Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Mark Byington - Now It's Legal Podcast with Jim Cavale - S3E5
0 Playsin 19 hours
Mark Byington is currently the head coach of the Vanderbilt University men’s basketball team. Prior to this role, he was the head coach at James Madison University, leading the team to its most successful four-season run in more than 30 years. From 2013-2020, Mark was the head coach at Georgia Southern, achieving three-consecutive 20-win seasons. Before becoming a head coach, he was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech and the College of Charleston.
Mark joins Now It’s Legal to discuss his current role as the head coach of the Vanderbilt University men’s basketball team, and his experience reconstructing the team through the NCAA transfer portal during his first season.
.
.
.
About Now It's Legal In July 2021, NIL forever changed the trajectory of college athletics. It’s been a long time coming as the NCAA has long needed changes like NIL, the transfer portal, revenue sharing and other benefits for college athletes. We introduce to you the Now It’s Legal podcast. Join us as we discuss the industry that holds the hearts of millions of fans who want to understand where its trajectory is heading. We are talking to those who are invested in and affected by NIL including: Former and current college athletes, presidents and head coaches, broadcasters and media personalities, investors and more. This is just the beginning of NIL and what it means for the future of college athletics.
Host Jim Cavale is a former college athlete and entrepreneur who has become an advocate for young athletes across the country. In 2017, he created the INFLCR app that allowed athletes to build their brand on social media, and in 2021, evolved into the NIL management technology for more than 100,000 athletes across 200 college athletic programs. INFLCR has since been acquired by sports tech titan, Teamworks.
In 2023, Jim founded Athletes.org which which is the players association for college athletes to negotiate the best terms for their college athletics experience. AO provides its member athletes with a free membership, empowering them with a voice, on demand support, and group licensing income in the same ways that professional league associations do for their member athletes.
Tune in to a new episode on Wednesdays this summer and join in on the conversation on Instagram with @nowitslegalpod and @jimcavale.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Now It's Legal' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Manziel had the high selling jersey, Braun moved back to Cleveland. Drake made a song about a man he ain't even working.
00:00:10
Speaker
What's up, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Now It's Legal, the podcast where we talk about everything past, present, and future in college athletics. I'm Jim Cavall, your host, and on this episode, we continue with the men's basketball theme as we're going to be talking to Vanderbilt head men's basketball coach Mark Byington. Now,
00:00:30
Speaker
Coach Byington had a very successful tenure at James Madison where he took him to the NCAA tournament and he returned to March Madness with Vanderbilt this past year in a historic year for SEC men's basketball as they had 14 teams get bids to the NCAA tournament and coach Byington is going to talk about everything going
Mark Byington's Coaching Journey
00:00:50
Speaker
on. in college basketball from a head coach's perspective. What's it like to build a program after having a great year, but now starting from scratch again, building a roster, the transfer portal, name, image, and likeness, and of course, house settlement and the fact that there's still no rules that can be governed in college athletics because there's no collective bargaining. We're gonna talk about all that and much more in this interview with Mark Byington, head men's basketball coach at Vanderbilt University.
00:01:19
Speaker
right, coach. So first of all, thank you for hosting me. This new facility is amazing. You got to be loving having the basketball office right next to this beautiful new football stadium. Yeah, it's the best of both worlds.
00:01:31
Speaker
I mean, we have the most modern basketball facility. Everything you you can think of from sports performance to basketball training to um athletic rehab. And then you walk 25 steps and we have a Memorial Gymnasium historic gym. So it's a it's a real cool setting.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, I remember growing up watching games and you always remember a Memorial Gymnasium because the benches are at the the the the foot of the court on both sides. and And so it is a legendary gym and this is just an amazing facility.
00:01:59
Speaker
um You know, I think where we want to start is Throughout your career, you've you've coached as a head coach at several different size
Building a Basketball Program
00:02:08
Speaker
institutions. You're an SEC institution right now.
