Apparently, we now have a contract negotiations season in college football. As the final days of the portal comes to a close, a few key Georgia athletes haven’t signed their 2026 contracts.
So he’s not in the portal, but he’s not officially a Dawg? WTH? Per sauces, other Dawgs that aren’t 100% as of Saturday were also KJ Bolden and Chauncey Bowens.
What a time to be alive.
It’s just another sign that the sport we love is eventually going to go down the toilet.
I’m really struggling with whether or not to make my Hartman contribution this year when it’s apparent that the scholarship doesn’t matter any more. No, I’m not going to make a voluntary contribution to an NIL collective.
The bottom line is Kirby’s cheese has moved. We’re going to get to sit back and watch how he reacts.
Finally, any of these guys who decide to move on for a check are not DGDs.
The only thing that surprises me is how few saw it coming and so many cheered it on.
^^^^Exactly
This explains the article I read yesterday about Kirby attempting to assemble the #1 RB room in the country. It stated Georgia is close to signing the top two RB free agents. The author did close with close to is not yet signed up.
Perhaps coach Smart doesn’t like being blackmailed into a raise.
Some chatter on social media this morning seems to indicate that Frazier and Bowens are coming back.
Message received?
Hopefully they both come back.
The rules:
If Kirby replaces a current player with a better player and the current player leaves, the system is working as designed.
If Kirby loses a player and is unable to replace him with a better player, then the system is irretrievably broken and we don’t know how we can possibly go on as a fan anymore.
Yay Branch!! We’re going to win!!
Boo Damon Wilson!! Its a sign of the apocalypse!!
Get it?
It’s really not very complicated at all.
You left out if the new player under performs its Bobo’s fault.
And if he performs Bobo had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
Gunner is being held back but is too dumb to know it so he’ll stick around.
If he transferred to LSU he’d go 15-0 because he’d pick up Kiffin’s system quickly because he is so smart.
But he’s dumb. His entire family is. Don’t even own a phone for anyone to try and explain it to them.
Fucking bobo man.
Time to face the facts that this is now a business like the NFL.
Unfortunately for us fans & good luck for these kids.
Gurley gets suspended for a few autographs & now they make millions like the coaches & the universities.
Bring on collective bargaining
The athletes don’t want to be employees subject to a CBA. They and their reps like the now status quo.
Agree, just hoping to bring some stability to this turmoil
The 1 year scholarship commitment is at the root of all of this.
Saban like most coaches was dead set on one year only contracts. He should be given more credit for creating the system we have now.
Saban was the master of not renewing scholarships. When it became public he often told them take a medical and retire from ball with a scholarship or leave on your own.
CMR to his credit was one of the very few who told parents. I won’t cut your son he’ll get four years at Georgia if he signs. Roster management was one of his failings when compared to his peers.
Akascuba,
You misspelled “blame.”
And the draft.
Either NIL has to go or unlimited transfers have to go. One and done is manageable for a 15 man basketball roster, but football is a whole different animal.
1 time free transfer (no exceptions), 5 years to play 5 and penalties for tampering to both school and player are what must change to save college sports. Of course, all of these likely require the power 4 to break away, collective bargaining and an antitrust exemption to happen.
Instead, we’ll get some feckless “reforms” challenged in court at 1st opportunity leading to more unintended consequences, and everyone points fingers at each other.
You do realize that under this proposal, every single really good player is making the same play after year 2 as we’re seeing right? The late bloomers will do it after years 3 or 4.
Tampering. You call an agent and say you really need a rb. Where’s the tampering? You don’t need to contact the player directly. His agent has all the deets.
This is not a fix.
The 1-time free transfer … I have no problem with that and realize that the players mentioned in the post would still be able to do what they are rumored to be doing.
I would also say locking athletes in with longer term contracts makes this less likely. If UGA and Nate Frazier for instance wanted to sign a 1y deal for him coming out of Compton and then signed him to a 3 year deal after his freshman year where the only way he could leave early would be to declare for the NFL or pay a buyout to transfer to another school. That’s why I say there likely needs to be a CBA to govern all of this (believe me, I don’t like typing that).
