Couldn’t have been a better game for recruiting

[UtesRule]

How we land some of these guys!
Recruits buzzing about Utah after attending comeback win over U$C

[Hellhound152]

I appreciate the buzz, however knowing that 3 players on the other sideline accounted for nearly 4 million dollars in NIL money is a harsh new reality.

[Central Coast Ute]

I thought Addison alone was more than $4m?

[Hellhound152]

What we found was 887k for Addison, C. Williams was 2.4, and the other Williams was a shade over 1 mil.

[Yergensen]

Was it a recent OnlyU post that mentioned Whit says that NIL is generally the first thing out of new recruits’ mouths nowadays?  

Less emphasis on education, experience and getting players to the NFL.  It’s how much can I make right now, short term valued over long term.  Not a surprise, we all saw it coming and we’ve already seen its effect in last recruiting class and in the transfer portal.

[EagleMountainUte]

That is gross.  Gotta say I agree with paying these kids. But this is just attracting the wrong type of kid to Utah’s culture. 

[Trailgoat]

Agree, Utah needs to get their s**t together on NIL. Asking more from the fans is lame, especially for the CC members who already payout a ton of cash to the program. Harlan being the self proclaimed fundraiser needs to skip photo shoots with the golf team (no disrespect :)) and put together a program to keep Utah football competitive, especially for current players on the team.

Seems KW called out the Utah money bags last week with his NIL comments. The weak SLC media are afraid to confront Harlan on it. I know it involves the school pres and others, starts with Harlan as the mouthpiece of the athletic department. IMO-Harlan has been a major disappointment as Utah’s AD. Dude is a blow hard, smooshholic. Go Utes!

[Utesbyfive]

You do know that it’s absolutely against the rules for anyone connected to the program to be raising funds or coordinating NIL deals, right? Harlan can’t do s**t.

[Onlyu]

NIL is a big deal and it hampers everyone’s efforts for 4 star+ kids moving forward. We will still close plenty of high 3+ star kids like always because they’re really not in line for any of the NIL crazy money today.

Cam is ranked 85th with NIL and we have a couple others close to the top 100 but we’re not close to the big boys today and frankly I don’t know that we ever will. In the new system, after all is said and done, there will be some sort of team cap…but it will be a number only the big teams can hit. The majority of teams will still come in well under that cap but it will equalize the Bama’s, A&M’s, Ohio St’s and SC’s of the world in some form.

Whitt’s comments last week were 100% a shot across the bow to our big boosters (and not the average fan) and while we’re behind today I think we’ll catch up fairly quickly. Again not at the blue blood level but we’ll be in a better spot much sooner than later. We were conservative in our approach when this all started because for years this stuff was all illegal so there were a lot of questions and “gray areas” involved. Let’s face it we are behind because we never really had the “bag men” in our program like they did at the big programs already. Overnight that went from secret and against the rules to no holds barred. I don’t blame anyone for the conservative “WTF” are they doing response but now it’s time to adjust and allocate enough to remain competitive at a high level.

We can still (and will) remain a top 30ish program…it’s gonna be stressful for a few years IMO but it will work out and at the end of the day we’ll have a seat at the table.

[EagleMountainUte]

I feel like Utah is always gonna be disadvantaged here. The big reason,it is obvious: TDS
It will never really even off either. Which I don’t fault anyone for how they spend their money. Utah will always be divided.
Caps are cute but let’s also be honest here. It won’t ever be monitored correctly.

[UrbanLiar]

Great comments as usual @OnlyU. Let me add I’m spending a #%^* ton of my free time as a booster to increase the long term NIL strategies and systems for the Utes. We’re never going to beat University of Spoiled Children on NIL resources, but we’ve already done close to 800 separate NIL deals for Utah athletes that total close to $2 million. There’s no central reporting authority across the country to disclose all the details of NIL structures but we have a general sense of where we are. We believe we’re about 4th in the PAC12, behind USC, Oregon and amazingly the U of A, who has a Sugar Daddy writing NIL checks right and left. I’m personally proud we’re the first university to create a pure NIL based TV show that launched on KUTV 2 weeks ago (Talkin Utes). That show in its own right will create 12 separate NIL deals and we’ll roll it forward to MBB, WBB, gymnastics and skiing in a few months. We have other strategies that will be announced in the future too. So I’m sorry if certain fans (Trailgoat apparently) aren’t satisfied with the Utes being in the top third of the PAC12 even with our methodical and strategic long term plans starting to build foundations for success. Yes, we need more efforts on this dramatically new element of recruiting and the portal, but throwing everyone under the bus isn’t correct. Even if you’re not capable of doing an NIL deal yourself, please try to visit commercial interests that do in fact offer NIL deals to Utah athletes. They need to know that their NIL deals are paying dividends. I’ll post some of the larger ones here if it’ll help.

[Onlyu]

Love this Urban…Thank you for your efforts. I know there is plenty in the works behind the scenes and we also have plenty of “money people” connected to the program/school willing to help. It’s just a matter of building the foundation as you say.

Whitt’s comments were an “all hands on deck” call out but as you mentioned we’re making progress and creating some momentum.

I also think it’s a great idea to post the larger deals here so that we can show our support to their businesses.

Keep up the great work and for the rest of you who know the influential or financially capable people…get in their ear!!

[Virginia Ute]

Thanks for the background info….very interesting.  Thanks for all of the work you guys are doing.