TerryP
Staff
Here's where I believe a lot of people are missing the bigger picture. I've touched on it a few times. More recently @It Takes Eleven mentioned the same in another discussion.Where I don't agree is that there is not much allocation going into the actual program. That is false. My boss is a Magill Society member and our owner is a big dog donor ($50,000+ a year) (atleast that's big to me) and they talk to me all the time about what's being built and what's coming.
While I can't say this literally, it's pretty damn close: this is a zero sum game. By that I mean donors/boosters aren't going to decide "I'm going to spend twice as much money now that the NIL has been instituted." They have a choice:
- contribute to the UGA facility drives.
- contribute to the UGA NIL initiatives.
Your boss and his 50k a year...he's looking for a return on that money if he's part of that group. If those contributing to NIL initiatives don't see a return, they won't continue to just blindly give thousands each season. And it's at that point the seat becomes hot (even if he's got a title on his resume.)
Before the world gets ahead of itself—well, it actually already has—Georgia is not a perennial playoff team even though the media and fans try to portray them to be.
We're going into Kirby's seventh season and he's had them in the playoffs twice. As it's been pointed out they are playing in a very different division versus the one when Richt was coaching. They should be in the playoffs each season even if they lose the SECCG. Now they've got a taste ...
Do tables turn on Kirby in a couple of years? I doubt it happens that way. Can they in five years? There's a discussion.
Just as a comparison Phil Fulmer won a title at Tennessee, like Kirby, in his sixth season. We saw how the base turned on Phil. He was still winning but he wasn't winning the games that mattered: against ranked opponents, when title hopes were on the line.