The slow demise of college football as we knew it, speeds up

[LouderVol]

The theory at the time of "what's in it for them" was a free education and a chance to be coached to a point they made it to the NFL.

Those benefits seem to be taking a back seat to near term payoff. Not so sure but that some players who make a decision based solely on NIL dollars, or portal opportunities, and who end up passed over down the line at the combine might regret not picking a school -- and sticking with it -- that might not offer the same instant riches but that would have brought them along correctly to stand a better chance at the combine.

its not a matter of dollar amount or value, now or later. Its purely an issue of: It's not right to say someone can't make money off of their own name, image, and likeness. Doesn't matter if its a $1 deal, or $10,000,000. The NCAA, and everyone else, can't limit that earnings. doesn't matter if they are compensated in some other fashion it doesn't negate their right to themselves.

doesn't matter if the better thing would have been to stick around and get the value out of the academic side of college. We don't do that in any other industry. we can't do it in college football just because its the way it was.

 

[OrangeVolMan]

I just waiting for someone with Jeff Bezos to be really interested in college sports. He’s worth something like $180 billion. So if he committed $2 billion (about 1% of his wealth) to the NIL of a school. The NIL could easily take 5% of that money ($100 million) each year and pay college athletes at a school NIL deals. To me that’s when the real uproar will happen.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

I just waiting for someone with Jeff Bezos to be really interested in college sports. He’s worth something like $180 billion. So if he committed $2 billion (about 1% of his wealth) to the NIL of a school. The NIL could easily take 5% of that money ($100 million) each year and pay college athletes at a school NIL deals. To me that’s when the real uproar will happen.

The recent VA legislature law making it illegal for the NCAA to fine schools who offer their own NIL to athletes is the real death knell.

Other states will have to follow suit and schools will essentially be paying players to play, as they are now but the NIL being "separate" keeps it from looking completely like that.

There's no way with schools directly paying NIL to athletes that the courts won't declare the athletes are paid pro players, not college students who just happen to come to the school to play ball.

At that point, it's done. College players are pro players and the college teams will have to form a pro league. College athletes will have salaries negotiated by a collective bargaining agreement with a league salary cap. College attendance will be negotiated out of the picture as useless to a pro athlete. A draft from high school to maintain parity like other pro leagues makes recruiting go away.

Sounds wonderful. Once again, before the athletes are blamed for this, the state legislatures and the states on behalf of the schools, like Tennessee, have been suing the life out of the NCAA........ not the athletes.

Blame the schools. Blame UT. Blame Nashville. It's not the fault of the athletes.

 

[lawgator1]

its not a matter of dollar amount or value, now or later. Its purely an issue of: It's not right to say someone can't make money off of their own name, image, and likeness. Doesn't matter if its a $1 deal, or $10,000,000. The NCAA, and everyone else, can't limit that earnings. doesn't matter if they are compensated in some other fashion it doesn't negate their right to themselves.

doesn't matter if the better thing would have been to stick around and get the value out of the academic side of college. We don't do that in any other industry. we can't do it in college football just because its the way it was.

I cannot, and would not, argue with that. Do you think its reasonable,however, as a condition of an NIL deal, to require that a player commit to staying at the school for 4 years? Or even just 2? In other words, does accepting an NIL benefit entitle the school and its NIL-support to assume that the player won't up and leave for the next bigger deal in 6 months?

 

[brockytop]

The NCAAs greed and Hubris created this - people that don’t really do anything thought they were more important to the sport than what was best for the actual people playing. They could have easily built something that would have appeased the student athletes( licensing, increased sty-pin, or something) but nope. Once the Supreme Court got involved the NCAA was done

This /\ /\ /\

 

[LouderVol]

I cannot, and would not, argue with that. Do you think its reasonable,however, as a condition of an NIL deal, to require that a player commit to staying at the school for 4 years? Or even just 2? In other words, does accepting an NIL benefit entitle the school and its NIL-support to assume that the player won't up and leave for the next bigger deal in 6 months?

I would be 100% fine with it, as long as both parties agree to it. The tricky part is how does the school fit in?

Currently you would have a player and a collective agreeing that the player would stay with a third party for the collective to pay out. The school needs to weigh in. They need to know they aren't going to be able to cut a kid to make room for someone else if they are on one of these deals.

