The End of College Football That We Knew and Loved

[MontyPython]

College football has gone the way of the buggy whip right before our eyes. It's gone. Plain and simple.

There are no more VFLs. They are now free agents looking to make as much money as they can while they can. College football players put themselves in the transfer portal and bid themselves out to the team that'll pay the most money. Period.

There is no loyalty. There is no thinking about "team". There is no pride in playing for the school they're representing. These are all remnants of a past era. Welcome to the new world of moneyball.

This is what college football is today:

(1) An unregulated professional sports league layered on top of an educational system; and/or

(2) A talent marketplace feeding the NFL, without the guardrails of a real pro league.

Over the next 5–10 years, we'll probably see:

* Revenue sharing with players
* Employment status for athletes at major programs
* A formal split between power conference football (semi-pro) and everyone else (traditional college athletics)

What does college football really offer us fans these days? You can't watch kids come in as freshmen and develop into future stars. As soon as they become starters they put themselves in the portal and maximize their money.

They gone.

Look at all the talented kids that bolted this year from our "team".

And jerks like Nico... the attitude of "pay me more or else I'm leaving". $2.5 million dollars just isn't enough! Christ man. This is insanity.

I swam for Tennessee back in the day and I made exactly $0.00.

I've been a Tennessee fan for almost 40 years but these are trying times. Why should I be a fan... why should anybody be a fan?

This has become the NFL Junior League. Unfortunately it's also largely unregulated and a complete cluster ****.

This whole thing makes me sad. Very sad.

My Tennessee Volunteers football team is really not a team anymore.

 

[McDad]

College football has gone the way of the buggy whip right before our eyes. It's gone. Plain and simple.

There are no more VFLs. They are now free agents looking to make as much money as they can while they can. College football players put themselves in the transfer portal and bid themselves out to the team that'll pay the most money. Period.

There is no loyalty. There is no thinking about "team". There is no pride in playing for the school they're representing. These are all remnants of a past era. Welcome to the new world of moneyball.

This is what college football is today:

(1) An unregulated professional sports league layered on top of an educational system; and/or

(2) A talent marketplace feeding the NFL, without the guardrails of a real pro league.

Over the next 5–10 years, we'll probably see:

* Revenue sharing with players
* Employment status for athletes at major programs
* A formal split between power conference football (semi-pro) and everyone else (traditional college athletics)

What does college football really offer us fans these days? You can't watch kids come in as freshmen and develop into future stars. As soon as they become starters they put themselves in the portal and maximize their money.

They gone.

Look at all the talented kids that bolted this year from our "team".

And jerks like Nico... the attitude of "pay me more or else I'm leaving". $2.5 million dollars just isn't enough! Christ man. This is insanity.

I swam for Tennessee back in the day and I made exactly $0.00.

I've been a Tennessee fan for almost 40 years but these are trying times. Why should I be a fan... why should anybody be a fan?

This has become the NFL Junior League. Unfortunately it's also largely unregulated and a complete cluster ****.

This whole thing makes me sad. Very sad.

My Tennessee Volunteers football team is really not a team anymore.

 

[Boston Vol]

I swam for Tennessee back in the day and I made exactly $0.00.

How much revenue did you and your fellow swimmers generate?

 

[Boston Vol]

College football has gone the way of the buggy whip right before our eyes. It's gone. Plain and simple.

There are no more VFLs. They are now free agents looking to make as much money as they can while they can. College football players put themselves in the transfer portal and bid themselves out to the team that'll pay the most money. Period.

There is no loyalty. There is no thinking about "team". There is no pride in playing for the school they're representing. These are all remnants of a past era. Welcome to the new world of moneyball.

This is what college football is today:

(1) An unregulated professional sports league layered on top of an educational system; and/or

(2) A talent marketplace feeding the NFL, without the guardrails of a real pro league.

