Shoe Company Payola and Other Recruiting Shenanigans | Syracusefan.com

Shoe Company Payola and Other Recruiting Shenanigans

pfister1

2023-24 Iggy Winner ACC & OOC Record
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Ok I’m ready for an investigative journalist somewhere to peel the bandaid off the festering mess that is college recruiting and lay the whole unseemly world bare. Blow the fing lid off whatever it is.

I am tired of hearing hints here and there about bags, demands for bags, players driving vehicles owned by step Great Uncle-in laws twice removed and not really getting any credible tangible evidence of how much fire there is generating all of this smoke when it comes to free agency......I mean recruiting.

I find it really hard to believe that some of the recruiting battles being won and lost today and in recent years are being won and lost on an above board even playing field. If we are losing these battles because JB and Cuse simply aren’t as attractive a program and school as they used to be, I can live with that. But I am really tired of continually feeling like we’re simply being outspent for free agents.

I am also really tired on ESPN and it’s schtick covering college basketball as though it’s a level playing field and then doing everything in their power to instill Duke or Kentucky as America’s team each year. Most of all I’m sick of college basketball not really being college basketball anymore.

Maybe I just need a Zoloft prescription before conference play starts.
 
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I agree with most of this. But how can you fault Espn for covering duke and Kentucky as if they are favorites? Not sure what “america’s team” is, but these two teams should naturally and organically attract the most national attention owing to the number of high profile recruits they bring in, their expected performance, and their typical high rankings. If you’re a media conglomerate, it would be downright incompetent to ignore that. Look at duke this year. Zion is the social media king. And duke has the top three projected draft picks. How do you not cover that? You seem to be suggesting everyone else get ‘quota coverage’ and a participation trophy.

Yeah, I hope the system gets cleaned up but I have no faith in it. Like legalizing weed, society is trending toward the Laissez Faire.
 
Most of all I’m sick of college basketball not really being college basketball anymore.
You're far from alone.

But college basketball has little to do with college these days...at least if we take the word "college" to have an essential connection to education.
For major programs (and growing to include many more) it's a business fueled by TV, apparel and shoe company money.
The bell was rung, can't be unrung and won't be silenced.

I don't like living with the hypocrisy of it all.
But that's the way it is.
I've been an SU fan for too long.
Can't give it up the way I abandoned the wreck that Major League Baseball has become.

So, I'm embarrassed when SU gets into trouble and stunned when a place like UNC walks for doing much worse.
But that's where we are.
And it's hard to see how it gets better.

So, I shake my head and say "Go Orange."
 
I agree with most of this. But how can you fault Espn for covering duke and Kentucky as if they are favorites? Not sure what “america’s team” is, but these two teams should naturally and organically attract the most national attention owing to the number of high profile recruits they bring in, their expected performance, and their typical high rankings. If you’re a media conglomerate, it would be downright incompetent to ignore that. Look at duke this year. Zion is the social media king. And duke has the top three projected draft picks. How do you not cover that? You seem to be suggesting everyone else get ‘quota coverage’ and a participation trophy.

Yeah, I hope the system gets cleaned up but I have no faith in it. Like legalizing weed, society is trending toward the Laissez Faire.

My gripe is not with ESPN giving Duke and Kentucky their due. It’s with ordaining them as basketball royalty every year and packaging them for national consumption. Don’t you think that that coverage plays a huge role in why they have separated themselves from most everyone else on the recruiting front? I’m talking about the ad campaigns featuring K, the special coverage shows, broadcasting non competitive matchups etc. ESPN is creating the content and picking winners rather than covering the competition.
 
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My gripe is not with ESPN giving Duke and Kentucky their due. It’s with ordaining them as basketball royalty every year and packaging them for national consumption. Don’t you think that that coverage plays a huge role in why they have separated themselves from most everyone else on the recruiting front? I’m talking about the ad campaigns featuring K, the special coverage shows, broadcasting non competitive matchups etc. ESPN is creating the content and picking winners rather than covering the competition.
I don't know what you mean by "ordaining them." They obviously talk about that which is at the top of the 'industry,' like any other media device. "Royalty?" I dunno. They kinda 'are,' if there's any such thing. We like to think Syracuse is an "elite" program historically. What's the difference?

