CBS Sports: College Football 2.0: Who gets left behind as realignment, new leadership, player empowerment reshape game?

[TopFrog]

College Football 2.0: Who gets left behind as realignment, new leadership, player empowerment reshape game?​

Dennis Dodd

One year ago today, college athletics changed forever. July 1, 2021, marked the beginning of the name, image and likeness era, and it set the stage for what has become perhaps the most transformative 12 months in college sports history.

This week, CBS Sports recognized that anniversary as the jumping off point for a three-part series taking a more intensive look at the state of college football and future of the game.

"I think we all knew something like this was going to happen," TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. "For so long, we had turned a blind eye to what I thought was right in college athletics. We were filling these stadiums, putting 50,000-100,000 people in these stadiums, making tens of millions on television contracts. It was like, well, we're not going to share any of this with the people that fans are showing up to watch?

"It was a day of reckoning and something I thought was long overdue."

Read more at https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nc...ip-player-empowerment-reshape-game/ar-AAZ59RW

 

[Pure Purple]

A 'coup de grace' to the extortioners at ESPN would bring instant closure to all

of this senseless (censor).

 

[ShadowFrog]

Fascinating article. Though I have to admit maybe 50% of that flew right over my head. And my remaining questions may be moot entirely. Is there going to be any kind of requirement for the student athlete to academically attend and graduate at any higher learning institution under this new model? Also will gutter institutions such as Baylor & Penn State ever be investigated or held accountable for institutional rot that leads to multiple sexual assaults and cover-ups?

 

[LVH]

Answer: anyone not in the Big 10/SEC

 

[JogginFrog]

Not a fan of Dodd but he rightly mentioned the huge issue of post-college healthcare. This has always been the obvious answer to where some of the income from college athletics needed to go to offset long-term risks taken by unpaid athletes on behalf of colleges and their broadcast partners. But greed ruled. As commercial enterprises, the broadcasters have been "merely" socially irresponsible. But the colleges have massively failed in fulfilling their mission to enable students "to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens" (quote from TCU's mission statement).

In my view, NIL is the crown jewel of colleges' hypocrisy. Instead of ethically using a portion of revenues to protect the full group of athletes against real, predictable costs--and related loss of future income--colleges extended their own greed to the athletes, offering them immediate earnings in a bid to further grow the college sports financial pie and not siphon off existing revenue streams, knowing (a) that only a few athletes would benefit and (b) that it would upset competitive balance.

When the story of the demise of amateur college sports is told in future generations, the colleges will receive the greatest share of the blame.

 

[Froginbedford]

Fascinating article. Though I have to admit maybe 50% of that flew right over my head. And my remaining questions may be moot entirely. Is there going to be any kind of requirement for the student athlete to academically attend and graduate at any higher learning institution under this new model? Also will gutter institutions such as Baylor & Penn State ever be investigated or held accountable for institutional rot that leads to multiple sexual assaults and cover-ups?

Academic attempts and achievements will not be a feature of the future Junior NFL teams....

 

[TopFrog]

Can't wait for college football players to go on strike over collective bargaining wage and labor issues.

 

[Paul in uhh]

Can't wait for college football players to go on strike over collective bargaining wage and labor issues.

Or just wait til a freshman without NIL scores 3 TD the week before his game against the rival.,. And says he’s holding out until an NIL deal is signed

 

[Wexahu]

Can't wait for college football players to go on strike over collective bargaining wage and labor issues.

What happens when the best players just say, pay me x amount or I'm not playing in this playoff game, or that playoff game, or whatever game?

Maybe there is a mechanism in place that will make it all work, but there would seem to be a whole gigantic box of "we didn't think of thats" with this system of no caps on income and almost unfettered player free agency.

I'm rooting for massive chaos and massive fail.

 

[Dogfrog]

What happens when the best players just say, pay me x amount or I'm not playing in this playoff game, or that playoff game, or whatever game?

Maybe there is a mechanism in place that will make it all work, but there would seem to be a whole gigantic box of "we didn't think of thats" with this system of no caps on income and almost unfettered player free agency.

I'm rooting for massive chaos and massive fail.

Not to mention nobody ever brings up the topic of how will college football fans react to all this? The Big 10 and the SEC may have a core group of fans that will keep clapping like a seal show no matter what lunacy is trotted out there. Zero concern about how the ticket buying, TV watching public will react will be their downfall.

 

[LVH]

What happens when the best players just say, pay me x amount or I'm not playing in this playoff game, or that playoff game, or whatever game?

Maybe there is a mechanism in place that will make it all work, but there would seem to be a whole gigantic box of "we didn't think of thats" with this system of no caps on income and almost unfettered player free agency.

I'm rooting for massive chaos and massive fail.

That will happen, as well as schools not in the Big 10/SEC being feeder systems for the Big 10/SEC schools. Any good player we have here at TCU will be recruited away.

 

[Eight]

the issue of nil is byproduct of the ncaa, college presidents, and conferences refusing to see what was headed their way with the ruling in the o'bannon case

the only way you get any type of standardization of the nil guidelines is one governing body with the conferences willing to work together and since the chance of that is on par with lvh and hip hop agreeing on politics we have what we have because of stubbornness, ego, greed, and quite frankly being out of touch

if only the ncaa had worked with those northwestern players instead of fighting that ruling in court maybe things would have been different from an nil perspective

 

[Wexahu]

Not to mention nobody ever brings up the topic of how will college football fans react to all this? The Big 10 and the SEC may have a core group of fans that will keep clapping like a seal show no matter what lunacy is trotted out there. Zero concern about how the ticket buying, TV watching public will react will be their downfall.

