Cam Newton knows a thing or two about football. You don’t spend 11 seasons in the NFL, be named the league's Most Valuable Player, become an All-Pro and a three-time Pro Bowler without learning what it takes to be a winner.
Which is what makes his talk this week about Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian so befuddling.
In discussing Sarkisian's recent interview with Kay Adams, Newton chalked Sark’s success up to nothing more than dollars.
"Look, Coach Sarkisian, all that stuff is cool. Building a culture does take time, but having the boosters attached to the University of Texas also helps. Hello? They have the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation and probably the No. 1 spend in the nation. C'mon dog. C'mon bro. I'm not trying to discredit the importance of building a culture. It takes time. But come on. Any great coach knows that they need great players. Nowadays, these players are a great expense. We're going to look back at how college sports were impacted by NIL and find a commonality that teams who are winning are spending a lot of money. I'm not going to be the bearer of bad news, but I'll be the processor of real news."
The ignorance of the comment is astounding for so many reasons. Let’s lay aside Newton bemoaning college players taking money and instead focus on the reality that simply paying players isn’t a road to guaranteed success.
Pro sports are littered with examples of teams splashing around a lot of money hoping to win, only to end up without anything to show for it.
Newton has been around long enough to know that’s true.
But Newton isn’t entirely wrong either.
College football is replete with examples of teams that have the best talent are the most likely to win. One need look no further than last season’s Ohio State team, one of the few that had a higher blue chip ratio (four- and five-star recruits) on its squad than Texas, to know that’s true.
Since Newton led Auburn to a national championship in 2011, no team has won the title with a blue chip ratio below 50 percent.
2024: Ohio State 90%
2023: Michigan 54%
2022: Georgia 77%
2021: Georgia 80%
2020: Alabama 83%
2019: LSU 64%
2018: Clemson 68%
2017: Alabama 80%
2016: Clemson 52%
2015: Alabama 77%
2014: Ohio State 68%
2013: Florida State 53%
2012: Alabama 71%
2011: Alabama 71%
But while Newton was dismissing Texas’ star-laden roster as being bought, he may have actually been helping the Horns.
Newton is correct that it takes dollars to lure recruits. And Texas is recruiting against the likes of Ohio State, Alabama, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and all of the other big money schools who have their own war chests to spread around.
But Newton just told all of those recruits that if they go to Texas they too can get paid.
It doesn’t hurt that the next bit of Texas-related news to come out this week was a high-profile NIL deal for Texas’ most high-profile athlete.
That Texas has been able to secure lucrative NIL deals for its athletes is a feather in its cap, not something to be shamed about from the likes of Cam Newton.
And it’s not like any of the other schools are just going to sit back and let Texas run away with a big NIL recruiting advantage. Just this week Texas A&M signed a five year, $515 million media rights contract with Playfly Sports with a provision that the new media rights company is to find new NIL opportunities for Aggy athletes.
Incidentally, as our very own @CodyCarpentier points out, Texas’ media rights contract with Learfield Sports is set to expire this summer.
That means UT Athletic Director Chris Del Conte will already be busy negotiating a new deal which, in all likelihood, is sure to exceed the half-billion dollar deal A&M just announced.
All of that to say, the competition for NIL deals for college athletes is intense. Is Texas damn good at making sure its football players are well compensated? Absolutely. But are the Horns so far ahead of anybody else that it creates an unfair advantage? Hardly.
Which is why Newton’s comments were so ignorant. They completely dismiss the work that Sark has done to make sure that he doesn’t just have a collection of mercenaries but a united team capable of winning.
It also dismisses the development those players have achieved since arriving at Texas.
The Longhorns sent a school record 14 players to the NFL Combine last week. That’s one year after sending a record 12 players in 2024.
Sarkisian told the NFL Network that his job is to help his players put their best foot forward for the NFL.
“I always tell our players, we’re trying to remove as many things after ‘but,’” Sarkisian said. “‘Here is all of the good things about Player X but ….’ Those are the things we’re trying to reduce, the buts, and move them up to things that you know.”
Despite the heavy losses to the NFL, Texas is still well-stocked with future NFL players, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The future is still very bright on the 40 Acres … and it’s not entirely just because of NIL deals … although that certainly doesn’t hurt.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
Sark had a pretty simple reply for Newton.
And he let the comments about his wife go – which was probably the smart thing to do.
###################################
Cam Newton may not be into the culture that Sark has built at Texas, but Chris Warren, who knows a thing or two about locker rooms that are divided, sees what Sark has done in Austin.
###################################
Winning next season won’t be easy. The Horns will be replacing a lot of talent on offense. To say nothing of the schedule UT will face this season.
You’re probably going to hear a lot about how “easy” Texas’ schedule is in the SEC and it will be easier than some. But nothing in the SEC will be easy this year.
###################################
I’m not the only one who has noticed what Texas needs to replace next season. Of course, Billy Liucci knows what it looks like when a team takes a step back.
###################################
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the importance of the team GPA for Texas’ football success. Here’s another anecdotal piece of evidence that great players make good grades.
###################################
Texas baseball has had one Hell of a start to the 2025 campaign. Its only stumble was an opening-day loss in extra innings. But things have only gotten better since then.
###################################
Meanwhile, Texas A&M has lost five of its last six.
###################################
By the way, if you want the best seats in the house to see Texas vs. Texas A&M in baseball, then it’s time to open up your wallet and contribute to the Texas One Fund.
###################################
The ACC is on the verge of finalizing a deal that will end up paying more to its higher-performing schools than the rest of their conference mates.
Perhaps more importantly, as ESPN’s Andrea Adelson reports, the league also struck a deal that will allow teams to leave the conference and keep their grant of rights (with a financial penalty).
According to Adelson, the current rules stipulate that any school leaving before 2036 must pay three times their operating budget – or about $120 million dollars – and still not have control of their team’s media rights.
Under the new deal, the fee jumps to $165 million next year but the school retains its media rights if it leaves. That fee declines by $18 million per year until it reaches $75 million in 2030/2031.
Seventy-five million is a much more manageable number, but the 2030 date is particularly important for folks who follow realignment. That’s when the media rights deals for the Big Ten, Big 12 and the College Football Playoff will all be renegotiated. That means those conferences will be flush with cash to offer any potential newcomers from the ACC.
Incidentally, the SEC’s media rights deal with ESPN runs out in 2033/2034.
###################################
Speaking of the playoffs, Texas fans won’t like seeing who the new chair of the CFP is.
###################################
Texas announced plans last week to greatly expand the number of scholarships it will be forking out money for … but it will probably need to factor in a buyout for men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry. Can CDC really afford to keep him?
###################################
How cool would this be at the Moody Center?
###################################
With the first-ever TCH Orangebloods tournament underway, there is no better time than this to post this …
With three players left in the WSOP Circuit tournament in Baltimore, the eventual winner knocked out the third-place guy with a worse hand. That’s right, with all cards exposed, the hand that hit the straight was declared the winner even though the other guy had a flush. The craziest thing is that nobody noticed the flush until much later when it was too late to do anything about it.
This is way, way worse than @Ketchum losing the OB Hijack tournament with a set of Kings.
Last edited by a moderator:
