It’s been a great few days in Orlando for the 2024 Hula Bowl. Here are a few notes from the preparations for this year’s contest.

Foolproof scout lure: All-star games love to maximize the attendance of scouts because it gives them credibility, and the Hula Bowl has come up with a foolproof way to raise their numbers. Since I ran the game in 2008, the Hula Bowl has always run practices concurrently between the two teams rather than at separate times. This forces teams to send 6-8 representatives instead of 2-3 (or even one or two) just to make sure everything is covered. 

Today’s NIL craziness items: One of the best parts of going to all-star games is hearing the stories from the recruiting wars as well as the crazy NIL pitches. For example, this week, I was told of a player at a lower-tier SEC school who lost his starting spot midseason. He decided to enter the portal, but before he could, he found out the school’s collective would offer him $50,000 to stick around. They were offering him more than the median annual income for the average American just to make sure they had a quality second-stringer at his position.

On the other hand, I heard about an FCS wide receiver who was offered $250,000 to go to a Big Ten school, but who chose to pursue the NFL instead. I respect his passion, but I’m not sure I would have made the same choice.

One takeaway from hearing the NIL stories this week is that a loose, position-by-position “wage scale” is developing among schools and agents, especially the schools from the P5 conferences that have big budgets. I also heard that Memphis has been one of the most aggressive teams when it comes to adding players from the portal; apparently, the athletic director’s efforts to raise funds have been successful. 

Humbling: Another great facet of the all-star season is that I begin notifying the scouts who were voted as winners of the various awards we’ll present at our annual seminar in Indianapolis in about a month-and-a-half. The scout who will receive one of our bigger awards next month was obviously touched when he got the news. It was really cool to see.

What if?: The 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl is scheduled to begin workouts Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Star in Frisco, Texas. If the Cowboys win a home playoff game against Green Bay in the Super Wildcard round of the playoffs, then win the following weekend and advance to the NFC Championship, they’ll need their field and locker rooms. The scuttlebutt around the team hotel this week was that the nearby University of North Texas is the “rainy weather” site for the Shrine Bowl.

Clearing skies: When you have all-star games in Florida, the threat of rain is always there. A lengthy thunderstorm Tuesday night meant practices moved indoors today, which created serious consternation among agents who wanted to watch their clients (indoor practices usually mean scouts only). But there’s good news: practices will be outdoors again Thursday. Hopefully, Tuesday night’s rain won’t make for muddy conditions tomorrow.

Impressing: I’m always asked which players are rising and falling, and I rarely get enough feedback to have an intelligent answer. However, one player who seems to have won a few fans is Western Carolina WO David White. 

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