00:02:11
Speaker
SEC basketball is as good as it's ever been in history. um But i want to start with when you get your first head coaching job and you've got to build a roster and what it was like then versus what it's like now with the transfer portal and NIL, because it's really two different worlds.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's not even close to what it used to be. And, um you know, I was the type of um get into the business. had to take any job that wanted me. And I didn't have a famous last name. I wasn't a historical college basketball player.
00:02:41
Speaker
So I had to grind along the way. and And I was fortunate. Not many people wanted me, but Georgia Southern gave me a chance. And then when I took over that roster, it was... Seven straight losing seasons.
00:02:52
Speaker
It was um a previous like a popular coach and ah the roster, a lot of guys wanted to leave. But at the same time, we were dealing with APR issues and some of the guys weren't eligible, about to lose scholarships. Guys were in and out and I was trying to rebuild a roster.
00:03:08
Speaker
And at that time, I thought the best strategy was not to go here and now, but say, let's make it a two year plan. and bring in and guys. And I had a really good player sitting out with a knee injury. I brought in another really good transfer that had to sit out.
00:03:22
Speaker
And so it was just a different era. And I think you you had more patience probably from different people. But at the same time, there's no way I could have built it within one year.
Impact of NIL and Transfer Portal
00:03:31
Speaker
And fortunate for me in the second year, i mean, we had two three-pointers that would have sent us to the NCAA tournament, missed both of them. But we were right there and and in a championship game, in a Sunbelt championship, that quickly.
00:03:44
Speaker
But it could not have been in one one-year span. And now you probably can do it a little bit faster. Yeah, I mean, you to go to JMU as your second stop as a head coach and right around COVID, first of all, so we're dealing with the pandemic, but also the advent of NIL and the portal, which can be a blessing sometimes for the mid-majors.
00:04:04
Speaker
But also it can be tough because you lose players to the big schools when they perform at your school, right? So talk about your time at JMU. um Obviously made the tournament, made it to the round of 32, and that really set you up to come here. But talk about the difference there for you, once again, building a roster, building a team, as now NIL is a reality, transfer portal is a reality.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yes, that first year they were talking about NIL, and I remember almost ignoring it. I was like, oh, that'll be somebody for different leagues, or or that'll be somebody else's, something they'll have to deal with.
00:04:36
Speaker
And even in our first year there, we were dealing with COVID, and it wasn't that big a deal or impact on our team. But if it became that way quickly. Yeah. And and by the time, you know, towards my my third third year going in my fourth year James Madison, it was a big thing. um You know, we had to retain really good players.
00:04:54
Speaker
And a big reason why we won 32 games my last year there, um I brought back a player to be in preseason and postseason player the year. Another all-conference player, um brought in good transfers.
00:05:06
Speaker
But just the retainment of really good players That was a challenge and that's the reason we had a really good year. But then you start seeing it kind of go from even where it was three years ago, two years ago now.
00:05:20
Speaker
I mean, the momentum of it and the kind of the snowball effect of it keeps getting bigger and I don't know how to say it, but um it's almost like a wildfire that's catching. yeah It has not slowed down. And so you're trying to catch up to where it was. If you're doing that, you're not going to be where you need to be.
00:05:36
Speaker
Well, what's interesting is you talked about how you were thinking what about what NIL would be back probably in like 2020. Everybody was kind of trying to predict like, well, maybe we'll you know get local brands and they'll do marketing deals with our players. and you know if you're at a smaller school, you're thinking, you know our players are only going to be able to do so much because we're not in a big market or all all these things.
00:05:55
Speaker
But all of those assumptions were based on real NIL, endorsement deals. correct Name, image, and likeness endorsement deals. right Patrick Mahomes doing a deal with State Farm would be the analogy. But quickly, NIL really turned into a disguise for pay for play, right collectives.
00:06:12
Speaker
Donors funding a shell company to be able to pay players to play to school. And of course, it's a touchy topic. Pay for play is a touchy phrase. But obviously, as a coach, you've had to deal with that because in conversations with recruits, it's not just...
