Good point. Erik Sowinski ran 1:45 again this week for millionth time but has to support himself by pacing a race every other week. We can't find sponsors willing to pay world class runners $50k per year but some people think that people will be okay with sponsoring a 10.2 guy or a 13:50 guy. They hired Carlson thinking that he can magically recruit due to his former success but that just won't work.
A month ago I wouldn't have taken a phone call from UT for my kid. Since they've hired Ross and Carlson, I think they would be a top five choice.
The difference? They aren't BAS.
They will be fine recruiting top athletes.
So the difference is what exactly? That you’re a sexist manbearpig?
UT’s men have finished 9th, 11th, 3rd, and 3rd at their last 4 NCAAs. You don’t want your kid to be successful? You’d rather your kid run for a drug cheat and have all their performances put under a microscope by half of the track world? I was recruited by Carlson a few years ago and his high-ego bully tactics were displeasing. I really wanted to go to ND - I was a legacy. But, maybe those things fit you…
A month ago I wouldn't have taken a phone call from UT for my kid. Since they've hired Ross and Carlson, I think they would be a top five choice.
The difference? They aren't BAS.
They will be fine recruiting top athletes.
So the difference is what exactly? That you’re a sexist manbearpig?
UT’s men have finished 9th, 11th, 3rd, and 3rd at their last 4 NCAAs. You don’t want your kid to be successful? You’d rather your kid run for a drug cheat and have all their performances put under a microscope by half of the track world? I was recruited by Carlson a few years ago and his high-ego bully tactics were displeasing. I really wanted to go to ND - I was a legacy. But, maybe those things fit you…
Let me clarify ...cross country and distance. They've been nothing special.
BAS was toxic from the time she stepped on campus.
And if you were good enough to go to Notre Dame, you would have gone to Notre Dame.
All of you guys keep bringing up the desparity of academics between the two school. I'm sure Tennessee is not half as bad as you all make it out, but why does it matter?
He is a good recruiter; he is just going to have to change his angle. Not that hard. You sell the athlete on athletic success and support. School is just a side hustle for more Alston aid in the SEC. Exploit what you have. I'm sure he'll figure it out...he upped NDs recruitment he can do the same elsewhere.
I do think he will either need scholarships or NIL rules need to change long term, in order to be successful. He is going to need to recruit world wide and not just the US at Tennessee. Right now, international athletes can't get NIL.
My son declined an offer from ND to attend our state school. The cost of ND would have been about $60k while our state school is free. We have the money saved so we jointly decided that starting life with 1/4 million $ is better than a ND degree. ND is a great school and he would have chosen it if it had been under $30k.
Tennessee is a solid school. Average ACT is 27 and the school is well known. But he will not be successful because they won't sacrifice their great track team in order to have a better than average cross country team.
Like most schools, it depends what kind of degree you get. You can get a useless degree from Notre Dame and be much worse off after college compared to a useful degree from Tenn. it’s not necessarily the school, it’s what you do.
This is correct especially since the donor can sponsor whatever athlete they want directly. Why give any of it to any other sport than the one you want to support???
I'm sure there are a few donors at some school who are wealthy who will want to support track or XC so some schools will be able to take advantage of this but the ultimate result will be minor sports being reduced to club team status at most school.
It could be just a thing you have to do and people will end up being ok with it… at Gonzaga you need to buy season tickets to women’s basketball to have the privilege of buying season tickets to men’s they have both been sold out for days!
Different situation... you can't buy season tickets without the donation... for NIL there is nothing stopping the donor from going directly to the athlete...
The real move will be move the scholarships to xc (since we can all agree no one cares) and then find sprinters and other mega star field athletes with nil money (obviously this only works or they can really just funnel money to any athletes they want) but if possible people would be much happier paying the 100m and 4x100m champ over the 10k/xc champ!
Are you guys familiar with sport of track and field? Have you seen how much trouble it is to get sponsorship for sprinters outside of the top 3-4 in the US? Who are these boosters in Knoxville who you think are excited to pay sprinters?
UT is punch-drunk on NIL right now after buying a few football recruits. We'll see how this all looks in a year or two.
I can imagine a guy like Phil Knight be willing to drop 500k to make sure his favorite XC program gets all the recruits they need. You could easily end up with 3-4 powerhouse programs and then everyone else.
Sure, tell yourself a UTenn degree is going to open doors ... The point is, it will be more difficult for someone recruiting with the pull of academics, Jesus, whatever gets kids in the door can do the same with UTenn. But he's an experienced coach so I'm sure he'll make it work.
An out of state kid running a 1:57 and a 4:20 with no flex in Cross Country will not get you a spot on a team like Notre Dame or Tennessee, especially now.
Liberty and other mid majors will take that, but not a school with roster limits due to track brilliance such as UT. Let’s not pin this on Tennessee or BAS.
