- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
re: So, is it kinda true the SEC was cheating way more than anyone else pre NIL?
Posted on 4/7/26 at 12:05 pm to Jizzy08
Posted on 4/7/26 at 12:05 pm to Jizzy08
When Ohio st bought sabans players you knew the end was near
The narrative that sec has always been cheating doesn’t mean rest of the country wasn’t paying players before either
The narrative that sec has always been cheating doesn’t mean rest of the country wasn’t paying players before either
0
Posted on 4/7/26 at 12:08 pm to LSUChamps03
Who said anything holier than thou here? Entire thread is about competing now that they pay players and questioning if the SEC was doing it more prominently in their glory years as a competitive advantage.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:01 pm to The Third Leg
Your anecdotes don't prove the SEC is or has been handing out cash more than anyone else, which it seems you’re implying. So I’m making the counterpoint that two anecdotes involving Big 10 programs don’t mean that all Big 10 programs are committing sexual crimes against athletes.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:21 pm to lsupride87
Has there been a notable difference in how many starters in 2025 versus 2015 (for example) were in-state?
The SEC’s dominance was partially due to generally having 6-8 Defensive Lineman on roster with potential to play at next level. Other conferences like Big 10 only had maybe Ohio St and Michigan able to match that.
When I think of LSU, most of those DL guys were from Louisiana or East TX. Now might be more likely to play further from home.
The SEC’s dominance was partially due to generally having 6-8 Defensive Lineman on roster with potential to play at next level. Other conferences like Big 10 only had maybe Ohio St and Michigan able to match that.
When I think of LSU, most of those DL guys were from Louisiana or East TX. Now might be more likely to play further from home.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:38 pm to lsupride87
quote:
So, is it kinda true the SEC was cheating way more than anyone else pre NIL?
No. There are two main forces driving the B1G's recent resurgence, and they are related:
1. Pre-NIL, payments to athletes had to be under the table, and there is only so much money that can magically appear in your bank account before Uncle Sam and the IRS get involved. That limit was not high enough to convince most premier Southern athletes to be willing to play up north. Now, with NIL, all of the payments are above-board, and so northern schools can go to those same athletes and say, "How much money would it take for you to come play for us? Name your price."
2. Midwestern schools are so desperate for national success that their donors are willing to pay whatever that price turns out to be. They see NIL as a vehicle for them to be able to compete again. Southern schools, meanwhile, are spoiled by decades of recent dominance. Our fanbases see NIL as an unwelcome change. "Why should I have to donate more to win now? I didn't have to do that back when Saban was here and he won big."
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:47 pm to real turf fan
quote:
The Reggie Bush kerfuffle out in California proves that USC was doing it.
You really are a special kind of stupid aren't you? The 2 people who were giving Reggie money did it so he would leave school and go pro.
They wanted him to declare early and they would be his agents. Were other players at SC getting paid? Probably. That corrupt phucker Paul Dee didn't like what was happening out west, so he did anything he could to tear it down.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:50 pm to TheTideMustRoll
You SEC guys who say things like “everyone was paying” and the bagman was is just us “coping” have no clue what you are talking about.
If everyone was paying then schools like Vandy, Arkansas, UNC, GT, Miss St wouldn’t have sucked for years because they would have bought better players. A very few teams were clearly and provably paying - and it worked.
I’m in South Georgia and have several Auburn bagmen in my town and circles. It wasn’t even a secret in what the high level kids were offered from Bama, UGA, and Auburn. I knew several GT recruiters who worked these counties and they straight up said how GT offers the same players but we’ll never get them when they are offered a car or a bag in those days. I remember one of my Auburn buddies who straight up said they were so tired of losing players to Bama that they upped the pay scale and won that Natty with Cam in offense and studs on defense. That wasn’t organic. It’s what Indiana just did and it works.
And yes the portal has crushed the SEC way more because this is where the players are. I posted 2 years ago that the SEC should accept NIL openly but fight the portal at every step. But they didn’t so now your depth has gone to Vandy and GT when you could till be hoarding them.
