🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@drgnslayr
Seriously? His agent FORMED a school, basketball team, and scheduled opponents for Lab’s senior year? Is that legal? Sounds like total rubbish. Who was his educational teacher(s)? The same guy that took the SAT for Rose? Did Cal set this up for Lab during his junior year of HS? Why wouldn’t he attend a real school?

This is a factor in why he hasn't been cleared yet. The guy who's his handler sounds like an idiot that's taking advantage of of Skal for his own personal gain which is also why him making money related to Skal is being investigated. I do feel bad for Skal in this situation because I haven't seen anything that he personally has done wrong, I just think he's getting taken advantage of.

@nuleafjhawk Seth Russell originally committed to Turner Gill in 2012. When Charlie Weis got Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps to commit, he told Seth Russell to look elsewhere. I don't know if he assumed Cozart would follow Grunhard to KU, but I have to believe that's why you tell another QB to look elsewhere that would replace a QB 3 years down the road. In the Charlie Weis plan, I believe this was supposed to be the year Cozart took over. Charlie's plan so damn awful he had to have lied to Zenger aboyt during the interview.

@jaybate-1.0 Can we keep the show limited to women's volleyball?

@Crimsonorblue22 Dallas Keuchel is 15-0 with a 1.46 ERA at MMP this year and is going to win the Cy Young this year and just shut down the Yankees in Yankee Stadium tonight. Volquez is a good pitcher, but Keuchel is in another league than Volquez. Don't forget that the Astros swept the Royals at MMP this summer and went 4-2 against the Royals this year.

@jaybate-1.0 Regarding your current signature, you know that most kids are under 18 when they get recruited right? I don't think that idea will ever be considered except for a very small percentage of people on a special list that we don't want you on.

Go Stros! Astros rotation is going to be Mike Fiers who threw a no hitter in game 1, probably Colin McHugh in game 2 who won 19 games this year and Dallas Keuchel in game 3 who is 15-0 at MMP this year and will probably win the Cy Young this year. I think the Astros take the series in 5. I think the Royals win game 1, Astros take games 2 and 3, Royals take game 4 and Astros win game 5 in KC. The Royals rotation looks like Cueto goes games 2 and 5 and that's going to be their downfall. Dallas Keuchel doesn't lose at MMP and he's going in game 3 at MMP.

@drgnslayr He technically spent his first semester of HS in Mali. I don't know anything about their school system there, but Diallo spent the equivalent of a semester there so those classes are relevant now for his eligibility.

@BeddieKU23 Tarik was a starter at Memphis for the majority of his time there, he didn't start coming off the bench until his junior year.

If you look at Coleby's game logs from last year, he had maybe 4-5 good games playing similar minutes to Traylor and Lucas so that's tge biggest reason why I think his ceiling is where it's at.

@ParisHawk I'm not 100% sure on Adidas contract and JTV stuff, but I read that awhile back so that part could be wrong.

Bill Self's contract is available for the public to read and it breaks down his salary and what incentives and how much each is worth. Part of his salary is paid by the state of Kansas because Self is officially an employee of the state. That number is somewhere around $275,000 and the rest is paid for through donor funds.

@ParisHawk I believe the donors pay Self's salary and that the Adidas and JTV contracts fund the majority of the non-revenue programs.

@JayHawkFanToo If Miami didn't get the death penalty for their latest scandal, UNC won't.

@HighEliteMajor said:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Question, though, what did the advanced numbers say about Tarik Black?

What I mean is the dynamic of Kansas, better coaching, better surrounding cast, more targeted system to a players skills, could lift a player too. I was not too hip on Black, until he got out of his fouling abyss.

I recall looking at Black's stats -- his points per minute, rebounds per minute, blocks per minute and field goal percentage all got better in his senior year at Kansas vs. his junior year at Memphis.

