Cade Mays looking for an NIL deal that would pay him “third or fourth round money”.

[wmcovol]

Schools/NIL shouldn’t be competing with NFL salary money. To even expect that is insane.

 

[TrumpedUpVol]

If you are loaded and just want the best players on your team, have no one to answer to (like bosses / shareholders) then sling that cash.

And, similar to a business wanting ROI on their investment, any individual throwing money at recruits/roster players to make Tennessee more enticing expects something in return as well. Money buying influence hasn't worked too wonderfully in the past for UT, so I'm a little leery of the fallout when Mr. X shells out $3.5mm across a handful of players and then feels as if it's his right to be part of high-level discussions and decision making going forward.

 

[Raebo]

Cade is doing the right thing for him. He knows what he is risking if he comes back another year. Saying that,I will be surprised if he gets that kind of deal from a business. I don’t think a rookie NFL 3rd round draft choice makes that kind of indorsement money.

 

[WestTennesseeVol]

Funny enough, we as a fan base have been whining for over a decade about hiring “bargain basement” coaches, while gnashing teeth over huge buyouts for the previous bargain basement staff that was fired. Rinse, repeat every 3 years.

When the new google coach is trotted out……

Half Volnation: “Why don’t we hire a big name?”

Other half: “Where is the money coming from big boy? Pony up! You going to pay the contracts and buyouts?”

Also Volnation: “Pay the pretty decent OL guy 600,000 to hang around another year!”

Looney tunes……

Another fine example of double standards between coaches and players. Butch Jones gets paid millions of dollars for being terrible at his job, but a player getting paid to do local advertisements is “ruining college football.”

 

[s1216]

I think there is a bit of telephone game going on here. Cade didn't demand anything from anyone. I hear him saying that NIL might make it easier for him to wait another year. And for those of you that are doubting his ability or potential contribution to this team what are you smoking?

 

[golfballs]

Who knows the context/tone. May have been a little tongue in cheek. Certainly he cant actually be expecting that much from an NIL deal. I’d think the most realistic one is a small NIL deal and the ability to potentially improve his stock.

 

[Sudden Impact]

This is a situation where NIL gets really interesting and an angle I hadn't considered. Big opportunity here for universities to hang on to studs for an extra season. I think the big guys should pony up 3-400k and he will stay to be with his bro for a year.

Get your check book out and pay it....

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

Word on the street is...Danny White doesn't have full support from the "money men" who are still loyal to Fulmer. This is impeding progress on the NIL front and has TN behind its peers. I have no idea if there's an ounce of truth, just something I've read a couple different places.

 

[GoVols64]

I think he is delusional and he better start prepping for the NFL, and hope he gets 3-4 round money there.

Trey Smith gets paid 6th round money as a starter in the NFL.

If someone pays Cade anywhere near what he is hoping for, things have gone off the rails worse than I could have imagined.

The goal for mid round picks, in order:
1. Be in the league long enough to sign a second contract.
2. Play well enough on your Rookie Deal to get paid on your second contract.

 

[wmcovol]

I think there is a bit of telephone game going on here. Cade didn't demand anything from anyone. I hear him saying that NIL might make it easier for him to wait another year. And for those of you that are doubting his ability or potential contribution to this team what are you smoking?

No one is ridiculing Cades play. He had a great year. Saying he isn’t worth 20% of the NIL pool isn’t saying he’s not a great player.

 

[ArmchairQB]

If you've got a choice between making 700k to play in college, and 700k to play in the NFL, go to the NFL. I imagine you can buy disability insurance and protect that NFL contract and future earnings, and other stuff that just doesn't apply to someone giving you NIL money. If the simple dollar amount is a wash, the NFL's the smart play. But if you want to stick around and have one more year of college, by all means play that card and collect a bit of a check on the way to your last year.

 

[stillavol]

Legal extortion lol. I will stay if you pay me enough. First a dawg, then a Vol, now a NIL'er. So much for loyalty to your school.

 

[Vol8188]

I’m shocked if he’s really getting a 3rd or 4th round grade

 

[DuckinVol]

You realize you’re promoting a RT to be paid almost as much as Saban claims their Heisman winning QB got who, BTW, is from California? Economically, this just doesn’t make sense. Cade probably knows that and he can say “ money is why I’m leaving”. His father is in financial planning & I suspect he knows this isn’t feasible. If Tennessee has a $5 mil NIL pool, they can’t spend almost 20% on a RT. Sorry

Not promoting anything, and, as a marketing guy, I just don't see the majority of the bigger NIL deals providing a worthwhile ROI. That was never my point. Some schools, and their boosters, will figure out how to make the money work. Others will languish.

 

[GoVols64]

Man, I'm with a lot of folks in this thread who hate the way this thing is going, but gotta face the reality that it IS going this way.*

And given that, this is a whole new dynamic: college coaches overtly balancing $$$ value in their metrics. Is this young man worth paying X for, or can I get his equivalent for less than X in other places?