00:06:27
Speaker
hey, here's what offense we run, here's what defense we run, here's why you fit, here's the academic opportunity, here's the team we've got, all the things you used to sell, but now money does come up and it doesn't come up with an endorsement like, hey, what endorsement can you use?
00:06:40
Speaker
How much can you pay me? Talk about the the the change into that that I'm sure you weren't ready for.
Sports Psychology in Coaching
00:06:45
Speaker
Well, I mean, nowadays it's the first or second question asked, or if it's not asked, it wants to be known quickly.
00:06:51
Speaker
And so when you're calling a potential player recruit, you know, they want to know two things for us. You know, their playing time and how much money they're going to get. And, you know, thinking about how it was even 10, 12 years ago,
00:07:03
Speaker
When you're talking about your school, you're talking about the cafeteria, the business school, the living conditions. Right. And now nowadays, those don't even come up even as something that's important. um But understanding, you know, that's where we are now.
00:07:18
Speaker
And so you got to balance more things out than you ever have. I mean, talking about money and and in that conversation comes up constantly throughout my day.
00:07:29
Speaker
And just like you said, you know, you we take it five, 10 years ago that never came up. And I'm talking about recruits. I would talk about development. um You're player of four years graduating. Can't wait to walk when I'm see you get here and beer for four more years. and And it the the the thing now is I've evolved. I try to take pride in that. And it's almost everything is in a one-year plan right now.
00:07:50
Speaker
yeah You talk about what can we do for you for these next 12 months and then we'll evaluate it after that. So when you get a team on campus, and we talked about this After and NIL, it's turned into, you know, one-year plan, right? And so it doesn't mean you always start fresh with no no roster and have to build it from scratch, but a lot of coaches have done that, right?
00:08:08
Speaker
um For you, you have an interesting... aspect to your leadership in that you're not just a basketball coach that understands X's and O's and knows how to lead a program.
00:08:20
Speaker
You're a guy who studies psychology and the mental side of sports. And i would assume with young people, when you're bringing them on campus, you think you know how they're going to play once they're out in the lights, but not all young people react the same way. Talk about about how you've applied your mental aspect of sport knowledge to how you lead your team and how you gel and and put your guys together.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, it was always an interest of mine. And I got my master's degree in sports psychology from University Virginia. And as a player, it always fascinated me. So as a coach, it's even more so about how to motivate or understand players. And and then right now,
00:09:00
Speaker
the comp the The players right now deal with way more than when I was playing. I mean, the the money pressure, the social media pressure. I mean, everything's scrutinized. And they have to deal with way more than anybody else, any other generation has dealt with.
00:09:13
Speaker
And I try to be conscious of that. um When I'm recruiting somebody, I want to know Couple things, you know, is it's happened fastness in the transfer, but I want to know, you know, what makes them tick? What motivates them?
00:09:26
Speaker
is money Is money the number one motivation for them? How much they care about winning? Do they care about somebody else? And you got to do your research yeah and you're trying to figure out and ask questions. You're trying to read between the lines.
00:09:39
Speaker
but it has to happen quick. And i don't I don't have six months a lot of times to do background investigations and all that. We try to do it quick. My staff understands it's important to me and they do a great job. and And you want to find somebody that has a common goals and common mission to what we want, to what our program wants.
00:09:58
Speaker
And if they fit that, then we think they're gonna be successful here.
Rise of SEC Basketball
00:10:01
Speaker
So when you get to the point where you feel like all those boxes are checked, your your staff tells you this guy can play, um you get to know him from all the different ways you do research, like you said, is is necessary, and and you get a deal done on the financial side, there's a contract signed.
00:10:19
Speaker
But it's it's not like the NBA where like the contract signed with the team and there's like a base salary to play the games. And then if you maybe make all and NBA, you get a bonus and incentives. And and then if you take the team to the championship, you get another bonus.
00:10:36
Speaker
Instead, it's it's an endorsement deal that's tied to coming and playing here. And I talk to coaches about this a lot. that can be really hard for you because you had to go find the funding to be able to pay the player. um And sometimes players don't perform or you know things don't work out.