Are you guys familiar with sport of track and field? Have you seen how much trouble it is to get sponsorship for sprinters outside of the top 3-4 in the US? Who are these boosters in Knoxville who you think are excited to pay sprinters?
UT is punch-drunk on NIL right now after buying a few football recruits. We'll see how this all looks in a year or two.
I can imagine a guy like Phil Knight be willing to drop 500k to make sure his favorite XC program gets all the recruits they need. You could easily end up with 3-4 powerhouse programs and then everyone else.
And I doubt anybody this is sustainable.
PK doesn't seem to want to go this route. What is going to happen is teams are going to poach other teams superstars with cash offers and the transfer portal. If you only have a bit of money to buy a track team, it doesn't make sense to waste time and scholarships on HS kids who may not pan out. Tennessee can't win in this dirty game against the Texas schools.
I can imagine a guy like Phil Knight be willing to drop 500k to make sure his favorite XC program gets all the recruits they need. You could easily end up with 3-4 powerhouse programs and then everyone else.
And I doubt anybody this is sustainable.
PK doesn't seem to want to go this route. What is going to happen is teams are going to poach other teams superstars with cash offers and the transfer portal. If you only have a bit of money to buy a track team, it doesn't make sense to waste time and scholarships on HS kids who may not pan out. Tennessee can't win in this dirty game against the Texas schools.
Just a random example. Most sports have a couple of stupid rich guys who ar
PK doesn't seem to want to go this route. What is going to happen is teams are going to poach other teams superstars with cash offers and the transfer portal. If you only have a bit of money to buy a track team, it doesn't make sense to waste time and scholarships on HS kids who may not pan out. Tennessee can't win in this dirty game against the Texas schools.
Just a random example. Most sports have a couple of stupid rich guys who ar
E fans. Remember that crazy wrestler guy?
And yeah the way to play this is to skip HS kids and go for the ones that have proven they can perform. You probably could outbid Nike for a guy like Hocker since like 18pts at the NCAA level is worth more than a final.🤣 Bring in 10 guys every year who have post top 5 type performances and hope they perform.
And this is even easier in XC. Finding that guy who can be top 3 is tough. Find guys who can be top 25 in XC is a lot easier. Bring in 7 of them and 5 will have ok races and you are podiuming every year. And every decade things will line up and you will get the low sticks to win.
Granted I have never understood the schools that bring in 2 Kenyans. If you aren't bringing in 5, what's the point 😁
How so? Every school has 12.6 regardless if the are Tennessee or Notre Dame or SW Nothing State U. And Tennessee puts most into sprints and throws which doesn't leave many for distance.
The throws coach got fired. Newell was probably one of the best in the country and they fired him so I’m guessing they’re not going to care much about throws anymore.
Solid state school? Nope. Either you're going there for athletics or you have a 2.0 GPA.
Not to mention the out of state tuition, fees, and R&B at around $50k. Combined with a really weak local recruiting base, this seems like a pipe dream for UT.
Jake Renfree went to Notre Dame from Knoxville. Knoxville isn’t some hotbed of recruiting but it’s not as bad as people are making it out to be. Tennessee has enough talent to be good with in state recruits if they know they have a coach who actually knows how to improve them like Carlson compared to the former lady.
The plan is to fund XC/distance with NIL money, so no scholarships.
That's not NIL, that's pay to play.
The game UT is playing with sports where they are trying to become a top notch athletic department by running the booster bagmen through the AD seems unsustainable to me. The idea that boosters are going to let them spend their money on XC runners while the football loses recruits and games to SEC rivals seems unlikely, to say the least.
The Haslam’s are worth almost 10 billion dollars. I don’t think they’ll think much about funding 25K each for 5 distance runners if it means they get top recruits. What is 125K to a family worth 10 billion dollars who loves the University and it’s athletics?
not necessarily true. recruiting shouldn’t be too hard
solid state school, top notch facilities, great overall history, and a phenomenal team
Solid state school? Nope. Either you're going there for athletics or you have a 2.0 GPA.
This just sounds like douchey elitism. There are plenty of great state schools, and plenty of great students who come out of them. Not everybody has 300K to drop on a private school education (Ivy, ND, Stanford). It’s about what you do with it. Sure, Notre Dame is a better school than Tennessee but you’re acting like everybody who goes there is stupid. If a cross country person wants to go to Tennessee and applies themselves and makes great grades they will be fine. Life is 98% who you know anyway, and while Tennessee doesn’t have the connections of an Ivy, it’s not like it’s a podunk university with 300 kids in the backwoods. I went to Tennessee and I manage multiple former Ivy Leaguers at a financial firm and I’m substantially younger than them. There’s no need to be a douche on here about public schools. Elitism is a bad look.
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