* I do not agree that "NIL is going to be the end of college football." College football will survive--thrive, even, as long as we continue to have this much free time and spare wealth to throw at a hobby. It just won't be the SAME college football as it was in its first 120 years.


p.s. I do think Cade's marketing ploy makes sense. Just maybe not for him. This is the kind of once-a-year (at most) approach only the team's franchise player can get away with. This year, Hendon would've been able to get away with it. Cade isn't at that level. He's a very good offensive lineman, and offensive linemen are important. But he's not the franchise player. And won't get nearly what he's jotting down as his opening position. He probably knows that going in, is just starting high-side.

p.p.s. I just surprised myself, using the term 'franchise player.' I mean, that's what it feels like, right? The guy we build our franchise around. But then, thinking it through, the fit to college football is so tenuous. By the time we know a fella is the one we build the franchise around, he's probably a junior or maybe even a senior, probably only has one, maybe two more years of eligibility. So we're not building the franchise's future around him the way they do in the pros, just the next season (or maybe two seasons). It's all very ephemeral for such big $$ numbers. *shrug* It's a new world.

p.p.p.s. All that begs the question: will college teams gain the ability (eventually, I mean...the time and landscape certainly aren't yet ripe for this discussion) to declare a franchise player and protect them from being poached? Say, perhaps, that the transfer portal is closed for the declared player? Something akin to what the NFL has put in place? I know, I know, some big obstacles to that in college football, particularly at this point in time when the protections are all being extended in the players' direction. But something that could come up one day, once the college game is more maturely professionalized.

To “protect” a player from the portal they would need to have a contract that both parties agreed to. That is an entirely new Pandora’s Box that may happen but this thing is going to flesh out over the few years before it goes that way.

I don’t see how they can still be amateurs with a contract at their University but it COULD be written into an NIL deal. Something where you would owe the company $ if you transferred.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Word on the street is...Danny White doesn't have full support from the "money men" who are still loyal to Fulmer. This is impeding progress on the NIL front and has TN behind its peers. I have no idea if there's an ounce of truth, just something I've read a couple different places.

I think you're just making this up. I think there's not an ounce of truth to it. Just something you invented to pursue whatever weird angle you've got going re: White and Fulmer.

And the sad thing is, now that you've put the idea into the "public consciousness" of volnation, it will stick in some places (in some of our memories), and a year or two from now, some poor innocent schmuck will post, "I think I remember reading somewhere that Fulmer was blocking Dan White from making NIL deals." And a couple of other people will say, "oh yeah, I remember hearing about that, too. don't remember where from, but yeah." Your ridiculousness will have borne fruit.

Prove me wrong. Give us a link to just one of the "couple different places" you say you've read it. Otherwise, you're just a disease on volnation.

 

[CMcEver]

Can't these players just look around for small endorsement deals that add up to large numbers? Doesn't need 600k from 1 source. Also, I wonder how much money players will be making next year since NCAA '23 video game is coming back?

 

[lukeneyland]

Come on you Haslam’s do something good for once

 

[Voldawg1970]

3-400k for an above avg lineman that was hurt for several games???? Man, come on.... Let him go. His brother has more heart. If he only had the extra size.....

 

[davethevol]

Word on the street is...Danny White doesn't have full support from the "money men" who are still loyal to Fulmer. This is impeding progress on the NIL front and has TN behind its peers. I have no idea if there's an ounce of truth, just something I've read a couple different places.

I don’t think Fulmer has many supporters left at this point. No one in their right mind would say he did a good job as AD.

 

[rocky top buzz]

Only significant difference between 4th & 6th round money is the signing bonus.

I don’t think Cade is worth that. I’d rather spread that NIL money out among more guys. JMO

That's not how this works. Neither you nor UT controls NIL money. There is no "spreading it around"

 

[Bigorange123]

Seems the vibe is

 

[irish1485]

There’s needs a be a cap limit per year on NIL. Let’s say you put a cap on it if about $75,000 a year. If you go over that cap then you are ineligible and amateur status is gone. If these players want high deals like NFL players then the schools should be able to
Pay them and let the players pay for there own schooling and room and board then. These players should be made to pay taxes in earned income like anyone else does for whatever the tax rate is for that state.

Everybody loves capitalism until it comes to college athletes. Why should there be a cap on what they can earn? At P5 schools football generates more than $4 BILLION per year, it's about time they got their share.

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

Prove me wrong. Give us a link to just one of the "couple different places" you say you've read it. Otherwise, you're just a disease on volnation.

You obviously don't listen to Tony Basilio. I admit he's not well thought of around here. He says we've already lost basketball recruits because of the weak NIL program. I hope you are right that there is nothing to be concerned about.

 

[VolMarine1371]

Everybody loves capitalism until it comes to college athletes. Why should there be a cap on what they can earn? At P5 schools football generates more than $4 BILLION per year, it's about time they got their share.

I agree kids should be paid for there services just like anyone else does. I also believe they should pay there fair share also. The education they are getting isn’t free and at some places are $100K+ plus a year. I am also for parity and competition. And we aren’t just talking about Power 5 schools. We are talking about uneven playing fields across all division in sports. School in Texas like aTm and Texas have more money than anyone due to where they are located and if they are Abel to buy everyone up then the 85 scholarship limit is pointless. We will start seeing top prospects taking NIL deals to cover schooling when schools run out of money and now you got top rated recruits walking on. Once they get paid they are employees of that company and should have to pay taxes for whatever the tax rate is for that location. I get paid for my services for the work I do for my company and I have to pay for my house and cost of living. So why shouldn’t they have to pay for there Housing, food, and education. Nothing is free and someone gonna end up paying for it.