Here's some extensive Cliff's Notes I had one of my Intel people write up...
Spurrier's Restaurant?
- Awesome facility
- Batesy's paintings showcasing all coaches that have won a National Championship in their sport
- SOS leaves a blank frame on the wall as motivation for future/current coaches to win one
Talking football and this critical yr-3 of CBN. What are your thoughts on the pgm and coach?
- Admitted frustration over our football record, going back to even before Billy arrived
- Set our jaw and get after it
- What are the things we can do so we get football back on track of winning championships
- He believes in CBN, his program, his approach and his foundational leadership
What made you think CBN was the guy, what made him stand out to you?
- 2 yrs into Louisiana, goes from .500 to 10 wins
- Background at Clemson (Dabo) & Bama (Saban)
- Getting attention at other SEC schools and turned down several opportunities
- Everybody had high opinions of him
- Has traits that a lot of successful leaders have
- He knows CBN is deliberate and even slow to fill empty slots but views that as a positive
- Admitted that they felt we needed to take a different approach w/the next coach because the roller coaster we've been on was painful and wasn't working in UF's desire to win Championships
- He was already familiar with CBN and kept an eye on him even before UF's coach search
- SS admits that he, too, gets frustrated w/kicking FGs when we could have gotten a TD but recognizes it's the little things that contribute to that outcome and being young is key among them.
- The Portal is challenging. Attrition is a given but now more than ever it's important to build and develop a core group of people... pointed to Michigan as the shining example.
Asked about the Portal opportunities vs HS recruiting for top recruits?
- UF was able to hold onto its top 2 5-star recruits
- Going after "high-end" guys on critical positions (ie QB w/Lagway)
- We're just now finding depth for key positions like the OL and DL. Bragged on our front-7
- Admitted that we're not playing good defense. CBN's ability to address/fill some of those spots was key
Changes are coming, CBN said this is a production-business, UF needs new coaches. So what is your opinion on his ability to fill holes?
- CBN is maniacal in how he evaluates things/coaches. Fans shouldn't worry that CBN isn't addressing these issues because he is
- He frequently meets with CBN and has had in depth conversations w/CBN re. coaches and CBN is always addressing this issue
- CBN is constantly looking at ways to make UF better (team and org)
NIL appears "broken" and it would be easier if schools could find a way to manage it. Do you think we'll ever be able to pay our own players?
- This is a very long topic/answer. NCAA is hesitant/slow to allow paying players but as soon as a viable method existed then everybody was all-in finding ways to make it happen.
- We're the only industry that has to make a sales pitch to get players/recruit. So we acknowledge that and we've addressed all criticisms
-- coaching salaries: we gave CBN a very large budget for coaches and feel like we've hired well
-- spending on facilities: we spent millions on facilities and now have some of the best in the league
-- support staff: we spent a large amount here, too, and have a great support staff that supports the players which ties back into recruiting
-- NIL: we have one of the largest NIL groups and its management is superb (pro-sports don't have this because the players are paid employees
- Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers may have chosen to go there for the money but it doesn't hurt that LA has one of the highest concentration of Asians of any market in this country. So he has great marketability and so that team can directly compensate that athlete. Yet the NCAA doesn't allow schools to do that. There's a lot of lawsuits going on that are attacking that prohibition and so the risk of being deposed, as someone that's responsible for a major athletic program, I don't want to say a lot about my opinion as to whether that should or shouldn't happen, but the fact that that doesn't happen and the fact that that there's a lot of interest in having these youth attend our university and represent us is why NIL has become this release valve in finding ways to give opportunities to these young people.
- Admittedly, it would be more efficient to give universities the ability to compensate players but current NCAA rules don't allow that so we've had to create independent entities to do that.
- Florida Victorious is that avenue, only has a few thousand contributors and is doing that job very well
Can you expand on your opinion that there is a need for players to have a say in the decision of college athletics, even if threatened with subpoena, to say why that's important?
- It is A solution. Quoted SCOTUS (Austin awards, Summer '21) the rule got challenged, the NCAA lost that in a lower court, that got appealed to the SC & the then the SC upheld the lower court, ruling 9-0 even in such a divided nation, yet they were 9-0, indicates how bad the NCAA appeal loss was. Even though 1 judge (Kavenaugh) wrote a concurring opinion stating that the NCAA arbitrarily sets limits on benefits that athletes can receive.
