Poeta on leave

[CHROMEBIRD]

43 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

$45 for a gray sweatshirt that just says WRESTLING ILLINOIS in block lettering, WTF is this crap

The retro singlets tho

 

[flyingcement]

3 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

The retro singlets tho

 

[pawrestler]

31 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

We gotta get reactions back here...can't let this  go unappreciated 

[CHROMEBIRD]

24 minutes ago, Nak21 said:

 No PSU gear? Gross . Fire em!

Speaking of, we'll probably see PSU wrestlers rocking Combat Speeds next season. Any word on whether their singlet design will change with Adidas?

[ionel]

1 hour ago, Nak21 said:

 maybe the biggest thing is the blatant conflict of interest using a vendor run by his wife, THAT may be what does him in if this is a case for termination.

Agree

[billyhoyle]

3 hours ago, Nak21 said:

Silly stuff to me, I hope he just gets a slap on the wrist and doesn’t get canned for this. BUT schools take this seriously - no idea if this is a big $$$ outlay for an Olympic sport at Illinois, but they’re a Nike school and Nike and Nike schools take logos and trademarks and the like serious, maybe the biggest thing is the blatant conflict of interest using a vendor run by his wife, THAT may be what does him in if this is a case for termination.

He could potentially face a charge for embezzling funds from the university if he profited from the transaction.  That is probably a bigger concern than the Nike deal. 

[happyvalet]

Idk about Illinois specifically but most college coaches are public employees. That amount being misappropriated and the conflict of interest makes it a potentially very serious offense for a public employee 

[Nak21]

5 hours ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Speaking of, we'll probably see PSU wrestlers rocking Combat Speeds next season. Any word on whether their singlet design will change with Adidas?

No idea. Hope not. That’s kinda our thing with uniforms, basic, boring, semi unchanging. Hopefully it’s just an Adidas tag or very low key logo. We’ll find out soon.

[Nak21]

2 hours ago, billyhoyle said:

He could potentially face a charge for embezzling funds from the university if he profited from the transaction.  That is probably a bigger concern than the Nike deal. 

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on message boards, but would this qualify as embezzlement? Doesn’t sound like he stole funds or doctored any financial records to cover the stealing of funds…just simply probably went outside how their sourcing/supply chain works and used a vendor where there’s a conflict of interest.

[No BS Fan]

IMO the person that thought this was a good design should be punished

 

[TexRef]

12 hours ago, pawrestler said:

We gotta get reactions back here...can't let this  go unappreciated 

I agree! Come on Bob, bring em back! 

[CHROMEBIRD]

12 hours ago, Nak21 said:

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on message boards, but would this qualify as embezzlement? Doesn’t sound like he stole funds or doctored any financial records to cover the stealing of funds…just simply probably went outside how their sourcing/supply chain works and used a vendor where there’s a conflict of interest.

It depends on how the mech was acquired, but it's more or less lose-lose for Poeta. If his wife profited because the gear was paid for out of the team's budget, that's a pretty bad look, esp at a public uni (even though the athletics dept is a separate entity). If the team paid for the gear out of their own pockets, that's just as stupid since they have access to a ton of free Nike stuff and it likely violates the school's brand deal. Illinois also gets a cut of all merch sales, so they would want it to be from Nike anyway. 

I assume this is coming down from the administration, but I wonder if the sponsor was involved in any way. Nike and other shoe brands usually have blanket all-sports deals that require teams at big flagship schools like Illinois to wear their brand during competition, practice, and any official team appearances but in the past it didn't seem like they cared too much about non-revenue sports. For example, I clearly remember JO taking the mat in Combat Speeds and Sissy Aggressors even when Okstate had an all sports contract with Nike. Wrestlers also used to commonly tape their shoes, which is another huge no-no in these deals. I wonder if the brands started paying attention and enforcing penalties, or if university compliance stepped up, or if it came from the NCAA or conferences or something. 

Also great to see @billyhoyle posting. It's been a minute!

[MPhillips]

It may be right after taking gifts in the yearly 'ethics training' for Govt. employees...

[1032004]

9 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

It may be right after taking gifts in the yearly 'ethics training' for Govt. employees...

I guess Nelson Brands isn’t the only guy that doesn’t pay attention at those things 

[billyhoyle]

15 hours ago, Nak21 said:

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on message boards, but would this qualify as embezzlement? Doesn’t sound like he stole funds or doctored any financial records to cover the stealing of funds…just simply probably went outside how their sourcing/supply chain works and used a vendor where there’s a conflict of interest.