Hog,
I the current system is working great for the b10. They won’t change it unless forced.
Sankey screwed the SEC agreeing to a nine game league schedule without changes to the system first.
They definitely need to try to reign this all back in some. Either get rid of the early signing period in December all together or move it to the summer. One transfer portal window. Either January or after spring practice.
I don’t know what to do with NIL. I think the players deserve to get paid, but I don’t know how you control it without legal ramifications.
You were all warned!!
“Bu bu bu the computer science major can make an app!!”
Sure.
Finally, how much easier would this all be if every scholarship athlete got paid the same amount?
Other than the fact, it wouldn’t change a thing. You think athletes and their representatives are going to agree to a system where the QB of the football team gets the same stipend as a 2nd string women’s volleyball player. The money flowing now would go back to the way it was with it going the table.
Why do they have to agree?
Did they agree to not being paid at all for a century.
I’m saying that its the only workable solution for college athletics.
You do it conference wide. Everyone has the same admissions standards, sports on offer, # of scholarships and pay schedule.
I’m sure the Big 10 and the other conferences will agree to this. Come on, Derek.
They will if the current system is as bad as you say it is and everyone stops giving over their money to it. Beat the impending implosion I say.
Besides, who cares what the other guy does or does not do? Do you.
Does the Cathy family give a fuck that McDonald’s is open right now?
Sorry I typed a response to Derek before reading your response. You nailed.
Conference wide assumes every conference goes along with it. Not a chance the b10 agrees to it now.
Good luck on getting an agreed deal between conferences.
No it doesn’t. It means you tell the other conferences:
“Good luck. We think the current system sucks.”
B10 response is it sucks to be you. We’re winning championships.
If that’s goal, then we should suck it up and quit whining.
I blame Bobo and Derek.
Select problem then see above. 😉
If the NCAA or the conferences set a uniform price for player’s services that would be price fixing, which is a per se violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The free market is driven by unlimited transfers and no long term enforceable contracts. Easy to change the 2nd, gonna take some balls to change the transfer process. The NCAA only has balls in its mouth occasionally.
How can anyone talk about a “free market” while barring free movement is beyond me.
The problem isn’t the portal. Every year we’re using it to clear out the chaff and bring in better dudes. We hope. No one is particularly worried about this type of movement or money, at all.
The problem ONLY arises when it risks not keeping a guy we want and fear we can’t replace.
Long-term enforceable contracts change the transfer issue.
CFB is now the NFL but with no salary cap and unrestricted feee agency. On a side note, the average age of the Indiana “college” team is 23 years.
If its not “cheating” its definitely a “cheat code.”
On Indiana, let’s see what happens when the super-senior/COVID freshmen are no longer available at scale. I believe that happens this year.
While Cognetti has been busy winning lots of coaches using his playbook have been contacting those players he would be after.
Something is easier when you’re the only one doing it. Like the NFL if you win almost everyone tries to copy your success.
He’s already signed some of his 2026 team already. 2027 is when I suspect a reversal to the norm.
Is Cignetti putting together Group of 5 all-star teams and then coaching them up? That could be sustainable if that translates into results in April? If it doesn’t, it’s a short-term arbitrage when the talent runs out.
Similar to a company that offshores and then moves its offshore operation to another spot when everyone else does it.
Who will be the next New York Yankees of football? Spend to win baby! Snooze and you loose. There will be NO change, the balless brass have let it go to far and there ain’t no fixing. For the love of money, money! Money, money, money, money, money.
You’re ignoring the running out of money thingy.
I don’t know D, championships seems to print there own money.
We’ll see. If it doesn’t run out of money then definitionally it ain’t the disaster its being described as.