Agree, but ESPN and Fox and whoever else ends up with the broadcast rights is going to market the you-know-what out of the product, and that is often way more important to drawing eyeballs than the actual product they are selling. There will be a gigantic machine behind trying to make it work and make people feel like they are watching something really compelling. I'm pretty sure I won't have much interest at all, but that's why I'm not going to say it unequivocally won't work.

It'll be a different kind of viewer, but an eyeball is an eyeball. Who knows?

 

[BrewingFrog]

Not to mention nobody ever brings up the topic of how will college football fans react to all this? The Big 10 and the SEC may have a core group of fans that will keep clapping like a seal show no matter what lunacy is trotted out there. Zero concern about how the ticket buying, TV watching public will react will be their downfall.

Don't think the Sports Media isn't just drooling over such "controversy" yet to come...

They have killed the Goose That Lays Golden Eggs. Shortsightedness and greed always have this dour result. We have all watched it devolve to this wretched end, and now all that is left is the implosion of the entire grand edifice.

 

[BrewingFrog]

Agree, but ESPN and Fox and whoever else ends up with the broadcast rights is going to market the you-know-what out of the product, and that is often way more important to drawing eyeballs than the actual product they are selling. There will be a gigantic machine behind trying to make it work and make people feel like they are watching something really compelling. I'm pretty sure I won't have much interest at all, but that's why I'm not going to say it unequivocally won't work.

It'll be a different kind of viewer, but an eyeball is an eyeball. Who knows?

We are the College Football viewer base. Once they have alienated and enraged us enough to turn our backs on something we once loved, we are gone. Without us, there are no eyeballs. What makes these Media twits think that, somehow, New Viewers will conjure up from thin air? That sports consumers who like the WNBA (all 24 of them), or MLS (very few indeed) will suddenly and loyally replace the ranks of former College Football fanatics? Those people don't like football now! What makes them think they'll suddenly change their passions? Evidently, they don't realize this.

Eh. Screw 'em. There's no good guys left in this mess.

 

[LVH]

We are the College Football viewer base. Once they have alienated and enraged us enough to turn our backs on something we once loved, we are gone. Without us, there are no eyeballs. What makes these Media twits think that, somehow, New Viewers will conjure up from thin air? That sports consumers who like the WNBA (all 24 of them), or MLS (very few indeed) will suddenly and loyally replace the ranks of former College Football fanatics? Those people don't like football now! What makes them think they'll suddenly change their passions? Evidently, they don't realize this.

Eh. Screw 'em. There's no good guys left in this mess.

I actually agree with this... all these moves that the sports media are making here will do nothing to grow the overall fanbase for the future. It's short term thinking, not long term. If the idea is to get more eyeballs on the product 10, 20, 30 years down the line, this isn't it.

 

[Eight]

We are the College Football viewer base. Once they have alienated and enraged us enough to turn our backs on something we once loved, we are gone. Without us, there are no eyeballs. What makes these Media twits think that, somehow, New Viewers will conjure up from thin air? That sports consumers who like the WNBA (all 24 of them), or MLS (very few indeed) will suddenly and loyally replace the ranks of former College Football fanatics? Those people don't like football now! What makes them think they'll suddenly change their passions? Evidently, they don't realize this.

Eh. Screw 'em. There's no good guys left in this mess.

because viewers keep coming back

 

[Dogfrog]

Agree, but ESPN and Fox and whoever else ends up with the broadcast rights is going to market the you-know-what out of the product, and that is often way more important to drawing eyeballs than the actual product they are selling. There will be a gigantic machine behind trying to make it work and make people feel like they are watching something really compelling. I'm pretty sure I won't have much interest at all, but that's why I'm not going to say it unequivocally won't work.

It'll be a different kind of viewer, but an eyeball is an eyeball. Who knows?

Their hubris has no end. Somewhere along the way they lost track of the fact that their fan loyalty was based largely on the clear differentiation between professional and “student-athlete amateur” football. This is the definition of the poisonous arrogance/ ignorance combo. They have apparently convinced themselves that they can compete directly with the NFL. For me at this pace within five years my interest in College football will be equivalent to my interest in XFL. But they didn’t ask us.

 

[BrewingFrog]

because viewers keep coming back

The numbers are dropping, and have been. Further consolidation, abandonment of traditional rivalries, alienation of fanbases; All these result in the dwindling viewership seen of late. As has been noted, the Networks are less and less concerned with actual viewers, preferring carriage fees and other legal tricks to catering to their viewing base. It may be a success in the short term, but it won't last forever. And once those core viewers are gone, they're gone forever.

 

[Wexahu]

The numbers are dropping, and have been. Further consolidation, abandonment of traditional rivalries, alienation of fanbases; All these result in the dwindling viewership seen of late. As has been noted, the Networks are less and less concerned with actual viewers, preferring carriage fees and other legal tricks to catering to their viewing base. It may be a success in the short term, but it won't last forever. And once those core viewers are gone, they're gone forever.

It's hard for me to reconcile declining viewership with the fact that the money just seems to keep growing and growing and growing.

Not long ago at all $30-40M per school was a windfall. A short time later they are talking $100M per with these latest contract talks. How is this possible?