Last night I attended a local athletic club meeting and our guest speaker was Joseph Goodman, Lead Sports Columnist for AL.com and he had some interesting comments about Vandy football and Candice Lee. First, he was covering the Alabama game from the Vandy press box and he said that his jaw was on the floor for the whole game because Vandy "completely manhandled" the Tide the whole game. He went on to discuss the effects of NIL and the transfer portal and specifically called out Vandy and Tulane as 2 programs that have changed their whole outlook due to these changes. He mentioned the comment HCCL made regarding how it was easier to get transfers into Vandy than HS kids (Goodman asked the question at the press conference about VU having so many transfers this season) and felt that this was a major change at VU that will make the program successful. He also said that he spoke last week with the VU Anchor Collective guy (he did not say the name) and this guy was flying all over the country speaking with alums about NIL and said the reaction he was getting was "like getting the band back together", so I would expect the funds for this next years' transfers to be there.
After the meeting I spoke with him for a few moments and he said that the main reason for the changes is Candice Lee, whom he called "brilliant". I know many will disagree, I am just relaying what he said. I actually challenged him and said that she initially wanted all NIL funds to be spread equally between male and female student-athletes and he responded that she knows that winning football funds NIL donations and her work in making changes to the transfer admissions policy was "brilliant". Our conversation ended as things were breaking up, but I was surprised that a sportswriter whose main role is to cover Alabama and Auburn knows so much about the VU athletic department, and he is very bullish on the future of the VU football program.
Finally, he spoke about the $22 million in revenue sharing payments that goes into effect next year and that for most P5 athletic programs $22 million is not enough to fund payments to all S-A's, male and female, all sports. The NCAA has not yet ruled on the future of the collectives, but he thinks that they will have to remain in place to keep things aboveboard, otherwise, the landscape will revert back to the under-the-table payments to S-A's that went on for years.
After the meeting I spoke with him for a few moments and he said that the main reason for the changes is Candice Lee, whom he called "brilliant". I know many will disagree, I am just relaying what he said. I actually challenged him and said that she initially wanted all NIL funds to be spread equally between male and female student-athletes and he responded that she knows that winning football funds NIL donations and her work in making changes to the transfer admissions policy was "brilliant". Our conversation ended as things were breaking up, but I was surprised that a sportswriter whose main role is to cover Alabama and Auburn knows so much about the VU athletic department, and he is very bullish on the future of the VU football program.
Finally, he spoke about the $22 million in revenue sharing payments that goes into effect next year and that for most P5 athletic programs $22 million is not enough to fund payments to all S-A's, male and female, all sports. The NCAA has not yet ruled on the future of the collectives, but he thinks that they will have to remain in place to keep things aboveboard, otherwise, the landscape will revert back to the under-the-table payments to S-A's that went on for years.