00:10:53
Speaker
And it's hard with a contract that's more of an endorsement deal and not a performance deal for you to hold the player accountable. So like how do you work through that, especially now that you're a school like Vanderbilt where you have a budget to to pay the guys through NIL?
00:11:07
Speaker
How do you hold them accountable to the contract and and and also like keep the main thing the main thing? Yeah, I mean, we're in the worst structure of any hey paid sport.
00:11:17
Speaker
I mean, all the professional teams, I don't care what league you want to look at, soccer, hockey, baseball, football. I mean, these other teams have a lot of rules and a lot of things to not only protect the athlete, but protect you know the franchise or or the program, the team.
00:11:32
Speaker
And right now in college, we don't have any of that. So we're, you know, everything happens so quick. We're trying to catch up. We're trying to have structure. We're trying to have some guidelines. And and right now we don't.
00:11:43
Speaker
um You know, as a coach, you're you're trying to find, you know, something that you feel like you can understand somebody's value and the performance they're going to have. But the challenge is we deal with 18 and 19 year olds.
00:11:57
Speaker
That's way different if you're giving an NBA player a five year deal who's already been in a league for three or four years. Right. And you you got more, you know, I guess more sample size and things to look at.
00:12:08
Speaker
You know, sometimes guys get in this league in the SEC and they get overwhelmed and they might transfer up or transfer down. So it's not a sure thing. um But you try to do the best you can. And and, you know, the players are coming in a lot of times.
00:12:23
Speaker
You know, there are they're thinking about it. You know, if I have a better year, I'll get more money. I'll i'll have a bigger a market for for the next one. And ah that pressure, that scrutiny and everything else, and you can see it wear on players. You can see it throughout the year. And and a lot of times they're...
00:12:40
Speaker
financial packages kind of get leaked out and then you kind of see the pressure they get from from the media. The accountability comes from the market instead of the coach. Yes. And and then so, you know, it's like, I can't believe we're paying this guy amount of money and he can't even make a free throw. yeah um So it's, there's a lot of different angles right now.
00:12:56
Speaker
it's ah It's insane. So the SEC, I grew up in Syracuse, New York. I grew up in the classic Big East in the late and and early And and When I came down to Alabama to play Division II baseball at Montevallo, I got to be in the middle of SEC country. And and my one my one bragging point, I couldn't brag about football, so my one bragging point was always, but we're a lot better in basketball.
00:13:22
Speaker
Well, now the SEC is... just as good or better than the Big East was back in that heyday. um Ironically, Commissioner Sankey is also from upstate New York, and he brought in Trangisi, who used to run the Big East. And this league has transformed itself over the last decade, and I've watched it happen.
00:13:40
Speaker
And you know this year, double-digit quantity of teams from the conference made the tournament, and you were one of them. What was it like to see, first of all, the league explode
NCAA Settlements and Financial Landscape
00:13:50
Speaker
like it did this year, and to be a part of the story with Vanderbilt basketball?
00:13:54
Speaker
Well, the good thing is I didn't overthink it. And there are some times I had those moments. Last year, we're at the SEC head coaches meeting in Destin, Florida, and know in a horseshoe-shaped seating arrangement. I'm looking around, and I'm like, well, that guy won a national championship. He was just in the Final Four.
00:14:13
Speaker
That guy was in the Elite Eight. and you're going around the room, and then it is an impressive room. It's unbelievable. And and then so you're dealing with you know Hall of Fame great coaches. And... And then you're also looking around the talent of the league and the players. So you're like, all great coaches, great players.
00:14:29
Speaker
But that the most impressive thing to me about this league was even adding on to those two was everybody's committed. Everybody is all in. And you go to these arenas and they're sold out.
00:14:40
Speaker
Fans are there an hour or two early. um Student sections are lined up all the way around the building. And and and that's what you want to be a part of. you want You want that challenge. You want to go against the best coaches, the best players, and the best environments.
00:14:53
Speaker
and all that's here for you. So um now when you're in the middle of it, I mean, it's warfare. I mean, it it is really tough and you kind of, um you get beat up a lot and you're trying to make it through and you you try to like understand your guys are going through some battles out there.
