College Football is Broken…Probably Forever

[Zubaz]

It's not ideal but it doesn't totally jack with the competitive balance of the sport like immediate eligibility and NIL does. I hate that comparison. They are grown men and most of them have somewhat paid their dues over years and years of working through the coaching ranks.

Just about every college athlete is a grown man. The notion that a college junior moving around kills the sport but a coach in his early 30s moving around for contracts 10x the size is just part of the game doesn't hold a lot of water.

2) Coaching free agency changes don't change competitive balances whaaaaaaaat??? That's why SEC Urban Meyer left Florida to go to MWC Utah and won a national title in two years.....or wait do I have that backwards?

 

[Froglaw]

Jury is still out on all of these changes.

There is still real value in a degree from a Power Five University and some young adults want to play the sport they love In exchange for an education.

So let the car dealerships put their faces on billboards and rich alumni hire them to associate with their company logo.

This all may work out for the best.

 

[Wog68]

Watching Division III Championship game on ESPNU. Maybe that is not ruined yet.

In the early 1980's, the Seattle University president found out that most of their star basketball players were being paid. He called the NAIA and joined. Then he called the NCAA and quit. Seattle U. stayed in the NAIA for years and the university didn't miss a beat. The games were moved from the big down-town arena to the campus gym where admission was free. We all (faculty and students) had a great time. The paid players were taken off scholy and they all left.

 

[Prime BEEF]

Not completely broke yet. Just a couple of rules could really improve things significantly. Get rid of the early signing period and make athletes sit out a year if they transfer unless they are a graduate transfer.

This would get rid of the need to rush and hire/fire coaches during the middle of the season, significantly reduce the recruitment of other teams players during the season, and add importance to graduating.

 

[BrewingFrog]

Not completely broke yet. Just a couple of rules could really improve things significantly. Get rid of the early signing period and make athletes sit out a year if they transfer unless they are a graduate transfer.

This would get rid of the need to rush and hire/fire coaches during the middle of the season, significantly reduce the recruitment of other teams players during the season, and add importance to graduating.

An idea so wise that it will never be implemented...

 

[Prime BEEF]

An idea so wise that it will never be implemented...

Ha probably. If they keep things the same, it will be chaos every year

 

[Sangria Wine]

Some point one has to assume the NFL is forced to take down the barrier keeping high school players out of the draft and things evolve again a bit because the truly elite will skip college all together. That would seem to start the path toward minor league football and the colleges getting returned to a little bit lower level as a result. The changes never stop coming, it’s just a matter of what changes they are.

The total lack of oversight around NIL is the thing that concerns me (from a competitive basis). The transfer portal should have been introduced only with very clear opposite actions included as well, where every scholarship around the country is required to be a 1-year scholarship that has to be renewed annually and no limit on how many players can be signed in one year. Players want free market conditions then let it all operate under free market conditions.

 

[JugbandFrog]

totally agree. Greed has killed college football, probably forever.

sdj

The adults started us down this path.

 

[JugbandFrog]

Money corrupts. Doesn’t matter if it’s sports, politics, the environment, or any other thing you care to name.
Look at the core values you learned as a child- care for others, take care of the earth, be faithful to the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, etc., you name it. When you find others, or yourself, running afoul of what you know deep down to be inherently good and right. . . You’ll always find money as the common denominator.
The trouble with the simplistic view on sports is, CFB hasn’t been pure for at least 50 years, if it ever was.
The upheaval we are seeing now with NIL is no more or less than the natural byproduct of all those Keith Jackson romantic moments that I grew up on, which were making him and ABC rich but in the moment nobody else. Then the coaches realized they could get rich because the product couldn’t happen without them. . . Now finally, the players have figured out the same thing.
No idea where it goes from here, but a strong suspicion that the end result is me, and my offspring, spending a lot more fall Saturdays in the deer blind, as long as that doesn’t require a sponsorship.

Or the way things are going a subscription of some sort.

 

[HornyWartyToad]

Watching Division III Championship game on ESPNU. Maybe that is not ruined yet.

