The University of Florida administration, athletic department, donor base, boosters, and fans are all learning the hard way that complacency breeds failure.
Blame the Administration?
The administration is composed of the UF President (Ben Sasses, previously Kent Fuchs) and UF Board of Trustees (Mori Hosseini, David Brandon, Richard Cole, Christopher Corr, Olivia Green, James Heavener, Daniel O'Keefe, Rahul Patel, Marsha Powers, Fred Ridley, Danaya Wright, Patrick Zalupski, Anita Zucker). The Board is the corporate side of UF, with five members appointed by the Governor and five appointed by the (state of) Florida Board of Governors, along with the Chair of the Faculty Senate and the President of the Student Body. This group does not necessarily care about football. This group manages the $2.4B of revenue.
Different organizations generate that $5.4B of revenue: The UF Foundation, UF Athletic Association (UAA), Gator Boosters, UF Alumni Association, Florida 4-H Club, Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics, GatorCare Health Management, etc. The UF Foundation "academics" generates at least 10X as much as UAA "athletics". UAA generates about 2X as much as UF Research Foundation.
I put this on top because football fans do not care, but if we are to have an intellectual debate about what is broken with the Florida Gator football program without sounding like a typical Internet rube we need to recognize that the University of Florida cares first and foremost about being the top public university, a top research institution, and a leading medical school and facility.
Blame the Athletics Department?
Not to beat a dead horse, but I cited this earlier: UF generates $190M of revenue (#8) across 19 sports, with $85M (#8) coming from football alone. Ref: [
https://www.gatorenvy.com/threads/who-can-replace-billy-napier.21304/post-92706] [
https://www.gatorenvy.com/threads/name-image-and-likeness-nil-comparisons.21288/post-92541]
Blame the Donors and Boosters?
Also mentioned earlier is that fact that UF donors are #4 in the nation at $763M. [
https://www.gatorenvy.com/threads/name-image-and-likeness-nil-comparisons.21288/post-92541] I use the term "donor" meaning "donating money to the University of Florida at large, not counting athletics". When I use the term "booster", I mean "donating money to UF athletics, with or without NIL collectives". I have to split it out this way to prove a point: we cannot and should not dictate to donors where they spend their money. They do their part. They are the ones floating the checks when we the complaining fans demand that UF remain atop the football and basketball world just like we did in 2006-2008. Those days are gone. We as fans need to put up or shut up. We cannot complain about what is broken with Gator football if we are not donating to Florida Victorious, which brings me to the next point.
Blame the NIL Collectives?
There is no easy way to compare all the NIL collectives, but the evidence seems to indicate that Florida is about #15 in the country in terms of NIL. [
https://www.gatorenvy.com/threads/name-image-and-likeness-nil-comparisons.21288/#post-92541]. Fans will complain about having to pay their bills, drink their Starbucks, and eat their steak rather than paying some kid money even though he may leave in a year. Tough luck--this is modern college football. There is not a darn thing Billy Napier, Scott Stricklin, the UAA, the UF Board of Trustees, or the UF president can do to add money to the NIL collectives other than casually mention that Florida Victorious exists. There is a gray area as to the degree that a UF employee can advertise for the collective--a gray area that FSU paid the price for exploiting. UF does not want to play with NCAA sanctions again and will be overly cautious in this regard--even if "everyone is cheating". From the UF administration to the athletic department to the donors/boosters, nobody wants to "cheat like everyone else". Only us poor fans who barely move the needle at maybe $10M in NIL value are willing to cheat just to get some football players. Florida has the 14th largest alumni base at 413,000 and the 6th largest fan base at 5.9M. If all 5.9M fans donated the bare minimum of $15 a month that would be $1.06B a year in NIL. UF would be unstoppable! In reality I think Florida is pulling $10M, meaning at most 1.7M fans are donating $15, or more likely, there are 2,000 members paying $100 a month ($2.4M a year) and the other $8M is being floated by the likes of Hugh Hathcock and a couple car dealership owners in Gainesville.
The Florida Victorious advisory board aready has Anthony Richardson, Patric Young, Trey Burton, and Danny Wuerffel. The richest donor, Gary Condron, is on the board. The richest football booster, Hugh Hathcock, is on the board. Laura Rutlege is on the board.