Adapt or perish. Pay the best players that have proven to be a good cultural fit for the team. This isn’t something we should be stubborn about. It ain’t ever going back to the way it was, because the way it was, was practically criminal. A scholarship isn’t equal to the amount of money the best players are making for the school. I wouldn’t pay to go see bad players and they know this. 1 million is peanuts compared to what they can make in the NFL. I’m not sure why it’s even a question. We all saw Frazier put his body on the line in the Sugar Bowl and had to go out of the game with an injury. Is he even okay yet? I’m sure he wants some compensation for his sacrifice. This is his future at stake. 1 million seems reasonable compared to 4-5 million for a top QB. Pay the others too if they’ve proven to be good players and good teammates. Thank you for the opportunity to rant.
Believe me when I say that we’re all happy to pay him exactly what he’s worth. And that we all agree the number Kirby has proposed is to the penny, that number.
What chaps our ass is that someone might offer to pay him more than he’s worth and he might have the ingratitude to take it!
We want control dammit!!
Get off my lawn!!! Fuck you cloud!!!
What a person is worth is in the eyes, & capacity to pay by someone.
Exactly. Like Beck.
He was more valuable to Miami than to us, period.
After the powers that be do something about the pay of AD’s, HC’s and assistants, I’ll start worrying about the players – who everyone actually tunes in to see.
All of this discussion leads me to where I said this would all inexorably lead to:
NFL lite. 32-ish teams left playing in 8 divisions and 2 conferences.
Salary caps
Drafts
Limited trades
CBA’s
Strikes
Every kid goes to school on a computer and it doesn’t matter if you’re in Athens or Ann Arbor, its the same course.
It wouldn’t surprise me that the football programs become businesses operating entirely independent of the school and its just a branding agreement between an owner and a school. And the owner might offer to move to another college campus if the price is right and he isn’t getting the stadium improvements he wants.
Hell maybe one fine day the Saudis will buy a college football program!
We could jump off this road to hell and carve our own path before its too late but the FOMO is strong. I’d be happy if we jumped off this train as a university or as a conference, but no one is asking me.
My guess is that the folks at the commissioner level and the suits at Disney know where this is going and are just waiting for the public to soften up to it because what we have now is deemed intolerable.
The canary in the coal mine will be diminishing contributions.
That will set off a bit of a panic.
But that’s all probably a good ways away.
Anyway seen what it would take to walk into the natty next Monday?
Glad we got ours in the barn. It would appear that the final game is no longer meant for us plebes.
But any suggestion that there is a lack of interest is a provable lie.
Are they even STUDENT athletes anymore or just minor league NFL players? If they are STUDENT athletes (other than in name only), then statistically we should see at the very least one or two star players across CFB every year having to sit for academic reasons. That would make big news. When is the last time you have heard of ANY player missing any time for academic reasons? The average college class will have academic attrition so why don’t we see it in the CFB recruiting classes?
We used to at uga.
We lost two starters, not to suspension, but worse. They got kicked out of school for academic failures.
Both played in the a NFL:
Paul Oliver and Caleb King
I used to mock Auburn because they never had an academic suspension. A mathematical impossibility.
But I’ve said more recently:
We’re all Auburn now.
My guess is that they are doing online courses/tests and that the integrity of those may not be 100%.
https://youtube.com/shorts/OY6ukFlyWuo?si=JsapM8SrH_7Mq2nv
It can be fixed if there’s a will to fix it and like I said yesterday in response to a Refugees post about Raiola to Ole Miss that oddly seems to have vanished, I believe a blowback is coming. Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, etc aren’t going to just agree to continue with Ole Miss and Indiana etc going, “We don’t have to be good at it like you are. We will just let you assemble a roster and then swoop in and steal your players. Hahahahahahaha it’s so easy! It’s our time now!” Yeah that aggression is not going to continue to stand.
It wasn’t right for the coaches to have total control over these guys and it’s not right for these guys to have unlimited power and think they have everybody by the balls. Anything that can’t continue will stop. This is no different.
Why not include Lincoln Riley bitching about us? Or Brent Key?
Why are we fine with what we get but we get chapped asses if we lose someone?
Especially when as far as I know the only guy we lost that we didn’t want to lose was Damon Wilson, ever.
We’re fine to win the portal game but losses mean its irretrievably broken…
Ohio State is definitely pissed at OM over the whole Quinshon Judkins thing.
