Surviving NIL and transfer rules

[ragtimejoe1]

Sorry for the separate thread. There have been good comments but were scattered across several threads. We are at the dawn of a new and worse era of CFB. TWYO is going to get the worst of it. Great players are going to chase money and good players are going to go closer to home even if staying in G5 ranks.

Not only that, every single future coach will know this too. Our hurdle for success just got A LOT higher. We are in total rebuild mode in a year which should be fairly stable other than reloading the D. I know other programs will have problems but Laramie's is probably worse than most. Not trying to be chicken little, but I don't like the signs so far. Hopefully this year is the exception not the rule.

Really tough spot next year for the POKES. Damnit.

[LanderPoke]

I think this year is a worst case possible scenario. Lots of talent, severely underachieving team , crusty old asshole coach. Perfect storm

[OrediggerPoke]

I think this year is a worst case possible scenario. Lots of talent, severely underachieving team , crusty old asshole coach. Perfect storm

Don’t kid yourself. Look at Nevada and Hawaii. Transfer portal will be a yearly thing. Wyoming stands to lose.

[307bball]

I don't really like the characterization of Bohl as a "crusty old asshole"...I see him as a man with character and principles, that being said, the tides of time seem to be passing him by. I imagine most of the posters on this board are much more ideologically and temperamentally aligned with Bohl than the younger "play for myself" mentality.

We find ourselves in a fundamentally changed landscape with the player freedom/empowerment movement. Any slight advantage that Wyoming had in being able to get young, motivated, overlooked athletes to campus and shape them into great players is low and getting lower. The moment that a player has a "better" opportunity..real or perceived, they will leave. This is not just true for Wyoming...but, as pointed out by myself and others, Laramie is not high on anybody's list of places to spend your college years.

My best case scenario is this....Bohl see's the shifting forces that will make it very difficult to retain talent. He applies his stubborn-ness and commitment to doing it in the "right way" in a new direction..taking the best of what he brings in stature and leadership into this new NIL/transfer world and makes a go of it. I don't think he will do that and it may not even be fair to expect him to do it...it might just be his time is really done. I don't say that dis-respectfully...everything comes to an end no matter how good you are. If that is the case (and I think that it is), then leadership should be identifying the next guy with an eye toward competing and excelling in the new situation. Maybe the $$ devoted towards facilities can, in the future, go towards players somehow?...I don't claim to know how that would even work.

Ultimately, I think the window for Wyoming to "matter" in the broader context of college football is barely open and may be closed altogether. I'm not the historian of UW sports that some of you are on here but was there any inflection points where there was an opportunity, in the last 40 years, for UW athletics that did not get pursued that would have avoided this? This just feels inevitable to me.

[LanderPoke]

I think this year is a worst case possible scenario. Lots of talent, severely underachieving team , crusty old asshole coach. Perfect storm

Don’t kid yourself. Look at Nevada and Hawaii. Transfer portal will be a yearly thing. Wyoming stands to lose.

Nevada's head coach got poached and he took half the team. Nothing you can do about that, I agree. Hawaii has a crusty ass old hard coach like Bohl. Kids are wusses and can't tolerate that anymore. Need to get a coach that will pat the kids on their head and talk to them like their mommies would. If that's what we have to do then that's what we have to do, I guess.

[SheepSlayer]

To all the people complaining about the transfer portal and NIL rules, answer this, are you still working for the same company that you got your first job with? Did you leave that company for a new job when you found a better offer/wanted to pursue a different or better career? If you went to college did you graduate from the same school you started at? Did you graduate in the same discipline that you started in? Do you still live in the same town you grew up in? If you can honestly answer yes to all of that then by all means keep complaining about the transfers and NIL but I don’t imagine there are many of you.

The reality is, the old system was wrong. Players were forced to make a decision at the age of 17 that would affect the rest of their lives and then be forced to live with that choice whether they regretted it later or not. Meanwhile coaches could come and go as they pleased. And not only were they not paid while playing a sport that could result in physical ailments they could suffer from the rest of their lives, they weren’t even allowed to make money from sources outside the college. We can certainly argue all day long about the current rules and if they are ideal or if there’s a better system, but we’re certainly not going back to the old way nor should we.

For Williams and Neyor, both kids are from Texas and might not have even known UW existed until they started being recruited. They don’t have the lifelong loyalty to the team that us fans do so why should we be surprised or upset that they chose to better their careers and lives by moving on. They could have given up on their teammates by leaving and entering the portal before the bowl game. Coaches have been doing that for a long time. Players going pro have been doing that for a long time. Players entering the portal (blankenbaker) are doing that now. Most experts were telling Josh to skip the potato bowl. Give these 20 year old kids some credit for sticking it out to the end of the season and quit b****ing about them doing what they think is best for them when nearly every single one of you would do the same in their situation.

