(03-14-2019 07:46 PM)puck swami Wrote:  The challenge becomes this - What if a car dealership chain in Tuscaloosa offers a prospective U of Alabama QB a million dollars for appearing in a series of car commercials in Alabama?

Then, a dealer in Atlanta hears about the Alabama offer, and offers $1.5 million to the same QB prospect to appear for their Atlanta/Athens dealerships if the player commits to UGA instead of Alabama?

All of a sudden there is a bidding war among car dealerships to get a particular player, and the competitive balance is going to go to the highest bidders....

The outcome, as in your example, will be in favor of exactly the same teams that get the highest-rated recruits today.

And, there are already bidding wars: There are bidding wars driving up the salaries of coaches -- not only head coaches, but also coordinators, the best recruiters, etc., etc., etc. Oklahoma's new defensive coordinator has moved from one P5 program to another to another in the last three seasons, and received a huge raise for each move. His 2019 salary will be $1.4 million. There is no logical reason why bidding wars for coaches would be a-ok but bidding wars for players would not be. The coaches are paid to win games, but they can't win any games at all without the players.