00:15:09
Speaker
But every time you beat a team, you beat somebody really good. It's a big accomplishment. And then seeing the excitement that basketball was able to get here at Vanderbilt when our fans saw these really good teams come here and were able to beat some of them and the court stormings and all those things, it was fun to be a part of.
00:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, the court storming story, you know, it was crazy just because I know that the athletic director begged, please, you know, don't do it. But you guys, it was a huge win. And it definitely was something that people all around the country saw. It doesn't hurt with recruiting.
00:15:40
Speaker
um And and none of none of the run you made last year hurts. it It all helps the effort to build this program. And so as you do it in the SEC, you know,
00:15:51
Speaker
Another issue with college athletics is there's no transparency on what people are getting paid, right? um Because we're disguising pay for play as NIL, we don't know what's real and what's not. We just, you know, we read on three who's happens to be down the street and they do a good job reporting what they hear rumor wise, but it's it's hard to really know, right? And, um,
00:16:16
Speaker
Lately, we've heard that there is a real inflation happening in college basketball payrolls, right? And some of that ah is probably because of the house settlement. And with the approval, schools will have the $20 million dollars a year cap. And 3 to 4 million on average is probably going to basketball, depending on the school, out of that 20 million.
00:16:39
Speaker
And so there's going regulations around these collective deals through Deloitte from the settlement. And it seems like there's a lot of inflation of let's get as many basketball players here right now with collective deals before the settlement terms begin.
00:16:51
Speaker
And
Transparency and Market Inflation
00:16:52
Speaker
there's been this rush where you're hearing tens of millions of dollars on one roster in this upcoming season without you know sharing what you don't want to share. Like just what's really happening?
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, what you said, I mean, you're right on with the pulse so of what really happened. I don't think we anticipated. So you're around ah um December or January this year, and you're kind of thinking, all right, this is going to be the amount of money that we're going to have. And we'll we'll be competitive taking this amount of money basically for your salary for next year's team.
00:17:24
Speaker
and And then what happened was the market went up. It went way up. And, you know, there there was an urgency whenever this court settlement is going to take place and people are trying to get deals done before the gavel that hits down and and they announce that things are going to change.
00:17:40
Speaker
And so the market went crazy. um You know, the some of the teams um What they're spending on their team is is you know two or three times what they spent last year, and they spent a lot last year.
00:17:54
Speaker
And you know there is some inflation. Some of these things are true. There are some times where it's not true. And yeah you'll you'll talk to an agent, and they'll talk about you know it's $800,000 to get involved with somebody.
00:18:07
Speaker
And then you kind of do your own research, and the best offer they have $400,000. And there is also times where we would go into a meeting and and it's on Tuesday and we're like, hey, you know, we think it's going to be around 800,000.
00:18:20
Speaker
And then you go a couple of days later and somebody blew that market out, blew that price out. And that thing went to one, one, two, one, three. So the transparency is not there. It's hard. You're trying to figure it out. You're trying to read between the lines of what somebody's saying, what an agent's saying, what another coach might have on their roster.
00:18:40
Speaker
And you just don't know. Yeah. And you're trying to do your best you can with little information, which is not easy. And you go back to my my analogy earlier, Patrick Mahomes' State Farm deal is a real NIL deal.
00:18:51
Speaker
We don't know what it is because FERPA protects him from having to share it. But we do know what his deal is with the Kansas City Chiefs to play quarterback. And we can even see the contract and see what the base salary and incentives are.
00:19:03
Speaker
and And that's why if if these deals were structured the way his quarterback deal was structured, we wouldn't have this issue. But it is interesting because this rush to get players for basketball or football through collective deals may be all for nothing because the Deloitte Clearinghouse that's gonna regulate fair market value seems like it's gonna be pretty tough to pull off here in the United States of America. It'd be like you know somebody telling me like I can't sell my house for a certain amount because the Clearinghouse says it's not worth it. Like that wouldn't work, right?
