Inside Syracuse’s rough off-season: How portal misses and a lack of NIL money led to a lost year

[pwong]

'Cuse Activates ACCELERATE Program with Launch of NIL

https://cuse.com/news/2021/7/1/general-cuse-activates-accelerate-program-with-launch-of-nil.aspx ACCELERATE is Syracuse University Athletics' official comprehensive Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) educational and empowerment program designed to assist student-athletes in the growth of their...

syracusefan.com

We were told by some in 2021 on this board that we were ahead of it. Was that incorrect?

All these announcements from the athletic department is just them trying to have good PR. Actions speak louder than words.

 

[pearl31]

Totally utter failure in the portal.

Combined with two best non-portal guys (3 if you count Westry) being out for significant time = nightmare talent situation
(on top of, of course, coaching that has been questionable at best)

 

[SUFan44]

Question. I understand that in football the roster can be 105 max. Also, that there are no longer walk ons. That every player is a full scholarship student athlete,
If that is the case, doesn't it make sense to shrink the size of the roster. Cut out 25 scholarships' Have a roster of 80 to 85 players and pay them well. Not sure if we need 105. Reduce rosters and pay the players on the roster more. Do that for Football and Men's Basketball.

Yes, that's a consideration that all schools are taking into account.

Won't change the max $ you can spend as an AD, and likely wouldn't change the $ you get to utilize as a program, but you can spread it out a little different if you have fewer scholarship guys.

 

[phil77]

All these announcements from the athletic department is just them trying to have good PR. Actions speak louder than words.

They are just trying to take the heat off the coach and have a talking point for when questions are asked at the end of the season about Red's job. They are just laying the foundation now. GM, Roster construction, Organizational failure doesn't fall on the coach, NIL, etc etc etc.

 

[BomberOrange]

That's going to be the model most schools use, as it mimics the House settlement parameters.

I do wonder if that's the proper distribution for SU.

I think Fran would probably freak out if it were distributed another way, but MBB getting a higher percentage at SU would make sense in my eyes.

74% FB
20% MBB
3% WBB
3% Other

That's $900K more per year for MBB and could help significantly.

Need to prioritize the cash cow - and get a coach in who can do the job, too.

I would swap wbb with men’s lax.

 

[007]

Question. I understand that in football the roster can be 105 max. Also, that there are no longer walk ons. That every player is a full scholarship student athlete,
If that is the case, doesn't it make sense to shrink the size of the roster. Cut out 25 scholarships' Have a roster of 80 to 85 players and pay them well. Not sure if we need 105. Reduce rosters and pay the players on the roster more. Do that for Football and Men's Basketball.

My understanding is that all D1 sports will be classified as "equivalency" sports under the new rules beginning with the 25-26 academic year. This is important because it will allow schools to award partial scholarships if they choose. The current system is/was classified as "headcount" for football and basketball and can only offer full scholarships. Technically, you can still have non scholarship walk ons and partial scholarship roster spots as long as you don't exceed the max roster size of 105.

So your thought of "cutting out 25 scholarships" is probably not going to be a thing for power conferences. The new flexibility and roster size increase is designed to help programs build depth and deal with the reality of the portal turnover. This is the direction SU is headed.

 

[Newhouser]

How are they so unprepared?? Did they think this stuff only applied to football LOL Everyone should be fired.

It's literally insane that people are swallowing this line of crap that we weren't ready. Every fan knew the day was coming, how can professionals be so blase about totally dropping the ball? It's insane.

 

[Newhouser]

Well, it's 50 years of history, so I would expect the same thing.
Danforth was replaced by an assistant coach in 1975.
Coach Mac was replaced by an assistant coach in 1991.
Boeheim was replaced by an assistant coach in 2023.
For lax and women's hoops, we hire alumni.

Gerg was a supposed glamor hire, but it was because Mr. Two Phones knew him through the USC connection.

Have we ever done an actual national search in the last 50 years?

Toll calls...not in the budget.

 

[Chip]

I would argue that to have instant success you need someone who brings NIL $ money with him like Fran.

I know people want to think that Fran motivated all these SU donors who were sitting by just waiting for the right coach to shower with millions, but that’s not how it works. Fran brought his own money tree that had enough IOUs on it to get his program kick started. I’m not sure how many are left on the tree. You aren’t the top recruiter in all of college football because you’re a loveable guy. It’s because you’re a dog with backers.

You accrue chits along the way for your shot. He got his shot and cashed in a lot. Now that the embers are lit, he’s got to build off that momentum.

I don’t want to bank on the next guy motivating donors. I want him to walk in with a bag full of sure things that in turn will motivate donors after success. The “belief without evidence” path is nearly impossible.

If Red doesn’t make it, I want a guy who’s a recruiting dog,who can put together a staff.

And the thing is with Fran, I think a lot of it was one time money that got us McCord and Diggs just to kickstart the recruiting momentum.

We weren't as active in the portal this offseason, but have brought in an overload of 3 star to 3 star+ kids that need to be developed. Which I think is fine, because I think that can still work in football. (Forget the 2025 schedule, that's a nightmare anomaly).

Basketball is a different animal. Rosters will always be more fluid. 1-2 players (other than a McCord type QB) make such a bigger difference in hoops. So you don't just need $X million this year, you need it the year after that, the year after that and so on.

At the end of the day, we still need a good coach. I hope Red can be that guy, but hard to argue this year with those who think he won't be.

 

[AcAndAc]

How are they so unprepared?? Did they think this stuff only applied to football LOL Everyone should be fired.

I still want someone to explain why DONORS are needed for the implementation of "sharing 22% of EXISTING REVENUE." The whole point was to share the revenue with players... not have the donors pay the players, while the universities keep the same amount they always received. What a joke.

 

[DilemaCuse]

Pretty rough public article for our kids to read before the season, regardless if it is fair or not. Would have liked to see this posted after the season at least. They still have games to play. This article basically said they all suck and are underperforming and the coaching sucks as well and could be blamed as well.

So Carlson put that one out. He does pods with Brent and must not attend practice like Donna and Waters and is free to have open season. With some coaches that would get your access banned.

 

[SUFan44]

I would swap wbb with men’s lax.

I would too. But I'm not the AD, and there are now real dollars (NCAA Tournament units) associated with WBB. So my guess is that it would benefit the bottom line to try and be good in women's basketball.

 

[Cusefan95]

That's going to be the model most schools use, as it mimics the House settlement parameters.

I do wonder if that's the proper distribution for SU.

I think Fran would probably freak out if it were distributed another way, but MBB getting a higher percentage at SU would make sense in my eyes.

74% FB
20% MBB
3% WBB
3% Other

That's $900K more per year for MBB and could help significantly.

Need to prioritize the cash cow - and get a coach in who can do the job, too.

Football is the cash cow. ACC TV contract is roughly 20% basketball, 80% football which puts football around $9MM ahead. Ticket sales revenue value are pretty close. Plus the ACC isn’t stable, so being attractive to other conferences would be a good idea which is going to require football be at least slightly above average. There’s no bad decision that the University could make that would shock me - but the smart long term play is to try to match peers on the football side.

 

[phil77]

So Carlson put that one out. He does pods with Brent and must not attend practice like Donna and Waters and is free to have open season. With some coaches that would get your access banned.

Yup no access upcoming for Carlson sucks to call it like you see it.

 

[SoBristol]

All these announcements from the athletic department is just them trying to have good PR. Actions speak louder than words.

I have to wonder what actions you want. SU needed to launch and will now need to sustain the campaign for more funding. They launched. Have to see how fans and donors respond. $$ donated will speak loudly. Come on down, donors!