Here's the link to the stats I'm looking to compare these two:

http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/tarik-black-player-stats ↗

http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/dwight-coleby-player-stats ↗

The numbers on both players show that Black was a much better scorer than Coleby is. I would also say based on the overall steals, blocks, and other defensive stats that Black was a superior defender than Coleby is. Coleby is probably the better FT shooter, his jump from 1st to 2nd year makes me wonder if he's more streaky than legitimately improved since he went from since his FT shooting improved by almost 30%. I'd want to wait until Coleby's next season before judging the FT shooting to see if Coleby stays anywhere near the 80% he shot last season of if he's more like Tim Duncan where you never know how good he is from year to year. Neither is/was a great rebounder for their position (lack of height is probably to blame for that).

Just looking at the numbers, they show that Tarik Black was the more productive player and had the higher ceiling with his two biggest drawbacks being that he's a terrible FT shooter and too aggressive on defense at times.

@BeddieKU23 said:

I guess we just disagree about his ceiling. He's a physically gifted player already. It's different from Mickelson who needed a lot of work with Hudy to get where he is now. Coleby is just some skill development away from being a very good role player for this team. Because of his experience it definitely gave him an edge to any freshman coming in, but now I think that advantage has been negated. I think if Coleby is better than expected its a win-win for all.

The reason I compare his ceiling to Lucas and Traylor is because that's what the advanced numbers say. Even without the injury, I still would've expected Coleby's numbers to dip because of the increase in the caliber of competition that KU plays. He's a guy that can contribute, but his production isn't what yoy want out of starting front court player, it's more what you would want out of a back up player.

@jaybate-1.0 said:

Where the hell do you think states and corporAtions learned the trick of addictive substance dumping from? Aliens from outer space?

Of course it was aliens, have ever seen Ancient Aliens, they explain it all.

@RockkChalkk I never said this was indicator his clearance was coming soon. Just that they expect him to be cleared at this point based what's happened with other OSNA players and him taking classes at KU related to those issues. NCAA's been's known to drag out basketball player's cases until October or early November and with Diallo being allowed to practice now, him being fully cleared by the first exhibition game is now the date we should hope to hear something by.

@BeddieKU23 Even if Coleby didn't tear his ACL and had the full year of practice, I still wouldn't expect him to start. He is a guy who's ceiling is comparable to Traylor or Lucas and is a career back up at a place like KU.

I've been of the opinion all along that KU needed 3 bigs with 1 ready to start right away and 1 that could come off the bench, and one developmental big.

@RockkChalkk Diallo's case is at the bottom of the pile because he didn't get his full paperwork in until August after his summer school classes taken at KU. He took the summer school classes he did in order to cover to questionable classes at OSNA. So while most kids have their final paperwork to the NCAA in May or June, Diallo's was 2 months behind that.

@JayHawkFanToo Bolden is one of those kids who the longer he waits, the lower KU's odds for him continually get unless Self pulls Howard from that recruitment and puts Townsend on the Bolden recruitment.

@BeddieKU23 That pressure to land an immediate starting caliber big didn't change because Coleby isn't that tyle of player. Coleby is a back up at best type player at KU.

Marques Bolden is still KU's most important target, but the odds of Bolden coming to KU seem to go down every day now and if he doesn't commit at Late Night, he's probably not coming here at this point.

We've got a new contender for hottest KU supporter now.

@ParisHawk said:

@Jesse-Newell What is WUG ball? Selden 3, Hunter over Traylor and Lucas, fast offense, freedom to take the 3 right away if it's there. Opportunism.

Prior to the Germany game, it was a lot more free flowing and up tempo with KU actually taking advantage their athletic superiority instead of running set plays at Big 10 tempo giving less talented teams a chance to hang around.

@clevelandjayhawk said:

How much money do fans need to raise in order to end the Jayhawk network?

Enough that if that if that kind of money was raised, it should be directed to football to help fund renovations for the stadium and give Beaty as much chance as possible to succeed so KU doesn't get relegated to the American Conference when the Big 12 dies out in a few years.

@HighEliteMajor There's a lot of things I disagree with Bilas about, but the way the Clearinghouse, now Eligibility Center, works is not one of them.

I do believe that a school's established admission standards should be the basis for a player being able to play for a school. If a school has special exemptions for admitting underprivileged students, then whatever that percentage is should also be the same for an athletics team. If school has an established track record of 10% enrollment for underprivileged students, then a basketball team can use that exemption for 1 in 10 recruits they sign.