00:19:34
Speaker
So talk about that aspect is as far as like, I mean, what what are you thinking about the future between revenue sharing and how Vanderbilt's going to support you in that collective deals, not just here for you, but other schools? Like, how are you thinking about competing? Because there's so many what ifs.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, the what ifs right now actually gives gives somebody in my position a lot of anxiety because you want to build a program. You want to figure out, all right, this is what I have. This is what I'm going into. This is so what i'm competing against.
00:20:05
Speaker
And you know right now, I think the anxiety probably in the SEC is this, that you know Big East teams or teams that don't have football, oh yeah that that their revenue sharing might be twice what we might have in the SEC.
00:20:19
Speaker
And SEC is going off a historical year right now, and I don't think anybody wants to go back. I think you know great coaches, great teams, great environments, but we want to keep that going.
00:20:31
Speaker
but it takes really good players. yeah And I'm not good enough to coach bad players. Nick Saban said it. i'm I'm in the same category. think everybody else will kind of echo those things where you know you have to have players that are going to be able to perform. You want to have the best in the country.
00:20:45
Speaker
And they might get dispersed somewhere else if they got two or three times the salary cap or revenue sharing that we have.
Need for Collective Bargaining
00:20:52
Speaker
And then the other part of it going to be who can really kind of figure out these true endorsements.
00:20:58
Speaker
Who can figure out is it going to be bigger cities, smaller cities? um And there's so many what ifs right now you're trying to get say, all right, let's just figure out like what's here and now.
00:21:09
Speaker
But we are looking in the future trying to say, all right, let's plan ahead. Try to look around the corner and see if we can figure it out. But we still don't quite know. And that's where you get that one-year mindset. It's hard to build a three to five-year, even 10-year vision for the program. You just got to think the year ahead.
00:21:24
Speaker
And that's also because it's really hard to lock a player in beyond, what, eight to 10 months? um There's no transfer rules. There really isn't a portal, technically. um It's called the portal, and there's dates. But technically, an athlete can unroll and enroll any time they want right now. We saw that with Xavier Lucas from Wisconsin.
00:21:43
Speaker
And so there's this reality of getting players to commit is tough. We've even heard rumors, and I'd love to hear if you've ever heard this, but that some agents but during the season, while they're players players pay playing well, um are getting guys on a Zoom and saying, hey, you know, here's what we could get you at other schools.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's definitely going on. Well, you know, as a coach, you're worried about your team and your opponent. and But there ah it's there's always been outside influences.
00:22:16
Speaker
And there's been things that you try to make sure you air everybody says block out the noise. Well, the noise is louder. And, you know, if a player is not playing, you have somebody in the rear saying, you know, you need to get your numbers up.
00:22:27
Speaker
If they are playing well, they'll start talking about this is what you're going to get next year from this other place. and And there will be times where agents are reaching out and there's, you know, it's non-conference play.
00:22:38
Speaker
And they're saying, he you know, he'll be in the portal next year, which. that's hard to believe because if we're hearing that from other agents coming in our way, when well, it's going on our our program as well.
00:22:51
Speaker
And so I really like your like you're talking about. I wish there was some way that we knew that we can build a program on a multi-year deal and have somebody come back for a two two or three year and And I think the fans would love that.
00:23:05
Speaker
The fans would love to be able to watch somebody come in and develop and stay around. And there is a balance of of making sure that you know the players are compensated for their market value. But then also um yeah staying around a program. And you know sometimes as I joke when some of these guys go so many places, I don't know where they go for homecoming. right It's like, which school do they choose yeah to go back and where they have They should choose your school last so they can get the diploma.
00:23:31
Speaker
Exactly. and and so You can get them after they're all developed. Yeah, i mean, it's a valuable it's a valuable degree. But I mean, like picking like where is the homecoming, like who you attach to. yeah um Because that is a big part of college. You need a place to come back and be and be home.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, you do. And you know a lot of the solutions to these issues, they're not actually very novel, right? Like you talked about it earlier, all the the major pro sports leagues have rules.