I knew the SEC dominance was over when Harbaugh opened a Michigan camp in South Georgia during one summer. In the old days the good ole boys would have shut that down quickly. Instead he walked away with some 4 stars.
If everyone was paying then schools like Vandy, Arkansas, UNC, GT, Miss St wouldn’t have sucked for years because they would have bought better players. A very few teams were clearly and provably paying - and it worked.
I’m in South Georgia and have several Auburn bagmen in my town and circles. It wasn’t even a secret in what the high level kids were offered from Bama, UGA, and Auburn. I knew several GT recruiters who worked these counties and they straight up said how GT offers the same players but we’ll never get them when they are offered a car or a bag in those days. I remember one of my Auburn buddies who straight up said they were so tired of losing players to Bama that they upped the pay scale and won that Natty with Cam in offense and studs on defense. That wasn’t organic. It’s what Indiana just did and it works.
And yes the portal has crushed the SEC way more because this is where the players are. I posted 2 years ago that the SEC should accept NIL openly but fight the portal at every step. But they didn’t so now your depth has gone to Vandy and GT when you could till be hoarding them.
I knew the SEC dominance was over when Harbaugh opened a Michigan camp in South Georgia during one summer. In the old days the good ole boys would have shut that down quickly. Instead he walked away with some 4 stars.
This post was edited on 4/7/26 at 1:54 pm
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:54 pm to lsupride87
Better might be a better word than more.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:57 pm to S
quote:
The winning programs have made good coaching hires.
Ding fricking ding.
Ohio State has Day
Michigan had Harbaugh
Indiana has Cig
Oregon has Lanning (no title yet but in the playoff the last 2 years)
Penn State had Franklin until they got emotional and fired him.
Where as the top schools in the SEC had
Kirby Smart (elite coach)
Saban (elite coach built on other world recruiting) and Deboer
Ed Orgeron and Brian Kelly
Dan Mullen and Billy Napier
Heupel
Gus Malzhan, Bryan Harsin, and Hugh Freeze
The SEC’s best 6 programs historically have had, on the whole, bad coaches since 2020. The only 2 that didn’t (Bama and UGA) have been just fine.
This post was edited on 4/9/26 at 8:56 am
Posted on 4/7/26 at 1:58 pm to LSUChamps03
LSU had a booster embezzling money from a healthcare fund to pay an OL $180k like 10-12 years ago. He went to prison for it. Doubt that’s a one off if he’s taking this that far. Cam newton is no secret. Guy was shopped to high bidders in SEC—nobody denies it. Ed Orgeron has talked about paying players in the old era.
Can you find similar stories anywhere else? If they were throwing around big money before, there wouldn’t have been such a sudden shift.
SEC had better bag men, just a fact. I wish Iowa had that kind of action going on. They’d have been even better.
Can you find similar stories anywhere else? If they were throwing around big money before, there wouldn’t have been such a sudden shift.
SEC had better bag men, just a fact. I wish Iowa had that kind of action going on. They’d have been even better.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:06 pm to lsupride87
I think everyone was cheating. The difference now is players aren't sitting around waiting their turn. They're transferring out. Saban's "trust the process" would be a struggle now. That's probably why he retired
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:06 pm to TheTideMustRoll
#3 reason you could add - can SEC boosters in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rogue keep up with Big 10 alumni in Chicago, LA, DMV, Columbus, Oregon, Detroit and NY/NJ metro?
Saban touched on this, Big 10 and Northeast schools and their alumni are more wealthy than SEC schools and their alumni. SEC were paying players $100k and a car for 4 years.
now schools have to pay $500,000 and millions per season.
The rich alumni up north like Mark Cuban didnt give a shite about their athletics. He graduated 40 years ago and didnt donate until 2025 when Indiana started winning.
Saban touched on this, Big 10 and Northeast schools and their alumni are more wealthy than SEC schools and their alumni. SEC were paying players $100k and a car for 4 years.
now schools have to pay $500,000 and millions per season. The rich alumni up north like Mark Cuban didnt give a shite about their athletics. He graduated 40 years ago and didnt donate until 2025 when Indiana started winning.
