TDVick

can keep improving and whether he can he have a scoring contribution against the tough teams on our schedule. MY had the rug pulled out from under him with the Hysier Miller departure - which seemed like VT basketball's usual tough luck.

and Mike Young has to pay the price. So sick of that empty suit dimwit.

the Nike deal. Not that things have gotten any better since he left.

our transfers. Rechsteiner must have improved a lot.

I'm correct. You don't have to tie the player to a school. However, I have had many jobs where my butt was required to be in a certain place at a certain time or time window. Anyone with a little minimal education can craft an NIL that has 10 or 11 minimal required appearance locations that will only work at one school and would preclude them from suiting up at another school. It doesn't have to explicitly REQUIRE you to be a team member of that school. It's called having a LITTLE bit of sense and creativity with contract language. When you tell me that such a stipulation isn't legal or isn't do-able then I will concede that Whit's hands were tied. Until then, I'll assume he didn't have the sense to negotiate effectively. Don't we observe instances like what I described occur hundreds of millions of times in America every year? Yes, WE DO. Please don't respond by answering what you want to say. Please respond by answering my question. In America, can you write a work contract that requires someone to be in a specific vicinity (also called on "OFFICE") at least a few days a year? I think that is a YES! Maybe this is big bad SEC dirty thinking. Well that why we're stuck in the ACC like a bunch of hippies. If my suggestion troubles you, that attitude is why we are not in the SEC. I don't that that what I suggest breaks the rules. ** Edited by TDVick at 10/21/2024, 12:47:01 PM

and now possibly Miller this year? Plus, I think you're mistaken about the collective being able to write a legal, intelligent and binding contract. Stipulate that you physically be in the Blacksburg vicinity for a specified number of meetings. That way you can't go to another school until after basketball season? I'm not convinced this is random. I'll stick with Whit dropping the ball - AGAIN!

the school? My guess is YES and that is how it should have been handled, via the collective and not the university. The second thing is - and I guess that VT isn't the most attractive basketball situation, so maybe that plays into this. This is the SECOND year in a row where our top option has bailed out a few weeks before the season started. Why do these things happen so disproportionately to VT? At some point when you keep seeing these repeated coincidences, don't you have to conclude that they are not coincidences and chalk it up to crappy management and buffoonery? If at other schools this isn't happening anywhere near as often at VT, then don't you have to conclude that things are being done badly at VT? Probably by the AD? If not, who?

competence (paging Whit Babcock who is out hiking in la-la land)? You intelligently write a contract with some milestones and perhaps an upfront signing bonus and a transfer forfeit amount then and put some money in escrow. If that were done in the first place I predict we'd see people staying on campus rather than ghosted from the commentary. I wonder how this happened? Would it be that our AD didn't know what to do? How many schools had their top guard and scorer go AWOL a week before the first game. Nice job, DUMBASS! I'm so sick of this moronic crap. If you can't figure out how to order a seatback, you're probably too dumb to have other responsibilities.

Bennett did to UVA. They were very meaningful games when, in this landscape, they are more and more rare. His teams have significantly ratcheted up my interest for our head-to-head games. His replacement will be inferior to him and that will lessen the excitement of our games. I call it a net negative for VT and I usually root for UVa to fall on their ass every which way possible.

management fiascoes as well. Mike Young has fared pretty well against Tony Bennett's teams, despite having less talent.

think so, and will call last year a good coaching effort for that reason. But yes, the talent shortfall is probably even greater this year.

