5-10 years ago when there was real intrigue as to which bowls were legitimate possibilities to pick the Gators, while they loved UF for TV ratings, and the instate bowls loved UF for ticket sales since the games in Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando were only a few hours drive away from 10s of thousands of Gators fans, they were also quick to let you know that outside of the state, UF was considered a poor draw because for as prestigious as the program was, fans didn't travel well. About a decade ago I had a bowl rep tell me that of the national programs, Florida and Southern Cal were considered two of the worst in bringing out-of-area fans to bowls, while programs such as Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Penn State were considered among the best. Look, Florida has an incredibly passionate fanbase. That is proven Saturday after Saturday in the Swamp. That passion results in an unbelievable experience and home-field advantage. However, perhaps the bowl reps were on to something. With so many other things to do, and do with their money, maybe NIL will never be a UF strong point.
* It likely won't matter for much longer. If you can hold on that long, 2-3 years down the road we'll most likely see a DI super division (48-65 programs) where the model is programs are paying the players themselves. That will bring more structure, but also more parity.
It's impossible to do in one tweet since I'm not a check mark verified user, so I'll share some thoughts on here.
I want to make it perfectly clear, I have no idea what is going on with Florida's NIL, or NIL nationally.
None.
Nada.
Zip.
No idea whatsoever.
This is my uninformed, or misinformed, opinion.
* First off, if you go back 3-to-4 years, I was of the mindset that players didn't need to be paid. They received a free education, medical, dental, food, training, coaching, etc... They were treated like kings in exchange for their football talent. To me, back then, that should have been enough. I started coming around to NIL when I thought it was, as originally portrayed, a chance for players to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. I thought they were receiving proceeds from jersey sales or selling their own merchandise. I believed it would be restricted to current college players, and not trickle down into recruiting. That, of course, hasn't been the case. This has turned into a straight pay-for-play model, an outright bidding war, with players being required to perform some nominal task to justify the payment. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good to NIL as it is. Players being able to do things for themselves and their families. I've seen it firsthand, and that might be the lone positive to the current state of college football.
* No one knows what is going on with these collectives. How much each one has or how much money players are making. I don't believe all of the inflated numbers thrown around. The supposed $30 million Texas A&M paid for the Class of 2022 has been debunked multiple times, including by the players themselves. Some fans were saying that Princely Umanmielen was looking for $1 million a year. He laughed at that while saying that he is making basically the same at Ole Miss that he would have made at UF. He believes he would be better developed there. You have social media chatter that such and such a player is asking for or getting millions, but in their official report, the NCAA said that Georgia starting tackle Amarius Mims, a projected top 20 NFL Draft pick, was getting $15K a month or $180K a year. You're never going to convince me that there are all these players making all this money if an NFL caliber tackle is making under #200K a year. As a matter of fact, two years ago Ohio State coach Ryan Day told a gathering of Buckeye fans that it would cost around $13 million a year to field a championship-caliber roster. He would know. I do believe money plays a part, but it isn't always the driving factor. Look at Alabama. Do you think that the NIL money dried up in the last week? Of course not. Many, if not most, of those players went there to play for and to be developed by Nick Saban.
* It feels like Florida has seen their current window of opportunity open and close. When Billy Napier was first hired, added Corey Raymond and his staff, and signed Shemar James and Kamari Wilson on early signing day, excitement for UF football was at a four or five-year high. I was adding sub after sub. Napier was on a roll. I don't know those who ran the collective back then, but being honest, that was the time to capitalize on it and there were too many questions about them for that to happen. If UF had their NIL house in order at that time they likely would be much further along right now. Instead, that opportunity was wasted, and UF had to push the reset button coming off a losing season, and head into year two (where they had a O/U win total set at 5.5) with a new collective. It is a much harder sell for them. You have to convince fans to throw good money after bad. What has been accomplished with the money they've already brought in? Back-to-back losing seasons. There are probably only going to be two ways to turn this around. Napier has to have an unexpectedly good 2024 season (seven or more wins to show progress and get more buy-in) or there will need to be a coaching change in order to restore hope in the program. I don't see any other way for a reset for total fan buy-in.
* I have no freaking idea what UF pays players or what their obligations to the players are. Last month I asked our Anonymous Player in our Q&A, and he said that players aren't allowed to discuss it. My own feelings, without knowing what the deal is or how much they are paid, when you see these photos they send out from doing 'community service' or that the collective is sending out this week (which are very well done and a good idea for the most part), I feel like there are a good 10-15-20 players who the average fan is likely scratching their head and wondering why they are making anything at all. They haven't contributed yet, and likely wouldn't be a contributor on a winning SEC program. I know that it might be considered rough to say that, but they are paid professionals more than student-athletes at this point - and as such, much like with NFL players, their value is a talking point. If UF cut out 10-12 of them, could they then afford 1-2-3 higher-end players?
* Talking to bowl reps over the years, especially 5-10 years ago when there was real intrigue as to which bowls were legitimate possibilities to pick the Gators, while they loved UF for TV ratings, and the instate bowls loved UF for ticket sales since the games in Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando were only a few hours drive away from 10s of thousands of Gators fans, they were also quick to let you know that outside of the state, UF was considered a poor draw because for as prestigious as the program was, fans didn't travel well. About a decade ago I had a bowl rep tell me that of the national programs, Florida and Southern Cal were considered two of the worst in bringing out-of-area fans to bowls, while programs such as Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Penn State were considered among the best. Look, Florida has an incredibly passionate fanbase. That is proven Saturday after Saturday in the Swamp. That passion results in an unbelievable experience and home-field advantage. However, perhaps the bowl reps were on to something. With so many other things to do, and do with their money, maybe NIL will never be a UF strong point.
* It likely won't matter for much longer. If you can hold on that long, 2-3 years down the road we'll most likely see a DI super division (48-65 programs) where the model is programs are paying the players themselves. That will bring more structure, but also more parity.
