Hey, I wanted to understand your article from this AM. Did you not think our coaches talked to recruits about NIL opportunities? I’m not sure how that would even be possible not to.
Tony Bennett wouldn’t get a three-star kid to attend UVA without that conversation. That doesn’t mean we are doing anything wrong, but yes, a three- or four-star kid should know that once he signs a NLI, very shortly thereafter he will get a call from our collective connecting him with multiple NIL opportunities from driving a bad ass car/truck to getting paid money to endorse the Good Feet Store and such. That’s just the world today.
Did you not think that’s happening? I’ve been critical of TB the past few years for results, but I felt that article was unfair to him. If he wasn’t playing that game, then I’d suggest he wasn’t doing his job and using the rules today to make UVA competitive. If you truly thought those general conversations weren’t happening, I don’t think you were being intellectually truthful with yourself, and you can’t take that out on Bennett.
The FSU situation was different in that they were basically promising specific payouts and such to HS recruits to attend FSU. I’m fairly certain that isn’t happening but I’d imagine they are at least letting the recruit know generally what type of “opportunities” he will have.
Just wanted to make sure I understood your POV and, if I was correct, offer a different perspective.
Ryan S.
It’s one thing to relay to a kid, of course, If you come to school here, we do NIL. It’s another thing, and toeing the line, if not taking a step over it, to be specific about a booster offering a specific opportunity, in my view.
That comes across to me as risking sounding like offering an inducement.
Plus, this Good Feet Store franchisee is just telling us that TB and staff are using his business in recruiting without being specific about what he means by the term using.
The guy in his tweets is basically inviting the NCAA to come in and check the nature of how his business is being used.
The rules are the rules. NIL can’t be an inducement to attend.
If I’m wrong to be pointing that out, I’m glad to be wrong.
Chris G.
I really appreciate that you read and respond. I totally agree that such a tweet isn’t very smart. Even if the program is doing everything within the lines, why even put out the notion that they may not be.
My understanding is that you cannot guarantee pay for play. But all these guys have an NIL valuation, and there are companies that the universities can hire to be the go between and “marketing arm” between the collective and the kids. By having an NIL collective marketing firm, I believe the program can refer the kid to them, and then they talk with the kid about his valuation and what he can expect from the university’s collective.
I’m no NIL expert, but all the D1 athletes know their NIL valuation from the programs that offer them scholarships. It’s not, pick a program and then find out what opportunities exist after you get there. It’s not like that anywhere. Or at least anywhere that has a shot of being relevant.
Ryan S.
What I don’t like about this story is, it involves a guy claiming that he knows TB is using his company, not the NIL collective, to appeal to athletes.
If that’s true, whether it’s an NCAA violation, it’s, to me, an ethical and moral breach.
Basically, Tony would be helping the Good Feet Store guy sell his shoe inserts to get kids to commit.
At the least, the tweet opened the door to something that could be less, or could be more, than what the guy at the Good Feet Store is claiming it to be.
He’d be best advised to stop tweeting that way, but my assumption is, he spends that money to be able to put himself over, more than he spends it to benefit UVA Athletics.
Chris G.
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Chris Graham