If a school tries to admit more special exemption kids than they should or there starts being other irregularities with admitting athletes, the NCAA should still have the authority to investigate and sanction schools for violations.

I do wish the NCAA could get a complete overhaul to be less bureaucratic and more transparent in how they operate, but I'm not in favor of getting rid of the NCAA because college athletics does need a governing body to regulate it. I also think each level should have their own committee to make rules specific to that level because D3 athletics is nothing like D1 athletics and there need to be rule tweaks specific to each level of competition.

@Statmachine This is why when Jay talks about the NCAA, I actually pay attention. I may not always agree with his opinions on the NCAA, namely paying players, but I know his opinions are well informed and well thought out and isn't just some random talking head.

I also don't think the NCAA is dragging their feet in regards to Diallo. Diallo didn't get his full paperwork in until later than most, and so he has to wait his turn before the NCAA gets to his paperwork. I also don't think Bilas is accusing the NCAA of dragging their feet, I think he's just not a fan of the Eligibility Center to begin with and would rather have the kids academic eligibility based on whether they meet the individual university's already established admission requirements.

@JayHawkFanToo What does the NCAA nit being a court of law have to do with a lawyer having a better understanding of the NCAA's rules and regulations than the average person?

The average person has not read all that stuff and even if they have, probably don't fully comprehend what's in the NCAA rule book.

Each school has their own standards for admittance based giving a kid the best chance to succeed and they don't need the NCAA telling them who they should and shouldn't admit to their school. As long as a school says this is our admission standards (including waivers for less privileged students) and provides the paperwork that shows an athlete met those admission standards, that's it. I believe this is what Jay Bilas's opinion on the matter is based on other views he has in regards to the NCAA and this is a view I happen to agree with.

The NCAA is not perfect and the admissions process is flawed, don't believe me, ask Memphis. The NCAA made a mistake in the Derrick Rose case, yet they punish Memphis for their own mistake. Take the academic eligibility responsibilities away from the NCAA and they should only be allowed to investigate when accusations of academic issues are presented.

@HighEliteMajor Remember that Jay Bilas is a lawyer and his opinions are pretty well informed and his thought process can be followed when he has the time to explain it. His opinions on the NCAA are what one would expect from a litigation lawyer. Based on his tweet and past views on NCAA-student athlete issues, I would guess he is of the opinion that if a kid is granted admission to a school, he should be allowed to play for that school. If that is his actual opinion, I don't disagree with that as long as schools don't start easing up on their admission standards to get kids in.

As long as a kid meets the minimum GPA, SAT, and ACT scores for the university they're committed to, they should absolutely be allowed to play for that school.

@justanotherfan Turner Gill did not lose the team. I know this because I know players from that team and have had conversations about the differences between Gill and Mangino. Mark Mangino is the one who lost the locker room because of the disrespect he frequently showed towards players and tye Arist Wright tirade was the straw that broke the camel's back in regards to Mangino at KU.

The locker room loved Turner Gill and absolutely felt he could've gotten KU on the right track given the time which I think was possible because Gill had landed his QB of the future in Seth Russell. The only two rules Gill had that were influenced by his religious views were the girlfriend rule and the no swearing rule. The personal accountability philosophy of Gill's isn't a bad thing itself because it did help prepare them for life outside of football.

I've been told by players that it was primarily the younger Mangino recruits that pushed the boundaries under Gill and remember that when Weis got here, he got rid of a lot of upperclassmen, not younger guys. The would be 4th and 5th year guys that Weis dumped were Mangino recruits, not Gill recruits.

The money issue with Gill is why there was the impatience with him there was among the boosters, but as I've said quite before, the players loved Gill and never quit on him. The belief was that Gill needed the time to get the Mangino players out of the program in order for Gill's philosophies to translate on the field. Had Gill's salary been in line with accomplishments at that point, he would've made about $1M per year and people would've been more patient with him. The belief was also that the 2009 team no matter who the coach was, was going to take a big step back because they didn't have a QB or good WR's.

@wissoxfan83 Football drives conference realignment because football drives TV contracts. If KU gets left in the dust during the next round of realignment, which is very possible at this point, it will absolutely have a negative impact on KU basketball because KU basketball will be in a lesser conference which will just make it that much harder to contend.