Since the rules are here to stay, the only option is to play the game better than the opponent. We want to be a run first team with a strong defense? Ok, go to the transfer portal and recruit some better linemen. Try to find some backups from P5 schools or the top players in FCS. You live in Wyoming? Try to convince your company to sponsor a player or position group. Have them send a check to a few players in exchange for an advertisement or two. Will it be tough for Wyoming to compete? Absolutely. So let’s prove that we truly are Cowboy Tough. Enough with the excuses, enough with the complaining. Go Cowboys.

[McPeachy]

I have heard the "if coaches can leave, why can't players leave" argument so many times, that this thread is going to make me vomit.

One is an amateur, essentially being gifted a college education / experience.

The other is a career professional, whose livelihood depends on what a 20 year old does on a Saturday. Except bWHYu - that would be a 25 year old.

Big f-word difference if you ask me, so don't give me this "coaches do it, so players should too" poop argument. Athletes aren't in jail, they can go and do whatever they want, wherever they want...but FFS (and this is my issue) have a little loyalty and gratitude toward the educational institution that gifted you so much in the beginning of your adult life.

[1tallpoke]

Great comments on here and some thoughts are overblown. Coaches created this system by recruiting kids and then leaving for big dollars. In the Information Age kids see this. However, players get vilified when they have an ounce of power via the portal. They are just doing what coaches have done for years use the smaller schools as a stepping stone to get bigger jobs more money. In the first year of the portal a coach could block a player leaving to go to a team in conference or to a school that recruited you. Who else would know that player? Wyo had the power. Now it’s wide open. The Wild West. Players are more loyal to Wyo and Laramie than you think. People don’t quit there jobs they quit their bosses. Best quote today QBs want to throw passes WRs want to catch passes. I don’t think it can be more plain than that. A trust has been broken. Hope it gets fixed.

[SheepSlayer]

I have heard the "if coaches can leave, why can't players leave" argument so many times, that this thread is going to make me vomit.

One is an amateur, essentially being gifted a college education / experience.

The other is a career professional, whose livelihood depends on what a 20 year old does on a Saturday. Except bWHYu - that would be a 25 year old.

Big f##k[#] difference if you ask me, so don't give me this "coaches do it, so players should too" [#]sh#t argument. Athletes aren't in jail, they can go and do whatever they want, wherever they want...but FFS (and this is my issue) have a little loyalty and gratitude toward the educational institution that gifted you so much in the beginning of your adult life.

Yes, players are gifted an education in return for playing a game. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect their “livelihood”. For some, playing for the right school can mean the difference between making it in the pros or not. For others now, it can mean making up to six figures during your college career. That goes a long way for a lot of these kids. For others it might just be living the “glory days”. A lot of people would give a lot of money to go back to the glory days for just a day. I agree they’re not in jail. I agree it is a little different than with coaches. But if it’s okay for coaches to take a better job and leave their team before the bowl game, then it should be okay for players to leave after their bowl game. The loyalty argument is fine if you want to make it, I won’t argue in principle but again if you are applying it to players then apply it to coaches as well. In that case we should be criticizing Bohl for leaving NDSU after they were the ones who gave him the first opportunity to succeed. In terms of gratitude, Neyors twitter post showed a lot of gratitude, didn’t see if Levi had anything similar.

Regardless, the point isn’t necessarily if we agree with what’s happening or not, it’s what are we going to do about it.

[McPeachy]

I have heard the "if coaches can leave, why can't players leave" argument so many times, that this thread is going to make me vomit.

One is an amateur, essentially being gifted a college education / experience.

The other is a career professional, whose livelihood depends on what a 20 year old does on a Saturday. Except bWHYu - that would be a 25 year old.

Big f##k[#] difference if you ask me, so don't give me this "coaches do it, so players should too" [#]sh#t argument. Athletes aren't in jail, they can go and do whatever they want, wherever they want...but FFS (and this is my issue) have a little loyalty and gratitude toward the educational institution that gifted you so much in the beginning of your adult life.

Regardless, the point isn’t necessarily if we agree with what’s happening or not, it’s what are we going to do about it.

