I want to quibble with this statement. Auburn has an informal salary cap, and therefore can't chase after every 5 star looking for a big NIL bag. So if Henderson is playing the game and trying to work himself into a bidding war, Hugh may decide he's too expensive. Is he worth a scholarship? Sure. Is he worth 7% of your NIL budget? No.

There's going to be a lot of business decisions going forward by coaches and players. The team that wins is either one with an incredibly high cap, or one that finds a lot of value in their recruiting classes. Finding value isn't sexy in terms of recruiting stars, so we may need to adjust our off season expectations.

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Posted by trinidadtiger

Member since Jun 2017

13528 posts

Posted on 2/20/24 at 1:15 pm to AUgryphon

Thanks gryphon well said.

And its how you spend in that budget. Back when the kids accepted, lets say Coleman and Thompson were offered 10 bucks, similar ranking at the time so fair (you know they talked). Williams we offer 15, they would be cool with that, at the time they are ranked below him. Then you get bama being all emotional because they have lost a few to us, and they lose Saban, and their key recruit is wavering so they offer 25.

Even if the boosters offered a one off, I bet you Freeze said no because its not just the two aforementioned receivers, but the total roster's NIL would be flipped on its head and you would have 50 guys wanting double, or all entering the portal after the season. Besides the fact they would think you had more juice all along and screwed them, which would do wonders for the locker room for the season you did have them.

Never ever let emotions get involved in the business, and always have a walking away price and stick to it, cause you know a "generational talent" happens about three times a year given how that phrase is overused