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colleges should always be in the business of education first and foremost. they have no business running a professional sports franchise and giving the athletes (notice i didnt say student athletes) money with no emphisis on education. if the athletes want to play their sport for a career, fine go to a minor league otherwise get in the classroom and earn a diploma.

Another Porter brother going to Mizzou? I BET that makes JonTay happy, although he probably thinks it’s a GAMBLE playing so close to home.

Max has signed , he is official

I always thought Conwell would end up at a P5 school and Larry would go elsewhere. Avila, Swope, and Kent were the ones I figured were in play for SLU. Once Kent visited Austin with Larry it was apparent we’d likely get 2 from ISU. That’s fine, Avila is the prize and having Swope will help implement the system. Schertz will find plenty of suitable replacements for the other 3, with Gibby being a huge piece.

Crews only won 11 games each of last two seasons. And while it was before you were born Ekker was worse than both crews and the end of Ford.

Flying the flag in case Avila and scope end up driving down my street

There's no rush. He can do it all in due time.

Agree, that was a dismal year. In fact from 75-82 were dismal years but in his case his tenure was only one year. The team he inherited was bad. Also, did not improve significantly when Ekker was hired. Thank God for Grawer. What makes Grawer special in my mind that unlike now, Grawer was not handed a lot of resources.

He’s eating well.

I noticed during games that Tate was the coach that seemed to be the guy to have a player come and sit next to him when he came out of the game after ford did one of his famous yanks. Imo having that guy there is pretty important.

It never hurts to have a guy that everyone in town loves on your staff.

Tate in a reduced role is an asset to the program.

I think it is either going to be that, or the government will step in and finally divorce college sports from the big business it has become. I understand that universities have made millions on these kids for years (men's football and basketball only). I also understand the argument that the kids should benefit from the millions being made off of them. However, there is another argument that his just as logical as this argument and it is that universities are for students who want to receive an education. That's all. If you really take a step back and see the forest for the trees, it makes about as much sense for universities to be involved in professional sports as it does our national parks or trade unions to be involved in professional sports. By that, I mean it makes no sense. People in Europe can't comprehend why our universities are so involved in sports and, they are the ones that are right, not us. When college sports started, it was literally guys who agreed to go to the same university for purely academic reasons creating club teams for their spare time. That turned into organized teams. That turned into organized conferences. That turned into TV deal and national championships. That turned into schools creating sham classes so those kids can go to school and play for the school's team. That turned into kids getting paid now to pretend they are students so that they can represent the school's team. If it were up to me, I would have Congress pass a law that essentially accomplishes the following: If you want to be a professional athlete then go pro. If you want to go to college and play sports, you have to understand that you will not benefit from that situation other than having your tuition paid for and room and board. Then, you have to go to real classes, study, and stay academically eligible. You can't go pro for four years after agreeing to go to college. That will bring the talent level down in football and basketball. It will not lower the passion that fans have for their teams one bit. I know I sound like an old guy, probably because I sort of am, but that is what I would like to see. I'm not saying to go back to what it was when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's. I'm saying take it back further than that.

The real quality is in Ames.

It's a blue green sun sky type off-season for the team

Yep, that's where the tool belongs.

I really want Turnbull. Good 3 point shooter in college (small sample size) and high school (39%). And the ability to play a bit bigger from time to time.

More than any other person (coach or otherwise), Grawer saved our program. He also had a great basketball camp for kids.

Maybe he can ride some Clydesdales while he’s at it.

How many Traore’s are there?

Centene has significantly dialed back its charitable giving. I'm not sure if the Centene Court arrangement has a sunset, but if it does, I don't see them renewing it, let alone contributing to our NIL.

Money is fungible. Whether Centene gives money directly to the SLU Athletic Department or gives it to an NIL is kind of a moot point. If SLU had more than enough coming into the Athletic Department, they could easily tell a few key boosters to cut their contributions to SLU and increase their contributions to NIL. There are some tax games to be played, but as long as they can find some donors willing to do the NIL route it should be fine. The big question, which many have already touched on, is whether this new requirement of having a large NIL base is going to come from additional donations to SLU/NIL or whether the net funds will be the same and cuts will have to be made in facilities and other sports because the Athletic Department now has a shortage. I suspect the net amount be contributed is somewhat higher, but cuts are coming.