athleticism. My guess is that with NIL, he ought to be able to flip a bench player from a place like FSU (or maybe VCU) that is a better athlete than our existing roster, which he did with Lawal. That is my concern that we might be a bit short on shooting and scoring this year with Cattoor and Pedulla gone, so what is usually our strength might not be as much this year. The area that needed the more obvious shoring up was athleticism and ranginess and the guys we added might be a bit raw still. Maybe we slide back this year, but by the following season I'd expect that we'll have an improved product. MY's teams are typically excellent on offense and the usual shortcomings of defense and rebounding should be fixable - eventually, so I think it would be a big mistake to make a change. I just think that Mike Young has a unique competence on running offenses and that is a good place to build from, especially since VT doesn't get 5 star-type players. I consider him to be a really good fit. We had 3 or 4 really bad games last year, which were uncharacteristic and still went 10-10 in the ACC with wins over NC State and Clemson and had a tourney shot late in the season. Even a "down" season has a pretty high floor. I think that is pretty good coaching. I think Mike Young and Buzz are the two best coaches we've ever had and Buzz can land a bit better talent. Buzz hasn't done that much better at A&M that MY has here, the past few years. It also seems that basketball gets the scraps compared to football, yet is relatively more successful.

I would attribute to him being under-resourced or VT in general being caught asleep at the wheel about the realities of the portal (Whit). Contrast Mike Young to our football program. Mike Young routinely has extremely efficient offenses. His players typically show substantial improvement each year. He pulls occasional upsets against highly ranked teams. I really have a hard time seeing us land a higher quality coach than Mike Young and if so, it would cost a ton of money.

when the conferences were smaller. But now, winning the conference DOES get you a bye into the top 4, which is good. It is starting to look more like to old 1-AA playoff model, which I thought was excellent. Minuses - regular season doesn't matter. Pluses - the playoff is much better. We don't have to watch an undeserving ND team get slaughtered.

like the state government made them a package deal and the Pac balked. Isn't that what happened? I didn't do a lot of research on this, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

there be a problem?

I so hope this is trend. Maybe Sands can dump Whit and then fire himself?

advantage. They had a terrible QB.

football, it is because, having major connections at ESPN, he knows that UConn will bring in a wheel barrow full of loot once the March Madness gets pulled from the NCAA. I made the case above the Duke, Kansas and probably UConn might add $100 million plus of basketball money to a conference. In retrospect, we all hate the Pitt, Syracuse and BC additions. However, going forward, UConn is probably a better asset than any of them. Who are the top bball schools? Duke, UNC, UK, Kansas and UConn? If you are a very, very good basketball school, it will pay dividends. I'd just like to see the ACC look ahead and do something smart for a change.

Let's say that jumps up to $2 billion plus and the P2 conferences grab 60% of it - I suspect that will get that much or more of the football playoff money. If those two conferences have 40 teams, that comes to about $30 million per school on average. There's probably some slippage and costs. If the payout formula is based on success, then a Kansas or Duke probably brings in $100-$120 million to a conference. Those teams typically make the Final 8 or Final 4. I'm surprised the SEC hasn't made a hard play for Kansas already. https://www.sportico.com/leagues/college-sports/2024/marc... The NCAA makes about $1.3 billion each year, most of which is generated by March Madness, and it gives the majority of that revenue back to its member institutions. Outside of organizing championships, there are nine different ways the revenue is distributed, but the biggest portion by far is the money awarded for games played during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. This year, that total is roughly $226 million.

acquisitions, they are about as asleep at the wheel as the schools that didn't jump to P2 a decade ago when they could have. I'm certainly not talking about Missouri and Maryland. March Madness is clearly going to be jettisoned from the NCAA and a conference with some hoops powers will rake in the loot. That is why I scratch my head when people act puzzled that Duke and Kansas might be in play. All the trends in 2011 pointed to the ACC's current situation for football and getting raided. It seems that basketball payouts will be shaken up in a similar fashion. Once this ESPN/ACC renewal situation renewal gets clarified next February and the smoke clears, then basketball-oriented moves will also start to occur. If ESPN renews the ACC deal then the current situation might be frozen for a few extra years.

