Do facilities really matter anymore?

JT Hammons · June 8

I was lamenting this whilest drinking some coffee this morning. We made such huge strides that differentiated us from the pack when we the practice facility. And for what? Only to be sideswiped by stupid NIL? I just think nowadays players would play on a high school field if you threw them some greenbacks. Hope I am wrong!

NT80 · June 8

29 minutes ago, JT Hammons said:

I was lamenting this whilest drinking some coffee this morning. We made such huge strides that differentiated us from the pack when we the practice facility. And for what? Only to be sideswiped by stupid NIL? I just think nowadays players would play on a high school field if you threw them some greenbacks. Hope I am wrong!

Facilities do matter. All the glitz of a payday will eventually wear off, as NIL donations will fade and most players won't get a huge payday.

There are thousands of football players out there that mostly want opportunity to play at the college level. The higher the level the better, and we are a pretty high level on the food chain even though it doesn't feel like it.

The great equalizer is still a scholarship and playing time. Each FBS still has a limit of 85 scholarships and only 22 starters. You won't get many wanting to go to Houston as a walk on, and pay their on way, to sit on a bench 3 years to maybe get a scholarship and play as a senior.

Wag Tag · June 8

They were once at the top of the list. You could also apply this to educational facilities, as being not as important. Cost of tuition and NIL payments is more important and is proven by the lack of funds raised for our new AD building. NIL contribution will become even more important once it is tax deductible.

JT Hammons · June 8

4 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

They were once at the top of the list. You could also apply this to educational facilities, as being not as important. Cost of tuition and NIL payments is more important and is proven by the lack of funds raised for our new AD building. NIL contribution will become even more important once it is tax deductible.

Yes. Once they move NIL back into the athletic department the tax deduction will return.

wardly · June 8

9 hours ago, NT80 said:

Facilities do matter. All the glitz of a payday will eventually wear off, as NIL donations will fade and most players won't get a huge payday.

There are thousands of football players out there that mostly want opportunity to play at the college level. The higher the level the better, and we are a pretty high level on the food chain even though it doesn't feel like it.

The great equalizer is still a scholarship and playing time. Each FBS still has a limit of 85 scholarships and only 22 starters. You won't get many wanting to go to Houston as a walk on, and pay their on way, to sit on a bench 3 years to maybe get a scholarship and play as a senior.

The NIL payday is not going away and the cost of doing business will increase. Also, all our new facilities did was level the playing field, which certainly was a big step forward. At present the FBS has a limit of 85 scholarships but that could change for both the G4 and G6 programs when they spin off. The P4 schools could stay at 85, G6 drop to 75 ,and 1AA remain at 65. The money for NIL has to come from somewhere and for those of us with limited resources must look at reducing expenses anywhere they can. I certainly don't like it but amateur college sports is dead.

DentonLurker · June 9

5 hours ago, JT Hammons said:

Once they move NIL back into the athletic department the tax deduction will return.

I’ll be curious to see how that plays out. I feel like the IRS objection is going to still be there when donations to schools is still to directly pay athletes. You already can’t deduct donations tied to seat benefits. I don’t see how this is going to be deductible.

Wag Tag · June 9

24 minutes ago, DentonLurker said:

I’ll be curious to see how that plays out. I feel like the IRS objection is going to still be there when donations to schools is still to directly pay athletes. You already can’t deduct donations tied to seat benefits. I don’t see how this is going to be deductible.

It is really pretty simple in that the player will be an employee of the institution.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 9

12 hours ago, NT80 said:

Facilities do matter. All the glitz of a payday will eventually wear off, as NIL donations will fade and most players won't get a huge payday.

There are thousands of football players out there that mostly want opportunity to play at the college level. The higher the level the better, and we are a pretty high level on the food chain even though it doesn't feel like it.

The great equalizer is still a scholarship and playing time. Each FBS still has a limit of 85 scholarships and only 22 starters. You won't get many wanting to go to Houston as a walk on, and pay their on way, to sit on a bench 3 years to maybe get a scholarship and play as a senior.

No. It won't.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 9

48 minutes ago, DentonLurker said:

I’ll be curious to see how that plays out. I feel like the IRS objection is going to still be there when donations to schools is still to directly pay athletes. You already can’t deduct donations tied to seat benefits. I don’t see how this is going to be deductible.

Because in no way will it. 100% of money given to NIL is burnt money.

97and03 · June 9

17 hours ago, NT80 said:

Facilities do matter. All the glitz of a payday will eventually wear off, as NIL donations will fade and most players won't get a huge payday.

There are thousands of football players out there that mostly want opportunity to play at the college level. The higher the level the better, and we are a pretty high level on the food chain even though it doesn't feel like it.

The great equalizer is still a scholarship and playing time. Each FBS still has a limit of 85 scholarships and only 22 starters. You won't get many wanting to go to Houston as a walk on, and pay their on way, to sit on a bench 3 years to maybe get a scholarship and play as a senior.

