First a few guidelines.
1. My source is impeccable but I will not divulge any names.
2. Obviously this didn't come from the organization.
3. My opinions are noted.
Auburn is running about $2 million per year short of where they think they need to be.
Only about a dozen folks are contributing the bulk of their funds.
Says Auburn is in the middle of the pact. My interpretation was he sounded like he was stretching it to get us to the middle, perhaps lower middle would be more accurate. (JMO by the way he said it.) (Don't know if that is SEC or the entire country).
Says they allocate the money with the idea that some positions are more important than others (QB, LT were mentioned) but that they had to manage their budget.
He didn't sound like we had big bucks to lure a top flight QB. (my interpretation)
All players get something depending on positions. (my interpretation)
Says most fans give $100 per year and we need another 20,000 to catch up with where we need to be.
I urge all of you to give $100 today to get Auburn where we need to be.
That's it.
Following is my opinion:
I have never liked the idea of giving all players money because honestly there are many players that bring no upside value to the team and have zero NIL value. Name-Image-Likeness.....or are we just paying players ? If so, why pay a 3 star the same as a 4 star or 5 star ?
I believe to build a championship program it is much more important to pay your future stars larger sums and treat your 2nd and 3rd options like normal student athletes, which they probably are. There are plenty of 2 star and 3 star recruits that can act as your scout team and fill in occasionally on the field and will happily do so for the price of a free education. If they turn out to be better than advertised then you can give them a nice NIL deal later (JMO).
This means some mistakes will be made but it should enable Auburn to land more elite athletes instead of collectively paying large sums to groups of players that will never make a difference in any major game.
This also explains IMO why HF is doing such a great job of recruiting but is still having a difficult time landing an elite QB and OTs. These guys are treated as Royalty on every campus and everyone knows how important they are for an elite team and I sense that HF and staff are not playing on the same level field with NIL when trying to recruit these guys.
I believe OTV will get smarter in years to come and with more money to give out. I still worry that, just like on this board, there may be some at OTV that truly believes our coaching staff is the best in the land and if they recruit a 3 star he will be as good as any 5 star out there, and so he is worth the same. YIKES ! ( I didn't know @ricedp105 was on OTV ?)
Another tidbit: Says that Gus and Harsin both started recruiting very conservatively (or not all all in Harsin's case) because they both knew they had a huge buyout and that illegal recruiting was an easy way for the university to fire them for cause.
This tells me that the fans do have something to do with recruiting because we can scare the HC into a state of complacency when we start calling for him to be fired. Maybe with NIL that no longer matters ?
1. My source is impeccable but I will not divulge any names.
2. Obviously this didn't come from the organization.
3. My opinions are noted.
Auburn is running about $2 million per year short of where they think they need to be.
Only about a dozen folks are contributing the bulk of their funds.
Says Auburn is in the middle of the pact. My interpretation was he sounded like he was stretching it to get us to the middle, perhaps lower middle would be more accurate. (JMO by the way he said it.) (Don't know if that is SEC or the entire country).
Says they allocate the money with the idea that some positions are more important than others (QB, LT were mentioned) but that they had to manage their budget.
He didn't sound like we had big bucks to lure a top flight QB. (my interpretation)
All players get something depending on positions. (my interpretation)
Says most fans give $100 per year and we need another 20,000 to catch up with where we need to be.
I urge all of you to give $100 today to get Auburn where we need to be.
That's it.
Following is my opinion:
I have never liked the idea of giving all players money because honestly there are many players that bring no upside value to the team and have zero NIL value. Name-Image-Likeness.....or are we just paying players ? If so, why pay a 3 star the same as a 4 star or 5 star ?
I believe to build a championship program it is much more important to pay your future stars larger sums and treat your 2nd and 3rd options like normal student athletes, which they probably are. There are plenty of 2 star and 3 star recruits that can act as your scout team and fill in occasionally on the field and will happily do so for the price of a free education. If they turn out to be better than advertised then you can give them a nice NIL deal later (JMO).
This means some mistakes will be made but it should enable Auburn to land more elite athletes instead of collectively paying large sums to groups of players that will never make a difference in any major game.
This also explains IMO why HF is doing such a great job of recruiting but is still having a difficult time landing an elite QB and OTs. These guys are treated as Royalty on every campus and everyone knows how important they are for an elite team and I sense that HF and staff are not playing on the same level field with NIL when trying to recruit these guys.
I believe OTV will get smarter in years to come and with more money to give out. I still worry that, just like on this board, there may be some at OTV that truly believes our coaching staff is the best in the land and if they recruit a 3 star he will be as good as any 5 star out there, and so he is worth the same. YIKES ! ( I didn't know @ricedp105 was on OTV ?)
Another tidbit: Says that Gus and Harsin both started recruiting very conservatively (or not all all in Harsin's case) because they both knew they had a huge buyout and that illegal recruiting was an easy way for the university to fire them for cause.
This tells me that the fans do have something to do with recruiting because we can scare the HC into a state of complacency when we start calling for him to be fired. Maybe with NIL that no longer matters ?