 

[VOLtaism]

I remember seeing that players were going to be allowed to profit when their name image or likeness was used, understandably in some kind of advertisement. 12 months later it's open season and I have seen very few NIL ads, ZZ and DK, for example. I haven't seen Nico do anything worth 8 million dollars advertising-wise. So it was just a ruse to get the door open and now corporate greed is in charge. What could go wrong?

 

[lawgator1]

There was a guy on CNBC this morning, I was half listening. He's an economics/business guy and also apparently a big shot with Coastal Caroljna. He was asked about it and said its pandemonium and no one is in charge. Thinks there needs to be an NFL-style approach, with collective bargaining and contract rules.

Said THE FIRST question they get from football players -- every single one -- is "How much can I get from your NIL?"

Don't blame them, but it tells you that it really has taken over.

 

[Delmar]

There was a guy on CNBC this morning, I was half listening. He's an economics/business guy and also apparently a big shot with Coastal Caroljna. He was asked about it and said its pandemonium and no one is in charge. Thinks there needs to be an NFL-style approach, with collective bargaining and contract rules.

Said THE FIRST question they get from football players -- every single one -- is "How much can I get from your NIL?"

Don't blame them, but it tells you that it really has taken over.

I don’t blame them for asking either. The NIL is what it is and there will be no control of that. But it doesn’t make it any more palatable to watch the team you care about have to re-recruit/rebuild the team 12 months out of the year. Can’t even enjoy a great basketball season without the hitting the fan a week later. At least the pros have some semblance of control with long term contracts. With unlimited transfers now, the college game is worse off than it was a month ago and nobody appears to be able to do anything about it.

Might be great for the players but it’s a nightmare for fans. In the portal thread, there is page after page of speculation, rumors, bad assumptions and false hopes about a hundred players and it appears like it will go on year round. Sure we might end up with a couple of decent replacements for one season (unless they are like Chris Ledlum or Tyler Baron) and then they’ll be off to the next bidder. Really hard to watch even for folks who think the players should be getting compensation.

 

[Firebirdparts]

I cannot, and would not, argue with that. Do you think its reasonable,however, as a condition of an NIL deal, to require that a player commit to staying at the school for 4 years? Or even just 2? In other words, does accepting an NIL benefit entitle the school and its NIL-support to assume that the player won't up and leave for the next bigger deal in 6 months?

I would say Clawbacks won't be practical like they are for the coaches. There are several reasons but no sense starting several arguments. I think the universities will have to be satisfied with "pay to stay today"

 

[Remy]

They had a cartel. They refused to find some kind of legal accommodation with those supplying the bulk of their productivity. That same group then went to the legal system to address the harms they felt imposed on them illegally. Those in control refused to change and had a chance to compromise. The courts decided overwhelmingly in favor of those who appealed to them. The courts in effect created a free market. In free markets some do better than others and some fail altogether. Think Tyler Baron feels like a NIL winner today? Let the free market work itself to success over time is my opinion.

 

[volbound1700]

I say let it play out. I kind of like the changes. I hated seeing Tennessee get beat 51-14 by Alabama every year from 2012-2021 or seeing Alabama run roughshod on the SEC. Parity is a good thing and I think NIL brings it.

CFB will start to look more like the NFL (which is a BETTER product, the numbers don't lie) or College Basketball.

 

[LouderVol]

I say let it play out. I kind of like the changes. I hated seeing Tennessee get beat 51-14 by Alabama every year from 2012-2021 or seeing Alabama run roughshod on the SEC. Parity is a good thing and I think NIL brings it.

CFB will start to look more like the NFL (which is a BETTER product, the numbers don't lie) or College Basketball.

just because more people buy it doesn't mean its the better product. professional teams have always been based in the larger population areas which means their markets are far bigger to start.

most people's preferences towards the NFL over CFB comes simply from access/exposure.

If CFB tries to make itself too much like the NFL they will lose some of their core support. they aren't going to be able to gain enough new fans to offset the loss of the old fans. You see this across many markets, once successful businesses keep trying to expand and grow beyond their starting footprint and lose the support of customers who made them successful to start. once the product has changed enough to lose that core customer base, they hit financial struggles as their new product isn't good enough to compete with those they are trying to be more like.

 

[volbound1700]

just because more people buy it doesn't mean its the better product. professional teams have always been based in the larger population areas which means their markets are far bigger to start.

most people's preferences towards the NFL over CFB comes simply from access/exposure.

