5 Star Obinna Ekezie, Jr. announcing at 4:30 ET today

KyWilson239

Junior
Jan 17, 2016
103
210
43
They don’t come close to the money available in Lexington. Even with bourbon money down a bit at the moment even that is dwarfed by the horse industry money.

Plus Ky’s only billionaire lives in Lexington and is in the horse industry among other interests and is a UK booster.

Even she doesn’t have the say that one man wields.

UK has not been out bid by anyone for a basketball player. Nor will they be. Pope has shown to not spend money wisely. But it’s still there for him to spend. There is no cap.

But he has been put on notice that he can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow and put the same product on the floor.
For Alani Nu, Hayden is from Lexington and a UK fan, his wife is from Maryland. As for the billionaire heiress to the Public Storage empire, she is a USC(al) grad and donor, not UK.

Louisville's money is from Steve Trager(Republic Bank), Jim Patterson(Rally's/Long John Silver founder), Lynn Family, Rick & David Kueber(Franchise owners sun tan city/planet fitness). There is more money in Louisville than Lexington, it is the business hub of the state.
 

FilsonCat

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2007
3,459
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Pope isn't credible with a lot of recruits. Hell, when Collin Chandler leaves after a good season, there's a problem. How do you explain that? With the amount he was utilized last season? The optics are terrible.

Even with Williams there to help, it's a heavy lift dealing with Pope and Fox on the bench.
 
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BigBluefoot

All-American
Jul 4, 2025
1,812
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How is a crap team, with a midget coach, that hasn’t won anything since 2013, getting all these players?
Apparently that midget knows how to sell Louisville. Unfortunately that midget beat our azz last season and probably will this season as well. Ughh
 

BigBluefoot

All-American
Jul 4, 2025
1,812
6,825
113
Still not going to make it any better .we have pope for a 3rd year ,and all the crying, and moaning will not change that scenario . Personally I think he is in over his head but firing coaches after 2 years not good from a national look .
Yeah, might cost us recruits...... the answer is not to run the program into the ground because someone arbitrarily decided that 3 years is some minimum time you need to suffer under a wrong hire.
 
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TeamAmerica

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For Alani Nu, Hayden is from Lexington and a UK fan, his wife is from Maryland. As for the billionaire heiress to the Public Storage empire, she is a USC(al) grad and donor, not UK.

Louisville's money is from Steve Trager(Republic Bank), Jim Patterson(Rally's/Long John Silver founder), Lynn Family, Rick & David Kueber(Franchise owners sun tan city/planet fitness). There is more money in Louisville than Lexington, it is the business hub of the state.
Don't forget whatever money Adidas is giving them.
 
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PushupMan

All-American
May 29, 2001
169,469
9,499
93
Louisville did have an “in” - Ekezie went to St Raphael Catholic school in Louisville when he was in 8th grade.
 
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Bluegrass79

Senior
May 4, 2006
515
720
61
Look some of these players seem to be generally trying to give Kentucky the FU and make us look as bad as possible.

Pope just visited this dude like 2 weeks ago.



You've got to fire Mark Pope. The players think he's a joke. And they're crushing him on purpose.
 
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Rainmaker

All-Conference
May 13, 2015
1,566
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@Rainmaker you said Louisville couldn’t afford any more players. What happened?
Read what I wrote about backdoor pay later NIL deals about 2 years weeks ago and you’ll know. They have these guys on 3-5 years payments. They will be bankrupt before 3 without a turnaround on income or major influx of new booster money. It’s a dance with the devil they are playing, not just them but a lot of these schools. It’s the play now pay later formula, affirm for basketball players. Allowing them to land these kids with only 1-2 millions in hand now and 3-5 years of 300-500k payments after. Best of luck to them, watch in 5 years what happens.
 

