dperry
Postdoc
Posts: 2215
Loc: Houston, TX
Reg: 11-24-04
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03-25-24 11:39 PM - Post#366461
In response to 13otto
I apologize for being the little black cloud here, but I think the only realistic long-term planning for Penn and the Ivies involves answering the question, "How are we going to succeed in Division II (or whatever the level we're going to be exiled to will be called)?" As you know, I've been thinking this was going to be coming for a long while anyway, but here's the clincher:
Portal Insanity
To fill in the story from other sources: guy who was the biggest recruit from Iowa and one of the best OT prospects in the country a year ago bailed on the Hawkeyes a week before signing day and went to Alabama instead, at least partially because the Tide made him a better NIL offer. He had an allegedly shaky freshman season (though still good enough to be all-freshman both in the SEC and nationally--imagine what he'd have done if he had been firing on all cylinders!), and then Saban hung it up, so he decided to transfer to Iowa in the spring. He spent two months on campus there, then over spring break decides to transfer back to Alabama--almost certainly due to getting a better NIL offer this time. The best part? He made at least a little NIL money from the Iowa collective which he does not have to pay back.
Now, as it is, the upper-echelon schools are already essentially in minor-league sports here, playing people to play, and even faster than I thought it would happen. The only reason they're even keeping the smallest fig-leaf of pretense that they're not paying them is because they're not quite ready to deal with things like worker's comp and collective bargaining yet. However, stuff like this is going to end their reluctance real quick. As it is, Iowa has to adopt the most God-awful boring defensive strategy to remain competitive in the Big 10. From now on, if they're shelling out the big bucks for players, they're going to want them under contract for four years, and they won't be the only ones. Therefore, pretty soon here, they're going to move to explicitly playing athletes to play, and there is absolutely no way the Ivies are ever going to do that. (This is even assuming they would allow us to stay at their level anyway, and the elimination of auto bids to the NIT and the noises about expanding the NCAA's don't bode well in that regard.) So, down to whatever the highest level of more-or-less amateur athletics we will go, at least for basketball. At this point, I give it ten years max.
David Perry
Penn '92
"Hail, Alma Mater/Thy sons cheer thee now
To thee, Pennsylvania/All rivals must bow!!!" |
Edited by dperry on 03-26-24 12:03 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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