This is how KU football success drives KU basketball success, but most people are too ignorant of this reality to make the situation better for KU football.

@MoonwalkMafia You are absolutely clueless about the culture within the program under Mangino and Gill. Mark Mangino lost the team when he went on an unwarranted verbal tirade on Arist Wright after practice. If Mangino wasn't fired, there was going to be a mass exodus of players that offseason. I can tell you this because I had classes with several upperclassmen on that football team including a couple of guys who were considered leaders in the locker room.

People don't realize what an accomplishment 8-5 and a MAC title is at Buffalo. Buffalo's best season prior to Gill was 2-10. Gill significantly improved Buffalo football and was a coach worth hiring at a major conference. Gill has also won or shared a conference title every year at Liberty so clearly the man knows how to coach. His problem at KU was a case of wrong fit at the wrong time.

Gill did not shove his religion in the players faces (I can tell you this from first hand accounts of players in the program at the time). He is a players coach whose philosophy is one of personal accountability and self discipline. That was not what KU needed after Mangino's tenure because those players were not used to having any freedom and pushed the limits as much as they could and many past what was acceptable at other schools. KU needed a coach that was strict, but not a dictator like Mangino was. Turner Gill is a good coach who was just the wrong coach at the wrong time.

There are quite a few players from the Gill era that Gill has helped get into coaching and you will never see a bad word spoken about Gill the man from any of KU's players from that time. The couple of players I still have contact with both share a similar opinion that Turner Gill was a good coach and would've gotten KU back on track given enough time, but Gill was just a bad fit for the needs of KU football at the time he was hired.

@jaybate-1.0 Conference by laws are publicly available on every conference's website if you'd like verification of which leagues require members to have a football program to be eligible for membership.

@wissoxfan83 Yes, I graduated in 2010, was in Miami for the OB and San Antonio for the national title. Enrollment spiked after the 2007-08 year because of the success of both programs. Perkins started a fundraising drive to try and build a luxury suite on the east side of the stadium similar to what is on the west side currently. That drive got nowhere near the goal of about $30 million and it was abandoned and the little money that was raised was used on the last round renovations that widened the concourses and the other stuff that was done.

The attitude towards KU football has always been one of apathy from the older generations of people I've met over the years and that mentality has been passed down through the generations and it pisses me off because those people don't realize the impact KU football has on KU basketball. When the last round of conference realignment was going on, why wasn't KU prominently mentioned despite having an elite basketball program and one of the most profitable TV contracts in the country? It's becayse football drives TV contracts and KU football just doesn't look good on TV. How many games do we see on TV where the other team's fans are the ones making more noise than KU fans. It's not an easy or quick fix because this attitude and culture has been promoted by not only generations of fans, but also generations of administrators as well and needs. Why did Glen Mason leave KU? Why did Mangino reportedly want to leave? Why should we assume it'll be any different for Beaty if he's shows signs of progress at KU? Zenger comes from a fundraising and football background as an administrator and he's taken steps towards an all out renovation of Memorial Stadium by getting Rock Chalk Park built and getting the track removed. But now is the hardest part for him, convincing high level donors who have historically ignored football to give the tens of millions of dollars necessary to bring Memorial Stadium into the 21st century while KU football is in its darkest hours when the previous regime couldn't even raise $30 million when KU was at its peak in 2006-09.

There's other schools that have been historic doormats that have never had the issues of drawing fans that KU has. Iowa St. always has over 50,000 no matter how bad they or the opponents are, and Baylor has the Freshmen Line where the freshmen form the path for the players to run out of the tunnel onto the field. This is something that gets people invested with the program early on and keeps them coming back. These schools have also never had issues raising money for facility maintenance and upgrades and while they may not be the best facilities (McLane Stadium is a ridiculously nice stadium), they also don't turn off recruits the way KU's do.

Fixing the foundational issues with KU football as a whole is not an easy or quick fix because of people from the older generations who allowed the current issues that plague KU football to grow deep roots that won't go away and people get ridiculed for wanting to change by the vast majority of fans.