Rainman3067

Freshman
May 3, 2026
43
62
18
Read what I wrote about backdoor pay later NIL deals about 2 years weeks ago and you’ll know. They have these guys on 3-5 years payments. They will be bankrupt before 3 without a turnaround on income or major influx of new booster money. It’s a dance with the devil they are playing, not just them but a lot of these schools. It’s the play now pay later formula, affirm for basketball players. Allowing them to land these kids with only 1-2 millions in hand now and 3-5 years of 300-500k payments after. Best of luck to them, watch in 5 years what happens.
Well that's the kiss of death when you make a prediction. Watch what happens in 5 yrs coming from you probably means they'll have 3 or 4 FFs and a couple of 'chips. O cannot believe you keep coming back to embarrass yourself. Literally nothing you say ever pans out. How's that top 3 portal class looking? Wait maybe you meant top 13 and top 3 was a typo. 😂😂 You're a total clown and lack all self awareness. You have self importance in spades however.
 
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TeamAmerica

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
1,362
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Read what I wrote about backdoor pay later NIL deals about 2 years weeks ago and you’ll know. They have these guys on 3-5 years payments. They will be bankrupt before 3 without a turnaround on income or major influx of new booster money. It’s a dance with the devil they are playing, not just them but a lot of these schools. It’s the play now pay later formula, affirm for basketball players. Allowing them to land these kids with only 1-2 millions in hand now and 3-5 years of 300-500k payments after. Best of luck to them, watch in 5 years what happens.
No they aren't. NCAA has to OK all NIL deals . You are just spinning it because you have no clue when you said they were out of money.
 

Rainmaker

All-Conference
May 13, 2015
1,566
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No they aren't. NCAA has to OK all NIL deals . You are just spinning it because you have no clue when you said they were out of money.
These aren’t actual NIL deals, if you’d take actually took the time to read what I put about it a few weeks ago you’d know that. Watch and see like I said, 5 years or less than now schools will be bankrupt and or sued because of these deals because they won’t be able to pay for the previous 3-5 years rosters. Players and agents will sue and it will get messy. These are illegal deals promising future payments beyond the players playing years with the school. If you want to keep pulling the wool over your eyes about it be my guest, but I can promise you it’s happening.
 

TeamAmerica

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
1,362
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These aren’t actual NIL deals, if you’d take actually took the time to read what I put about it a few weeks ago you’d know that. Watch and see like I You said they had no money so said, 5 years or less than now schools will be bankrupt and or sued because of these deals because they won’t be able to pay for the previous 3-5 years rosters. Players and agents will sue and it will get messy. These are illegal deals promising future payments beyond the players playing years with the school. If you want to keep pulling the wool over your eyes about it be my guest, but I can promise you it’s happening.
I read it. It came off as a big conspiracy theory.
 
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Rainman3067

Freshman
May 3, 2026
43
62
18
These aren’t actual NIL deals, if you’d take actually took the time to read what I put about it a few weeks ago you’d know that. Watch and see like I said, 5 years or less than now schools will be bankrupt and or sued because of these deals because they won’t be able to pay for the previous 3-5 years rosters. Players and agents will sue and it will get messy. These are illegal deals promising future payments beyond the players playing years with the school. If you want to keep pulling the wool over your eyes about it be my guest, but I can promise you it’s happening.
You promise that a whole lot of things are "happening" and literally none of them have "happened." You're a complete joke. I just happened to see it sooner than most. You ought to lay low for awhile and quit embarrassing yourself
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
46,029
83,799
113
They don’t come close to the money available in Lexington. Even with bourbon money down a bit at the moment even that is dwarfed by the horse industry money.

Plus Ky’s only billionaire lives in Lexington and is in the horse industry among other interests and is a UK booster.

Even she doesn’t have the say that one man wields.

UK has not been out bid by anyone for a basketball player. Nor will they be. Pope has shown to not spend money wisely. But it’s still there for him to spend. There is no cap.

But he has been put on notice that he can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow and put the same product on the floor.
Then he sucks worse than imagined.
 
