Nothing new in four days

Before NIL, there was a thing called a bribe. All the Oregon kids who committed to UO over OSU in the last 20 years? Even the kids who had OSU and Oregon in their final Top 5. People are in a huge level of denial here. Wow.

If your talking about Sabrina's brother, he was a garbage player and his name is spelled Eddy.  

That has nothing to do with your claim that uo has the largest NIL payroll for football and MBB.  

Ummm. OK. Duly noted.
FB and MBB will be challenging going forward. I don't think anyone is denying that.

You drug other sports into the conversation, and I don't think the comparison (for the majority of athletes...let's say 95%+...) is as pronounced as you are portraying it to be. I'm open to a dialogue, but using 1 example that is not even in the NIL era seems weak. Which OSU athlete(non FB/MBB)...that played on an OSU team for a year or more...has left for a bag of money?

Lucas says he is getting a lot more money in Nevada. I don't remember reading anything about Taylor saying money is the reason he changed his mind on OSU but, really, do you think he developed a Mets fetish? As a guess, until we increase our payroll to about $1M/year, it's going to be difficult to get out of the bottom of the old PAC. I'm guessing we will have to increase our commitment to even be consistently in the top half of the WCC.

Don't forget Warren who really blossomed under different coaching. There have been multiple seasons where players rumors, coaching statements, and even some player comments that show the locker room atmosphere has not been the best. It began way back with the supposed "special treatment" given coaches' sons. I know it was an issue in some players leaving. But the exodus after a E8 shows there is something amiss more than just x's & o's.

And, as in most programs the "issues" are generally never just one thing. The first, thing that caught my attention was the lack of buy in to other top tier recruits when other 4/5* players were interested/signed. Although coaches' sons, kids of that type usually have some influence/pull on other elite players. Those signings and couple seasons of play really drew no significant interest even after tw0 19 win seasons and a tourney berth. That to me was the beginning of wondering about the future with Wayne. The rest has played out as feared... poor recruiting... poor schemes (mainly on offense), poor locker room atmosphere, and overall inconsistency.

I'll never say I'd know what would have happened, but one has to wonder if the GAG era hadn't of happened would WT be here. Getting football on track was the #1 priority by far. Even though MBB was limping along it took a seat far in the rear, right or wrong. The E8 gave the AD hope the wait paid off before they were forced to fix the issue. The mistake was the extension... WT was going no where. And, if he did, the program had the bodies (before the exodus was known) and recent success to draw decent applicants.

Anyway... in a repeat of sorts, the football program is again the #1 priority for the next couple years. But this time I'm not seeing anything close to an E8 type run, nor a similar national situation where it happened. If this season continues downhill I do not envy Barnes. He'll be in a tough situation as OSU really can't afford $8.7 million to buy out. But, they also can't afford to pay $8.7 million over 3 years for a "WCC" coach.

And you really think the numbers thrown out on here or a=other rumor sites are fact? More than OSU means over $5k. And as Nevada's AD stated in an article that I posted quotes, similar to Kansas, they have NO 6 figure NIL deals. That 80%+ are merch deals that people turn into $ amounts. Nevada's NIL is almost 70% toward football. 

That said... do you think either player leaves if they are in a highly successful program? St John's had the pull of a new staff and great tradition. Nevada MBB has been far more successful and give Lucas postseason opportunities with a much better coach/staff. But, the question remains... IF WT did not have such a poor overall program would they have been as apt to leave? 

Folks seem to think it is "only" NIL... when some players just want more PT. Others like the two you mention have the PT, but maybe they also want to be in a better program and gain some $. Maybe???