@drgnslayr And none of that will happen by dropping football. Most conferences, at least the majority of FBS conferences, now have clauses that require a school to have a football program to be a member. KU without football would be relgated to a third tier league for all other sports which would kill of their competitiveness. When BYU went independent on football, the Mountain West kicked the rest of their teams out of the league and they were relegated to the West Coast Conference. Something similar would absolutely happen to KU's programs dropping football.

People assume that dropping football would improve KU athletics, but it wouldn't, it would make them much worse. Memorial Stadium would become a complete dump because there wouldn't be upkeep for the stadium. The Big 12 would boot KU out because they won't keep a non football school. There's just absolutely nothing positive that would come from KU dropping football no matter how bad the team is.

@wissoxfan83 If you think my comment was specifically about one person, you are sadly mistaken. Joking or not, the attitude nuleaf showed in that post is exactly the damn problem with KU football. People think going to games and supporting the team are mutually exclusive to being satisfied with the on filed product. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. It is absolutely possible to go to the games, support the players who busted their asses week in and week out without being satisfied with the results. There's no rule against bringing signs into the stadium to voice that displeasure. 50,000 people voicing their displeasure at the stadium will make a helluva lot more impact than 25,000 silent people will.

People have withheld financial support of this program because of poor on field results for far too long. How is the program supposed to get better when they can't get the financial support necessary to have good enough facilities to compete in. This is not a chicken or egg issue like many believe. The financial and fan support has to come first, before there will ever be real.signs of progress. Why did Glen Mason leave? Why did Mangino want to leave? If Beaty is successful, why he will leave? What successful coach wants to stick around a program that won't invest in its own future?

@nuleafjhawk said:

@Texas-Hawk-10 Just for your information, it's the football program holding the fans back - not the other way around. Ask K-State basketball.

I see Iowa State ALWAYS over 90% at Jack Trice no matter how bad the football team is. It's not the football holding the fans back. It's people never giving a shit about the football team holding the football team back because who the hell wants to play in half empty stadium and who the hell wants to give enough money to make Memorial Stadium not the worst stadium among major conference stadiums which it absolutely is.

You've been going games longer than I've been alive, good for you because your generation is the one that created that culture of not giving a shit about the football team and giving them the money to keep up with basic maintenance and upkeep. Hope you're proud of your generation for creating the apathy KU fans have towards football.

@nuleafjhawk You don't want to support KU football, fine nobody's holding a gun to your head. But making jokes about better things to do than watch KU football pisses me off because all it does is reinforce the Snob Hill reputation of the KU fan base. I can tell you for sure that current football players and prospective recruits do check out sites like these to get the vibe of the fan base to help decide on where to play. The apathy and disdain the KU fan base shows towards football is one of the biggest things holding it back. Why would any of the KU mega donors want to invest in KU football when they won't get any ROI on stadium renovations because they know the stadium will be half empty within a year of those renovations so they look elsewhere to spend their money. How long has KU been trying to raise the funds to do major renovations to the stadium, but still nothing other than removing the track and some other minor stuff has been done? It's a complete joke among the donors how little money has actually been spent on football compared to basketball at KU because the donors are either too stupid or too apathetic to know that investing in the football program will make KU better as a whole. KU's biggest enrollment numbers were from 2007-2009 when the football team was actually competitive, but KU still couldn't secure the funds to renovate the stadium.

So don't tell me to lighten up about KU football when the current apathy towards to the program has crippled its ability to recruit competent players and raise sufficient funds to even do basic upkeep renovations in a timely manner. I don't want to see KU football in the American or Mountain West conferences, but that's where they're headed without any kind of investment in the football program.

@nuleafjhawk Because I wasn't on here updating every play yesterday, that means I don't care about the game? You're crappy attitude towards football is what's wrong with KU football. This is one area I will absolutely give Iowa St. all the credit in the world for. They've historically been almost as bad as KU in football, yet their fans have ALWAYS supported that program and shown up to games.

When people accuse KU of having spoiled fans, I agree with them because the vast majority of this fan base only supports and pays attentionto the basketball program and couldn't tell you a dn thing about any other program. KU has one of the biggest fair weathered fan bases around and they're gonna be pussed off when KU gets relegated to the American or Mountain West after the next round of realignment because nobody at KU invested in the football program to make it attractive enough for the Big 10.