Thinking that a Houston walk-on is what we should get pretty much defines how NT is viewed, even by our own fans.

wardly · June 9

12 hours ago, NT80 said:

The NIL payday is not a fixed expense. It's more likely to be reduced or gone at our level. Donors will soon tire of players taking the cash and then dashing away. G5 could become scholarship only....fine with me!

Why would you think that the NIL is going away? It is allowed by our court system and the NCAA has no control over it. I assume if you make a donation to an athletic department it will be tax deductible regardless if it ends up in the NIL pot or not. Will donors tire of players moving annually to play elsewhere for more money. Sure they will, but this is the new reality of college sports. You keep thinking that if you shut your eyes you can wish it away. I am not an attorney, but perhaps one way to slow the train down is to make athletics employees and have them sign contracts for a specific number of years that financially penalize them if they leave for another school during its time frame. We don't have to like the new reality of college athletics but we need to accept it and hope our administration can figure out how North Texas is going to navigate thru these financially challenging times.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 9

3 minutes ago, NT80 said:

It's going away because it's not sustainable at G5 schools. Does our NIL keep kids from seeking bigger offers at P5's? No.

Are you giving money to Chandler Rogers for one season here so he can get a better deal at Cal the next year? No. I'm not either. Is Eastside Pizza giving him $. Maybe once until they get burned then it will be "no thanks".

You already know we are not a big donation program. This takes away from donations to facilities. Unless the AD tacks it onto season tickets as a mandatory NIL fee (which I don't think they can do) then NIL will dry up when there is no visible sign of it retaining players here.

NIL will still impact UNT athletics.

wardly · June 9

3 hours ago, NT80 said:

How?

It's really no different from coaching at our level. Coaches take the UNT job to get the experience on the resume and hope to get a bigger program job later. Same for players.

Beam me up Scottie. There is no sign of intelligent life here.

NorthTexasWeLove · June 9

5 hours ago, NT80 said:

How?

It's really no different from coaching at our level. Coaches take the UNT job to get the experience on the resume and hope to get a bigger program job later. Same for players.

You're answering your own questions.

wardly · June 9

17 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

It is really pretty simple in that the player will be an employee of the institution.

This.

97and03 · June 9

6 hours ago, NT80 said:

What do you think most of our P5 transfer portal players were? They were not starters at their previous schools.

Many were not starters but that doesn’t make them walk-ons. 85 scholarships and only 22 starters. That means the overwhelming majority of scholarship players are backups by definition.

wardly · June 9

58 minutes ago, 97and03 said:

Many were not starters but that doesn’t make them walk-ons. 85 scholarships and only 22 starters. That means the overwhelming majority of scholarship players are backups by definition.

Good point. Backups get paid at the Professional level. I wonder how that will trickle down to college. So for example you pay a quarterback from North Texas to go to Cal for $440,000 but he either gets hurt or is beaten out by a backup. Does the former UNT quarterback lose the money which is given to his replacement, a former backup? The fine print in NIL pay could get interesting. Fun times .

NT80 · June 9

4 hours ago, wardly said:

Beam me up Scottie. There is no sign of intelligent life here.

Take your pills!

Tommy Gadberry · June 10

3 hours ago, wardly said:

Good point. Backups get paid at the Professional level. I wonder how that will trickle down to college. So for example you pay a quarterback from North Texas to go to Cal for $440,000 but he either gets hurt or is beaten out by a backup. Does the former UNT quarterback lose the money which is given to his replacement, a former backup? The fine print in NIL pay could get interesting. Fun times .

Schools paying 440k for a back up will face fatigue from all this methinks.

wardly · June 10

On 6/9/2024 at 5:50 PM, NT80 said:

Take your pills!

Thanks for reminding me.

untjim1995 · June 11

On 6/9/2024 at 8:32 PM, Tommy Gadberry said:

Schools paying 440k for a back up will face fatigue from all this methinks.

All it will do is make the coach get fired sooner...at places that can afford to buyout tens of millions of dollars to make sure a coach never coaches their school ever again

RBP79 · June 11

College Sports will bottom out and then the NCAA thru the court system will figure it out. Ain't no way college athletics can sustain NIL in its present form.

DentonLurker · June 12

To answer the original question, I think facilities only really matter if you don’t have them. An indoor facility is pretty much an indoor facility. I can’t imagine very many recruiting battles are won or lost because one indoor facility is “better” than the next, but a recruiting battle might be won or lost because you have one or don’t have one. I do think facilities have slid down on the importance level from even a few years ago though.

Matt from A700 · June 12

Remember the good old days when the most important thing was a badass locker room?

NorthTexasWeLove · June 12

I think it might be wise for UNT to go belly up on NIL and invest whatever they can heavily into facilities. The hope here would be that sanity enters back into the game and UNT would be setup really nicely.

What I know UNT can't do is try to do what everyone else is doing. That's not going to work for us or for dozens of programs like ours. Doing the status quo is just going to run fans off more than our on the field results already do.