Brian to return as OC. Did anyone really expect him to fire his son?
Yards/play ranking w/ Brian as OC
2017 #108
2018 #91
2019 #86
2020 #86
2021 #120
2022 #129 (out of 131)
I think we are at 16 scholarship guys. Have to think at least 2 won't be here come fall.
Sr - Washington, Fleeks, Kemp
Jr - Brown, Hill, IGC
So - Hardy, Betts
RFr - Bonner, Jones
Fr - Coleman, Doss, Turner, Lloyd, Charles, Bell
I haven't heard about unlimited football scholarships, but the NCAA is considering additional scholarships for the sports that allow partial scholarships (basically every sport that is not football, m/w basketball, and w volleyball) as well as unlimited coaches for all sports. There would still be scholarship limits to those sports, but each school could choose if they want to fund up to that limit.
For example baseball currently only allows 11.7 scholarships. The NCAA would say we now allow 25 scholarships for baseball. Then it would be up to each school to decide how many scholarships they want as long as it is not above the limits.
This article from last April explains it https://www.si.com/college/2022/04/27/ncaa-new-transformation-committee-changes
It all sounds great, but its not that feasible in practice to give kids a scholarship based on NIL.
Tuition/housing + books + meals + football stipend has to be close to $60k/year. Then that would also be taxable, so now you're up to about $80k/year. Say you want to do this for 5 guys, so that is $400k. The money is finite. Wouldn't that $400k be better used to get 1-2 top players than to use on projects (numbers 86-90 on your roster)?
Also, no kid is going to choose a NIL scholarship over a real scholarship. Real scholarships are guaranteed for 4 years per B1G rules. If you get hurt or don't want to play football anymore, a real scholarship can still let you go to school for free. Do you think if you get hurt and can't play anymore that there is still going to be a NIL scholarship for you?
It will be interesting to see what this looks like come fall. I know the 101 will become 85, so the 147 will automatically become 131. But 131 is still way to many kids IMO. I think the sweet spot is somewhere around 105-110 (about 5 walk-ons/year).
Regarding using NIL to get to 85, I am not a fan of that.
There is a finite amount of NIL dollars. I would much prefer that money keeping the "stars" of the team happy or bringing in high profile transfers instead giving a "NIL pseudo-scholarship" to 3rd/4th stringers that are the 86th through 90th best players on the team.
A) The NU football team is a $100M corporation. It should be ran like that and not a place we they are taking marginal kids because it was their dream to play at NU. With the transfer portal you can just grab these kids out of FCS/DII after they have proven themselves.
B) Too many walk-ons lead to a bloated roster where there are so many 4th/5th/6th stringers that younger players don't get the proper development due to lack of reps and 1 on 1 coaching. (And don't tell me that TO ran 6 stations every practice. That was 30+ years ago).