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Rainman3067

Freshman
May 3, 2026
43
62
18
These aren’t actual NIL deals, if you’d take actually took the time to read what I put about it a few weeks ago you’d know that. Watch and see like I said, 5 years or less than now schools will be bankrupt and or sued because of these deals because they won’t be able to pay for the previous 3-5 years rosters. Players and agents will sue and it will get messy. These are illegal deals promising future payments beyond the players playing years with the school. If you want to keep pulling the wool over your eyes about it be my guest, but I can promise you it’s happening.
Here's some of your greatest hits presented without comment:


"And Kelsey blew 2/3 of his NIL spend already and still has to field a team. It is comical people think they've done something with these 2 signings and spending $8.5 million on them."

"Wait a week [this was around April 12] from today and see whose roster is better, ours or little brother's."

"Mo is the new factor. He was a Nike athlete and is very good friends with [Jamal] Crawford and Stokes has a much higher trust factor with him. Mo is the new draw for Stokes. Also our current offer is $1.8 million more than when he last visited."

"5-6 of these guys with 2-3 others not listed will fill out our roster. If we get Stokes only 4 instead of 5-6:
Stokes
Goode
Diallo *
Wilkins*
Reibe
Freeman
Alva-something (regardless he ain't coming)
Evans Jr.
Wright
Cox
Murauskas
Brown"
 
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FilsonCat

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2007
3,459
4,189
113
These aren’t actual NIL deals, if you’d take actually took the time to read what I put about it a few weeks ago you’d know that.
UL has always pushed the boundaries. They are for sure declaring these contracts through the NIL Go portal. The threshold for plausibility is fairly low. It's the way they are structuring future rights that is novel. The players era festival is being set up for this purpose. For example, the entire package might look something like this for Bidunga:

$2M paid during the season
$1M paid over the following year
$1M in appearance/licensing installments
$1M in post-departure NIL usage rights
$1M in conditional renewals/options/bonuses
 

Broker

All-Conference
Aug 29, 2012
1,691
1,680
113
Kentucky reportedly offered top 2026 recruit Tyran Stokes an NIL package around $6 million ($4M from the school + $2M via Nike) before he ultimately committed to Kansas. While some rumors suggested offers as high as $7-10 million, the prevailing reports focused on a $6M+ package in a tight battle between UK and Kansas.
I just hope these kids are getting some good solid financial help. Someone or a group that has the kid's best interest at heart like investing for future, taxes and tax planning, and finally smart spending. The kids need to learn early not to risk what they have and need on things they don't have or don't need. A very large percent of these kids getting 1 to 6 million will be broke before they are 28 to 30 years old or sooner. Very few will realize this could give them a great quality future in life.
 

BleedBlue747

Sophomore
Dec 5, 2025
113
116
43
Does anyone know ULs NIL budget? I hear up to 12 mill but they have not missed on many.
 

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Bill_the_cat

Senior
Nov 17, 2025
333
437
57
Someone explain to me how this works. My understanding is the NIL is money paid by advertisers (boosters) and can in no way shape or form be for playing arcs particular school (yeah, right).
So since the schools will not directly be paying, how are they going to be sued?
 

CardfanZou

Redshirt
Mar 24, 2026
26
19
3
UL has always pushed the boundaries. They are for sure declaring these contracts through the NIL Go portal. The threshold for plausibility is fairly low. It's the way they are structuring future rights that is novel. The players era festival is being set up for this purpose. For example, the entire package might look something like this for Bidunga:

$2M paid during the season
$1M paid over the following year
$1M in appearance/licensing installments
$1M in post-departure NIL usage rights
$1M in conditional renewals/options/bonuses
Come on you hired Cal as a coach and everyone knows how he recruited and what he did,Kentucky needs better basketball facilities
 

FilsonCat

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2007
3,459
4,189
113
Nothing ever happened,if it really did McGee would of been in jail,The cops looked into it all they could find was here say,
That's the hill you are going to die on? Just because the grand jury didn't indict McGee or Powell, you assume that nothing happened? Nobody talked, they walked. The fact that those types of characters were even around the UL program was a disgrace. But as we've learned, there's not much beneath the UL admin. Lying, cheating, and stealing are just part of the UL way.