@JayHawkFanToo and @Crimsonorblue22 How fast KU becomes competitive in football really depends on how soon Beaty can find a QB. If Willis or Stanley end up panninh out, KU is contending for bowl games that season. Even as bad as this defense is, a good QB has this team at 2-1 with a good shot at 3-1 and then 4-2 after the OU and Tech games. KU would also have a shot at TCU because this is the worst defense I've ever seen them trot out. Throw in KSU hasn't looked that good this year and KU would have a shot at 6-6 this year just with a good QB. I think KU would even be a 4 win team this year with Cummings at QB.

Alas though, KU doesn't have a competent QB on the roster. I think we saw today that Cozart is definitively better than Ford who just flat out can't throw. At this point, I think Beaty needs to start playing Willis so that burned redshirt doesn't go to waste. I know Beaty said today that Willis isn't ready for the full playbook, but he could very easily give Willis 2-3 drives ler game with a watered down version and the progressively add more of the playbook and more PT as he starts to develop.

The progress of KU football under Beaty hinges on how fast he finds a QB to pilot the offense because a good QB is worth 3-4 wins easily.

@Lulufulu said:

I think KU football is relegated to the 10th spot in the Big 12 for the foreseeable future.

KU did finish 9th last year in football. I think we might have thise stray years where ISU is just that bad, not this year obviously as KU is just beyond bad.

@jaybate-1.0 Why have schools tried to hire people close to a particular recruit? Why did Larry Brown hire Ed Manning? Why did Bill Self hire Ronne Chalmers? Why did (insert school here) hire (AAU coach, dad, etc.) a year or two before (insert recruit here) decided where to go?

A school hiring someone close to a recruit to land the recruit is nothing new in the college game and will always happen from time to time with elite recruits. Ben Simmons is just the lastest kid where this situation has benefitted a program that doesn't usually contend for titles.

@jaybate-1.0 With regards to Ben Simmons, there is one big factor you've overlooked in regards to his recruitment and that's family. His godfather just so happens to be an assistant coach on LSU's staff and that's what played the biggest role in Simmons going to LSU and committing to them pretty early on.

@drgnslayr I believe that was for a week last year because KU didn't have a leader and Self was trying to make a leader emerge, and the drill instructor said Graham was the one who was deemed the best leader but nobody was really a great leader.

@justanotherfan Greene and Diallo did not participate in boot camp. Diallo because of his eligibility, and Self had Greene on a different regimen for boot camp because of his hip so Greene wasn't a full participant this year.

@drgnslayr Considering that KU is likely to lose 4 front court players after this season, and probably 65-70 of the front court minutes available, it's just not logical for an Azubuike commitment to sour Bolden on KU. If an Azubuike commitment is a deterrent to landing Bolden, that makes me not sure I'd even want Bolden if he's afraid of competition or sharing the spotlight.

If he's determined to play the 4 at KU though, then is Carlton Bragg the hurdle to landing Bolden? Bolden isn't OAD material from what I've seen and KU still needs a quality back up at the 4 because I'm not sold at all on Coleby being a contributor at KU.

Either way, if Bolden is leaning away from KU because he is afraid of the competition Azubuike would bring or not being able to start at KU because Bragg would be ahead of him, the question then becomes do we or Self even want a player who's taking that approach to his recruitment? Honestly, I know this is getting speculative at this point, but if either of those reasons have any merit, I think KU would be better off without Bolden which I don't like typing because I'm a really big fan of his game and how he would fit in Bill Self's offense.

@wissoxfan83 Until very recently, Late Night used to during Fall Break so students attending was never a big issue. When the NCAA adjusted the rules that allowed Late Night to be moved up a week also means all the students are on campus for Late Night now.

@HighEliteMajor I'm sure Cincinnati would still be on board for a Big 12 invite, and I think UConn would be a good fit at this point.

@Lulufulu Kobie Eubanks did not get declared ineligible because of OSNAS, it was the school he attended prior that submitted 3 different GPA's that cause all of his issues.