That is the key - I agree. Wyoming Football should no longer be the "developmental" team for others. UW needs to recruit transfers, and let the chips fall how they fall. Bringing in a group of (mostly immature) 18 year-olds, redshirting them, playing them a year or two (essentially giving them 2-3 years of education, growth - both physically and mentally) and then watching them leave is a bad business model. If Wyoming (Bohl) sticks with those "ways" - UW is done competing...for anything!

[307bball]

I have heard the "if coaches can leave, why can't players leave" argument so many times, that this thread is going to make me vomit.

One is an amateur, essentially being gifted a college education / experience.

The other is a career professional, whose livelihood depends on what a 20 year old does on a Saturday. Except bWHYu - that would be a 25 year old.

Big f##k[#] difference if you ask me, so don't give me this "coaches do it, so players should too" [#]sh#t argument. Athletes aren't in jail, they can go and do whatever they want, wherever they want...but FFS (and this is my issue) have a little loyalty and gratitude toward the educational institution that gifted you so much in the beginning of your adult life.

Yes, players are gifted an education in return for playing a game. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect their “livelihood”. For some, playing for the right school can mean the difference between making it in the pros or not. For others now, it can mean making up to six figures during your college career. That goes a long way for a lot of these kids. For others it might just be living the “glory days”. A lot of people would give a lot of money to go back to the glory days for just a day. I agree they’re not in jail. I agree it is a little different than with coaches. But if it’s okay for coaches to take a better job and leave their team before the bowl game, then it should be okay for players to leave after their bowl game. The loyalty argument is fine if you want to make it, I won’t argue in principle but again if you are applying it to players then apply it to coaches as well. In that case we should be criticizing Bohl for leaving NDSU after they were the ones who gave him the first opportunity to succeed. In terms of gratitude, Neyors twitter post showed a lot of gratitude, didn’t see if Levi had anything similar.

Regardless, the point isn’t necessarily if we agree with what’s happening or not, it’s what are we going to do about it.

Sheepslayer is right...the amateurism thing as defined by the NCAA years ago is a relic. You may want it back..but that is not happening. The insane $$ going to coaches and programs (stadiums/administration/facilities), has continued to spiral upwards. The value of the education also went up but not at the same rate. Pointing out the wrongs of "professionalized" collegiate athletics is not a great argument to go backwards...rather it is an argument to do it bette.

[ragtimejoe1]

First, I agree that it's the athlete's rights to do all of this. Hell, I can't find logic in restricting transfer to a single time allowance.

With that said, it is going to ruin college football and its their right to do so. At the end of the day, you can call fans whiny or whatever but if they lose interest, the programs fold. I doubt big programs are at risk, but there could be significant attrition of fans, especially at the lower ranks. I might be in the minority but a big appeal of college football it's getting kids in, seeing what they develop into as players, and going on their way to the NFL or as a fellow UW alumnus. When that's gone and the game changes to rent a player, then a significant chunk of what made college football good is lost.

With that said, to the average taxpayer or potential student, what true measurable value does WYO football bring to the University and State? I'm sure that question will be asked a lot by smaller programs around the country.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold. On one hand, it may simply be Bohl is mean so lots of players leave which can be fixed by finding a new coach. On the other, programs may eventually say to hell with it, ironically killing or reducing the development opportunities so many athletes take advantage of.

[WyomingAgJ]

That is the key - I agree. Wyoming Football should no longer be the "developmental" team for others. UW needs to recruit transfers, and let the chips fall how they fall. Bringing in a group of (mostly immature) 18 year-olds, redshirting them, playing them a year or two (essentially giving them 2-3 years of education, growth - both physically and mentally) and then watching them leave is a bad business model. If Wyoming (Bohl) sticks with those "ways" - UW is done competing...for anything!

100% agree. Bohl needs to focus on transfer portal more than highschool recruiting and if he won't then we need a new coach who will. The Utah st model is now what we need to do. Transfer portal is a free transfer only once. So "recruit" from the portal almost exclusively then develop those players and hopefully have it come together for a mw championship like Utah st did. Developing highschool players for 1 to 3 years to have them all jump ship is just developing them for bigger programs.

We are in total rebuild now, so hit the portal hard and make the rebuild quicker by getting players who are already partially developed by other schools and can't transfer again without sitting out a year

[laxwyo]

Bohl makes 1.5 million, that’s about 1.2 million more than coaching a sport should pay. I’d take 300k/yr anyday. We’ll need to cap our head coach salary and funnel money (cash) to players. Hell, 5k for 82 players isn’t that much money. If you’re looking at starters, you could give them 20k each per year for the same price. We’ll need to be creative. If we can pay 1.5 for Bohl, Our head coach can make 1 MILLION f-word DOLLARS and the $500k go towards players. That’s what the whole move in college sports has been. It’s been to reward players in a sport where everyone else is cashing in.