Blame the Rich Fans?
Florida does not gain revenue from Gatorade. The largest company in Gainesville is Charles Perry Partners (not counting the University of Florida). Exactech is in the top 10--the same Exactech that the basketball arena is named after. The wealthiest UF alumni are not guaranteed to be fans of sports, so we do not have a Phil Knight like Oregon does. Here are our wealthiest alumni [
https://moneyinc.com/most-notable-university-of-florida-alumni-in-business/]:
- Syed Moiz Balkhi (OptinMonster and passionate cricket fan)
- Alan Stephenson Boyd (retired president of Amtrak and Airbus)
- Robert Carter (CEO of FedEx)
- Alan Cohen (owner of Florida Panthers, former owner of Best Generics and Abrika Pharmaceuticals)
- JJ Dianel (former owner of law firm, Florida Times-Union)
- Mark Erstling (former producter at WJCT, WPSX, and WPSU television and radio stations)
- Aaron Kemmer (co-founder of Made in Space, Magic virtial assistant service, and Bettir blood pressure app)
- Jack Massey (launched Kentucky Fried Chicken, Hospital Corporation, and Winners Corporation on New York Stock Exchange). He already donates to other causes.
- Harry Wismer (former part owner of Detroit Lions)
- Stephen Ross (majority owner of Miami Dolphins, stakeholder in Equinox fitness, and successful realtor)
- James Bradford (former CEO or board member of several companies, including Genesco and Cracker Barrel)
- Joie Chitwood (former president of Daytona International Speedway)
- Howie Roseman (executive VP of football operations for the Philadelphia Eagles)
- Manuel Fernandez (founder of Gavilan Computers, former CEO of Gartner)
- Mason Hawkins (founder of Southeastern Asset Management)
- R. Preston McAfee (former VP or research fellow at Yahoo, Microsoft; professor of economics at University of Texas)
- Larry Hoffman (founder of a law firm and other legal practices around the world)
- Jack Katz (founder of Panama Jack)
These philanthropists already donate to other worthy causes or they have sports interests elsewhere.
Blame Famous Athletes?
Should former Gator athletes save the program by dumping their money into Gator football? Who wants to go around asking Tim Tebow to stop sending money to needy children and instead hand over to mercenary football players? What about Brandon Spikes, Shane Matthews, Emmit Smith, or anyone else? They all help their alma mater in many ways other than throwing cash at mercenary football players.
Blame the Athletic Director and Head Coach?
It is pointless to blame the AD and head coach. Billy Napier held the #3 recruiting class for six months. Scott Stricklin keeps Florida sports in the top 5 of the Learfield Director's Cub every year and is considered to be one of the two best ADs in the nation. Sure, Stricklin can ask for more money, but there needs to be money to get, and quite frankly, the problem is the Gator fans who complain but do not donate to the collective. We will find out when Napier goes 4-8 or worse next year, gets fired, and we repeat the cycle...BECAUSE THE COACH IS NOT THE PROBLEM. THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR IS NOT THE PROBLEM. The problem is that NIL puts us fans squarely in the driver's seat for the team's success. Do you hate the fact that Napier cannot land a top-5 class? Blame NIL! Auburn and Ole Miss have better fans than UF--their collective might be twice as large as Florida's! Do you hate the fact that Napier cannot close with transfer portal athletes? Same thing. Fans are being stupid and saying they will not donate until Napier shows them something. Well, he did show us something--that he can recruit the 3rd best class in the nation but lose it to schools with fans who fund the stupid collectives!
Blame the Fans
End of story. As a fan base we need to decide if we are fine with watching reruns of "Swamp Kings" when all we had to do was go to one game a year and cheer loudly, or buy some merchandise each Christmas. Those days are gone. We are now another Vanderbilt. We have high academics, and the university cares a lot more about academics, medicine, and research. The solution really is donating to Florida Victorious. 5.9M fans cannot go around crying about the program without investing $15 a month, or $180. That is about 60 Starbucks drinks a year or 5 drnks a month.
Note: this longwinded response is not intended to be a sales pitch for Florida Victorious. The point is that we are part of the problem and we spend a lot of energy on the Internet blaming everyone else.
