2024 Buckeyes Football

[Tlyons]

The flipside of this is the reality that these players can up and leave whenever they want.

If there's a chance you can stockpile 5 stars in the NIL era you give it a shot and sort out the talent later.

 

[2 For The Brew]

The flipside of this is the reality that these players can up and leave whenever they want.

If there's a chance you can stockpile 5 stars in the NIL era you give it a shot and sort out the talent later.

That’s how Woody did it before scholarship limits made that more difficult.

 

[Ohio]

This is awesome.

 

[Chris]

People gonna be big mad they awoke the NIL giant that OSU always had the potential to be.

 

[MikeOC33]

People gonna be big mad they awoke the NIL giant that OSU always had the potential to be.

Yeah, but I'm worried when U of Texas and Notre Dame start tapping their wealthy alumni bases.
Also, USC, the team up north, Texas A&M and Tenn have deep pocket alum and noted programs.

I'm all for players getting compensated, but this path is crazy wild west shit.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, but I'm worried when U of Texas and Notre Dame start tapping their wealthy alumni bases.
Also, USC, the team up north, Texas A&M and Tenn have deep pocket alum and noted programs.

I'm all for players getting compensated, but this path is crazy wild west shit.

Sure, but why be worried? There are other sharks in the ocean no doubt, but none that dwarf OSU.

 

[inliner311]

Sure, but why be worried? There are other sharks in the ocean no doubt, but none that dwarf OSU.

Exactly this SI article says Ohio State has the biggest fan base in college football. 3 metro areas for a fan base and no real competition within the state for fans. Ohio State football is one of the few uniting factors for the state of Ohio. Also Buckeyes football is like the pro sports team for Columbus.

Study reveals college football teams with biggest fan bases - College Football HQ

College Football HQ

www.si.com

 

[MikeOC33]

Trust me, I'm a Bucknut, the wife got Masters/Doctorate there and she puts the fanatic in the word fan...so not questioning the fan base... but wealthy alumni....hard to quantify, but there are mega rich oil alum from U of Texas and A & M, and ND has a deep, deep pool of wealthy and loyal alum....(just not sure ND is gonna jump deep into the NIL pool, but they may not have a choice if they want to stay relevant.)

OSU has plenty of generous, wealthy alumni, just not sure they have as many as the schools l mentioned. Texas, USC, and Tennessee could get really good, really fast with big donors, and they are storied programs kids would be drawn too.

 

[Ohio]

OSU has more than enough to always be in the running for any player and that's really all that matters. Even if they don't have the most whales, they have more than most, especially when you consider whales that actually give a shit.

At places like Michigan, USC and Notre Dame, there is a sizable portion of their alumni that don't give a shit about football or even think football takes away from the prestige of their university. This line of thinking simply does not exist at OSU.

Lastly, nobody likes throwing money away, and that very much includes rich people. That has to be some kind of ROI for these guys. TAMU alums aren't going to spend $100M on TAMU's roster every year, for example. Even though they could, they won't. Because the ROI simply isn't there in a world where the kid will only be on your team for 3-4 years, and that's if you're really lucky and they don't jump in the portal before then. And all the money in the world isn't going to guarantee you anything - baseball being the perfect example of this.

What has happened at OSU the past couple weeks has sent shockwaves not solely because of the dollar figures (which still fall short of what Miami or Oregon have done) but because OSU is the first S-Tier program to spend that kind of money. It's the combination of the money and the elite program that's moving the needle in our direction right now.

There just aren't a lot of places that could replicate that right now. Plenty of schools have the money, but they don't have the program. And other elite programs like Georgia or Bama don't have the money. Texas...could maybe get there? But they're in the SEC now and reality might be hitting them fast. Same with Oregon being in the Big Ten now (though I do think Oregon is much better positioned).

Who else is there? Programs like Tennessee and TAMU haven't been nationally relevant this century. All the money in the world can't build an elite program overnight.

 

[Benway]

It's like MLB now! No salary cap, and we're the Damn Yankees!

 

[MikeOC33]

I appreciate your thoughts Ohio, but I think you are underselling the football passion at USC and Tenn, and also at Mich.

USC has a storied football history AND has more billionaire alums, more multi millionaire alums, and more undergrad millionaire alums than any of the programs mentioned. And Texas is as bat shit crazy over football as any region, including Ohio, and has some mega wealthy oil money with Texas sized egos. Just a few fat cats from USC or U of Texas could easily bankroll their NIL program for a long time.

And look at Texas A & M, paying Jumbo 76 million buyout and millions more to assistants.
Come on... $13,000,000 give or take that OSU may have spent is a lot, but it's gonna be an arms race, and OSU does not have the deepest pockets.

Fortunately, a program can buy a lot of 5 stars with no guarantee of a title.... looking at you A & M, but the pressure is squarely on the Buckeyes the next 2 years.

 

[Chris]

I think they will be just fine in the money department, lol. Least of my worries.

 

[inliner311]

I appreciate your thoughts Ohio, but I think you are underselling the football passion at USC and Tenn, and also at Mich.

USC has a storied football history AND has more billionaire alums, more multi millionaire alums, and more undergrad millionaire alums than any of the programs mentioned. And Texas is as bat shit crazy over football as any region, including Ohio, and has some mega wealthy oil money with Texas sized egos. Just a few fat cats from USC or U of Texas could easily bankroll their NIL program for a long time.