00:23:55
Speaker
And any multi-billion dollar sports and entertainment business in America is able to have rules because they collectively bargain the rules with their athletes.
Building Team Unity
00:24:05
Speaker
And ah that allows them to enforce them.
00:24:08
Speaker
And there's no lawsuits. You know, imagine that. And so um for me, it's been interesting because You know, for the past decade, I've been building software for college athletic departments and pro teams, Teamworks, Influencer, products like that.
00:24:23
Speaker
And when i when I made the decision to to sell my company and start building athletes.org with this vision of we need collective bargaining in the industry, 20 months ago was when I launched it. A lot of my former friends who are ADs, and some are still friends, um reacted in different ways.
00:24:40
Speaker
But 20 months later, I'd say more than 80% of power conference ADs want collective bargaining and want rules. And I'd say 100% of coaches do, right? And so we're at this...
00:24:52
Speaker
inflection point where it's like, how do we do it? And and and that's a whole other conversation. I'm giving a keynote tonight at the Sports Lawyers Conference. We'll talk about all the nerd stuff with how you do it.
00:25:03
Speaker
The point is, is there's a world where there's transfer rules, there's free agency rules, there's multi-year deals. And if you leave, you got to get bought out. There's academic requirements and you got to perform to a certain level in school to be able to play for the school. There's eligibility limits and you can't play past a certain point so many years.
00:25:22
Speaker
There's minimum salaries and maximum salaries and there's a cap and you can't disguise compensation on the outside because anything that's pay for play has to come from that cap.
00:25:34
Speaker
There's health and safety standards. There's a world where that that happens. And An example of that world where a collective type situation applies would be the WNBA, where they have a collective bargaining agreement.
00:25:45
Speaker
The average salary is a little less than $80,000 per player per year. And the city of Las Vegas tried to fund a deal for each player on the Las Vegas Aces at $100,000 a player to promote the city of Las vegas and the league stopped it because they have a collective bargaining deal and that would have created an unfair advantage for the Las Vegas Aces.
00:26:05
Speaker
So there's even a world where collective deals wouldn't be allowed if you have a collective bargaining agreement. So for you, without getting nerdy and getting into collective bargaining, but like how much do you wanna see, because you you love college basketball, how much do you want to see college basketball have some structure and have some rules like that that can make it enforceable, accountable, but also protect everyone including the athletes?
00:26:29
Speaker
Well, I think it needs to be best for everybody. And it needs to be best for the athletes. It needs to be best for the coaches, best for universities. And and it shouldn't be one-sided.
00:26:39
Speaker
you know Right now, you know there's there's how the power kind of leans. And and it leans 100% towards you know the athletes. And you know they they should be compensated.
00:26:52
Speaker
I mean, especially you look at the SEC and the crowds and the TV deals and NCAA tournament. yeah I mean, like like they should get a big chunk of that. They deserve it. um But at the same time, I think as ah you know as a university, as a coach,
00:27:06
Speaker
just give us some type of rules. yeah Give us some type of structure. And even if it does you know favor the athletes, just like the professionals do, um just give us something that we can work with. Because right now, there really is not any rules.
00:27:22
Speaker
There's no guardrails. There's not true NIL. theres there's um There's collectives. There's the revenue sharing that's out there in the distance, but it's not there yet. And we were anticipated already being here by now.
00:27:35
Speaker
And so it really the biggest thing that that I think I would like is like, all right, get give me the rules and let me know like how to play by them. I think the other coaches like it too. I think a lot of the families, the players will like it.
00:27:48
Speaker
um It wouldn't benefit everybody. I mean, if you're if you're an agent and right now this is a great market for an agent. because there's more money and and the market just went up and there's not revenue sharing.
00:28:02
Speaker
And um there's also no regulations. There's no. Yes. don't have to do a certification. You can charge 20 percent if you want is your commission and pros capped at 3 percent and you got to take a certification.
00:28:13
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. So, I mean, there's it's not for everybody is cheering for it. But at the same time, I think somebody and and I'm not even one of these guys has been head coach for 20 years. I'm going to year 13 next year.