That's why I included the caveat if he profited from it, he could face charges. If you are a public employee (or really the employee of any company but it's obviously worse as a public employee) and entrusted with a budget, you can't spend that money in a way where you personally profit from control of the budget. If you already have a deal with Nike to supply equipment, purchasing equipment from your wife's company with university funds in a way where you profit would likely be viewed as a form of self-dealing or an attempt to embezzle those funds.  

And yeah, it seems ridiculous to potentially face loss of your job and felony charges over $4,000 given his salary (assuming what was said in this thread is correct), but it's just one of those rules you can't break. 
 

  

1 hour ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

It depends on how the mech was acquired, but it's more or less lose-lose for Poeta. If his wife profited because the gear was paid for out of the team's budget, that's a pretty bad look, esp at a public uni (even though the athletics dept is a separate entity). If the team paid for the gear out of their own pockets, that's just as stupid since they have access to a ton of free Nike stuff and it likely violates the school's brand deal. Illinois also gets a cut of all merch sales, so they would want it to be from Nike anyway. 

I assume this is coming down from the administration, but I wonder if the sponsor was involved in any way. Nike and other shoe brands usually have blanket all-sports deals that require teams at big flagship schools like Illinois to wear their brand during competition, practice, and any official team appearances but in the past it didn't seem like they cared too much about non-revenue sports. For example, I clearly remember JO taking the mat in Combat Speeds and Sissy Aggressors even when Okstate had an all sports contract with Nike. Wrestlers also used to commonly tape their shoes, which is another huge no-no in these deals. I wonder if the brands started paying attention and enforcing penalties, or if university compliance stepped up, or if it came from the NCAA or conferences or something. 

Also great to see @billyhoyle posting. It's been a minute!

One of these two possibilities you described is orders of magnitude worse than the other. If you used the team budget, you are potentially facing a criminal charge because you are self-dealing. If you used your own money (or potentially even money from the wrestling club if it's not affiliated with the uni), you pissed off Nike, but IMO he should never have been suspended for just wearing the wrong gear at a wrestling match. 

Edited December 20, 2025 by billyhoyle

[CHROMEBIRD]

10 minutes ago, billyhoyle said:

One of these two possibilities you described is orders of magnitude worse than the other. If you used the team budget, you are potentially facing a criminal charge because you are self-dealing. If you used your own money (or potentially even money from the wrestling club if it's not affiliated with the uni), you pissed off Nike, but IMO he should never have been suspended for just wearing the wrong gear at a wrestling match. 

The risk with the latter is that it likely violates their endorsement deal and exposes the school to financial penalties or other legal repercussions. The other factor is that it de-leverages Illinois to an extent as their Nike contract expires this academic year and is up for renegotiation. This thing with Poeta and his wife may seem like small potatoes, but the potential costs to the school for their mistake could be high. Nike could react to this with Fury and act like real Freeks and Inflict some damage to Illinois. Or not, who knows.

[MPhillips]

Poeta can't sign off on a deal with his spouse. Ethics 101...

[bnwtwg]

But if the wrestlers signed NIL deals for free clothes it would not have been a problem. Make it make sense. And to be clear, this is an NCAA issue. 

Edited December 20, 2025 by bnwtwg

[ionel]

18 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

Poeta can't sign off on a deal with his spouse. Ethics 101...

And yet on the athletic side coaches can hire their brothers, their daughters etc even though the university has an anti nepotism policy.  

[MPhillips]

Do the coaches hire anyone...

[ionel]

5 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

Do the coaches hire anyone...

Don't head coaches hire assistants?   

[MPhillips]

6 minutes ago, ionel said:

Don't head coaches hire assistants?   

I thought it was probably HR for the University. If HC's hire their assistants, apologies... 

Edited December 20, 2025 by MPhillips

[forkemaz]

On 12/19/2025 at 4:08 PM, happyvalet said:

How many Cael Cookie preorders are headed for the PSU nutrition table?

Rules dont apply to them 

[forkemaz]

22 hours ago, 1032004 said:

$45 for a gray sweatshirt that just says WRESTLING ILLINOIS in block lettering, WTF is this crap

When is the last time you bought a sweatshirt? My asu wrestling shirt was expensive as hell last season. And i needed a new one. I could look it up but i think it was like 35 bucks. For  a thinner material with no sleeves.

[forkemaz]

22 hours ago, flyingcement said:

Plain sweatshirts from Old Navy are also a similar price.  I think that is just inflation.  

The minimalist style isn't bad for me, but to each their own.  

The reported amount of money was not that much.   Even though this seems obviously wrong to all of us, I dont know any details of the story, so I'm comfortable giving benefit of the doubt (not that my opinion about this would matter anyway; it doesn't)

Oh look common sense