@Lulufulu So your plan to speed up the process of going through Cheick's records and determining his eligibility is to flood the Eligibility Center with more letters and documents to go through and slow down the process of going through Cheick's documents.

@drgnslayr Bishop Miege has never had issues getting kids eligible to play NCAA sports as far as I'm aware. Travis Releford was a Miege product and at least 3 of KU's current football players (QB's Montell Cozart and Ryan Willis, and WR Tre Parmalee) were Miege products and none of them had any issues going through the clearinghouse.

I also don't know how long OSNAS has been a school that takes in top level basketball recruits, but if that's a fairly new direction for the school, they probably need to tweak their academics so they don't run into hardships like Prime Prep has.

I do like your idea of having an NCAA accreditation on a private school's website that is a known sports factory like Oak Hill or Bishop Gorman. It would be really helpful for the lesser known or newer schools to help attract potential kids if they know ahead of time they won't have issues getting through the Eligibility Center at a particular school and save kids from the same fate as Emmanuel Mudiay and others at Prime Prep who were never cleared.

@brooksmd Any time the coaching staff is involved, it's an official team activity guided by the NCAA rules. Cheick Diallo has not yet been ruled eligible by the NCAA and therefore cannot particpate in any NCAA sanctioned activities. Diallo was allowed to help out for the WUG in Lawrence because that was sanctioned by another body other than the NCAA.

Cliff was entirely a separate issue. He was NEVER deemed ineligible and Bill Self could've played him in games had he chosen to. Cliff was practicing because practicing wasn't rubbing it in the NCAA's face that they couldn't prove anything like playing him in games would have done.

@jaybate-1.0 Here's a website that lists the 15 richest apparel endorsement deals in the world.

http://www.totalsportek.com/money/biggest-endorsement-deals-sports-history/ ↗

This list is slightly out of date now as the new deals Steph Curry and James Harden just signed aren't on there, but you see where the biggest pools of money are and it's not American football. Companies always have and always will influence the industries that will make them the most money. Under Armour is still a new enough company that they don't have the clout Nike and Adidas do, but give them another 20 years and their market share and influence will be much greater. If Puma ever decides to focus add basketball to their arsenal and enter that market, they could become a major player as well and cut into Nike's market share because of the influx of Euro and South American kids who have a soccer background who like Puma's style over Nike.

I just honestly don't ever see Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour ever exerting their influence over HS football recruit like they do with HS basketball recruiting the ROI on exerting that influence will never be at the same level.

@jaybate-1.0 The discrepancy between Michigan and MSU there for two main reasons. One is that Adidas has always paid more for an overall contract with a school than Nike has. Nike contracts used to not include every sport. Until a couple of years ago Baylor had Nike as the supplier for their football program and Adidas for basketball. Nike has only very recently started including all sports in the contracts with schools whereas Adidas and Under Armour have always done that.

The other reason is that Michigan just renewed their Adidas deal this summer and I don't know the last time MSU did their deal. Nike is just now in the past couple of years starting to pay comparable deals to Adidas and Under Armour so whenever MSU signs their next deal, it'll be closers to the Michigan deal which is currently the bigfest apparel deal any college has signed. Most of money these apparel deals provide to schools is what's used to fund a lot of the non-revenue.

As @JayHawkFanToo pointed out, these money made from apparel deals are a fraction of the operating cost for an athletic department. The real money for these companies is in soccer. Michigan makes about $8.5 million per year with their Adidas deal. That deal absolutely pales in comparison to the £75 million ($128 million) per year deal Adidas just inked with Manchester United. Lionel Messi makes north of $10 million per year from Adidas, James Harden's Adidas deal pays him about $13 million per year, Rory McIlroy's Nike deal pays him $40 million per year. These deals dwarf a lot of the college contracts and that's why football recruiting lacks the influence from these companies, they are busy looking for the mext major basketball, soccer, or golf star because those players are in sports played worldwide and become worldwide recognized stars. Follow the money and you will see why football recruiting has minimal influence from apparel companies comapred to trying to lock up basketball, soccer, and golf players as early as possible.

You need to zoom out to a global scale to see where Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and Puma really focus their attention when it comes to trying to influence young athletes who have the potential to make them as much money as possible.