The absence of a criminal indictment, or a prosecutorial recommendation not to proceed with the case to a grand jury because of the type of evidence available, does not prove that it never happened. It just means that the grand jury chose not to return an indictment.

I don't think you know what hearsay actually means.
 

Bill_the_cat

Senior
Nov 17, 2025
333
437
57
It is funny that fans argue about the depravity of schools cheating and to decide which is worse.
Cheating is cheating.
UK just like Duke, UNC, Louisville, UCLA and every other school has paid for players for decades.
Some got caught, some didn’t.
 
Oct 9, 2015
14,041
37,214
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Nothing ever happened,if it really did McGee would of been in jail,The cops looked into it all they could find was here say,
Holy ****. This is hilarious. Congrats on killing the portal this cycle. Pat definitely on a tear. We will see what he can do with it. But the statement you just made above shows me you are just blind from your fandom. I’m sure many UK fans would be the same.
 

FilsonCat

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2007
3,459
4,189
113
It is funny that fans argue about the depravity of schools cheating and to decide which is worse.
Cheating is cheating.
UK just like Duke, UNC, Louisville, UCLA and every other school has paid for players for decades.
Some got caught, some didn’t.
There's no such thing in the current era. Pay for play in a different guise is here to stay. If they can concoct justifications, some of the creative contract frameworks that are being utilized are just a fig leaf over what are essentially hybrid employment contracts.

When you consider that that the AAU circuit pipelines that top recruits enter the market. The entire value of their NIL is tied to which schools they sign with, and which sponsorship ecosystem promoted them. The NIL value is not singular, it's more of a group value, and the value is only valuable so long as it is combined with performance, school, and conference affiliation.

The upshot is that, except for a few unique cases, most of these guys are getting NIL only as a condition for their performance. But for that participation, no deals would be being made, and the value would be much diminished.

Schools should be paying employment taxes for these players and negotiating real contracts, insurance, and dealing with a CBA like a semi-professional club team. That is the direction things are headed.
 

TeamAmerica

All-Conference
Jul 3, 2025
1,362
4,935
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There's no such thing in the current era. Pay for play in a different guise is here to stay. If they can concoct justifications, some of the creative contract frameworks that are being utilized are just a fig leaf over what are essentially hybrid employment contracts.

When you consider that that the AAU circuit pipelines that top recruits enter the market. The entire value of their NIL is tied to which schools they sign with, and which sponsorship ecosystem promoted them. The NIL value is not singular, it's more of a group value, and the value is only valuable so long as it is combined with performance, school, and conference affiliation.

The upshot is that, except for a few unique cases, most of these guys are getting NIL only as a condition for their performance. But for that participation, no deals would be being made, and the value would be much diminished.

Schools should be paying employment taxes for these players and negotiating real contracts, insurance, and dealing with a CBA like a semi-professional club team. That is the direction things are headed.
They would have to have a collective bargaining contract in place. NIL can't be performance based. They aren't considered employees of the school so why should the school have to pay employee taxes? These guys are considered independent contractors.
 

FilsonCat

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2007
3,459
4,189
113
They would have to have a collective bargaining contract in place. NIL can't be performance based. They aren't considered employees of the school so why should the school have to pay employee taxes? These guys are considered independent contractors.
As it stands now, players are getting 1099 forms and have to absorb the total cost of tax compliance. Universities and the NCAA are avoiding the issue for as long as they can. Players aren't truly independent contractors. Coaches and administrators determine their schedule, determine when and how work is performed, and can terminate their spot if they do not meet performance standards.

There is no CBA, I am saying that their should be in the future. And to make that happen, schools will need to be legally disentangled, separate entities from the academic institutions. A separate entity that can limit school liability, create licensing deals with schools, conferences, and the NCAA (whomever holds TV revenue rights), and handle the administrative end of running for profit semi-professional club teams. For example, there's an executive order set to take effect August 1st that could jeopardize grants to the academic side of Colleges and Universities depending on NIL compliance.

NIL in this context is implicitly linked with performance. The framework and settlement says that it cannot be, but how does the system actually work? We're functionally already in pay for play.
 
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