Agreed overall. It also opens the question as to could a team with a limited budget like Seton Hall pay a coach $1M and spend the other $1.5M on payroll and be better off? For example, old friend John Dunne who makes less than that.
IMO people are complaining not because whatever expectation they had isn't being met, rather because this season has been an awful experience on every level. If would be even more of a bloodbath if Holloway's last name was Blaney or Willard or Orr. People love him, he's one of us, he's earned that. And he's using up all benefit of the doubt this year because he's overseeing a worse season - by miles - than any of them had. People WANT Sha to succeed here. The others had to prove it to them.
And the diehards who love the program, where each season means something to them as a hobby and enjoyment, and are now contributing financially to payroll, yeah, we're all going to still support and have a right to bitch about it. The Spring will be much more revealing to where this program is going and the type of players we bring in.
I consider myself as much as a die hard as anyone else. But I will hide no secrets that I draw the line at fans paying players.
I believe the fans should contribute financially to the cost of the ticket price that puts them in their seat. And I support those who can contribute further towards the betterment of the overall athletic department.
I 100% agreed that an athlete should be able to make money on true endorsement type deals in the spirit of NIL and maintain their amateur status (ie Olivia Dunn at LSU) but was never a supporter of the charade it’s become which is straight up pay for play.
If you believe the athlete has earned a piece of the pie, then they should be compensated by the school who is making those profits. Shaheen shouldn’t have to give up a portion of his salary to do that, he earned the contract he signed. If the school wants to allocate those resources differently for the next coach, so be it.
This has always been a business arrangement. Your room and board and college degree for your athletic services has now morphed into they want their representation of the profits for those same services.
I fail to see how my money (beyond buying a ticket or merchandise) becomes part of that business arrangement. So fans should be upset with the way the school prepared for this, they should be disappointed because the results are disheartening, but I honestly have little empathy for those who have contributed their discretionary dollars (and I hope it’s just that) to this farce called NIL.
