Iâm typing this sentence just to get this posted.
So far, the ânew normalâ has pushed out both Saban and Bennett. I have a feeling weâll see more.
The root of the problem is still the conflation of NIL with Pay to Play. Until that gets addressed, itâs a trainwreck.
Then even after it does, we will have a battle between free agency / market rights of the players vs trying to maintain a competitive balance (salary cap).
If you let the free market play out, it will do what it always does. There will end up being only one Amazon / Google / Walmart in college football. Everyone else will fold or be clinging on for scraps. I still donât understand why people are so celebratory of that inevitable outcome. Itâs going to kill sports. If you let the NFL operate the same way, youâd be lucky to have 4 franchise left within a dozen years.
The NCAAâs prohibition on NIL is what lead to all of this. If the NCAA had taken a reasonable position, we could have had something that looked like actual NIL. Selling jerseys with the playerâs name on them? He gets a cut. Allow him to do an advertisement for a local car dealership.
Instead, they were like âyou want to sell game worn shoes on ebay? DEATH TO YOU.â
I agree that pay to play has been horribly conflated with NIL. I donât know what the solution is, and at this point, especially with our leadership being so inept, I donât know thatâs its worth any of us pontificating about it.
It is such an uphill battle for us. Harder now than ever. Operating budget, capital giving, reliance on student fees, impossible to build a sustained winner with portal, NIL impacts, coaching salaries, a disengaged alumni base and lack of support from fans, paying AAC level court ordered penalties even though we werent in the AAC, more pending lawsuitsâŚ
It really isnt right that our students are forced to pay for this environment. If athletes become employees I just donât see how that fee stands and it shouldnât. I donât know any G5 or lower level P4 school leaders that can make this work financially with out basically dismantling the AD to just mens basketball and football and maybe baseball - and even then not sure it maths.
Being at Navy last week made me so jealous. Not that they won, but that they are still running the old way - winning at it is even better. I preferred losing in the old world to this insanity.
⌠Which leads to Bilas saying all of those schools should âgo D2â. All of G5 and a good chunk of P4.
Thatâs exactly what he wants. Thatâs what his employer wants. Fix costs for 90% of college programs at de minimus levels. Let them all starve out and die. ESPN wants to create a world where college sports is just Amazon vs Walmart, week after week, season after season, for eternity. No Cinderellas, no variety, just the same story every single season. That way they reduce costs to just their most profitable brands.
âDonât ask questions, just consume product.â
I know Iâm beating the dead horse, but in juxtaposition, just imagine if we had done what @Ninercentral discussed with NLI, and if we had created a 16 team CFP based on a 10 + 6 model that basically made the 10 conference championship games 1st round / play in games the way they were with NCAA basketballâŚ
We would have the most insane month of college football in December (insert âMarch madnessâ marketing name). And it would ALL be must watch TV. So much revenue for the entire sport and healthy athletic programs around the country at every level, with less reliance on student fees, and top tier athletes being able to cash in on their brands, while average players would still get some payouts from licensing and low level endorsement opportunities.
Thatâs what we should have. But that would have been EXPENSIVE for ESPN. So they sabotaged it with a narrative and every ounce of control they had. Instead they destroyed conferences and are trying to destroy the G5, all to save a few bucks and make more money. They killed the sports you love and we celebrate that daily on social media and sports talk airwaves.
Itâs so ridiculous.
Will never happen. Not with people like us around.
Look at all the D2 and D3 teams in NC. They have survived.
Hell Brevard college brought football back!
The P4 is NOT the end all be all of college sports and the power brokers can eat it.
If the top tier split off I predict the remaining teams will reorganize intelligently into the proper tiers of football, embrace an FCS style playoff mode and thrive.
Mark it!
But Jay Bilas said this is all a good thing!! All us poverty programs (everyone but the ESPN top value brands) should go âD2â and that it wouldnât stop any schools from offering college sports opportunities in non-revenue sports. And he must be right, cause heâs like a lawyer⌠on TV⌠And in no way is his opinion biased based on the directives of his employer.
A cowardly way to do that by the schoolâs XC coach, AD, etc. But in this day and age, not surprised by the unwillingness to have done it face to face.
This has been one major prong of my feud with Bilas and his ESPN overlords.
I understand that there is an attempted legal settlement fueling this, but letâs not overlook the motivations of the people behind the proposal.
I mean, it barely required a pulse to see this coming.
This entire thing is ridiculous. It is so aggravating that its basically 15 schools that can do this and like 10 more that are willing to try and those schools are wrecking the entire system for hundreds of schools and thousands of athletes.
clt says this is going to be bigly bad for our future US olympic teams as well