CU Recruiting: Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight

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CU Recruiting: Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight

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Update … A new organization named Horns with Heart has set up a deal where each Texas offensive lineman will be paid $50,000 per year called “The Pancake Factory.”

Details of the deal were given in their initial statement:

Starting 8/1/22 all scholarship Offensive Linemen at the University of Texas will receive $50,000 annually ($800,000 combined) for use of their NIL and participating in charitable causes.

… You want to read more? Or are you convinced that there is no chance in Hell that CU will be able to compete in this brave new world of NIL …

… (Thanks to CU at the Gamer Eric for finding this depressing story) …

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There were two stories in the news this week which highlight the (imbalanced) state of collegiate athletics, as well as the (ever-growing) discrepancies between Power Five conference schools.

First, CU announced that it had created the Colorado Athletics Visibility Award (CAVA), a scholarship program that is the first of its kind in collegiate athletics.

From the CU press release:  The purpose of this scholarship is to create a community of collegiate scholar-athletes who have a desire to use their platform, power, and visibility in their role as athletes to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport.
 
Currently, CAVA will be a $20,000 tuition scholarship at CU Boulder, with two new recipients to be awarded annually based on their project proposals that seek to advance inclusion, rights representation and safety for LGBTQ+ participants in sports.

The goal is to build a large enough endowment for CAVA to cover the full cost of attendance to CU Boulder for two recipients annually, while also providing scholar-athletes with the opportunity to apply for additional funding to support their projects in meaningful ways.

The first two recipients of the CAVA scholarships are senior men’s basketball star Evan Battey and sophomore volleyball player Alexia Kuehl.

The second story came from Austin, Texas, where the University of Texas announced a $10 million NIL program.

From demandmoreus.com … A group consisting of University of Texas donors, former athletes, and sports marketer Nick Shuley announced the launch of an eight-figure NIL program, Clark Field Collective.

The collective has secured an initial commitment of $10 million for Texas NIL (name, image and likeness) activities, “with the ultimate goal of having the largest dedicated fund in the country for college athletes.”

Unaffiliated with the university, the collective has been created in order to assist the school’s varsity athletes in cultivating and facilitating NIL opportunities in conjunction with businesses, donors and fans.

… Shuley told ON3 that the collective hopes to be a “one-stop fund” to be spread across all sports for NIL activities, such as endorsements, autographs and appearances.

… Expected to be a format easily copied by other schools with deep pockets, Texas finds itself in a powerful position with such a wide array of alumni support.

“We have a unique setup here at Texas where we have the biggest and best and most prominent donors, in my opinion,” Shuley told ON3. “That definitely sets us apart from other universities. There is no reason we shouldn’t line all that up so everyone benefits. . . . There are so many opportunities to work with some of the best brands just in our backyard.”

The news of this new collective comes shortly after Texas Athletics announced it would begin paying eligible student-athletes $5,980 per year, the legally established maximum after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Alston v. NCAA case. This is something expected to be adopted by the majority (if not all) schools in Power Five Conferences, but it’s clear schools with financial advantages could begin to further distance themselves from the pack in terms of recruiting. With the announcement of the Clark Field Collective, Texas continues to push the pace in that regard.

So …

On the one hand, CU announces Wednesday that it has created two $20,000 scholarships for its student athletes.

On the same day, Texas announces it has created a $10 million slush fund for payments to its student athletes.

If those two stories don’t give you pause on just how imbalanced collegiate athletics is getting, even among the Power Five conferences, nothing will.

To put the contrast between the two stories in context:

• The University of Colorado has approximately 350 student athletes. Texas could offer CU’s CAVA scholarship to every student athlete at CU – from the third-string center on the football team to every discus thrower on the track team to every setter on the volleyball team – and still have $3 million left over to throw at the star football and basketball players.

Now, I’m not trying to diminish the value of CU’s newly-created CAVA scholarships, either what they stand for, or the efforts that went into their creation. I’m a big Evan Battey fan, and, if I paid better attention to the CU women’s volleyball team, I’m sure I would be a fan of Alexia Kuehl as well.

But the dichotomy of the two announcements made by CU and the University of Texas could not be more clear.

And this is all outside money. All money cleared by the Supreme Court in the Alston case in the name of fair treatment of athletes.

This does not take into account the difference in revenues the athletic departments bring in, which is already disproportionate.

For the 2019-20 fiscal year, the University of Colorado athletic department brought in $95,592,704; the University of Texas brought in $200,772,813. (Source: Sportico).

Granted, Texas is one of the top revenue generators in the country, but even in the Pac-12, Colorado is near the bottom when it comes to dollars to work with when it comes time to pay the bills. In 2019-20, only Washington State ($74,741,186) and Oregon State ($72,448,232) had fewer dollars to work with, while CU was almost on par with Utah ($97,217,204); UCLA ($97,674,553) and Arizona State ($97,814,344).

So, CU was already at a distinct disadvantage when it came to recruiting and the resources available to bring in better recruits (and coaches). Before, the arms race in recruiting centered around how dazzling your weight room was, or how many different uniform combinations you could use.

Now, however, in the age of NIL, it’s how much you can pay your players.

You can call it NIL opportunities, you can call it branding … It doesn’t matter.

Today’s student athletes (and their parents) want to know how much they are going to be paid to attend your school.

And so, for schools like CU, recruiting in 2021 is like bringing a knife to a gunfight (or, if you prefer something with less violent connotations, recruiting for CU in 2021 is like bringing a Prius to the Indy 500).

In the age of NIL, The CU coaching staff doesn’t just have one hand tied behind their backs when it comes to recruiting against other schools … CU coaches are fighting for recruits with both hands tied behind their backs – while blindfolded.

Come to Boulder and see the mountains … Come to Eugene and get paid.

Which do you think is the more appealing pitch to 17-year olds?

That being said, CU is holding its own with the Recruiting Class of 2022. The Buffs are currently tied for 40th in the nation in the Rivals recruiting rankings, and tied for third in the Pac-12 (tied with Arizona on both accounts). Only Oregon and Stanford currently have higher-ranked recruiting Classes. With less than two weeks to go before Signing Day (Wednesday, December 15th), CU looks to have a much better relative recruiting Class than it did last year (63rd nationally; 9th in the Pac-12).

But some of CU’s enhanced status has to do with the coaching overhauls taking place at USC, Washington, and Washington State (and the uncertainty of Herm Edwards’ future at Arizona State). USC will certainly move up in the rankings now that Lincoln Riley has been hired, and other schools behind CU in the rankings, like UCLA and Arizona State, may pass the Buffs by December 15th.

Still, it’s not a bad showing for a coaching staff without an offensive coordinator, and an uncertain future under Karl Dorrell.

The question is: Can CU bring in enough good recruits in the future, when other schools follow the Texas lead, and create multi-million “NIL” funds to pay their players?

Time will tell …

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This post, about the Recruiting Class of 2022 game, from the 2022 Season, is filed under Article.
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