Derek it’s fine with me if you want to play devil’s advocate and Im not even saying you are wrong. I’m just saying what is. You can get your drawers all in a knot over the hypocrisy of the big boys’ attitude toward having their talent poached by the little shits and think they shouldn’t mind but we both know that we have to live in the world we live in and they aren’t going to just be ok with this and live and let live. You can talk about the unfairness of that all you want to but you know it’s just the truth. It’s not going to stay like it is right now. The haves aren’t going to just let the have nots rise up without some sort of push back.
To me there can be some middle ground between what was and what is. Why should the players have ALL the leverage? They shouldn’t of course. And they won’t continue to have it.
Who has been poached? We’re not getting poached? Not in near the numbers we are poaching that’s for sure.
Alabama isn’t getting poached.
Ohio State isn’t getting poached.
OM gets poached. Vandy gets poached. Ga Tech gets poached.
I can’t think of one player a big boy program is looking at playing for Indiana and saying:
“The one who got away.”
Who?!?
Gosh I guess I just imagined the people who have portaled out the last few years. They are actually still onnthe team I just can’t see them for some reason.😆. Derek you’re right about most things regarding football but youre just being pig about this because you would rather die than admit you are wrong. The guys we have had portal out the last few years used to be the guys that would have been depth and eventually developed under Kirby and his coaches and would have been contributors. How nice would it been to have had Sam Mpemba on this defense that cant rush the laser without Gabe Harris? I realize I just imagined him leaving and he’s still on the team, you can just see him and I can’t. You’re wrong, Derek. Just go ahead and know it even if you won’t say so. lol.
As for your little
Challenge in that last question you do realize Georgia wanted Mendoza and he went to Indiana instead right? Is Georgia big boy enough for you? There’s you one. lol.
Most guys headed out in the portal are unwanted. They used to transfer, now they portal.
Go back and look at the roster moves we’d make in the spring to make room for the new classes to stay at 85.
For us, its the same basic process. Timing is a little different as is player leverage but its basically the same.
And I was never a fan of keeping kids against their will,
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass. That was cmr.
Kirby has been chucking them out that same door since he got here.
Was Rico McGraw kept for depth? Nope. He was processed along with dozens like him to make room for new recruits and better transfers.
Maybe I missed something, but why would anOSU be pissed at OM over Quinshon Judkins? Didn’t they poach him from OM? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
With Damon Wilson, were (are) we pissed or just were we expecting an adult to be required to honor the legal requirements in a contract like the rest of us have to do?
He was saying the portal door swings both ways. I understand that. My point is a complete free for all is not sustainable. That just doesn’t seem controversial to me. Neither does the idea that the teams best at acquiring talent and building rosters aren’t going to sit on their hands and say, “Golly jeebers! Of all the luck!” While these bottom feeders raid their rosters.
I am not in favor of this NIL system, but it does favor u$. We should at least be able to admit it.
We can’t stockpile talent like we used to because of $. Its not the portal.
Here is the real deal:
https://youtu.be/dX0WgUi7ZwQ?si=XuPDi7J-7EKDbz1e
Portal or no portal, no one can buy them all up anymore. Thats as recruits, sophomores, 4th years, etc…
Money is equalizing the talent, not the portal. The portal tilts towards us.
The contract is a separate issue to me than wanting him around. Obviously the cintract is proof of that.
I’m simply saying that big fucks small and therefore it works well for the teams Mike says should be pissed.
Why? They’re winning.
Im not saying you should feel anything. If you like not being able to stick pile talent like we once did then good for you. I enjoyed having the advantage of Kirby’s talent acquisition and development. Maybe that didn’t suit you. Now we can’t do that because it’s possible to retain people like we did. Depth cant be built like it once could. If you think that’s a good thing then ok but I don’t. I don’t care about making sure everybody gets a chance. I care about winning. BTW, Radi Nabulsi reported today that the Nate Frazier story is horse shit and he and Chauncey are both coming back. I hope that doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings that wanted to poach them. Oh wait, yes I do, I hope it hurts them bad.
