Figured this would be coming. Thank you for everything you gave us, Lajohntay!

The future of FAU Athletics does not look great due to the NCAA NIL rules and the lure of our better players to other universities.

South Florida, Boca Raton and the surrounding area appear to be not interested enough in supporting FAU Athletics through NIL money and keeping our “home” university team competitive within their conference.

Very sad, but it is just the direction that college sports is heading around the country for all underfunded NIL programs.

Great decision on his part. If I were his father, I would have pushed  for him to leave.  Next year he will get paid and hopefully Lane…..I mean his next coach , will highlight him enough to increase his pro value. I know Moss and Rice came from small programs, but college football has changed and will NEVER be the same. So many NCAA decisions are changing my veiw on college football. Don't get me started on the FSU thing. Best if luck to this super young man. Stay humble. Work hard

Take a look at the 2023 Football Conference winners from the Power 5 (Texas, Michigan, Alabama, FSU and Washington) and at least two of the Group of 5 winners (SMU and Liberty) and notice that in most cases the winners come from wealthy donor based programs.

This is a perfect example of buying a NIL Championship!

If NIL were not a thing, he would have declared for the NFL. There is far more at play here than just money for him individually.

@NJ, not to put you on the spot , but what more is he playing  for than money and a carreer.  Emotional satisfaction?

I personally don't see FAU being competitive in the future because of NIL and portal transfer. This NIL is now pushing schools and communities to get money they don't have. Why not give a small allowance to the players on top of everything they get from the school? This is getting out of control.

All they have to do is instill a salary cap…but then you are back to square one with equality and just forcing schools to fundraise to play players.

How long until this gets into the high school ranks?

FAU Fan said

The future of FAU Athletics does not look great due to the NCAA NIL rules and the lure of our better players to other universities.

South Florida, Boca Raton and the surrounding area appear to be not interested enough in supporting FAU Athletics through NIL money and keeping our “home” university team competitive within their conference.

Very sad, but it is just the direction that college sports is heading around the country for all underfunded NIL programs.

Posted On: Dec 15th 2023, 6:22 AM #419095

I dont know if the situation is this bleak, but understand your concerns.

First, South Florida is the type of place where the chicken has to come before the egg.  We are going to have to field a winning program to increase NIL support.  Look at basketball, I am confident NIL funding 2 years ago would not have been fruitful.  Winning program on the court and suddenly there's a good bit of money coming in to keep the team together and the HC's salary is 4x.

Football has some NIL money.  But they are going to have to change the direction and results of the program before folks come out of the woodwork.  Our main issue right now is, our floor is too low.  We have to get our floor to 6/7 win seasons.  We are 4 years running on not being bowl eligible (not to mention the abysmal play in home games for 2023)...the reputation and enthusiasm around the program is waning.  We simply cannot afford to continue to have 4/5 win seasons, with losing records in non competitive conference games at home.

The good news is, most of the programs we have on schedule for 2024 are not by any means rich in NIL.  Aside from Michigan State and maybe USF, we are competing with programs near our level regarding financial resources.

Rick said

All they have to do is instill a salary cap…but then you are back to square one with equality and just forcing schools to fundraise to play players.

How long until this gets into the high school ranks?

Posted On: Dec 15th 2023, 11:28 AM #419103

I dont think a salary cap is even legal until the players are fully considered as 'employees' and there is a collective bargaining agreement in place.