If CFB tries to make itself too much like the NFL they will lose some of their core support. they aren't going to be able to gain enough new fans to offset the loss of the old fans. You see this across many markets, once successful businesses keep trying to expand and grow beyond their starting footprint and lose the support of customers who made them successful to start. once the product has changed enough to lose that core customer base, they hit financial struggles as their new product isn't good enough to compete with those they are trying to be more like.

CFB was crap from about 2010-2020 or so because Ohio State won the B1G 70-80% of the time, Alabama won the SEC at the same rate if not more, Oklahoma won Big12 most of the time, etc. There was no parity.

NIL is bring parity back. As a Tennessee fan, it was miserable to watch. You couldn't get excited to play Alabama, Florida, or Georgia because you knew we were going to lose (often by multiple TDs).

 

[Delmar]

CFB was crap from about 2010-2020 or so because Ohio State won the B1G 70-80% of the time, Alabama won the SEC at the same rate if not more, Oklahoma won Big12 most of the time, etc. There was no parity.

NIL is bring parity back. As a Tennessee fan, it was miserable to watch. You couldn't get excited to play Alabama, Florida, or Georgia because you knew we were going to lose (often by multiple TDs).

Bama was certainly dominant because of lucking into the best coach in history. UT’s issue during that time frame was mostly a function of hiring three of the worst coaches that one could imagine in succession.

 

[volbound1700]

Bama was certainly dominant because of lucking into the best coach in history. UT’s issue during that time frame was mostly a function of hiring three of the worst coaches that one could imagine in succession.

True but it wasn't just limited to Alabama and Tennessee. Clemson was just dominant in ACC, Ohio State in B1G, etc. Parity was gone. It isn't 100% coming back like I remember in the 1990s and early 2000s were you had teams like Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois winning B1G titles but it is stronger with NIL. I think schools that have been down but have money and fans (such as Nebraska and Tennessee) can prosper better in this system.

To me, 2010-2020 was one of the weakest eras of CFB.

 

[Delmar]

True but it wasn't just limited to Alabama and Tennessee. Clemson was just dominate in ACC, Ohio State in B1G, etc. Parity was gone. It isn't 100% coming back like I remember in the 1990s and early 2000s were you had teams like Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois winning B1G titles but it is stronger with NIL. I think schools that have been down but have money and fans (such as Nebraska and Tennessee) can prosper better in this system.

To me, 2010-2020 was one of the weakest eras of CFB.

No question there is more parity now within the leagues although the top hasn’t changed much. I do think UT would have been in the mix had we picked better coaches than Doofus, Botch and Beldar.

 

[LouderVol]

CFB was crap from about 2010-2020 or so because Ohio State won the B1G 70-80% of the time, Alabama won the SEC at the same rate if not more, Oklahoma won Big12 most of the time, etc. There was no parity.

NIL is bring parity back. As a Tennessee fan, it was miserable to watch. You couldn't get excited to play Alabama, Florida, or Georgia because you knew we were going to lose (often by multiple TDs).

I enjoyed CFB during that time. I didn't enjoy UTs part in CFB, but as a whole I didn't have any major complaints. But I am the type of fan that if I have time I will watch a game, whatever game I can. Doesn't matter if its determining who makes it to the playoff or even wins their conference, or not even a P5 game. I want to watch CFB.

some of the most enjoyable games are the G5 games, and some of the small bowl games where the players are out there playing hard; I don't have a team to pull for so I can just enjoy the game, and there isn't an agenda being pushed by the telecasters.

the playoffs and SEC championship were boring for the reasons you mentioned, but the sport itself was fine.

 

[Adam Sandler]

I just waiting for someone with Jeff Bezos to be really interested in college sports. He’s worth something like $180 billion. So if he committed $2 billion (about 1% of his wealth) to the NIL of a school. The NIL could easily take 5% of that money ($100 million) each year and pay college athletes at a school NIL deals. To me that’s when the real uproar will happen.

Already happening at Arkansas with Jerry Jones and the Walton family. Calipari said as much when interviewed about his move there.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Already happening at Arkansas with Jerry Jones and the Walton family. Calipari said as much when interviewed about his move there.

The joke is on Jerry Jones and the Waltons because the Hogs are still left with Pittman and Calipari so it doesn't matter what kind of player talent they buy.

Even a Bentley is a clown car when a clown is at the wheel.