No, the worst thing was on day one, when Napier said it was required of scholarship players (his word, not mine). No matter how anyone spins it, it’s out there, and it smacks of pay to play. And everyone may have voted in favor of it, but like someone else said, how many of those yes votes were “ok, this is what Coach wants” votes? Finally, if you don’t think what people nationally think about this program, then what’s the point of trying to build a brand?
If we’re talking gratitude, that’s accomplished through community projects like what the players did helping people who were flooded a couple of years ago. Any time you put a dollar value on something and say it’s “required”, you invite this reaction. No matter how well intended this was, there’s no way the administration shouldn’t have seen it coming.