Over the next 5–10 years, we'll probably see:

* Revenue sharing with players
* Employment status for athletes at major programs
* A formal split between power conference football (semi-pro) and everyone else (traditional college athletics)

What does college football really offer us fans these days? You can't watch kids come in as freshmen and develop into future stars. As soon as they become starters they put themselves in the portal and maximize their money.

They gone.

Look at all the talented kids that bolted this year from our "team".

And jerks like Nico... the attitude of "pay me more or else I'm leaving". $2.5 million dollars just isn't enough! Christ man. This is insanity.

I swam for Tennessee back in the day and I made exactly $0.00.

I've been a Tennessee fan for almost 40 years but these are trying times. Why should I be a fan... why should anybody be a fan?

This has become the NFL Junior League. Unfortunately it's also largely unregulated and a complete cluster ****.

This whole thing makes me sad. Very sad.

My Tennessee Volunteers football team is really not a team anymore.

And by the way, we won’t have to wait 5-10 years for revenue sharing, it started this year.

 

[MontyPython]

How much revenue did you and your fellow swimmers generate?

Is that important? Should every sport but football, basketball and baseball (generally the only revenue generators) be eliminated from varsity college athletics?

 

[Smokey#6]

Monty Python has legit points

 

[Boston Vol]

Is that important? Should every sport but football, basketball and baseball (generally the only revenue generators) be eliminated from varsity college athletics?

Who said anything about being eliminated? However, you shouldn’t have expected to receive anything, since swimming doesn’t generate much revenue. To the university’s credit, they did carve out a small portion of the revenue sharing plan for athletes from some Olympic sports.

 

[MontyPython]

View attachment 807465

@McDad:

 

[Boca Vol]

Is that important? Should every sport but football, basketball and baseball (generally the only revenue generators) be eliminated from varsity college athletics?

I’m not sure baseball generates positive revenue. Mostly the revenue comes from football & men’s basketball. That’s it.

 

[kell7517]

How much revenue did you and your fellow swimmers generate?

That campus was there before him and the future ones as well. See how that works. UT provides players a field, classroom, education for the sake of all they have to do is play ball. Mostly just 4 years worth. And guess what. That same field, classroom, education will be available for the next group of athletes.

 

[farmdogvol]

Are swimmers on scholarship?

 

[Devo182]

You're about 40 years late.

 

[CAVPUT]

Monty Python has legit points

Problem is that he's kinda Captain Obvious. Not breaking new ground here.

 

[Boston Vol]

That campus was there before him and the future ones as well. See how that works. UT provides players a field, classroom, education for the sake of all they have to do is play ball. Mostly just 4 years worth. And guess what. That same field, classroom, education will be available for the next group of athletes.

See how what works? Those football and basketball players help generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the university, and those contributions far outweigh the scholarships they receive in return.

 

[RTVFL89]

To further prove your point, Arion Carter is withdrawing from the draft and entering the transfer portal.

 

[Caspian]

The evolution of CFB into something else might not be all bad. For myself, I've decided that my live or die attitude about whether TN wins or loses a game played by a bunch of kids that don't know or care who I am (nor should they), aren't really committed to TN as a program or its history, and often seem to be less emotionally affected by a loss than the diehard fans - my emotional investment is mis-spent.

I believe I will be more balanced and better off by not caring so much about all of that, and focusing more on living my life investing in those around me, and pursuing spiritual values. Life is short. One would be wise to invest one's limited time in more important pursuits.

 

[Chad F]

Unfortunately, this is the reality within which our AD and university must operate. No going back - and, if we’re being honest, something needed to change with the old system. Coaches and universities were raking in $ millions but players couldn’t sell an autograph or do a commercial to earn some money off their status as an athlete.

On the other hand, we can stop pretending that sports (at least at the big time college level) holds much in the way of an uplifting example of character development or celebration of what we *say* we want young men and women to learn and role model in life. It no longer does that on any significant level. Maybe it never really did beneath the surface.

