Dave McCann just spilled the beams:
Question of the week: Utah Jazz owner and big BYU booster Ryan Smith told a group of fathers and sons at a BYU retreat that whatever Kevin Young needed to build BYU basketball, he would get. What does this mean and have you seen it since Young’s hire?
Dave McCann: Booster support.
"The Cougar Club has provided a solid foundation for fundraising at BYU. My dad played a key part of its development for 25 years leading up to his death in 1998. I’ve watched it grow from a small group to one of the biggest booster organizations west of the Mississippi.
Since there is no church money used to finance athletics at BYU, donors have always been crucial and even more so today as NIL changes the landscape in ways we have never seen before.
Providers like Ryan Smith, and several others like him, are “next level” donors that can help in an unplanned-for coaching hire like Kevin Young and his staff, or to attract transfer portal prospects like Keba Keita and those who will join him in the coming weeks."…"Over the years, the combination of donors, big and small, built LaVell Edwards Stadium, the Marriott Center, the Student Athletic Building and Indoor Practice Facility. Some names are freely heralded while others donate away from the spotlight. To tell the story far and wide, an athletic program needs both. It also needs thousands of boosters who give what they can.
As a result, the Cougars are very much in the game when it comes to “whatever Kevin Young needs to build BYU basketball.”
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so…Ryan Smith did pave the way for KY and NIL for these new stars. There are countless others through Royal Blue Collective but Ainge and Smith are leading us into this new NIL and Big 12 era.
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Per ■■■■ Harmon:
" I think the advent of Big 12 payout money, which will reach a full share in 2025, has enabled BYU to do some exciting things, as we’ve seen in football with the hiring of additional experienced analysts like former USU, Oregon State and Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen.
In basketball, Kevin Young has been swinging for the fence in recruiting. He used NIL adjustments in the collective to attract back Richie Saunders and Dallin Hall. He sealed a deal with Utah transfer center Keba Keita, signed Stanford signee Elijah Crawford and reportedly will bring in a 6-foot-9 Russian guard from Real Madrid’s squad, a potential lottery pick next year in the NBA.
These kinds of moves do not happen unless Young has the resources to get in the door and attract attention with the support of a major assist by its NIL collective. Young and his staff have already made scholarship offers to some of the top high school talent in the country, wedging a foot in the door early and getting on their individual radar and calendar books.
Bottom line is BYU is serious about its role in the Big 12, a fifth-place finish a year ago with Mark Pope. Now they’re going after and competing with players that Pope is chasing at Kentucky. This is not the modus operandi of a school that’s settling for mediocrity with its new coach."
All bought and paid for by Donations.
- Comments from Deseret News readers:
Nice! BYU has got some good momentum. Way faster than I thought being they’re so new to the P5. It took Utah years to pick up this much steam in football and they haven’t picked it up in basketball yet.
It’s the first time in a decade the Y is outrecruiting the U in football instate. Looks to me like even with KS as head coach the Y will be competing with the U in football with in three years and byu basketball is clearly ahead of the U in about every measure in bball.
Utah took advantage of P5 status and has been big brother for awhile. Looks like it’s changing. Will it be like the 80s and early 90s for the Y. I doubt it but it does look like they will be able to get the recruitment they used to enjoy before Utah started taking them because of their P5 status…
— Y_Ute
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