Someone made the smart choice and someone made the stupid one.

are staying, maybe ESPN will extend the contract. If so, the departure damages for FSU to the other schools will be worse once it gets renewed. If ESPN was worried about FSU leaving to the B10, then they now have a pretty strong incentive to renew the ACC contract.

of it. They seem like they have as many students from New Jersey or China as they do from North Carolina. They are a top 4 - if not THE top basketball brand. Basketball will become a huge revenue source once March Madness gets stripped from the NCAA, so grabbing Duke makes a lot of sense if you look to the future. UNC is very valuable and I think they get a bit impaired if they don't have Duke in their conference for regular season basketball games. That's also why I think the SEC might make a play for Kansas as well.

UNC will probably to the SEC, especially if FSU doesn't. This is a bit path dependent, but that's the beginning catalyst to the process. UNC wants UVA, but is locked with NCSU. Step 1 FSU allocated to B10 UNC to SEC Step 2 NCSU goes with UNC I'm not sure where Clemson goes Then you have piece of turf in VA that is unclaimed. Someone will claim it, but will they take UVA and VT together? Does the VT administration want the SEC over the B10 if they had the choice? I have doubts - sadly! I could also see us going to the SEC and UVA to B10. I think of this as choosing sides for shirts/skins bball. FSU and UNC get picked first. Maybe down the road SEC takes Clemson and gives VT/UVA in exchange. I would think that one of SEC or B10 would grab a VA presence. That's how this gets sliced up. I'm not sure how much the SEC wants Clemson. I could also see Clemson going B10 and UNC, NCSU and VT/UVA ending up in the SEC. The VT/UVA and Clemson landing spots seem a bit fluid. What you posted seems plausible. ** Edited by TDVick at 8/15/2024, 7:00:03 PM

YES, VT's academics look relatively weaker. Whether or not the SEC has some very low rated schools or not, if they are looking for additions that are an upgrade, UVA would outrank VT. Like I said back in 2011, if the ACC falter or disbands and the P2 conferences are selecting, why do you think they would prefer VT to these schools? UNC FSU Clemson Miami and yes, now.... probably UVA since they have deeper pockets and better academics. Not to hard to figure out. Betting that you can jump all those schools if the window is narrow is a VERY BAD BET. But that is the bet that was made.

should have been pretty easy to see in 2011 that the trends for the ACC were quite bad.

standards, it becomes very inexcusable. Did any ACC college presidents make a peep about him or try to push him out? I don't recall any doing so, which reflects badly on them. Moreover, the B10 was able to squeeze a lot more revenue out of its portfolio despite having a lot of schools that aren't as attractive as the top tier ACC schools. Shouldn't the ACC have been able to get a network launched that brought in 60% or so of what the B10 did? I'd consider 60% a really bad or failing effort and nothing even close to that very weak benchmark comparison was achieved, which looks to me like staggering incompetence and lack of vision. Yes. The one thing that unites a fractured ACC is the belief that Swofford sucks. Is he some scapegoat the people are unfairly piling on? I don't think so. Sports fans like to complain and pile on. I do, but I think trashing Swofford looks quite justified. At a minimum I think you have to conclude that he was outmaneuvered and didn't play his hand very well. There is lots of brainpower in the ACC that should have gotten better results. ** Edited by TDVick at 7/23/2024, 3:53:09 AM

apparently are frowned upon, it sort of reinforces my "Eyes Wide Shut" view of how things work. Granted FSU was pissed and wanted out, but the biggest transgression you can do is to shine a flashlight on the practices of the power that be. FSU is extremely valuable. Whoops. Scratch that. They asked some questions that shouldn't be asked. Lock them out! That is how I interpret the tone of that report.

done in the past. "Let's keep whoring up to Notre Dame so they can urinate on us." Giving ND a vote was the ultimate clown show move. I'd much rather play games against SMU than Syracuse or Pitt. Swofford, ND membership and Raycom. Great way to bet your future!