And look at Texas A & M, paying Jumbo 76 million buyout and millions more to assistants.
Come on... $13,000,000 give or take that OSU may have spent is a lot, but it's gonna be an arms race, and OSU does not have the deepest pockets.

Fortunately, a program can buy a lot of 5 stars with no guarantee of a title.... looking at you A & M, but the pressure is squarely on the Buckeyes the next 2 years.

Mega donors are going to be part of NIL model but not the whole thing. There is a reason why they do them as collectives. It's like venture capital and getting that return on investment. Not every prospect is going to work out and be marketable. They are handing money out as a group to take advantage if a certain percentage of this group of players works out, they can put them in ads to get the money back for their donors and possibly more.

Ohio State is kind of unique in that it's in a metro area and there is little competition with pro sports to eat up that kind of ad money. You can make an ad campaign for a local/regional business and put it out in Columbus but also could use it the whole state if you sell in the whole state.

USC has 8 major sports teams to contend with to get those same ad revenue. Texas being in Austin is kind of the same as Ohio State but other college teams have made strides in Texas so they aren't the only football team for that state. Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Houston have taken or hold parts of the Texas college football fan base.

I think the collectives will figure out how to get money from businesses, big donors, and small donors. I think the advantage for Ohio State will be from businesses and have a large fan base to gain money from normal people. The 1870 society was also trying to figure out businesses they could run to gain money like their own beer. I could see collectives taking over the t-shirt businesses that aren't official OhIo State stuff but adjacent Ohio State merch.

 

[Marcus]

I appreciate your thoughts Ohio, but I think you are underselling the football passion at USC and Tenn, and also at Mich.

USC has a storied football history AND has more billionaire alums, more multi millionaire alums, and more undergrad millionaire alums than any of the programs mentioned. And Texas is as bat shit crazy over football as any region, including Ohio, and has some mega wealthy oil money with Texas sized egos. Just a few fat cats from USC or U of Texas could easily bankroll their NIL program for a long time.

And look at Texas A & M, paying Jumbo 76 million buyout and millions more to assistants.
Come on... $13,000,000 give or take that OSU may have spent is a lot, but it's gonna be an arms race, and OSU does not have the deepest pockets.

Fortunately, a program can buy a lot of 5 stars with no guarantee of a title.... looking at you A & M, but the pressure is squarely on the Buckeyes the next 2 years.

UT and A&M both have that oil money and operate in a state where football truly is king.

I’m not concerned about OSU’s ability to pay top talent - coupled with playing for one of the consistent powerhouse programs in college football that turns out tons of NFL draft talent every year - but they’re definitely going to get outbid sometimes.

One thing is for sure… there is basically no control over the transfer portal and NIL right now, and we might already be too far gone to change that.

 

[Ohio]

I appreciate your thoughts Ohio, but I think you are underselling the football passion at USC and Tenn, and also at Mich.

USC has a storied football history AND has more billionaire alums, more multi millionaire alums, and more undergrad millionaire alums than any of the programs mentioned. And Texas is as bat shit crazy over football as any region, including Ohio, and has some mega wealthy oil money with Texas sized egos. Just a few fat cats from USC or U of Texas could easily bankroll their NIL program for a long time.

And look at Texas A & M, paying Jumbo 76 million buyout and millions more to assistants.
Come on... $13,000,000 give or take that OSU may have spent is a lot, but it's gonna be an arms race, and OSU does not have the deepest pockets.

Fortunately, a program can buy a lot of 5 stars with no guarantee of a title.... looking at you A & M, but the pressure is squarely on the Buckeyes the next 2 years.

Again, those schools don't have an elite program right now, or anything close to it in some cases.

Outside of the Pete Carroll era, USC hasn't been consistently good since...the 70s? And things are only going to be harder for them now.

Tennessee has been completely and utterly irrelevant since the 90s. Same for A&M.

Michigan had a good 3 year run but they are starting at a significant regression to the mean right now, especially if Harbaugh leaves. What they built was a short term solution, not a long term one. It isn't sustainable.

So if these other alums decide to start spending like OSU did this offseason (or even more), that's great and all and sure they'll buy some recruits but it isn't going to make them a contender overnight. Just ask Miami how thats going for them. You have to build a program first. That shit takes time, a lot of time. It's not something that happens overnight by throwing money at it. You need a lot of good people in leadership positions, starting with Head Coach. Mario Cristobal is a joke. Lincoln Riley just had the biggest failure of a season in recent CFB history. I don't even know who Tennessee, A&M, or Michigan's coach is.

Respectfully, I think you're fear mongering a bit here. No, OSU is not going to win every bidding war for every kid they want. That doesn't mean this is an issue or even a threat to their success whatsoever. On the contrary, if the OSU whales are willing to spend like this consistently, combined with the established program which has been elite going on 30 years now, it's going to be to OSUs benefit. They won't even need to bid the most to win recruiting battles, they'll just need to be in the ballpark. Because the kid knows OSU is going to be better for their development than fucking bum programs like Miami/Tennessee/A&M/etc.

Lastly, schools like Miami and A&M have already been throwing crazy money around since the birth of NIL. How is that going for them? Where are the wins? When can we expect their dollars to translate to wins? This is year 4 of NIL now (I think). If this is the big deal you say it is, where are the wins? Miami plays in the ACC for fucks sake, they still can't manage to crack 8 (!) wins.