I do, absolutely, agree with you about having a problem with ad campaigns featuring a school. I ranted about the Duke/Lebron commercial last year ad infinitum. An unfair advantage. But, that's not ESPN. That's Nike, and apparently, it's legal and within NCAA rules. I think that should be changed, but your fight is with the NCAA, not ESPN for airing the ad. ESPN airs what makes ESPN money. Period. And when a premier program struggles, they talk about it a lot, too. The higher they fly, the farther they fall. It's just a fact that no one wants to hear about Gonzaga or Buffalo. They don't have 'name brand' players, or an exciting history. It takes a lot of time and consistent results to build the latter. ESPN doesn't invest in that. It just capitalizes on it.

Your argument sorta reminds me of the 'gangster rap' argument from the late 80s. The media was saying hiphop encouraged gang violence. Rappers were saying they were just reflections of their environments. You're saying ESPN creates the imbalance. The argument can be made that ESPN just reflects/exploits it.
 
Ok I’m ready for an investigative journalist somewhere to peel the bandaid off the festering mess that is college recruiting and lay the whole unseemly world bare. Blow the fing lid off whatever it is.

I am tired of hearing hints here and there about bags, demands for bags, players driving vehicles owned by step Great Uncle-in laws twice removed and not really getting any credible tangible evidence of how much fire there is generating all of this smoke when it comes to free agency...I mean recruiting.

I find it really hard to believe that some of the recruiting battles being won and lost today and in recent years are being won and lost on an above board even playing field. If we are losing these battles because JB and Cuse simply aren’t as attractive a program and school as they used to be, I can live with that. But I am really tired of continually feeling like we’re simply being outspent for free agents.

I am also really tired on ESPN and it’s schtick covering college basketball as though it’s a level playing field and then doing everything in their power to instill Duke or Kentucky as America’s team each year. Most of all I’m sick of college basketball not really being college basketball anymore.

Maybe I just need a Zoloft prescription before conference play starts.

You have no idea if we aren’t participating in this pay for play system.. you seem to assume as much simply because we lose our fair share of recruiting battles .. we win some too ..maybe top recruiters don’t want to stand around in a zone for half their college career playing a defense that does next to nothing in preparing them for the next level .. maybe they don’t want to play in an offense where the ball gets pounded for 25 seconds before a last second shot is heaved towards the rim.. or maybe you’re right and we just don’t pay enough .. fact is none of us knows ..
 
You have no idea if we aren’t participating in this pay for play system.. you seem to assume as much simply because we lose our fair share of recruiting battles .. we win some too ..maybe top recruiters don’t want to stand around in a zone for half their college career playing a defense that does next to nothing in preparing them for the next level .. maybe they don’t want to play in an offense where the ball gets pounded for 25 seconds before a last second shot is heaved towards the rim.. or maybe you’re right and we just don’t pay enough .. fact is none of us knows ..

I never said that we aren't participating and I don't assume anything except that if we are participating, we haven't been participating well. If you read my post, the point wasn't woe is us we are getting screwed. The point is that I want to know the truth about what is going on in recruiting, so I can know once and for all whether we aren't winning the battles because our program has lost its allure or because there is rampant cheating going on and we aren't participating to the right degree.

And I guess another part of my gripe is that whatever it is that is going on hasn't been exposed. I find it hard to believe that an investigative reporter couldn't take the list of top 25 recruits from each of the last 10 years and approach them all, and their handlers, and find a few that are willing to talk about the offers that they received, if in fact they received something more than a scholarship offer. I also find it hard to believe that the press hasn't done a better job of uncovering what the feds think they have on the Addidas and Nike guys and the coaches associated with the shoe companies. Most assume they have a lot more than has come out to this point.....do they...is there more?
 
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Ok I’m ready for an investigative journalist somewhere to peel the bandaid off the festering mess that is college recruiting and lay the whole unseemly world bare. Blow the fing lid off whatever it is.