exemption, which probably makes sense, since you don't want the good teams destroying the bad teams or they won't have anyone to play. There are salary caps, drafts and allocated player rights. I really can't stand the NFL anymore and hope college football can stay viable. I doubt this will be the case because college football won't have a rules structure than can maintain a competitive balance. The sport is VERY top-heavy now and adding these huge settlement costs will probably make the system even more consolidated, top-heavy and uncompetitive. I hope I'm wrong. I wonder if some elements within the pro sports leagues haven't engineered these pressures on college sports to make them less attractive. The best college basketball was in the early 80s and topped out in the early 90s with UNLV, Duke, Fab 5 and UNC teams. Today's basketball is almost unrecognizable to that game. Maybe it was just the big money or the three point shot, but college sports seems to get worse all the time, college basketball since the mid-90s and college football seemed to peak around 2007, in my view. 2007 was the most interesting college football season ever. The last hope for an outsider team to crash the party was Boise State in 2010. After that, Bama and the big money boys got their act together and pulled up the drawbridge. ** Edited by TDVick at 6/26/2024, 10:02:55 AM

ACC football teams - if not better. They had some really good runs and being in the American conference pulled down their ceiling quite a bit. If they get a couple extra ballers each year now that they are in the ACC, I can see them being somewhere between #20 and 40 in football. They care about football more than most ACC teams and should be able to afford some good players. They have tons of talent in their backyard.

looks pretty obvious to me that March Madness is going to be out from under the NCAA. In which case there will be huge amounts of money. Typically they have had participation credits based on success and Duke would get a wheelbarrow full of money. If the SEC landed UNC, Duke and Kansas to go with Kentucky, that would be absolutely insane as a basketball brand. You can say the UNC would want to separate from Duke and play them out of conference, but I disagree there as well. Every year the ACC basketball season is the UNC versus Duke soap opera, which is the primary reason that eyeballs are glued to the screens for the regular season. Personally, I probably hate Duke more than anyone on this board, but that is what sells. UNC has political strings tying them to NCSU, but I really think they would much prefer to leave in tandem with Duke and UVA if it were their call. Roadrunner needs the Coyote and Smokey needs the Bandit. They aren't solo acts. UNC/Duke showdowns will by hyped by networks. ** Edited by TDVick at 6/20/2024, 10:40:55 AM

and I have not ever seen the guy play. Mike Young is a really smart and effective coach and his approach to hoops was in stark contrast to the mismanagement that led to the decline of our football program, which is hopefully being fixed. My biggest peeve is that there are lower tier regional teams that have a lot of success that VT should be able to eclipse, but often hasn't (Whit!). Whatever success we've had with non-revenue sports doesn't count for much in my book. What has been the problem with VT's basketball? Lack of athleticism and ranginess. This guy was recruited by VCU and ODU, both very successful regional teams known for having athletic rosters. VT's priority should be trying to pilfer the recruits that end up at VCU or trying to pirate a bench player from FSU and that would probably be an upgrade to our previous rosters. Not to mention Mississippi State was recruiting him and Chris Jans, despite having a personal hiccup in his past, is one of the best and most underrated coaches in the country, so if we are elbowing him for recruits, it's hard to see this as a bad move. If VT can keep snagging VCU and Mississippi State-type recruits in basketball and landing would-be contributors in football against teams like Iowa State, Appy and JMU in football, then we will be on the right track - as opposed to the trainwreck we had to needlessly suffer at the end of the Fuente era. I'll keep saying it. If Mike Young can get just a tad better roster upgrade, he will be very dangerous. This looks like a move in the right direction and a going after a recruit like this is what he should be doing.

seems to have tremendous sway with them.

that they took our spot. The phone kept ringing off the hook but VT didn't want to pick it up, because it might have jeopardized our bus ride local footprint games to groovy Wake Forest. Either that or Swofford talked someone out of accepting it. He had something cooked up that was way better. Short on details, but certain to be great. Maybe our women's lacrosse club team was hitting its stride and we didn't want to disrupt its momentum by worrying about football or anything else. Got to keep focused on priorities! ** Edited by TDVick at 6/10/2024, 4:32:19 PM

selective. A lot of the selectivity is due to supply and demand. That is what I attribute to FSU's rapid rise up the "Large Public" category from USNW. That is basically what I pay attention to. The enrollment at all of the Florida schools is growing rapidly. There are some headscratchers in that bunch as well. If you came here to read something good about Wake, you clicked the wrong post.

