Neither is true. UH and UT have been underachievers for a while now but if push came to shove they'd both probably boat race UTSA if we're keeping it 100.
I had heard this was all but official last week. Glad its true. That being said, Dana had 4 years to find and develop an heir apparent to Tune and completely whiffed. I get the feeling that this is a sign of things to come for us. Our program is going to live and die by the portal every year.
With the NIL deals and the move to the B12, UH should be getting minimum 4* recruits if not 5* moving forward. Dana is pretty much cool with going .500 and picking up pieces off the scrap heap. If he pulls another .500 season he should get canned and we can get a coach who actually cares.
AFAIK UH has nothing special going on with NIL that should cause us to suddenly be top 30 year over year in recruiting. The Big 12 invite helps, I can't see us doing any better than top 50 most years, which would typically mean 2 or 3 four stars. But like I said, we're going to make our bones in the portal, which isn't really a graded process.
The City of Houston has *a lot* of money. It's only scratching the surface of what some of these college athletes are going to be getting and which players were going to be attracting. Youre 20 years old ans could go play in Tuscaloosa or you can play in Houston driving a Bentley around the Galleria at a P5 program. USC/UCLA/Houston/Miami (maybe Austin?) have unique advantages over other college programs now due to NIL deals. I don't think people quite understand that yet.
Large markets don't hurt, but NIL is mostly about booster cash. You're fooling yourself if you don't think that the blue chips in Tuscaloosa, College Station, Gainesville, Columbus, etc aren't getting plenty of favors. Whether you're driving your Bentley in the Galleria or to Walmart is minor matter of personal preference. Maybe you should explain it for us, then.
So you're 20. You'd rather get boosted in nowheresville Arkansas or Mississippi over Houston, Miami or LA? If you can't grasp why that matters then there's no reason even trying to explain that to you. Why do you think the G League and OTE suddenly have elite prospects? Don't these kids want the college experience? It's the money buddy.
You seem to have this notion that "large market" automatically equates to "more/most money". That's not really true. Why do you think A&M is suddenly eating everyone's lunch in recruiting despite College Station being a bum**** nowhere town? Money talks, and you don't have to be situated in a major metro market to have it.
If Apples to Apples when it comes to money I'd rather be in a major metro where the thots and restaurants are vs College Station. And we're at the very beginning of the NIL stuff. We'll see moving forward but I'd bet on UH being in the mix for 4* and 5* now with getting into the B12. Our only issue right now is Dana. He sucks.
I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment. We're competing in the same race as everyone else with the same rules, and we always had the 4th largest city in the country as a recruiting play. Programs that were awash in booster cash before are simply now funneling those resources to NIL. UH always lagged pretty far behind in that metric, and while that has changed somewhat with the new stadiums (and the mandatory donations the seats require), it hasn't been a paradigm shift. I've met some of the people who run our NIL collectives, they're not some secret weapon... they exist at every school. Short of a benefactor like Tilman stepping up and outright buying players, I don't think the calculus has changed much for UH. If you look at Big 12 recruiting over the past 10 years it almost always shakes out like this: UT & OU collectively get around 30 four and five star players. Four other programs usually snag 2-3 four star players a piece (with the rare occasional five star). The remaining four programs get zero. If we are lucky we will be at the top of that second group.
So if A&M spent 25-30 mill through NIL deals to land a gluttony of 5* recruits, what's to say other schools can't do the same? Most of that is probably Houston money anyway. You believe Houston will fall somewhere north of Tech/Kansas/Kansas State and into TCU/Baylor territory. That depends. Tillman isn't the only guy in town with cash. There are plenty here. There just hasn't really been quite a push to throw their collective schlongs around like there is at A&M. At least not yet. The basketball team just got Jarace Walker and 2 other 4 stars. It's only been relevant for the last 5 years and it's already head and shoulders above UT and A&M. And this isn't even what I'd call a basketball city. I have season tickets to the football team and have seen the strides it's made. Right now it's inconclusive. I want to see what next year looks like since we'll be playing real schools. My only issue right now is Dana. I wish Herman had just stayed and not did what he did but I guess UH wouldn't even be in the B12 if he hadn't bolted to UT and frustrated them to the point that they had to leave to the SEC.
You got 30 mil laying around? I don't. It doesn't matter if it's "Houston money" if it is in the hands of non-UH boosters. That's all fine and dandy, but until the money is in the bank I'm not getting my hopes up. Maybe you should be in charge of fundraising if you're so certain that the cash is just there waiting for us to grab it... That's what happens when you have a great coach who puts guys in the pros on the regular. Not really relevant to the NIL discussion. If you wanna play that game, my first year at UH was the winless season.... so I know a thing or two about "strides". We're going to be fine, but you're smoking crack if you think we're gonna be landing "at minimum 4 star recruits" from here on out.
You're more on debbie downer spectrum and I guess it's an approach to keep you grounded. I've seen where the programs have gotten since Khator took over. If the basketball team has done it the football team can as well. UH hasn't even scratched the surface of what it can become and right now it has arguably the best basketball team in the country. Sweet 16, Final 4 and Elite 8 appearances to boot. UH football, with the right coaching hire, should be landing 4* minimum on the regular (they have 2 four stars set for the 2023 season shockingly from the Houston area!). It absolutely should be in the mix for 5* as well moving forward. Hoping Dana gets canned if he produces a .500 year next year. His hire was just a knee jerk reaction from getting spurned by Herman anyway.
You're calling me debbie downer for not buying into the idea that UH will be the perennial #1 recruiting team in the nation? You realize that is the bar you are setting up, right? Even top 10 programs sometimes have half their recruits 3 stars or under.