[jessejames02]

These kids put their bodies and brains on the line every week for $20k/yr worth of schooling and make the university millions and the coach of the game is the highest paid government employee in the state.

Wish them well and hope they stay, but they don’t owe the program a thing.

[johnywyo]

The transfer portal is not a utopia for the kids. Many that go to better teams will end up as tackling dummies on scout team. The ncaa and pay for play is delusional believing this will help 18-21 year olds. One thing is certain, when your God is your own ego, "Houston we have a problem". Millions of kids play HS football, the percentages here bare the real analysis.

HIGH SCHOOL PARTICIPANTS
NCAA PARTICIPANTS
OVERALL % HS TO NCAA
% HS TO NCAA DIVISION I
% HS TO NCAA DIVISION II
% HS TO NCAA DIVISION III
1,006,013
73,712
7.3%
2.9%
1.9%
2.5%

Kids need a chance to play ball & earn a scholly. 99% are entering the workforce to earn a living after college. Its horrible these kids have any other concept of this sharp reality.

Bohl is a dial phone in a digital age, he served his purpose. Its time to move forward. It was evident at the end of Josh's career. The recognition that we’re in a changing environment, kids might be able to make a little additional side $; or if an exceptionally skilled athlete can get big time endorsements off his Twtr feed - great. Bottom line is the majority of the non P5 schools will still be volleying for these roughly 74k players. A solid innovative, coaching staff and great University does matter. A culture that is good for a young person that his parents believe in will still influence decision making. My niece just finished her engineering degree at UW and played on Rugby team…she loved every bit of Laramie. There are kids out there that fit this mold.

Lets wait and see how many 18-21 year old millionaires appear on the landscape… its all screwed up.

[cowboyz]

While I don't like to see anything that'll hurt our program, I'm all for the players doing what they feel is best for them. NCAA football brings in more revenue than the NFL. These coaches get paid incredible amounts of money. If they have success they jump to a better gig, and if they fail and get fired, they get a pay-out. The AD's and school admins that made these bad decisions don't lose a thing, it's not their money. The NCAA and the schools could have fixed this a long time ago by paying the players. And let's not forget, not all of the players are scholarshipped, yet they're putting it on the line every day, and they've not been allowed to work until recently, and even then there are hoops to jump through. So imagine, you have to pay for your own school, and you're putting in so much work on the field, and if you get hurt really bad it's "tough luck". Meanwhile the "adults" are doing very well for themselves with money generated from ticket sales, TV deals, video game deals, sportswear deals, etc... Even with the TIL, most athletes won't see anything, so they should at least be allowed to go where they wish.

In the past you had to hope the coach would give you a release letter if you wanted to transfer for whatever reason; you don't like the coaches, you don't start, you don't like the school, etc. If they didn't release you, you'd have to sit out a year, literally putting your athletic career on hold, just for some dumb-ass NCAA rule. It was all a game to the "adults" and the "kids" had no say. This gives the players a very small amount of power, and I love it. All of us can move about as we please, but not an NCAA athlete, they're screwed by a decision they made as a high schooler.

Realize this, we have just as many slots on our roster after the transfer portal as before, as do all the other teams. If we lose players to P5 schools, that's fine. We can get their transfer players from these other teams who are leaving due to whatever their reasons are, probably opportunity. Coaching staffs need to adjust, instead of bs-ing high school age players, they have to bs college age players, who now have some experience in the outside world. And if we can't attract their transfer players or not many of them are transferring, then that'll mean we'll have a better shot at high school players that would have gone to a P5 team, but can't as their rosters are too full with returning players and new transfer players.

The game is simply adjusting. Utah State figured the transfer world out. They were picked 5th in the division, yet won the conference and beat a P5 team in their bowl game. Now it not just a game of recruiting and coaching. It's a game of recruiting, coaching and retention. Keep up, or get out.

As far as those saying we should go to FCS. If you think we have a hard time recruiting to Laramie now, imagine how tough it would be if we weren't FBS? We'd end up as a middle of the road FCS program if we were lucky. We'll not get the same athletes we've been attracting as an FCS program.

Wyoming will never compete for the FBS National Championship. Our goals should be conference championships, the best bowl game we can qualify for, some opportunities to play and beat P5 teams, and beating CSU. I feel we'd need to go undefeated with two of those wins being against ranked teams, with one of them a top ten team to even be considered for the FBS playoffs. And also, there couldn't be four P5 teams that were also undefeated, as they'd get the nod. I feel switching to FCS would be a disaster for our football program in every sense, unless we somehow could make it to the Championship game, where we'd at least be back on TV for one game playing before a live crowd of 20k.

