We know Powell has been heavily involved in the community. Here is the potential payoff on that end of the road
https://twitter.com/ILoveJoesPizza/status/1900207194685014064
Can we now please put to rest this foolish notion by some that we are in year X of some drawn out rebuilding plan?? Every year is a rebuild. We will again start from scratch next year. We will again start the year as a consensus bottom feeder in the Missouri Valley. This is the reality. It's not an anomaly.
I wonder if anything was already written in contracts with Cooper/All that would mean Valpo might get something if/when they transfer this year? Are we sure Valpo won’t be compensated at all for teams poaching them? Is that something Roger could ask them to negotiate with their new teams too?
Valpo needs to sign players to 4 year NIL deals. It gives stability to the player and the program.
This is an utterly ridiculous idea and I can't believe we keep hearing it. This boils down to four scenarios:
1) Smart and good players would never sign such a deal and would avoid Valpo.
2) Hidden gems will sign then regret. They will become disgruntled and poison the locker room.
3) Hidden gems will sign then regret, but play out their years unhappy and frustrated. Yay for Valpo in this scenario.
4) Average/poor players will stay for four and use this contract to force Valpo to keep them despite their poor play and lack of potential.
This is an utterly ridiculous idea and I can't believe we keep hearing it. This boils down to four scenarios:
1) Smart and good players would never sign such a deal and would avoid Valpo.
2) Hidden gems will sign then regret. They will become disgruntled and poison the locker room.
3) Hidden gems will sign then regret, but play out their years unhappy and frustrated. Yay for Valpo in this scenario.
4) Average/poor players will stay for four and use this contract to force Valpo to keep them despite their poor play and lack of potential.
The contract isn’t to force someone to play for Valpo who doesn’t want to be here. It’s to compensate the university in case the player gets poached. I fully expect players would still transfer. You could also structure the contract to allow Valpo to terminate or buy out the contract so we’re not stuck with someone who isn’t working out.
The sting of losing Cooper and All would be lessened if we knew Valpo was getting a nice chunk of change that would allow us to pick up new talent.
I'm all for still going after incoming FR, if you are able to get a decent buyout in developing them, whether directly from the player's new NIL deal or from the signing university. If you look at how Cooper and All developed from their first games until now, we should receive some type of percentage, that we can put back into our own NIL pool. Otherwise, these undiscovered/undeveloped FR are just using the university, and the university doesn't get much back. You can't win meaningful games in the MVC with a roster of FR/SO, so we need to get something in developing all-league players that then make us money in a "transfer fee." If that is the model, I can get on board with continuing to give these shots to players that the bigger schools missed. It would be the same as the Software Engineering bootcamps out there, where they develop you for peanuts, but get a % of your first-year salary as their fee, with the % of new NIL taking the place of salary, in this case.
Cooper is a bigger loss than Wright would be and he may go as well.
The Drake method (all experienced DII/III/NAIA) method may be the best option.
FWIW...I don't look at this as a loyalty thing from the players perspective. There's no reason for money, particularly some numbers we read, to be left on the table.
In Powell's case, its admirable that he tries to build a "program" but in todays world the coach is required to put together a team. So he'll have to change his tactics rather dramatically if he wants to succeed. It may even come down to "come here for a year" and do that year after year.
I wonder if anything was already written in contracts with Cooper/All that would mean Valpo might get something if/when they transfer this year? Are we sure Valpo won’t be compensated at all for teams poaching them? Is that something Roger could ask them to negotiate with their new teams too?
This isn't the NFL where you can get a compensation pick for losing a Free Agent. I'm not sure what you mean.
I mean can we get a cut of whatever deal cooper/all make with their next team, similar to valpotx’s suggestion
Have you seen the video Powell put out celebrating Cooper transferring? It's frankly disgusting. About Cooper transferring: "I'm excited! [players transferring and using us as a stepping stone] is what this program is about. It's about giving them opportunities to [transfer to make more money]. We're going to do it again. Develop players. That's what we do here." I can appreciate trying to say Thanks Cooper for what he's meant to Valpo basketball the past 2 years, but let's not overhype it and celebrate him cashing out. Let's not put out a video saying I'm so excited you can transfer and we're going to do it again with all our players. If this did not give All Wright and any future players all the confidence and clarity that they needed. Powell outwardly saying we are not a school for 4-year stars. Our coach saying our goal is to have people for a year or two and then watch them spread their wings. And we're acting happy about it? Look. I can be happy for Cooper as a person. He will definitely be getting 500K+ wherever he ends up and that's cool. I hope he has success and makes it to the NBA and Valpo can take some pride in that. But for the coach to put a video out like that cheering that he's transferring and acting like that is his mission, to help people without offers get rich at Big 10 schools? We should genuinely get funding from the power conferences if we are their g-league. I know this won't happen, but we do all the work and get nearly nothing out of it. Someone explain this to me, it makes me irate. Additionally, a thank-you post from Roger before anything from Cooper.
To echo some of the other comments on here, I agree I believe we should adopt the Drake method. Or even the Lottich method some would say, and seek out the Kevion Taylor, Kobe King, Quinton Greens of the world who are ready to make a D2 jump or play a 4-6th year with more playing time. If Drake can flip their entire roster in a year and win the conference that should give us some hope that one random year we can have the same success. Just depends what lucky 1-year recruit you happen to have. I would also love a contract with players, but don't see that happening. We can hope.
I will try to remain positive and assume that All Wright stays. Justus stays. Stafford stays and is great. JT Pettigrew is great and an easy Cooper replacement. Maybe Carson stays too? Hard to imagine the appeal of Valpo to him without his brother except he could not have many offers elsewhere. Let's try to finish in the top 8 next year.
Paul has new stuff on this on TVB including a phone call with Coop. It’s up now.
You can now add Kenard Davis to the portal from SIU. Averaged 16.5 pts per game.
@mj08 I understand your intent. But you have to understand that there is ZERO incentive for the player to agree to such a structure that would only cause to deter interest from future schools. This is nonstarter.
Depressing. 4-6 new guys every year. Genie let out of the bottle a few years ago and it Honestly doesn’t matter what they say, it’s 99.9% about the money. Family Express needs to step up their game! The All Wright shoe likely dropping soon as well.
