Blaine Brown

[rockytop25]

 

[TechnoVol]

 

[VolGirl81]

Interesting that Rice fired their coach mid season, should play into this situation, imo.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Interesting that Rice fired their coach mid season, should play into this situation, imo.

Having lived in the area for a couple of generations, i always kind of followed Rice. Would hate to see Blaine lose focus on some bs legal issue, whether a legitimate suit or not. I actually taught a class there one time for ASM.

 

[preacherman20]

That little issue could be big financially. He could have to pay back entire NIL with interest.

 

[chuckiepoo]

That little issue could be big financially. He could have to pay back entire NIL with interest.

Unfortunately, that brief was filed in Houston, I’d assume. Not that where it was filed will matter…

 

[WallyBalls]

His side said they're willing to repay the 29k, but it sounds like the collective wouldn't accept that and took it to arbitration...

Odd.

 

[preacherman20]

I'm guessing there was more to it. There had to be a clause in there that said something big. I know there is in our guys' NIL deals and most of them and their parents don't read them. I made them rewrite Kirby's his final year with a lot of help from a friend. There was some very damaging verbage that could be used to make a player pay back a large amount with other repercussions. I get it but not with my child and I don't think most players or their parents read them. They just see the amount and sign it.

 

[knoxvol52]

Always read the fine print baby.....

 

[WallyBalls]

I'm guessing there was more to it. There had to be a clause in there that said something big. I know there is in our guys' NIL deals and most of them and their parents don't read them. I made them rewrite Kirby's his final year with a lot of help from a friend. There was some very damaging verbage that could be used to make a player pay back a large amount with other repercussions. I get it but not with my child and I don't think most players or their parents read them. They just see the amount and sign it.

That makes a lot of sense. I could see something where the deal says you owe us the full value regardless of what is paid out.

I would think the arbitrator would meet somewhere much more in the middle, but that's never a guarantee with those guys.

 

[Bigvalley84]

I’m sure it’s gonna cost him some money but hopefully the courts can come up with a reasonable settlement , sounds like their trying to cash in on his UT NIL deals .

 

[@1RBFjr]

I'm guessing there was more to it. There had to be a clause in there that said something big. I know there is in our guys' NIL deals and most of them and their parents don't read them. I made them rewrite Kirby's his final year with a lot of help from a friend. There was some very damaging verbage that could be used to make a player pay back a large amount with other repercussions. I get it but not with my child and I don't think most players or their parents read them. They just see the amount and sign it.

I haven’t read anything other than the 24/7 article and the posts here, but it sounds like the collective is trying to stop Brown from doing anything with any other collective other than the Rice one (meaning he could not enter into any contract with a Tennessee one).

Contracts have consequences. He left Rice, but their collective is not cutting all the strings.

 

[fryeguy93]

Blaine Brown likely had little idea how bad things were at Rice.

Things were not going that swimmingly before 2025 with José Cruz Jr. The Owls were 23-36 in 2024. 21-37 in 2023. 17-39 in 2022. Those were bad records but the problems were clearly even worse than that record showed.

Cruz was fired after 16 games and 10 straight losses . This includes getting swept at home by Yale and they got SHELLED in that Houston tourney by Miss State, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

They had losses to Villanova, Michigan, Lamar, Houston, Yale and A&M Corpus Christi and their losses were by an average of 6.2 runs.

Blaine is more than happy to repay the money that was paid. But if this collective pushes their demand for more than this, then Rice will have real trouble recruiting any high profile athlete. They were lucky to have him for the one season. He never should have signed there.

The collective may have a legal point. But winning the case will likely hurt them more than no bringing the issue into the spotlight.

Additionally, courts hate contracts of adhesion. The contract between the collective better not be a boilerplate with standard language for every athlete as judges hate these one sided contracts. Additionally, it's not like Rice has tons of judges in their pocket like the larger schools do. They don't have a law school and they are primarily known for STEM and engineering undergrad programs.