Smoke on Vaki…

[Ute2]

…from a twitter account that has some chops. Nothing specific but has me sweating.

Anybody got any info?

[alexsmith]

I’d be shocked if he left

[ProudUte]

He’s gone according to KSL. I wish him well.

MY BAD!!! I thought the post was about Vele.

I am very sorry!

[SkinyUte]

Where are you seeing that? It’s not on their site, Twitter feed, or the feeds of any of their reporters.

Not that I necessarily doubt it, but I’m not seeing anything but vague rumors from random dudes.

[ColumbiaUte]

Maybe the previous guy meant Vele? Vele just announced he was entering the nfl draft. I also haven’t seen anything in regards to Vaki.

[D T]

He’s gone according to KSL? Do you have a link?

[ProudUte]

My Bad!!! See my post above. I was posting about Vele.

[Ute2]

Yikes! This one has me miffed. Hope it’s all smoke and no fire!

If not, bring us your ram and your playbook!

[Ghost of the HEB]

Here’s what I’ve heard: BYU offering him a “blank check” deal. Texas, Oregon, USC are three that are also rolling out a red carpet. Certainly possible that he leaves, but the twitter rumors have made it seem more dire than it currently is. But things can always change quickly, so who knows.

[Larry B]

Utah needs to do everything they can to match any offer he gets. He’s a proven game changer and we need someone like him, especially on offense, if we’re going to be great next year.

[The Miami Ute]

Though it might hurt, that’s the answer. Utah needs to at least come close to what others offer to make him think twice about leaving. Most players won’t leave their current teams if the numbers are about the same, considering the hassle of moving and adjusting to a new environment.

[Brettski]

If this is the road we face each offseason consider me checked out.

[The Miami Ute]

I think that, sooner or later, some sort of guardrails have to be placed on NIL and the portal. I mean, I’m all for allowing players to transfer once or if the head coach is fired or moves to another job. What we can’t have is have some teams use every other team as some sort of farm system which they can raid at no cost to themselves.

[DataUte]

Remember when Alabama booster offered Kincaid $1M?

[PlainsUte]

Is Vaki even in the portal?? If not, how are other teams making such offers, and why is he visiting Provostan? NIL has become the wild-wild-west, anything goes, its all for the $$$ now.

[Utah5410]

Ghost… Anyone else we should be worried about… Word on Bishop ?

[Utah]

You know how you have that athlete on your favorite team…say someone like Gobert or AK47…and they come up for contract negotiations and you find out that they will cost you a ton. So, what do you do? Neither one is good enough to justify the huge contract, but if you lose them you lose a great player and you have a lot of feelings for them but you know paying them will hurt you in the long run because it will restrict what you can do moving forward?

That is Vaki. He is a great player. You 100% want to keep him. But if BYU is going to throw millions at him…good for him. He’s a safety. He’s not going to take you from 5 wins to 10 wins. And he won’t take us from 8 wins to 12.

A QB will. He won’t. He had two great games for us. Cal and USC. He’d rather be a slot WR than a RB if he plays offense.

I want to keep him. I really do. But if we lose him, we will be just fine. We will still be favorites to win the Big 12 next year. And if it comes down to Vaki or a QB in the transfer portal…I’m taking the QB.

Hell, we don’t even know if he can be a 20 carry a game guy. He’s a great story. But he isn’t a program changer. We will be just fine with or without him.

[Central Coast Ute]

Going to BYU would be strange unless they’re offering him twice what anyone else is. He can stay at Utah or go to one of the other schools listed, make a lot of money and be a winner. At byu he can only make a lot of money.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I’m so tired of this. Vaki is playing the system to get more NIL. NIL and portal getting worse every year. Programs are being held hostage by 18-21 year olds.

Salary cap the NIL per team. The NFL does it. Undergrad transfers have to sit out a year. I’m all for players getting some extra cash for their dedication and time. A few getting all the money.

[DataUte]

Agree – transfers have to sit out a year unless 1) their HC left, 2) grad transfer, 3) special circumstances (e.g. family illness – moving to be closer, etc.). Not 1st time free crap.

[Charlie]

I agree, a NIL cap would work and is needed. However, the problem is with the programs with the most money are the ones you need for agreement. If the SEC and B1G did not support it it simply can’t happen. We may need stories about programs that spent more than they can sustain and didn’t get anything in return resulting in problems.

[krindor]

Biggest issue with an NIL cap is that the courts would near-immediately strike it down and it would open up the NCAA to serious damages

[2008 National Champ]

Yep. While I’m a big fan of never seeing any Caleb Williams commercials ever again, you can’t have a cap on NIL. The only cap possible would be if the athletes were made employees of the school(s). NIL has already been decided by the courts and the NCAA can’t put any limits on it

[Charlie]

It is not laws that prevent a cap, it is done all the time in sports where their is understanding about why it is needed and most important it is agreed to by the administrators. Of course it may require something like making them employees. But the critical element is agreement at that administrative level. Given that agreement it would be easy to construct. Additionally, without agreement it can not be constructed.

[2008 National Champ]

A salary cap could only be applied to employment compensation and since college athletes are not university employees, there isn’t a current mechanism which would allow the NCAA to limit NIL.

The O’Bannon case made it clear that college athletes controlled their NIL and subsequent legislation has been passed in multiple states allowing college athletes to market themselves to their own benefit. You would need to unwind all of that, and convince up to the Supreme Court in future law suits that participating in college athletics means that the NCAA, or a future group of schools, has the right to determine what income outside of that which they are providing can be limited.

The NBA has a salary cap but it only applies to the amount that each team can pay. The salary cap has nothing to do with income from other entities earned as the result of notoriety gained by being an employee of the NBA. Or to put it another way, Michael Jordan didn’t become a billionaire on his Chicago Bulls salary. He got there by selling his likeness to Nike which the NBA had no control over.

[Utah#1]

A byu fan started the rumor on Twitter. That fanbase will kill their first born to regain football power in the state of Utah. They can’t take Utah being in the spotlight anymore and will do whatever it takes unethically, if it means selling their souls to the devil, to be the #1 college football program in the state of Utah. You can see the desperation from BYU and its fanbase all over social media. All Utah has to do is win baby win!