I am tired of hearing hints here and there about bags, demands for bags, players driving vehicles owned by step Great Uncle-in laws twice removed and not really getting any credible tangible evidence of how much fire there is generating all of this smoke when it comes to free agency...I mean recruiting.

I find it really hard to believe that some of the recruiting battles being won and lost today and in recent years are being won and lost on an above board even playing field. If we are losing these battles because JB and Cuse simply aren’t as attractive a program and school as they used to be, I can live with that. But I am really tired of continually feeling like we’re simply being outspent for free agents.

I am also really tired on ESPN and it’s schtick covering college basketball as though it’s a level playing field and then doing everything in their power to instill Duke or Kentucky as America’s team each year. Most of all I’m sick of college basketball not really being college basketball anymore.

Maybe I just need a Zoloft prescription before conference play starts.
NBA money ruined college basketball. It's turned into a game of mercenaries where all the really good players only play 1 year. They form no relationship with the fan bases and vice versa. They all go to the same 4-6 elite schools anointed by ESPN. Players who are not highly rated coming out of HS and stay 4 years are looked down upon by the media. It's just not the same game it used to be.
 
My gripe is not with ESPN giving Duke and Kentucky their due. It’s with ordaining them as basketball royalty every year and packaging them for national consumption. Don’t you think that that coverage plays a huge role in why they have separated themselves from most everyone else on the recruiting front? I’m talking about the ad campaigns featuring K, the special coverage shows, broadcasting non competitive matchups etc. ESPN is creating the content and picking winners rather than covering the competition.

Espn has been doing this awhile. Its a natural conflict when it purchases broadcast rights. I always find it interesting that for golf, if espn has the rights to the tournament its front page news, but when espn doesnt, they dont even cover the event.
 
For every thread on this board claiming a ‘bag’ or payment to a player when we lose a recruit to a Duke or UK, there is a similar thread on a Providence or BC message board making the same claims about SU when they lose a recruit to us.

Enough people have been caught over the years that we all know stuff is happening, but the true extent of cheating is highly guarded, because everyone involved has their own skin to protect. The NCAA, the university, the players... they all have reasons not spill the beans. Even when people do get caught, the ‘agreed upon’ disclosures between the NCAA and the offending university rarely tell the full story. It’s not in either party’s best interest to show the true extent of cheating, so the public disclosure is often ‘softened’ to give the impression that it’s not the wild Wild West out there. Even players are hesitant to talk because of fears of ramification when it comes to professional draft position/contract negotiation, etc.

Recruiting is a complicated, messy business. There are no angels and demons. Just demons and bigger demons.
 
I'm less concerned with uncovering the extent to which money plays a role and more concerned with the rules themselves. I'd like to see the NCAA create separate divisions for football (mostly Power 5 schools with a few others that are capable of competing) and basketball (Power 5 schools and other conferences on the level of the Big East or American) with different rules. Players would be free to sign agents and get endorsements and there would be fewer restrictions on practice time, transfers etc.
 
Ok I’m ready for an investigative journalist somewhere to peel the bandaid off the festering mess that is college recruiting and lay the whole unseemly world bare. Blow the fing lid off whatever it is.

I am tired of hearing hints here and there about bags, demands for bags, players driving vehicles owned by step Great Uncle-in laws twice removed and not really getting any credible tangible evidence of how much fire there is generating all of this smoke when it comes to free agency...I mean recruiting.

I find it really hard to believe that some of the recruiting battles being won and lost today and in recent years are being won and lost on an above board even playing field. If we are losing these battles because JB and Cuse simply aren’t as attractive a program and school as they used to be, I can live with that. But I am really tired of continually feeling like we’re simply being outspent for free agents.

I am also really tired on ESPN and it’s schtick covering college basketball as though it’s a level playing field and then doing everything in their power to instill Duke or Kentucky as America’s team each year. Most of all I’m sick of college basketball not really being college basketball anymore.

Maybe I just need a Zoloft prescription before conference play starts.


You better start that investigation well before college. It’s naive to not do so. Check out AAU, some high schools - many of the star players have contact with agents or runners in middle school or early high school. Shoe contracts don’t start in college, they start in high school, AAU, prep schools. Many of the best are beholden to someone before getting near college.
 

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