We certainly knew that Buzz wasn't going to be around long. Even if he was tad better coach than MY, when you combine those metrics, it is "No contest." Most anyone else that we could get that would be as good as MY would be looking to jump or would be getting pirated away.

that VT can outbid VCU for some talent (Lawal), pick off some overlooked Dukies and land a rangy FSU bench player that would probably be more athletic than anyone on last year's team. If the fans and the administration help him get a decent level of roster talent, he can do a lot with it. ** Edited by TDVick at 6/8/2024, 4:17:28 PM

winning percentage? I think that it is an amazing testament to MY's coaching ability. Both he and Buzz inherited gutted teams their first year. In any sport, football or basketball, it seems that some coaches are either good at recruiting OR coaching and have a shortcoming on one of those dimensions and you have to pick a poison. In my opinion, Buzz has the cache to walk into living rooms and land recruits quite a bit better then MY can. He seems very tight with Jimmy Butler. Whether MY is a better coach than Buzz is up for debate, but when you figure in the lack of drama and other factors, MY is about as good a hire as we are ever going to find.

coordinated horse-trading btw the SEC and B10. I really think that basketball will be huge once the NCAA loses March Madness. I really think that UNC and Duke benefit tremendously by being in the same basketball conference. It makes the regular season much more relevant. It wouldn't surprise me if the SEC tried to grab UNC, Duke and Kansas to go with Kentucky and become the basketball juggernaut. It really amazes me that people assume that Duke won't get a spot. The economics might be better if UVA and VT are split. I wonder if there is a constituency in the B10 that wants to block VT, such as MD, PSU and OHST. I just wonder if UNC can muscle UVA into the SEC with them at our expense. I hope not.

leverage point is that the VA politicians can block this. I can see a scenario where UNC has to hold their nose where VT joins the SEC along with UVA. I'm not sure what the SEC's preference is, but I can see the B10 strongly preferring UVA to VT due to academics and the fact that OHST, PSU and MD don't want to tangle with VT in football. Either the SEC is ok with dilutively taking two schools in Virginia, or the legislature won't let UVA leave to the SEC alone, in which case UVA gets traded to the B10 and then I think the SEC would very likely want to grab VT if UVA were taken off the table. This seems to be the primary pushback that VT has against UNC. I really don't like the B10 travel locations and really prefer the SEC. I told everyone back in 2011 that this day would come and here it is. Once again we have to hope we don't get screwed by UNC. It really angers me that this situation is in play.

I'm guessing B10 by default. Why was Stanford added to the ACC? 2. If UNC and NCSU are approved, why all the contentiousness in NC? It doesn't seem like that much of a problem. Do the academic people (at UNC) just not like the SEC? 3. Hopefully the additional price that UNC will have to pay is to take VT into the SEC with them rather than UVA. What you said sort of reinforces my point that if UNC and NCSU are paired, then VT and UVa get split. UNC is sufficiently valuable that they cross-subsidize NCSU, but it doesn't sound like have two VA schools in the same conference is doable. You'd think that each of the P2 wants some turf in VA.

want to straddle the West and East. FSU would get a lot of their expenditure back from Fox and/or B10 because they add a lot of value to those entities. A network will give extra compensation to the B10 once FSU is added and that will get kicked back to FSU to cover the departure fee. Maybe you are right and the ACC was just a desperation pit stop for Cal and Stanford. In which case, we have lot of people reacting and playing hot potato, which I hope is not the case. Their additions could really screw up the ACC's ability to vote their way out of trouble if that is what happened. ** Edited by TDVick at 5/29/2024, 2:28:24 AM