What today’s college football is: a microcosm of the worst parts of society at large. Like I said above, in previous years it was probably a facade for the most part - but now, it’s overtly and unapologetically a reflection of the garbage we all complain about in life.

 

[CAVPUT]

To further prove your point, Arion Carter is withdrawing from the draft and entering the transfer portal.

 

[jeffmcflurry27]

It is what it is at this point. If you still enjoy it, then watch it. If you hate the new way of things, then start hunting in the fall. No sense getting bent out of shape about it.

As the great Bill Burr once said, “We have over corrected too far in the opposite direction.”

 

[tatervol]

See how what works? Those football and basketball players help generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the university, and those contributions far outweigh the scholarships they receive in return.

You addressed exactly zero of the ops points

 

[brockytop]

College football has gone the way of the buggy whip right before our eyes. It's gone. Plain and simple.

There are no more VFLs. They are now free agents looking to make as much money as they can while they can. College football players put themselves in the transfer portal and bid themselves out to the team that'll pay the most money. Period.

There is no loyalty. There is no thinking about "team". There is no pride in playing for the school they're representing. These are all remnants of a past era. Welcome to the new world of moneyball.

This is what college football is today:

(1) An unregulated professional sports league layered on top of an educational system; and/or

(2) A talent marketplace feeding the NFL, without the guardrails of a real pro league.

Over the next 5–10 years, we'll probably see:

* Revenue sharing with players
* Employment status for athletes at major programs
* A formal split between power conference football (semi-pro) and everyone else (traditional college athletics)

What does college football really offer us fans these days? You can't watch kids come in as freshmen and develop into future stars. As soon as they become starters they put themselves in the portal and maximize their money.

They gone.

Look at all the talented kids that bolted this year from our "team".

And jerks like Nico... the attitude of "pay me more or else I'm leaving". $2.5 million dollars just isn't enough! Christ man. This is insanity.

I swam for Tennessee back in the day and I made exactly $0.00.

I've been a Tennessee fan for almost 40 years but these are trying times. Why should I be a fan... why should anybody be a fan?

This has become the NFL Junior League. Unfortunately it's also largely unregulated and a complete cluster ****.

This whole thing makes me sad. Very sad.

My Tennessee Volunteers football team is really not a team anymore.

Just remember VFL now stands for Vol for Lease.

I feel your pain. Truthfully, the thing that keeps me interested is it’s still a great game on Saturdays. I don’t mind paying the players or them becoming employees, but I hate the unlimited transfer crap. Wish it would be where a player gets one free transfer and must sit out a year if he does it again minus the head coach being replaced or leaving on his own.

 

[njvols]

Josh Pate hit on this pretty good this week. If you damage fan folllowing, the financial modeling doesn’t continue to scale. CFB isn’t going anywhere but even a 5-10% fall off in fan viewership over a period of time has huge ripple effects.

 

[Smokey#6]

Problem is that he's kinda Captain Obvious. Not breaking new ground here.

College Football is messed up not many will deny that.

 

[Boston Vol]

You addressed exactly zero of the ops points

Actually, I did. He said we were likely to see revenue sharing in the next 5–10 years. I pointed out that revenue sharing started this year, so we don’t have to wait. He said that he never received a penny for swimming at UT. I pointed out that’s because swimming doesn’t generate much revenue. If he were a swimmer today, he’d likely receive a small amount of money, since the lion’s share goes to football, as they’re responsible for the vast majority of the revenue UT receives.

This isn’t a complicated issue. The NCAA ran a blatantly illegal system for decades. Maybe if they had acted in a proactive manner, instead of kicking and screaming at every turn, we wouldn’t be seeing the “wild west” that so many are complaining about now. The loyalty angle he brings up is a joke. The only reason loyalty ever existed among athletes was because they had no other choice (that illegal system I mentioned above). If the transfer portal had existed in the 80s and 90s, the same thing would have been happening then.

 

[Special Ed]

The only constant in the universe is change.