Friday after Thanksgiving took the GF to watch a 6-man playoff game between Coolidge and Abbott in Mexia. Didn't give much a darn who won although we sat with Coolidge and rooted for them because they were heavily outmanned. Coolidge had 10 or 11 total players and Abbott had about 40. Abbott won, but it was the most fun I've had at a football game in a long, long time. 6-man may have to be my new thing.

 

[Palliative Care]

Despite what you read and hear, somewhere good things still do occur.

 

[vicarfrog]

The adults started us down this path.

Enjoyed your screen name. Kids just watched Emmet Otter last night!

 

[vicarfrog]

In everything their is always a battle against the rotten false things. And eventually the good rises up! It'll happen here too.

My greatest concern for NIL is the great danger of undisciplined access to wealth. It's just another type of slavery that fills these players with the illusion that their free, all the while the big money dogs throw a few bones, get their program established, and walk away as these finished players fall into deep debt and permanently injured bodies. That's my fear and I hope I'm wrong.

 

[vicarfrog]

I wish that some authority could at least make these kids put the NIL money into a trust account after allowing a nominal sum for spending money and maybe helping mom and younger siblings back home.. I understand that these kids at 18 are legal adults and free to be stupid or smart with their earnings, but I wish some program like ours would consider making this a condition for signing a LOI or transfering in- I think this could impress upon recruits and transfers and their familes that we really have their backs.

I see some awful issues in the near future including IRS issues- evasion, tax fraud (due to ignorance) and massive penalties for these poor kids. Again, these young adults are free to be diligent or totally irresponsible when complying with income taxes. Perhaps as bad or worse, I spent 30+ years as an auctioneer/liquidator and I've seen the utter devastation to individuals that occurs when a high income ends and is not replacable while living the high life- which typically results in bankruptcy and other horrible lawsuits and actions from creditors, vendors and vultures.

You just nailed my deepest concerns and what I hope can be addressed.

We need some type of practical financial coach who helps them figure out a budget, pay/avoid debt, grow their wealth, and then be generous. What we don't need is some optional business class they can take.

 

[BleedNPurple]

Where does getting an education and degree fit into this pro college football world now? Do these kids even bother going to class? What’s a degree path look like when you enter the transfer portal 3 out of 4 years? I’m sure the kids who can’t garner NIL $$ are on an education path but the what motivates the big $$ winners to pay attention to college? Think we just passed on one of those last weekend.

 

[vicarfrog]

Welcome to professional football college style with less rules and more chaos. Saturday’s will never be “normal” again.

SPCSF

Semi-pro college-sponsored football. That's seriously what I call it now. And I'm fine with that as long as we can train these players to handle the great responsibility money is.

 

[BrewingFrog]

The adults started us down this path.

Age does not connote wisdom. There are plenty of infantile minds running around in adult bodies...

 

[Big Frog II]

How interesting that we've gone from one extreme to the other in a very short time.

 

[Wexahu]

Just about every college athlete is a grown man. The notion that a college junior moving around kills the sport but a coach in his early 30s moving around for contracts 10x the size is just part of the game doesn't hold a lot of water.

2) Coaching free agency changes don't change competitive balances whaaaaaaaat??? That's why SEC Urban Meyer left Florida to go to MWC Utah and won a national title in two years.....or wait do I have that backwards?

Coaching free agency doesn't change the competitive balance landscape of the sport like player free agency. Not even close. You give one example as some sort of proof of something? LOL. How about all the coaches that left programs and flamed out or didn't really do any better at their new place.

To that point, what if the NFL decided that coaches couldn't change teams without skipping a year. Do you really think that would change the competitive landscape much? Now let's say every player who hadn't yet changed teams was a free to play wherever he wanted. That would COMPLETELY change the league, especially if there were no salary cap. But it would even if there was a salary cap.

College coaches are overpaid for sure, but the only real problem that causes is people getting butthurt and jealous over how much money they make.

 

[Zubaz]

How interesting that we've gone from one extreme to the other in a very short time.

Thats where I'm at. There has to be a decent middle ground between "three teams in five years depending on who pays you the most" where we are now and "you're suspended for the year because you had dinner with Deion Sanders or ran a YouTube channel" like it was before.

Seems the NCAA refused to budge even a little, and instead broke completely.