-- SS agrees w/there being a limit
-- Typically, the limits are in place to create parity and typically that's been a scholarship, as to what a school can provide and cost of attendance, etc. So basically, judge Kavenaugh is saying/questioning whether these arbitrary limits of a scholarship can withstand anti-trust laws in our country and in his opinion, there's only 3 ways the NCAA could get around these anti-trust laws & be in compliance:
1- Congress could step up and carve out exemptions for them
2- Wait for some of these court cases to work their way through to determine what the model is going to be moving fwd
3- The college athletics could collectively bargain with the athletes as to what the rules are going to be
- Fans often ask me, "Why can't we have a salary cap, or just pay them out of a salary cap like pro-sports?
-- Well, the NFL owners and commissioner's office have collectively bargained that salary cap w/the players association and reached an agreement to share the $$ so it's legal and doesn't violate anti-trust laws. And so every time the NCAA has created some rule, there's no entity representing the athletes, to give them a voice. UF has some committees but in general, there is none. So we listen to the voice of the player but I think there should be more.
- Some in Congress like Gator great Bilirakis is convincing Congress to codify college athletics, as we've all known it, is exempt from anti-trust laws. So we're
heading down 1 of 2 paths. We're either going to:
1- Let the courts make decision and rule on this
2- Come up w/a joint agreement to find a way to join the athletes and give them a voice. Thus a legitimate way/option/fairness option.
- Only 2 of 21 UF sports make a net-positive revenue (Football and Basketball) while the other 19 are funded by these 2. So paying athletes is tricky & that $$ has to come from somewhere. So, if the NCAA goes to allowing universities to pay players then a very large sum of money will have to be found and Title-IX will have to be addressed for gender equity. Pro-sports don't have to worry about that. The complexity of NIL is THE MOST COMPLEX LEGAL ISSUE IN OUR COUNTRY!
- America is the only nation that doesn't $$ support the Olympic players. Yet we can do that because of how college athletics and the NCAA machine supports it. (spends roughly $5B per year) The university system is, essentially, a built-in program that impacts university players, Olympic sports, pro-sports, and youth programs but is under attack.
Why did Scott Strickland want to "demolish the 90 yo swamp and build something somewhere else"?
- 2 big design studies in an effort to be inclusive and thorough, due diligence and responsible. We're going to take the existing stadium and restore the current parts, renovate where we can and add where we can to make this a venue that continues to serve the University for the next 50 years. BHG is older than any stadium in the NFL, one of the oldest in college athletics, only 2 MLB stadiums (Fenway & Rigley) are older than The Swamp. It is an iconic venue and so we have to be careful. I love what makes it unique and special (proximity of fans to sideline, how steep it is). The wing-walls are iconic and need to stay. But there are alot of challenges to bringing in 90K fans like safety and efficiency.
Issues for fans include ADA compliance (chair backs and hand rails) and any movement would restructure seating assignments. When asking for donations, how do you go about that and with NIL contributions plus Gator Boosters for new labs, etc?
- We'll need +$400M to do the stadium renovations
- Recognizes that BHG is "the most important structure on UF property" w/out even considering the football pgm
- The Q&As are not mutually exclusive but we have strength in numbers and doesn't doubt that we can't figure this out so that we don't cannibalize the football pgm.
Everbank field is being renovated so what is the plan for the FL vs Ga game?
- Plans are speculative as the Jags haven't decided when/where
- 2 special things re. that game:
1- tradition and border location
2- financially is better for the teams vs playing a home & home
- If that stadium becomes not-available then we'll sit down w/UGA and decide what makes sense for the both of us keeping in mind how much we enjoy the tradition, the revenue, and notoriety of that game.
Senator & President Ben Sasse. He appears to be passionate re. sports so what is your experience with him?
- Agrees that Sasse is competitive but he is also "the smartest guy in the room" and is brilliant watching how he's able to take everything in and handle it, get up to speed and wants to be involved and to win. He has pretty big goals for this University
What about the state of Florida athletics as a whole, what is your opinion?
- We want to win every championship and we look at how we bonus our coaches' pay for winning. We value the regular season and especially championships. We want to win National titles and have evidence that we're healthy and winning. Football drives so much of this conversation. We're doing well in every area and expect football to come along.
AD changes/rumors?
- This job is the best job in the country. The best location, facilities, I love being a Gator and have no interest in leaving
Basketball team & Coach Golden?
- It's important to win home games and road games are hard. The loss to KY was hard. We gotta do better and find a few wins but I believe we can be a dangerous team even though we're not as consistent as I'd like to be. Talked about specific players and capabilities.
Asked about baseball and our run last year?
- That was fun. Omaha is great. Talked about his fav memories from last year.
- Liam Peterson RH freshman pitcher
