[Goose]

I'm not intentionally picking the opposite side of all your posts, Goose, but I'll respectfully push back on this one, too.

The Wild West situation was what was going on for decades in the NCAA before the NIL era. The Wild West was SMU's Pony Express, USC's Reggie Bush and McDonalds bags stuffed with cash being shuttled around all across SEC campuses. If anything, NIL has simply brought daylight to the same type of transactions that have always been taking place and actually added an element of structure and regulation.

No problem StanfordMatt. I am always willing to get new information and modify my opinion accordingly. I am aware that "payola" existed in the past, but it was not ubiquitous. It had to be very much on the down-low. If you got caught, there were sanctions applied (arguably not to the guilty parties, but to the institution). More importantly, even if you payed somebody to transfer to your school, they had to sit out a year. That made such transactions fairly unattractive to all involved. All of this is no longer the case. It is IMO clearly a "wilder west".

[Goose]

I'm not intentionally picking the opposite side of all your posts, Goose, but I'll respectfully push back on this one, too.

The Wild West situation was what was going on for decades in the NCAA before the NIL era. The Wild West was SMU's Pony Express, USC's Reggie Bush and McDonalds bags stuffed with cash being shuttled around all across SEC campuses. If anything, NIL has simply brought daylight to the same type of transactions that have always been taking place and actually added an element of structure and regulation.

No problem StanfordMatt. I am always willing to get new information and modify my opinion accordingly. I am aware that "payola" existed in the past, but it was not ubiquitous. It had to be very much on the down-low. If you got caught, there were sanctions applied (arguably not to the guilty parties, but to the institution). More importantly, even if you payed somebody to transfer to your school, they had to sit out a year. That made such transactions fairly unattractive to all involved. All of this is no longer the case. It is IMO clearly a "wilder west".