00:28:25
Speaker
But there is some some purity in the sport. it It is the competitive system. It's the team. It's the basketball part of it. And what I deal with right now sitting in that chair behind you is um very few times I'm actually thinking about basketball.
00:28:38
Speaker
It's roster like construction, roster retainment. um it's It's roster budget and all these different things. where you don't really think about basketball sometimes until it's like the first practice of the season. and You're like, oh, now I can go enjoy my job and coach and see where this team is.
Conclusion: Future of College Sports
00:28:57
Speaker
And it's a frustration a lot of head coaches have right now. Yeah. So in the timeline i had, June, guys are here for summer school, right? And you you get them going and you go into the fall. Like,
00:29:11
Speaker
How is it going building your roster? How ready are you to like hit the ground running in June? In June, you're you're trying to figure out what you have. You're probably bringing in, know, last year we brought in almost entire new team.
00:29:26
Speaker
This year we're returning three scholarship players and two walk-ons. And so, I feel way more comfortable this year than last year, but we're good on that court and we don't know how everybody gels together. We don't know the chemistry. We're trying to like get that to happen quickly and you want to be organic, but you actually got to force it.
00:29:44
Speaker
You got to force guys to get to care about each other, know about each other because it is a team sport. It's not going to be something they can be out there by himself on a solo mission. They got to play with each other.
00:29:55
Speaker
So you're trying to do that in the summer. As a coach, what we did last year in August, we kind of just staffed. We said, all right, this is what we're good at and not good at. And we didn't know all that until we started that June and July session.
00:30:07
Speaker
And then we adjusted. we We said, let's go down this avenue with this team and tweak this because it's be our best fit. um If you look at the teams that were good last year, that were really, really good, they had roster retainment.
00:30:21
Speaker
i mean, you look at the SEC teams of bringing back the guards and the players and returning players and you know Auburn's team and Florida's team and these teams that brought back a majority of the roster, they were the best in the country.
00:30:34
Speaker
So that is our goal around here too is roster retainment. And that way the summers aren't so hard and the year is not so hard. So you do know what to expect a little bit. Yeah. Well, coach, we wish you all the luck. I appreciate you giving me a little bit of your time and talking about this stuff.
00:30:49
Speaker
I think what for me, what's so exciting is, um you know, there's obviously been older coaches that are legends that have said, you know what, you know, it's it's time, right? Coach k Jim Boeheim, who's on our board and good friend of mine.
00:31:03
Speaker
um Nick Saban's obviously done it in football. Rick Barnes is still going and he's been going for a while. But the point I'm trying to make is we need young coaches who can get through this chaotic season of college basketball and become the next, you know, leaders as coaches across the country. And just keep pushing, man.
00:31:26
Speaker
you're you're You're building something special and it's really cool to see it in person. Yeah, appreciate it and And I am optimistic on where college sports is going to go, where college basketball is going to go. and And right now, there's been so many new things happening all at once.
00:31:40
Speaker
And it will level its way out. There is great leadership. There's people who care. And um yeah the the smartest minds will come together and figure out what's best for everybody. So that day will come. I'm optimistic about that.
00:31:53
Speaker
I hope so. All right, Coach. Thank you. Appreciate Great stuff from coach Byington. And what I love about coaches, he's not only thinking forward when it comes to what college athletics and college basketball needs to have true structure in a more level playing field, but he's also thinking outside the box from the mental standpoint. He's always been a psychology guru with sports and he's applying that to how he's building his program at Vanderbilt. Great stuff from him. Thanks to him.
00:32:20
Speaker
for joining us for this episode. And thanks to you for tuning in. Make sure you're subscribed to our podcast. Now it's legal and Apple podcasts and Spotify podcasts and YouTube, but also make sure you are following us on Instagram at now it's legal pod, where you can get clips of upcoming episodes and really dive in to all the amazing guests we're going have coming throughout this season and the seasons ahead.
00:32:45
Speaker
For everyone here at our podcast, Now It's Legal, thanks for tuning in. We'll see you again soon.