Give Centene the naming rights in exchange for Centene giving money directly into BVF

I still think there's another bus coming. All the big conferences are getting bigger and bigger. Big East is going to want to try to keep up. They'll look at programs that are doing well and making big commitments to basketball. Or so I'm predicting.

I have. A handful of mid-majors have struck gold. Everybody else has been struggling in vain. Now we've finally reached the point where the big boys officially kick us out of the club.

I think you're sorely mistaken.

The idea that the market always takes care of itself is not always true. When you let the power be concentrated in a few hands that is when excesses occurs. Last month the meat/poultry prices were credited with a driver of the increase in the inflation rate but with basically 4 companies controlling this market there is little incentive to bring prices down - in essence you have a type of a monopoly. A few blue bloods in basketball and football will end up controlling the NIL market thus setting the prices - a quasi monopoly.

The Tate discourse is kind of dumb because there were hardly any posts about the other assistants upon hire. We just assume they are all fine/good because go Schertz. Same with Tate

Virginia has become the first state to enact a law that allows the school itself to pay its players: Virginia law allows schools to pay athletes for NIL - ESPN Click on the link and listen to Tim Legler's take on it all. He is saying everything I have said or believed ---- and it starts with calling it pay-for-play. He also talks about how it's likely the ruination OF sport as we knew it and echoes the same thing Nick Saban is saying about the term "student-athlete" being a MYTH. Unlike a statement in the article, I do not believe this gets us closer to a federal or national solution because i believe in what cgeldmacher is saying about pending law suites and continued issues going forward. The UVa AD believes the school has "an obligation to maintain elite athletics program at UVa." This law will force most other states to do the same to "keep up with the Jones." Schools will then have to increase their operating budgets to cover the new cost of NIL line in their bottom lines. It might or migh tnot take the payment plans out of the hands of rabid boosters. Virginia has stepped in where the NCAA continues to fail. But I don't know how the NCAA can succeed when at every turn, they are rebuked by a court case as cgeldemacher states. They continue to call these NIL deals when we all know the reality is simply pay-for-play. I think these scholarship players ought to pay their own way through school now. They seem to have enough money on hand.

At least Crews had the courtesy to not pretend like he was doing a good job/blame everyone else. Man was just existing at that point.

Ron Coleman was no picnic either.

I’ll contend pretty adamantly that last year was worse than both of the final 2 Crews years. When you look at the increase in coaching salary and financial investment in the program, Travis’ final year was objectively a disaster. That’s all in the past though. New coach, new era, new Billikens.

I'm fine with it. It will look good in locals eyes that Schertz cares about Tate and St. louisans.

I stated elsewhere that hiring Corey Tate was the best decision Coach Ford made during his tenure. Tate has good relationships with the top local high school players and top juco players in the region. I'm pleased that Coach Schertz recognized his value and retained him.

Majerus kept Thorpe on staff for the transition. It happens. I think Schertz has given us a sense that he knows what he's doing. If it's good enough for him, LFG. Sign some transfers. Get McCottry. Roll the balls out and let's get to work.

Steve Spagnolo was a perfect example of this when he coached the Rams.

Once all the lawsuits work out and unions form we'll see the college teams in revenue sports become professional organizations that are merely "sponsored" by the universities. The universities and their donors will seed them with assets and kick back operating profits to the unis as a way of paying for the right to use the unis' facilities and trademarks. With that we'll see a complete and total end to transfer restrictions, red-shirts, and academic requirements. We'll probably also start seeing kids getting multi-year contracts as programs try to keep teams together. They'll finally just be professional athletes.

Here's a question. All of the arguments that were used to say that players shouldn't be saddle with transfer restrictions and shouldn't be prevented from profiting off of NIL could be used to challenge the four year limit. Why should poor little college athletes that are constantly being raped by the big bad NCAA be restricted to a four year college career? How long before that lawsuit gets filed?

I need a commit this week for my sanity!