Kirby has and will continue to adapt/evolve his philosophy, and quickly. Signing 4-5 star athletes and developing them for the benefit of other programs is a tough way to go. Kirby is the master of signing HS players and developing the crap out of ’em, but what good will that do if we can’t keep them in the fold? I don’t know how you do that with 4 or 5 star players. If you’re gonna “moneyball” the opposition, better do it with 3 star type dudes if they have the potential.
Since few are developed and leave, I don’t think that’s the question.
The equation is:
really talented soph > or < former 2-star who is 22 years old?
And if your math is the latter how do you manage that reality?
Its really about what’s more valuable? A current hs 5 star or an overlooked kid who is 20 and has 2 or 3 years left? Who costs more? What’s the “hit” rate?
I would note that its not like we were miles away from winning it all this year doing what we’re doing.
Declaring that we have to just ball up what Kirby has been doing trash it and start over is a bit much.
I do think we have to stay healthier.
Kirby did an excellent job of getting us a SEC title in 2023 with a team that wasn’t good at rtdb or stopping it.
That was addressed admirably, we did both and won a second SEC in a row.
I think Kirby will navigate this ok without our help.
Maybe I’m naive..but what if a good sized contingent of CFB coaches got together and said they would never take another kid from the portal?
The portal would clog up and backlog and many of the entries would be left without a team picking them up….or getting picked up by a school that can’t or won’t pay them what they were dreaming of?
Would that not stop this problem in it’s tracks?
Yeah..it would greatly benefit the coaches that still dipped into the portal..but they can’t take them all and in a couple of years maybe the portal taking boycott would grow even stronger…maybe?
What if the universities all agree to not take another coach from another school? Sure would put a damper on coaching salaries.
This is how I’d approach it. I’d reserve my NIL dollars for first year starters that are in the portal where I can upgrade any position on the field.
Recruit and develop who you can out of high school for depth, and take what you can from proven guys in the portal. No more first year starter QB’s.
I hate it but looks like the nature of what it’s turning into.
Also, looks like what we maybe supplementing with based on the 2 guys we’ve taken in the portal. I don’t remember early portal signings in the last like we’ve had now.
(Kdawg05)
I don’t understand why people are so upset with these guys maximizing their value. Has no one ever taken a job for more money or asked for a raise? And before you respond with how you paid your dues for years first, remember that as athletes these guys have extremely short windows to earn their money. Nate Frazier’s career as a professional athlete will probably be over before he’s 30, and if he gets hurt it could end tomorrow. He probably won’t ever earn as much in his life after football, which will probably be most of his life. He would be crazy to not go for the maximum amount now. Everyone on here would do the same.
My own personal viewpoint is that the players should be getting an education at a University, not a salary or contract. Healthy stipend drawn from tv revenue? Sure. But that stipend should go to every scholarship athlete in every sport and equally.
Running a professional sports franchise is not the role of a college, period.
Once that common sense is abandoned and you start paying qbs 4 mil per?
At that point wtf knows what the bitching is about? Makes no sense to me.
If running a sports team is not the business of the university why has the head football coach been the highest paid employee of the university system for forty years?
Because the University generates more revenue with a winning team than it does with a losing team. Any more easy ones?
Running a sports team with student-athletes is different than running a sports franchise with professional athletes.
If you think the 1983 49-ers and the 1983 UGA track team are the same, I really don’t know what to tell you.
“Generating more money” is the definition of a business. The UGA football team has been a for profit enterprise as long as we have been alive. The UGA track team, not so much. If you think the UGA football and UGA track team are the same, I really don’t know what to tell you.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/47581504/former-auburn-receiver-cam-coleman-commits-texas
Not Indiana or Ole Miss?
I’m shocked!
Gosh I guess money is why we lose so many players to Texas, A&M, Texas Tech, Oregon, and Ohio State. Because it’s only about money. You make some good points a lot of the time but you hit the fool button because you get pissed when you aren’t just told that you are right. I agree with some of what you’ve said but some of it isnt right.
Who have we lost to those guys?? Who?