This post was edited on 4/7/26 at 2:54 pm
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:07 pm to lsupride87
Obviously
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:07 pm to lsupride87
Back in pre-NIL, the question was whether a program had enough unscrupulous millionaire boosters willing to facilitate tax evasion and give thousands of dollars. Now the questions moreso is how many billionaires exist that are fans enough to pay millions.
The SEC was winning the most because most of the talent is from the SEC footprint. Now the BIG can lure that talent away more easily because they have a longer list of billionaires.
The SEC was winning the most because most of the talent is from the SEC footprint. Now the BIG can lure that talent away more easily because they have a longer list of billionaires.
This post was edited on 4/7/26 at 2:08 pm
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:08 pm to lsupride87
quote:
The big 10 seems to have massively caught up in sports with the SEC during the emergence of NIL, and the consensus answer is : They have the money. Ok, makes sense
The SEC wasn't all that great in basketball outside UF/UK and is much better with NIL
Football leveling out has to do with the portal+NIL+saban gone. UGA, LSU, Auburn and Florida have never been annual title contenders.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:29 pm to Ssubba
No 18 year old elite athlete is picking Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa or Athens over Miami, FL unless there's serious money involved
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:44 pm to The Third Leg
The SEC schools have had access to a greater quantity of the best talent, that’s indisputable. NIL has distributed the talent across a much larger geographical footprint.
Re: your other examples. Ed O had stints at Miami and USC long before he entered the SEC. I guarantee you those programs were where he learned his trade. The LSU situation was a single booster using his role on the board of a hospital to access funds to pay a player. The guy was arrested, required to pay the $ back, and no major finding or lack of institutional control was issued against LSU. Probably wasn’t his first rodeo, who knows. Newton, yeah, 100% took $. NCAA says no proof, but too much smoke.
I don’t deny the examples you’ve given. But there aren’t encyclopedias of examples. And I’m not arguing the SEC isn’t the most prolific - no one can say for sure. But everyone points to cheating to explain SEC dominance instead of things like access to talent pool, excellent coaches, resources allocated to athletics, etc. It’s easy to just say it’s cheating.
Any suggestion that the SEC somehow invented or perfected “cheating” is naive and disingenuous at best. I don’t deny the cases you’ve mentioned, but I still contend that to think big time programs throughout CFB have been pure or “cheated” on some less egregious level over the years isn’t provable. My opinion.
Re: your other examples. Ed O had stints at Miami and USC long before he entered the SEC. I guarantee you those programs were where he learned his trade. The LSU situation was a single booster using his role on the board of a hospital to access funds to pay a player. The guy was arrested, required to pay the $ back, and no major finding or lack of institutional control was issued against LSU. Probably wasn’t his first rodeo, who knows. Newton, yeah, 100% took $. NCAA says no proof, but too much smoke.
I don’t deny the examples you’ve given. But there aren’t encyclopedias of examples. And I’m not arguing the SEC isn’t the most prolific - no one can say for sure. But everyone points to cheating to explain SEC dominance instead of things like access to talent pool, excellent coaches, resources allocated to athletics, etc. It’s easy to just say it’s cheating.
Any suggestion that the SEC somehow invented or perfected “cheating” is naive and disingenuous at best. I don’t deny the cases you’ve mentioned, but I still contend that to think big time programs throughout CFB have been pure or “cheated” on some less egregious level over the years isn’t provable. My opinion.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:46 pm to SECCaptain
quote:
No 18 year old elite athlete is picking Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa or Athens over Miami, FL unless there's serious money involved
There are only so many spots.
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:53 pm to The Third Leg
quote:
SEC had better bag men, just a fact. I wish Iowa had that kind of action going on. They’d have been even better.
And this is a good point. All the schools and fans, for instance, hitting on LSU for spending big for its roster would be cheering on its school if it did the same. Since it can’t the refrain is “overspending”, “buying a championship”, etc. Good for you recognizing you wish Iowa had the means and would do it too. Off topic somewhat, I guess, but related…
Posted on 4/7/26 at 2:57 pm to LSUChamps03
And the best of those players would all take Miami's spots, same for LA when the program's relevant if we're being honest
Page 3 of 8
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News