[Douglaspoke]

I think this year is a worst case possible scenario. Lots of talent, severely underachieving team , crusty old asshole coach. Perfect storm

Don’t kid yourself. Look at Nevada and Hawaii. Transfer portal will be a yearly thing. Wyoming stands to lose.

In Boulder, Colorado...CU Buffs have lost 11 players and just yesterday their #1 starting Defensive player announced entering the portal.

[wwplayer]

While I don't like to see anything that'll hurt our program, I'm all for the players doing what they feel is best for them. NCAA football brings in more revenue than the NFL. These coaches get paid incredible amounts of money. If they have success they jump to a better gig, and if they fail and get fired, they get a pay-out. The AD's and school admins that made these bad decisions don't lose a thing, it's not their money. The NCAA and the schools could have fixed this a long time ago by paying the players. And let's not forget, not all of the players are scholarshipped, yet they're putting it on the line every day, and they've not been allowed to work until recently, and even then there are hoops to jump through. So imagine, you have to pay for your own school, and you're putting in so much work on the field, and if you get hurt really bad it's "tough luck". Meanwhile the "adults" are doing very well for themselves with money generated from ticket sales, TV deals, video game deals, sportswear deals, etc... Even with the TIL, most athletes won't see anything, so they should at least be allowed to go where they wish.

In the past you had to hope the coach would give you a release letter if you wanted to transfer for whatever reason; you don't like the coaches, you don't start, you don't like the school, etc. If they didn't release you, you'd have to sit out a year, literally putting your athletic career on hold, just for some dumb-ass NCAA rule. It was all a game to the "adults" and the "kids" had no say. This gives the players a very small amount of power, and I love it. All of us can move about as we please, but not an NCAA athlete, they're screwed by a decision they made as a high schooler.

Realize this, we have just as many slots on our roster after the transfer portal as before, as do all the other teams. If we lose players to P5 schools, that's fine. We can get their transfer players from these other teams who are leaving due to whatever their reasons are, probably opportunity. Coaching staffs need to adjust, instead of bs-ing high school age players, they have to bs college age players, who now have some experience in the outside world. And if we can't attract their transfer players or not many of them are transferring, then that'll mean we'll have a better shot at high school players that would have gone to a P5 team, but can't as their rosters are too full with returning players and new transfer players.

The game is simply adjusting. Utah State figured the transfer world out. They were picked 5th in the division, yet won the conference and beat a P5 team in their bowl game. Now it not just a game of recruiting and coaching. It's a game of recruiting, coaching and retention. Keep up, or get out.

As far as those saying we should go to FCS. If you think we have a hard time recruiting to Laramie now, imagine how tough it would be if we weren't FBS? We'd end up as a middle of the road FCS program if we were lucky. We'll not get the same athletes we've been attracting as an FCS program.

Wyoming will never compete for the FBS National Championship. Our goals should be conference championships, the best bowl game we can qualify for, some opportunities to play and beat P5 teams, and beating CSU. I feel we'd need to go undefeated with two of those wins being against ranked teams, with one of them a top ten team to even be considered for the FBS playoffs. And also, there couldn't be four P5 teams that were also undefeated, as they'd get the nod. I feel switching to FCS would be a disaster for our football program in every sense, unless we somehow could make it to the Championship game, where we'd at least be back on TV for one game playing before a live crowd of 20k.

Fantastic synopsis of the situation.. it's a brand new world out there. Either adapt to the changes or wither up and die. Despite his old school ways, I don't think Bohl is an idiot. He'll either Find a way to get things to work in this new environment, or he'll say screw it and retire. But whoever is in charge, from the coach to the AD to the president of UW to the state legislature to..... People are going to have to change. The cat's out of the bag, so things are never going back to the way they were. Move on. Of course, this same thing could be said about a lot things (about modern life in general), but that's a whole other thread. Change has happened, change is happening, change will happen. Don't get stuck in the past.

[springs_poke]

So speaking of NIL...
If you go to the brown and gold website, several mens and womens basketball players have shirts and jerseys available. Which is awesome. I know some football players had signed some deals, Chambers included. But there is nothing like a shirt or jersey available for any football player. Anybody have any idea why? I know for jerseys, you could say Wyoming doesn't have names on the jerseys. That probably needs to change. But why not any t shirts?